1. Andrew Rappaport | Calvinism in History | Open Air Theology Conference 2024

I was glad when I looked at the the lineup and realized you guys have your outline I looked at this and the first thing

I looked for I Said oh good. I'm before Claude Ramsey. I do not want to follow

Claude Ramsey if you have not heard him preach get ready This it's a pretty good day.

You know, I know that brother Keith falsies He already told me he's gonna be paying attention to my message only because I'm gonna cover the

Calvinism of Lutheran So he wants to know what he needs to what I've stole from him But let's just start with a word of prayer

Heavenly Father we come before you and we are

Humbled that you Would have anything to do with us the psalmist asks the question that we all ask the

Lord What is man? That you are mindful of him

But I probably speak for every one of the other speakers here That we feel inadequate to come before these dear people

To present to them and to to for those who are coming from your word or from history to Feel that we could speak on your behalf

The Lord I ask that you would give each one of us an unction to a boldness to communicate

Your word or history to your people so that every one of us would leave this building

More in all of you And we'd be amazed what you have done

And we'd love you more We ask this in Christ's name. Amen Why I've been tasked with the topic of The history of Calvinism Let me start by saying a little bit of a story

I was doing a message Addressing the issue of sinless perfectionism. And as I like to do,

I don't want to misrepresent anyone's position I reached out to a very well -known sinless perfectionist

And I had asked him if I would be able to run my notes by him so that I I know that I'm not misrepresenting the position he holds

He he ended up before, you know agreeing to talk to me we were texting back and forth he went to our website and he concluded from our website that I was a

Calvinist and Stated that I as a Calvinist would not call him a brother in Christ.

I Informed him I have never actually spoken to him before and I've never heard his testimony You don't actually know specifically what he believes to say whether he is or isn't a brother in Christ And I also kind of informed him

I don't know if he knows this but I'm not the Holy Spirit and I don't actually know who is and isn't

I just have to look at people's testimony and time look for fruit and So we started a dialogue and that dialogue never got to the issue of sinless

Perfectionism because he was too hung up on attacking Calvinism it was hard for him to discuss a topic

He's an expert in where I'm contacting him to specifically discuss because he had a stumbling block called

Calvinism He couldn't discuss this topic So in an attempt to move the conversation forward

I asked him why he thinks that I'm a Calvinist Since I don't state that anywhere in our doctrinal statement and many know that I actually don't typically use that label

Because I don't know what you mean By a Calvinist. I may agree that you're a

Calvinist that I'm a Calvinist by your definition I may not Matt Slick once had me the first time he had me on the on his radio program

He asked me says so are you a Calvinist? I said well All I know is that many people have told me

I'm a heretic because I'm a Calvinist Many people have told me I'm a heretic because I'm not a Calvinist.

The only thing everyone agrees on is I'm a heretic You invited me to preach brother you may not want to amend that So, let me get back to our friend with a sinless perfection a little bit later

You know The issue with Calvinism is if I get ten different people from different ten different backgrounds in churches to discuss

What Calvinism is I will probably come up with twelve different definitions? So the first thing we need to discuss is what is

Calvinism It's a topic that is most difficult for many because well, they are too busy

Addressing something that Calvinism is not I Find that Calvinism is under attack most often

Based on something that is not the proper definition So if we're going to discuss what why

Calvinism the first thing we need to do in and looking at a history of it Is discuss what it is?

it's far easier for people to attack a straw man argument a straw man argument is where you you give a different definition than the proper one because it's easy to knock over and That's what we end up seeing in the the online debates of Calvinism today

There's a very well -known Evangelist who told me that I am

NOT saved because I'm a Calvinist Now he defined me being a

Calvinist as I preach on stage With other Calvinists and I had to remind him you have been on stage with men like Paul Washer Your every chapter of your book starts with a quote from Charles Haddon Spurgeon So but he studied this topic for a whopping three months only reading the works of Dave Hunt and Concluded he did not need to read anything from any

Calvinist because he knew it was heresy and he continues to write books Being a watchman against the heresy of Calvinism and in a phone conversation

I had with him what I did was I decided to ask him just five questions. I Didn't use the labels people usually use

I discovered it to his demise that he's actually a Calvinist If you want to see this in action you can go

Excuse me. You can go to our YouTube channel striving for his YouTube channel You can watch a debate I had with RA Fuentes the topic that he wanted to debate me

He's a man from the Philippines was Calvinism is useless and dangerous Whoo, I was interested to see what he was gonna say

It was a very interesting thing because as this man debates Calvinism What I ended up arguing is that not only is

Calvinism necessary I I actually argued it's necessary for the gospel But oh

Thanks, I had one hidden underneath but I appreciate it that's that's a master of ceremonies

Well, what I ended up doing was discovering in this debate in my first round of cross -examination What I did was I just sat there and asked him

Five questions that I'm gonna get to in a moment. I Just asked him that what basically the definition of Calvinism at a very quick level and do you know that this man who wants to debate

Calvinism and Is a Calvinist I knew that all the

Calvinists that were watching in chat were getting it because as I'm getting to point number five They're going checkmate.

Boom. Gotcha, and he's not getting it second round of of the

Cross -examination I asked him I said, can you define these five terms one after another total depravity?

unconditional election limited atonement Irresistible grace and perseverance of the Saints he managed to misdefine every one of those

Some of you already know what those are reference to that is the acronym tulip Some of you maybe this is the first time that you're hearing that maybe you came here because you don't actually know what

Calvinism is good You're the people that should be here If you are not a

Calvinist here, first off I reward you or commend you for coming into the lines

Then no to coming to where where you're gonna hear maybe it's gonna challenge you It's good that we're challenged, but in short what

I asked in the in the cross. It's the first round of cross -examination I asked mr. Fuentes I said do you believe that the curse of sin affected not only our thinking and emotion but also our will he said yes

That's total depravity. I said Do you believe that God's? Choosing of us that he saved us had anything to do with us or was it all from what

God chose to do? And he said well the God Hmm, okay, that's election

Unconditional election. I said, okay. Do you believe that actually I just asked do you believe anyone's in hell? He said yes

Okay, so he right there off the bat believes that the Atonement's limited in some way now we could discuss how much but but the

Atonement The Atonement of Christ's death is limited to that of believers He agreed to that.

I said do you do you believe that the grace of God is completely a work of God and not a man's Man's acceptance of it.

He said yes, okay, it's irresistible grace Do you believe that the nature of salvation is such that once God saves a person they can't lose it.

He said yes He's a Calvinist But so many people don't know that because they don't look at the proper definitions

And so let us start with the common argument that we get accused of as Calvinists we worship who help me out

How many of you have ever worshipped Calvin as Calvinists? What is the origin of Calvinism?

Well, remember that conversation I had with the sinless perfectionist How did he conclude

I was a Calvinist? Well, he told me that he saw this in my doctrinal statement.

You ready for it. This is what proves him a Calvinist He said that I cited Ephesians 4 1 1 4 which says

Just as he chose us from before the foundation of the world

That we would be holy and blameless before him in love Excuse me wait just the citation of That verse which says we've been elected before the foundation of the world means means

I'm a Calvinist. He said yes, I Said I hate to inform you, but do you know that Paul wrote that under the inspiration of the

Holy Spirit? I Guess Paul and even more so God is a

Calvinist then We never did get to this in this perfection discussion Why do we call this

Calvinism then if we can find it rooted in the Bible why call it Calvin Calvinism?

Well, it's really do and we'll get to this to the to the great work that John Calvin did in systematizing a lot of doctrines

That went before him The doctrines were not original with him However, it's actually though he did a lot of the systematizing it may surprise you that the five points of Calvin didn't come from Calvin we will get to that The five points of Calvin though are or Calvinism are founded and rooted deeply within Scripture We already saw the that election before that we were elect before the foundation of the world

That's God's way of stating as clearly as possible that you and I had absolutely nothing to do with our salvation

It's not saying that God how somehow is working in time he's eternal When you start trying to do is as many who hate

Calvinism do with this passage They start to try to explain this somehow and they make a mistake of changing the character of God Because all of a sudden they start saying

God is a creature bound by time God is saying this not because he is bound by time but because we are bound by time

There's no clearer way to say that you had nothing to do with your salvation than the fact that God Selected you not just before you were born, but before the world was in existence

Many want to deny the clear reading of that text Now the people who want to attack this fall into two camps

One camp is the the corporal camp. They ignore the individual language that's spoken of of election and They say it's just a corporate body.

So Israel was elect the church was elect This this is a way to avoid the clear scripture the clear reading of Scripture The other ditch that people get into and I actually think the more serious one is the one where they say

Well see what God did was because humans have this free will God looked down the tunnels of time

He saw who was gonna choose the him and then based on their choice. He elected them

You have a different God than the God of the Bible because you no longer have a God that's omniscient

You have a God that doesn't know everything and he's bound by time the God of the

Bible knows everything He doesn't learn anything. He doesn't need to see what choices you're gonna make to know what choices you're gonna make

He knows every choice you're gonna make tomorrow. You don't I don't and He knows it.

Absolutely God of the Bible is also eternal. He's not bound by time It's all the same now to him in a sense

But the big one of the biggest struggles for non Calvinist for people who are they were phrased and say

I don't call them Arminian But I'm gonna call them non Calvinist or anti Calvinist because that's really what they are they're against Calvinism or that what they think is

Calvinism and the reason is because experientially They chose God They just got to get past that to the theologically

God chose them I Mean they think about what they experienced and I used to debate this with a friend of mine

And then I was preaching through Philippians 1 and I got to Philippians 129 now

I know some of you like to argue, you know, Ephesians 2 8 and 9 ditch that one and come to this

Because there's no way around this one For it has been granted for Christ's sake not only to believe

But also to suffer for his sake So your suffering has been granted by God just like your belief was

So Calvinism didn't start with Calvin it originated in the scriptures. However, his teeth the teachings of Calvinism we see throughout scripture and throughout history.

Let's start with the early church And I know that being first I get to steal all of the the material from the other speakers

That's finally the advantage of going first I don't have to steal from Brayden like I did last year before he'd even though he preached before me and I just claimed

I had it before him, but Fortunately, I haven't seen anyone else's notes.

So if I do steal anything It was just good material and we both thought the same thing. But but as we look into the the

Calvinism of Augustin Or Augustine, however, you want to pronounce it?

I just gonna make sure James White doesn't correct me on it So I'll use both the one thing you don't want to be doing is being corrected by James White, right?

So we look at the five points let's just look quickly and I'm gonna try to look at this but we look at total depravity if you in seminal work of confessions

Augustine reflected on the inherent fallen nature of Humanity asserting that all individuals were had an inherited sinful

Disposition since Adam he says this for quote for in thy sight

There is none free from sin not even the infant who has lived

But a day upon the earth unquote this echoes the idea of total depravity that we are utterly

Depraved meaning are not just our thinking and our emotions, but our will and he includes even an infant when it comes to unconditional election

Augustin Emphasizes God's sovereignty in the role of salvation in his in his work on the grace and free will

He contends that humans are assisted by God's grace that the willing that they become willing if they're unwilling and He's he's basing this on the selection that God has done so we end up seeing that Augustine would have a view that we would hold to today of Unconditional election

When it comes to limited atonement We don't see you know

Augustine did not specify specifically address the issue of limited atonement the way that Calvinist would to understand it today however, he did believe very clearly in his writings in the efficiency of Christ's atonement for the elect and Though he expresses it and you could see this in his work on the predestination of the

Saints We we see the idea of irresistible grace from Augustine in in his works where he talks about the fact that the the emphasizing

God's grace works in individuals on their the will and the act of faith

He reasons that the cow that that the way we would understand the irresistibility

That he would refer to efficacy, but that it is for election

That God does the first work in his in his explanation clearly

I think the easiest one that that is attacked the least is perseverance of the Saints But again in predestination of the

Saints Augustine asserts that those predestined by God's by God's will

Preserved in righteousness and God's work to ensure them to the ultimate glorification

And so the issue is that he would hold to these things, but they weren't really defined

But why do we look to Augustine when it comes to an understanding of Calvinism?

It is because of another man Some of you know his name You use it as a derogatory term maybe in your home

Pelagius Augustine's teachings led to a conflict

With a man by the name of Pelagian Pelagius and Pelagius was very upset because he heard he heard

Augustine like in prayer just asking God to help him with something he's incapable of doing and Pelagian came to the conclusion that if God commanded us to do something like Be holy

Then we must have the ability to do that So that hearing of that from Augustine just rubbed him he said no

God must give us this ability and therefore He felt that Augustus was wrong there.

And so that that created this conflict So in case you're new to the teachings of Calvinism, maybe you don't know who these people are

So let me give you a quick some quick background because I don't know why I'm the one teaching the history lesson

I mean we have dr. White a History professor, but yeah, okay talk about being being nervous.

You got you know, if I say something wrong, he's gonna correct me Augustine was is

Died in in 430. He was from a North African bishop Profoundly Affected Western thinking and if you're not familiar with Pelagian but Pelagius he was a

British monk who emphasized the free will and human responsibility. He rejected the notion of original sin and Argued for the capacity of humans to choose good without an absolute necessity of divine grace

Now this created three areas of contention first Original sin where?

Augustine asserted that the doctrine of original sin can Contain contended that all humans had an inherent

It were inherently sinful and had a guilt and corrupt nature resulting from Adam and Eve's disobedience

Humanity according to Augustine is morally and spiritually damaged and individuals cannot choose good without God's grace

We're Pelagius argued that he denied the notion of original sin and argued that he believed humans were born morally neutral having an ability to choose good or evil without having any kind of predisposition to sin

He argued that Adam's sin Only set a bad example and did not transmit guilt to subsequent

Generations this actually is a view that's very common amongst all man -made religions in my background

Judaism we would refer to this as a evil impulse You don't have a sin nature.

You just have an evil impulse By the way complete side note

But it's one of my favorite passages in the Talmud in the Talmud talking about the evil impulse It says if you're going to give yourself over to the evil impulse

Go to a different country where no one knows who you are. So you don't bring disgrace upon God I've wonder if the writers of the

Talmud realized that God is omniscient and everywhere present just saying the second area is grace and free will

Augustine clearly argued for a divine grace for salvation Where a

Pelagian felt that the human free will could choose God on their own

Pelagius downplayed the idea of an irresistible what we would think of as an irresistible grace and Asserted that God gives commandments to humans because they have the ability to fulfill them

Therefore he would argue that if God commands us to repent we actually have

Naturally an ability to do just that without God doing any work the third area of contention that they had was predestination

Where Augustine clearly held to a view of predestination wrote a whole book on it

He argues that God sovereignly chose individuals for salvation and Pelagian Rejected this concept that and he believed that God's foreknowledge is based on foreseeing individual choices and actions

That they would that they would choose and then he decreed based upon that Not based on some unilateral divine decree.

That's not the God of the Bible folks That led to several councils

That we have the Council of Corinth back in 14 16 14 18 where that what ended up happening was is that they condemned

Pelagian ism as heresy and So the the legacy that we have from Augustine is the fact that his writings this controversy

It was one of the most significant controversies to shape the trajectory of Western Christianity To the thought and it continues to influence even today

In the areas specifically with the nature of human humanity sin grace

So what is the fruit of Pelagian ism? Orthodox Doctrine has always been born out of heresy

We we tend to want to just like avoid all heresy Heresy does have its purpose in God's plan

Pelagian served a purpose there was fruit of Pelagian ism. The fruit of Pelagian ism is that we have the works of Augustine That so defines the necessity to combat this heresy with clarity and truth

That he basically gave a death knell to Pelagian ism that the when they had the councils it ended this for some time

Pelagian ism caused men to stand up and define the truth clearer And we're gonna see that pattern throughout history.

The result was that Pelagian ism was pretty much dead how do we know that because people came up with a

Way of trying to still hold to their Pelagian ism, but realizing there's no way they can so they came up with this thing called semi

Pelagian ism something kind of in between Augustus and Pelagian Because they knew they couldn't say they're

Pelagian anymore, but they didn't want to hold to what Augustine believed So what do you do you come up with a middle ground?

that's kind of like standing on a fence pick a side and So Augustine provided a death blow to the heretical doctrines of Pelagian So, let's talk about the

Calvinism of Luther that seems strange right because we're talking about the Calvinism of men who lived before Calvin But it is fitting with it.

Now. We will hear a further discussion on this After lunch, so you'll definitely want to make sure that you don't overeat

Pay attention, I know he's paying attention to see what I say right now, but we cannot talk

About the impact of Martin Luther though without talking about one of the most important inventions in history the printing press

The printing press is something that allowed for widespread information in a rapid pace all over the world

It Prevented and hindered the Roman Catholic Church ability to censor the truth, which they had a good handle on for years

Right, you don't agree with them. They just kill you. That's a pretty good censorship That's coming to America soon just saying

But the printing press allowed for theological discussions to be had with the common people not just in the ivory towers

You see this most clearly with the 95 theses Which was one of the first things that were printed on the printing press and it spread like wildfire which is what we many people credit with the

Reformation and so because of the the printing press the works of Martin Luther Started to spread far and wide and when it comes to the teaching of Calvinism We have to understand that Luther had a pivotal role

Because just like Augustine had a man Pelagius Martin Luther had someone

Erasmus We have to understand the debate between Luther and Erasmus Especially with their books the bondage of the will and the freedom of the will respectively

Now if you have read how many folks here have read bondage of the will How many people have read freedom of the will?

Yeah, two hands are up. Okay three. I'll put mine up So many people say Oh Luther decimated

Erasmus in bondage of the will You cannot say that if you have not read

Erasmus, you know why? Erasmus spends about the first 75 pages going, you know,

I don't know what the big deal is with this subject All my friends want me to address this guy Luther and I don't see what the big deal is

You know who destroyed Erasmus? Erasmus He basically just right from the get -go goes, you know,

I really don't know what to say about this I don't see what the big deal is and he served himself up on a platter

For Luther to just tear down So it was very easy for him. But but there was fruit from The the

Luther and Erasmus. There's a lot more that we could talk about and you're gonna hear that after lunch But the fruit of Erasmus was the clear biblical doctrines of Predestination and the bondage of the human will

Luther's work was was essential to understand it to the

Calvinism we understand of today We we Had we not had

Erasmus's weak arguments on the freedom of the will We might never have had the clear and definitive teaching from Luther on the bondage of the will

The this leads us to another formidable teaching that would influence

Following generations to those who would have eventually call themselves Calvinists You got to remember we stand on the shoulders of Giants those who have gone before us

Whether you have those who who are taking Luther is taking the works of Augustine Which is taking it from Paul Taking it from Scripture and making the arguments and just having to clarify the arguments because the heretics are

Continuing in their false attacks of it So as they continue with that what happens the truth has to be more clarified and that's what

Luther ends up doing We stand on the shoulders of those who go before us. That's why we would say reformed and keep reforming

We learn from those who came before us and take what they taught and refine it and improve it

So, let us get to the main Appetite of our discussion for this history lesson and that is the

Calvinism of John Calvin John Calvin By the way died in 1564 that's going to be important for a moment

So if you're taking notes, you write that down because numbers are hard to remember, but he died in 1564 is considered to be one of the most important theologians in church history

He was a prominent French theologian of the second generation of Reformers Luther being first I would actually contend that it's only because of the printing press that we would say that because before Luther by a hundred

Years, there was a man named John Huss And we wouldn't have the teachings of Luther without Huss well, where did we get

Huss from well Huss Huss was Paid to translate he was translating another man

John Wycliffe Says you can't like the mistake of history is you can't just take history and say let me take this one sliver

History doesn't work this way It works as it so because all of our doctrine is built in history

I remember I had a seminary professor. I asked him to preach at a conference I was that I was organizing and he's great in theology great in history

I said, can you do a history of theology because he always in both in his history classes theology classes

He always showed how they intertwine It actually intrigued him so much. He actually wrote an entire

Class that was a you know a full 14 week class on that which

I took But you can't divide your theology from understanding how it developed in history

Don't think because the early church fathers said something that they have it, right? Let me quote

Matt slick. I know he couldn't make it here because because a Situation with his wife, but he'll always say my church father can beat up your church father

The church fathers can get used for everything I'll get myself in trouble. I'm sure it's gonna come up in the

Q &A Anyway, I'm a pre -millennial list and I can show that I can root it in Augustine and I'm a hills are going.

No, we have Augustine. You see Augustine wasn't so clear. He believed in a literal South thousand years He just thought he was in it.

So we both can claim it because he didn't have to clarify Those doctrines yet.

They came over time. What was the first doctrine historically had to be clarified deity of Christ That's important in times that could that could wait down the road that that didn't need to be clarified

The evangelical dictionary of theology states this quote Although Calvin was the systematizer of reformed theology

Since his day those who have accepted his structure of theology have continued to develop the many many of his ideas

During his own lifetime He himself developed his thought in the successive editions of the

Institutes of Christian Religion with the writing on various Christian Confessions such as the

Heidelberg Catechism the canons the canons of the Senate adored the Westminster Confession and catechisms additions to further developments in theology

Thought have appeared Various theologians during the successive years have also elaborated various points, which

Calvin had raised But had not fully examined end quote Calvin died before Calvinism was born

How could we worship Calvin Is it original with him actually? No depending how you define

Calvinism if you define it by its teachings It's original with Scripture if you define it by the the acronym

TULIP. It didn't exist yet By the way, it wouldn't have existed

Because Calvin wouldn't have spoken English Keep field figure forget that like TULIP is a

English acronym. Just saying Just like Calvin and Pelagius Just like we had

Calvin. I'm sorry. We had again Augustine and Pelagius We had Luther and Erasmus many people argue we had

Calvin and Arminius It's actually not the case It was really more

Calvin's followers and Arminius. We cannot say Calvin versus Arminian because because at the because at the time of Calvin's death

Arminius was only four years old. I Theologian that at four years old he was given it to Calvin.

Okay No, so let's look Let's look at the Calvinism of Jacob Arminius Yes, I said that right

The Calvinism of Jacob Arminius, it's the other speaker saw my my outline. They were like, oh, I want to see what he's gonna say on this

Let me start with giving a little background on on Jacob Arminius Jacob Arminius studied at the University of in Geneva where he studied under Calvin's successor

Theodore Biza He served as a in a pastor in an Amsterdam from till 1603 and was a professor of theology at the same school that he in Geneva Where he remained until his death.

He had an issue what he saw that he saw Biza teaching Which he which some would argue is they call it high

Calvinism. I think we have a different definition of that today but he argued for that he had issues with what

Biza and others were teaching and We have to remember that the idea of what we define as Calvinism hadn't been fully developed yet and so what we end up seeing and much of this

I'm going to give you that sparked me on this thought is a book from RC Sproul willing to believe and And in there

Sproul makes the case and others that it it may well be the case that Jacob Arminius thought in his mind in the early

Years that he is saving Calvin's teachings from his followers

So in other words Arminius may have thought he was saving Calvinists Calvinism from the

Calvinists After the life of John Calvin his followers continued to expand on his teachings

And his work and the teachings that he that we would know of as Calvinism and so Sproul says this quote

James Arminius Was emphatic in his rejection of Pelagianism particularly with respect to the fall of Adam The the fall leaves man in a ruined state under the dominion of sin

Arminius declares in This state the free will of man towards the true.

God is Not only wounded maimed infirmed bent and weakened

But it is also imprisoned destroyed and lost and Its powers are not only the deliberated and useless

Useless unless they be assisted by grace, but it has no powers Whatever except such are excited by divine grace unquote

Sproul further goes on to say this quote as a Calvinist I frequently hear criticisms of Calvinistic thought that I would heartily agree with if they indeed represented

Calvinism So I am sure that the disciples of Arminius suffered the same fate and became equally frustrated

Arminius himself came from a Calvinistic framework and embraced many tenants of historic

Calvinism he frequently complained with a mild spirit of manifold ways in which he was

Misrepresented he loved the works of Augustine and in many respects earnestly sought to champion

Augustine's cause unquote So Sproul is arguing that it sure seems that Arminius is trying to restore

Calvin's teachings He ends up saying this Sproul says this quote

The he gives some citations of Arminius's works and says quote These citations demonstrate how seriously he regards the depth of the fall

He is not satisfied to declare that man's will merely wounded or weakened

He insisted that in prison destroyed and lost The language of Augustine Martin Luther John Calvin is scarcely stronger than that of Arminius unquote

Arminius not only affirmed the bondage of the will but insisted that man is spiritually dead in it in his sin in a state

That is incapable of choosing God in a natural state That sounds very

Calvinistic of him however What ends up happening and and Sproul addresses this is that over the years

Had or Arminius died at a young age We probably would have referred to him as a Calvinist But you know nobody wakes up and goes, you know,

I think today I'm gonna become a false teacher That's not how false teachers happen

It usually happens because they get something that either they quote -unquote discover or some teaching that rubs them the wrong way and They hyper focus on that They start seeing it everywhere

They start to to look for it and find ways that scripture will support what they're teaching and They start twisting scripture not even recognizing it

It happens slowly What you end up having is as someone who as I think what would happen with with Jacob Arminius is

As he's trying to rebut the followers of Calvin He's having to to try to distinguish himself and distinguish his teaching but that leads him in a different way going down a different path and very slowly as You have a seed planted in the in the ground and it starts to root and then bloom

We end up getting false teachers that bloom into full when they as the flower blooms they come into full heresy

That's what happened with Jacob Arminius as he just went down this path He ends up getting into a case where he may have wanted to initially save Calvinism from these dreaded followers of Calvin But he ends up taking it a different path and his followers as we look at the fruit of Arminianism the fruit of there was fruit in arm of Arminianism And we as we've seen throughout this talk that history is replete with the the

Person who's going to give the heresy and then it needs to be clarified. Well, we're

Calvin had his followers and what Arminius really didn't like his teachings such as double predestination and things like this

That's what started him on a path going against Biza well, then Arminius his followers take it too far as well.

They start going on a different route and Though many people call this the

Calvinism Arminianism debate Both men were dead By the time of the the beginning of what we would start to refer to today as Calvinism the five points

Now at toward the end of Arminius his life. He's he's struggling. They're struggling with his teachings they start to say we need to have a synod to clarify these things it keeps getting pushed off and then what ends up happening is in 1609

Arminius dies Never having the synod and many thought and hoped that his later teachings would die with him

Unfortunately, that was not the case his followers started to develop their thinking even more and they came up with five points they they referred to themselves as remonstrance and they came up with five articles of the amonstrance they were a

Conditional election that is that election of the retro bait are founded on foreseen faith or unbelief

All men have fallen in Adam Election is based on God's foreknowledge of personal faith

The elect the non -elect are left to condemnation of their own sins

Second point was unlimited atonement that Christ's death is for all but only believers enjoy this forgiveness in Christ penal satisfaction

God's desires the salvation of every person on the condition of personal faith and repentance

They did hold to a total depravity That all humanity is the offspring of Adam and that every child is born in total depravity

However, many of the Calvinist the anti -calvinist today would end up denying this point of today

They would say that the will was not affected. That's actually more based in Pelagian. They had a

Resistible grace number four Grace is the beginning is beginning continuing an end of all good but is not irresistible it can be and has been resisted many times and then the possibility of apostasy that grace can be

Preserved and faithful throughout every temptation but scripture does clearly teach that people may fall from grace and be lost

So those are the five points those five points if you heard me earlier give the five points of the acronym tulip they sound pretty familiar and So there there ended up being a because of these five points these five articles.

They had a Senate Known as the Senate of Dort Now the Senate of Dort is 10 is 19 years after Arminius's death

And so what you end up seeing at this is that by the way some Calvinist like to say that they're so Calvinist that there was a six point.

They would be a six point Calvinist Well, you may be in good company or you may just be shooting it too short

Because actually in the response to the remonstrance was the counter response trance and they had eight points

So the first real Calvinist were eight point Calvinist so you're missing three Which three well,

I hate to disappoint you Baptists I don't know where brother Greg is, but you know, there's one of these points.

It's gonna be more Presbyterian in nature but the contra monstrance had maintained one all

Human beings were totally depraved and incapable of saving themselves to God predestined to both salvation and retribution three believers children are to be considered as elect and Even if they die in infancy to be saved

Number four election is not based on foreseen faith or deeds but solely on God's favor number five

Christ's atonement is sufficient for all but efficient only for the elect number six

Faith. Oh now he walks in No, I'll give number four again

You know, they're sorry number number three that believers children are to be considered elect and if only

Even if they die in infancy to be considered saved that's more of a Presbyterian thing. You missed it The one time

I give a shout out to you Number seven that the elect will preserve because God preserves them

Or persevere because God preserves them number eight. These truths do not breed carelessness but virtue so they ended up taking that and through the

Senate adored came up with the five points that we know of as Calvinism today from the tulip

So what was the the fruit of Arminian ism? It really was tulip the the easy way to define

What Calvinism that we'd hold to as Calvinism today now, I I don't have time. Let me just briefly mention

I have Notes and and I can provide all the notes if anyone wants but we look at one male person in history

That that really shaped what we think of as Calvinism today And you say wait a minute.

It's not Calvin and his followers. Well, it's a follower much later John Owen Maybe you haven't read the works of John Owens If you haven't read

John Owen you should But his his work on the death of death in the death of Christ, which was published in 1647 was a essential understanding

To the view that many hold to of limited atonement today He does a masterful job of providing a you know going through the scriptures and logically to give an understanding of a limited atonement that many hold to today and Really his work on the death of death and death of Christ is what many would turn to But let me wrap up the time in looking at modern -day

Calvinism Because we history doesn't end with Calvin it continued going

And and and we still have people today that we have to battle That that give us the wrong views and there's many wrong views of Calvinism today

Then many of these wrong views of Calvinism today that were there were buds a century ago have flowered

Into what we hold to today and much of it that they define is that of determinism

You have no choice. I remember my my my bride her Sunday school teacher And this is how you get into falling into false teaching

Folks that don't know my bride is from Hong Kong So she was in a Chinese church Chinese churches are not known for their theology

And so they would have female pastors If you think female pastors are biblical come talk to me afterwards because if you have a female pastor

I have news for you. She's not a pastor and that's not a church. Okay? but He ended up going down a road because he started to go against female pastor pastors

Which is biblical, but he went so far into teachings of some teachers that taught determinism

And I remember asking him his name was Andrew. I said Andrew So let me ask you a question if I just pull back and cold cock you did

I do that? He goes. Oh, no God made you do it Removes all

But see here's the problem. There are few that believe that But those that hate

Calvinism think that's what all Calvinists believe. I Grabbed a random and literally

I decided I was gonna grab the first anti -calvinistic Post that I saw on Facebook for this message, and so I grabbed one.

Thanks to a guy named Jeff curious Don't know who he is But I mean I could choose any day and get the same thing every single day, but this is what he said quote

Calvinists are not responsible for their own actions God is So it is no wonder that Many reject the

God of Calvinism if God is responsible for what they do Then God is blamed for much evil that he does not do unquote

That is what we see as people defining Calvinism today determinism They end up thinking that everything is just we as Calvinists just say that God Forces us to do everything and we have no choice in the matter

You know, I don't know other than that Sunday school teacher or my wife's I've met not met another person that claims to be a

Calvinist that argues for determinism that doesn't argue that humans do choose not in salvation

Right, you're not saving yourself through your choice but but the reality is

That you end up seeing that this is what they define You you have another extreme that you see is this high

Calvinism They'll argue that the the other extreme is where that people will say that you have to actually believe in Tulip to be saved

I've only met one person that argued that But they will but I've met thousands of people that would hold to a biblical

Calvinism And I've met two on these extremes and yet the those who want to argue against Calvinism Oh all of you are determinists or all of you believe that I have to believe

Calvinism to be saved My debate with RA Fuentes, that's what he argued He argued that I believed that he had to be a

Calvinist to be saved I said no you have to believe in the teachings of Calvin Because that's the gospel that God saves you

If you don't believe God saves you if you think you save yourself That's not biblical

So yes, the teachings of Calvin not Calvinism, but the teachings we find in Scripture And so if you believe you have to believe in Tulip to be saved you're wrong

But but the the thing is that This is what they make everybody they they acclaim everyone.

That's a Calvinist believes one of those two things These attackers claim their arguments are biblical and strong.

I mean I do deal with every day since in Preparation for this message and maybe that's why

I'm seeing more Calvinistic things on my Facebook. I keep challenging people Because I'm gonna deal with why

Calvinism I'm like, okay Let me start getting some of these anti's to start giving me their best arguments and I would challenge them

Would you come on Thursday night on my apologetics live show so we could discuss this so I could learn your great arguments against Calvinism I'm still waiting

I've only been doing it for six months Like almost on a daily basis asking these people all they want to do is argue in their echo chamber

Where no one disagrees with them and everyone can have the same false view and I watch this over and over again watching people going

You're lying about what Calvinism is. You're not defining Calvinism, right? You got a straw man argument and You sit there and say why won't they come and discuss it

Probably because they know That they have a bad argument And yet they will pridefully attack people some people create whole ministries

Attacking Calvinism and they don't even know what Calvinism is But I used to grow up Calvinist You growing up to anything you tell me you grew up dispensational you grow up Calvinist.

I grew up Jewish Let me tell you son growing up Jewish did not give me an understanding of what

Judaism is Studying the Talmud did Because that's what modern

Judaism is based off of Okay, it's not your upbringing. It's gonna give that to you. It's what you studied.

Did you actually understand? And so what we see is all these people that are attacking this straw man of Calvinism because it's easy to knock over and They go they say that they have these great arguments and they'll say oh, but that's a logical conclusion

Yeah, but if no Calvinist believes that then it's not a logical conclusion It's a straw man

These straw man attacks against Calvinism have led many to a logical conclusion that free will is the most important aspect even over God's sovereignty

This has led to an anti -biblical view that challenges the very nature of God called open theism an open theism

I think is the natural and logical outworking of Raising human free will and suppressing

God's sovereignty in salvation Because it it's what

God had to look who is gonna be saved when he doesn't really know until you choose

So then they have a God that doesn't know everything and they've gone to the extreme to start saying well no

He's just a really good guesser This heresy were is the result of trying to defend

God's submission to human free will but denies the God of the Bible and the Fertilization the fertilizer of open theism flowers into heresy today

Some may call their anti -Calvinist views. So taught soteriology 101 But misses the basics of the nature of God in salvation and while some are still stuck in Theology in soteriology 101 the rest of us have moved on to soteriology 201 301 401 and 501

Let me let me conclude with this brother Anthony, where are you at with it that sure day if you wouldn't mind standing up This shirt was great.

He walked by his shirt says Calvinism is what happens when Arminians read the

Bible That's a great sure I mean Believing in Arminians and makes as much sense as believing in Bigfoot.

Let's pray Lord we We Lord we we are grateful.

We're grateful that that humor is a good medicine to our bones we're grateful that we can as men of God stand up here and preach and And do it in a way with such love for one another even though we are not all in agreement

We're grateful that we could gather here to at a conference like this and discuss something on Calvinism And maybe there's some that are not

Calvinist here and they're gonna hear things They're gonna rub them the wrong way, but Lord may it be that we will accurately communicate what your word teaches

So that it's your word speaking and not words of men not even our words

But that we would communicate well with your word we ask the Lord that throughout this conference is this is just the beginning

There be good deep rich discussion even with the disagreements that we would have

But with love with charity So that in everything that happens in this week with this conference you would be glorified

That we'd exalt you on high and then we'd edify and equip one another we asked Lord that we would learn

That we should be careful to rightly not only divide your word, but also rightly define other people's views to not misrepresent them

So that we could see you glorified we ask you in Christ's name. Amen real quick before Jeff comes up I just want to give you guys some things that are on the table.

I have two books out there that were mentioned What do they believe? What do we believe? This is on world religions get a systematic theology of world religions

This is a systematic theology of Christianity not too scary. It's not like most of them It's only 200 pages. The real thing about this is

What do they believe is going to tell you from their sources what they believe? What do we believe there's a chapter in there on textual criticism that is meant for a lay level

So that everyone can understand the number one thing that is really attacked if you're doing evangelism We have a book called from death to life.

This is by Alan Nelson an excellent book Especially if there's anybody here who is not a

Calvinist Like you're legitimately not a Calvinist Don't just say this because you want a free book

Come up to me and I will give you a copy for free If you are a Calvinist then please pay for it and then you can pass it on No, but because we had to pay for it

But this is one of the best works I've seen in describing region what happens in regeneration And then lastly if you guys haven't figured out that America is against Christians maybe you've been living in a in a hole somewhere, but What we've done is striving fraternity is taken

We're taking a bunch of our we have our podcasts and and we could I could talk to you about all my podcasts of any You've our podcast listeners

Take your phone out right now go search for a rap report. That's wrapped with two peas That's one to look up apologetics live is the second to look up and then third would be

Christian podcast community But I warn you Christian podcast community We produce about 40 hours of content a week and it's all vetted 50 podcasts

But we took I have classes that I do and we put them on flash drives so that when the oligarchs decide to turn off our website

You can still have some good content to study with your computer as long as you have electricity.