Welcome to Truth Time, where you'll get a shot of the truth with no chaser.
And now, your Truth Time host, Trey Searcy.
Okay, Sharon's question.
We've listened to your series on the confused Calvinists.
Thanks for the enlightenment.
The pastor at the church we presently attend likes to quote John Calvin and endorses the teachings of John Piper.
Yesterday, his sermon was on how God controls politics and has mapped out our life for us.
He said, God makes it happen, whether it's good or bad.
If I had a dollar for every time he said that everything happens for a reason, I'd be a wealthy woman.
We're unhappy with what's being taught at our church and seeking truth.
Your podcasts are a blessing and have answered many questions.
So we're wondering if you had any available resources you could send our way that could further help us.
Sharon is like so many who have started to question things like this.
Things that don't line up with sound reasoning, with logic.
I'm reminded of a program I saw not too long ago called Super Heist.
It featured a story of a man who worked for, I think it was Wells Fargo.
He started out driving one of the Loomis trucks, one of those money trucks.
But he ended up back inside the bank guarding the safe.
He was fed up with making such a small salary and just barely making ends meet.
So, while he was sitting there outside of the safe, his mind began to wander.
He put together this master plan that he thought he could clear out this safe of its
$17.3 million content and run off to Mexico.
Seems like I remember him saying on the day, I think it was the day or the day before, but he was on his way to work and on the radio the song Take the Money and Run came on.
You can probably guess where this is going.
He took that as being a sign from God, confirming that, yep, that he's supposed to carry out this plan, God's plan, according to this man and the Calvinists also.
So here's a guy that made his plan God's plan, and the Calvinists do the same thing.
How do we know that God always controls everything?
My answer is that we know this because the Bible teaches it.
It teaches it by direct statements and by clear and sufficient implication.
How much of our daily life is sovereignly directed by God?
My answer is all of it, down to the tying of your shoelaces and the brushing of your
teeth.
That from flaming Calvinist John Piper.
Listen, Calvinism has some real detrimental effects that has affected so many who have mistaken theory for truth.
That's what Calvinism is, a theory, birthed from man's imagination.
Just another ism, and its effects have spread like poison.
It's had an effect on all denominations.
Calvinists have perverted and stretched the word, "sovereign," way out of shape.
The word, "sovereign," is not even in the Bible, however, the word, "free will," is.
But Calvinists chose to build an entire doctrine around the missing word, "sovereign."
God gave each one of us free will.
We're not God's robots, and he's not the manipulator up in the sky, sitting in the throne room of heaven, playing with his robots.
Leviticus 22:21, and whosoever offereth a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Lord
to accomplish his vow, or a free will offering in beeves or sheep, it shall be perfect to be accepted.
There shall be no blemish therein.
Now, how could they have given a free will offering if the Calvinists are right?
If John Piper is correct?
God gave us free will.
He does not orchestrate our life.
A believer, someone saved and in Christ, we should do our best to operate Godly and accordingly, but it's free will, and it would come through studying God's word and letting that manifest in our lives.
We make choices, free will choices.
We have a free will, but they should be shaped by his word, but not by manipulation.
He allows us freedom.
I've heard it said from the Calvinists over the years so many times, "Everything happens for a reason."
And there's people that say that that wouldn't even claim to be Calvinist, but they don't know where they got that, but that's where it comes from.
Well, of course, everything happens for a reason, but not the way they've told us.
Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes 9:11, and I quote, Time and chance, don't miss it.
Time and chance, three important words concerning this subject.
Time and chance happens to everyone.
In the red letters of Luke chapter 10, verse 31, Jesus said, By chance, a priest came down the road and witnessed a robbery.
Hey, don't let Calvinists bog you down with their illogical theory, an illogical theory that their man-made religion is named after.
Our circumstances are not manipulated by God.
They're a product of free will choices we chose to make.
Just think of how convenient this doctrine is.
Pretty much removes all accountability, huh?
For time's sake, I didn't read all of Sharon's email, but I just noticed here below she mentioned a podcast we did on the church fathers and their strange beliefs, one that we did some time back, and we gave quotes.
And here's another one from Mr. John Calvin himself.
Calvin said, God not only foresaw the fall of the first man, and in him the ruin of his posterity, but also, at his own pleasure, arranged it.
So, here we have John Calvin attempting to convince us, free-thinking individuals, that the sovereign God took pleasure, took pleasure, he says, in arranging Adam's sin.
So, according to John, God had Adam on a string, a puppet on a string, and manipulated him to commit sin.
And not only that, he took pleasure in it.
Well, the God I serve hates sin.
So to me, I see this as an outrageous claim from a man revered by millions, millions of men followers.
And not only outrageous, but contradictory.
John Calvin contradicts scripture.
He totally disregards what God inspired Moses to write in the book of Genesis.
Genesis chapter 6, verse 5, watch.
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
And it repented the Lord that he had made man on earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
So, according to John Calvin's Twistianity, the Lord took pleasure in arranging man to sin.
The God that hates sin, ya.
But according to Moses, after God saw the wickedness of man, it repented him, and it
grieved him at his heart.
Who are you going to believe?
The choice is yours.
John Calvin, John Piper, and all of their ilk, or God and His Word, right there under
your nose?
This is Truth Time Radio, just here to make you think.
Galatians 4:16, Am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?
One of you said to me recently, we shouldn't rock the boat.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, I want to tell you, I am a boat rocker.
Man worship and his theories, theologically, will always back you into a corner.
God did not cause sin to enter the world.
If he did, the book of Genesis is wrong.
If Genesis is wrong, we're in a heap of trouble, and down the slippery slope we go.
The mistake that Calvinists make is they think that God is not capable of winning the match if he doesn't control both sides of the board.
God's not manipulating current events.
He does not control politics.
A common problem is we have many today and they occupy the pulpit and don't know their Old Testament.
To understand what's going on in the church of what's happening now, you'd do well to
know what happened with the church in time past, how they operated.
The prophet Hosea, here in chapter 8, verse 4, God said, They have set up kings, but not by me.
Take that in.
They have set up kings, but not by me.
Wait a minute.
We should be able to stop right there and put the Calvinist doctrine in check.
They have set up kings, but not by me.
They have made princes, and I knew it not.
There goes the Calvinist theology straight down the drain hole.
It's a wash.
Pack it up and let's go home.
God didn't always pick Israel's kings as John Calvin, John Piper, as they say.
Furthermore, furthermore, watch this.
Don't abandon ship just yet.
Just because I'm stepping on your Calvinist toes, toughen up and hang in there.
Even when God did appoint kings, there were times that later he wished he wouldn't have.
I'm quite certain the prophet Samuel, that's what I'm looking for here.
Here we are.
First Samuel, chapter 15, verse 11.
God said, It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king, for he is turning back
from following me.
Calvinism is wrong.
By the word of God we can prove this.
It's responsible for confusing the masses.
Some of the sheeple just refuse to dig in and do their own research.
Instead, they let John Calvin and the Calvinist dream team, Steve Brown, D. James Kennedy, Albert Moeller, Schaefer, Sproul, Ed Young, MacArthur, Piper, Washer.
They let them dictate and carry the day.
I once asked a Calvinist, he was standing alongside me at a bookstore, so we're talking and looking through some books and having a pretty reasonable discussion.
Then he came to the point where he was trying to convince me that I should be a Calvinist and how it was pretty much the superior belief system.
So I asked him, I said, do you believe we have confusion in the world?
And he said, of course, and began to speak.
And he spoke for about two minutes on all the confusion in the world.
So I finally interrupted him and said, get first Corinthians chapter 14 for me.
And on his way there for about another 30 seconds, he rambled on adding to what he had already said about all the confusion that we're facing and that we see in the world, especially in the church, he said.
And once he found the right chapter, I said, okay, read verse 33.
For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.
And right there, I watched the hot air leave his theological balloon.
Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is within you, said Peter to the little flock.
But this man wasn't prepared.
Calvinism is a bicycle without a kickstand.
You see, they've got God authoring everything, the author of confusion.
But Paul says, oh, no, not so.
God is not the author of your car wreck, your miscarriage, the aborted babies.
And God didn't even wake you up this morning.
You woke up on your own.
Or you set an alarm clock, which is still you.
And if your alarm clock didn't go off, don't blame God.
He had nothing to do with it.
He pre-knew you were going to lay there and sleep in, but he didn't make you.
He didn't cause it.
This Calvinistic viewpoint is even deeply rooted into things like sports.
I hear athletes all the time making outlandish statements, as if God cares about who won the game.
I enjoy MMA, and I heard one of my favorite fighters giving thanks to God for causing
him to win.
Yeah, you just beat a guy to the point that his mother can't even recognize him, and you want us to believe that God caused that?
No, God knew it.
He foreknew everything.
They want you to believe that all of this is God's will.
And according to John Calvin, the loser is supposed to thank God for the beatdown he
got as well.
Blame it on God.
No, how about reasonable, logical thinking?
The other guy that just beat you up is better than you.
Maybe he's stronger.
Maybe he's faster.
Maybe he trained better than you did.
Calvinists shift the blame.
No accountability.
Any rational thinker can fill in the blank.
There are multiple reasons your favorite football team lost.
God's not one of them, OK?
Calvinism is the no accountability religion.
I'm not accountable.
It was God's will.
How convenient.
A false teaching that has permeated the masses.
Truth is rarely found in numbers.
Guard your heart and be diligent.
Search God's word for yourself.
The word sovereign is not in the Bible.
It's not a Bible word.
It's a governmental word.
It deals with supreme authority.
Is God supreme?
Of course.
But he's always dealt with mankind dispensationally.
And that's where we lose the Calvinists.
Calvinists are not aware that what they believe is a brand of Islam.
Islamics hold to the same view.
The very name Islam should be our first clue.
It has to do with submission.
They believe that every day they awake to whatever Allah wills they submit to.
And that's precisely what will happen.
Another way of not feeling accountable for any terrorist act.
Allah willed it so.
So I had to do it.
It's his will.
Be careful folks.
Be wise.
This Calvinist version of God and him being sovereign is false.
God is supreme.
But not in the way they teach.
Some call it determinalism.
I think that's how you say it.
Pagans call it fatalism.
Quickly, let me leave you with one more.
And while I find it, let me share something to think about.
The next time something good or bad happens in your life, put this to memory.
Listen.
Just because God knew it would happen, that doesn't mean he chose it to happen.
Knows and chose.
Different.
That's the sovereign God.
You'll hear people all the time say, if it's God's will.
As if God always gets his will.
Come on.
First Timothy chapter 2 says, it is God's will to have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
Do you see that happening today?
Does everyone that you present the gospel to, do they get saved?
That's God's will.
If he's forcing his will upon each and every one of us, then every time you present the gospel, they should be getting saved.
It's his will that all men be saved.
Not the select few that the Calvinists tell you.
But it doesn't mean he's forcing that to happen.
God is sovereign.
He gave all of humanity a free will to make choices.
Get into this word of truth rightly divided and base your choices from that.
If you're into the word wrongly divided, then you're just a tad better off from those who don't get into this word at all.
Calvinists do not preach that Paul's gospel of grace is capable of saving you by itself.
Like many, they add to it.
They're limited forgivers.
They add to it by telling you how to get your sins forgiven.
They put that step in there, that step of do.
They tell you how to get your sins forgiven as if they're not already.
Limited forgivers.
No one can be saved thinking that anything they can do is a prerequisite to getting their sins forgiven.
If you've fallen for that fence-straddling gospel, then guess where you are?
You're still on the fence.
The gospel's clear.
Christ died for the world's sins, whether we believe it or not.
He was buried, and he defeated the tomb by walking out three days later, whether we believe it or not.
There's nothing you can do, no steps to be taken.
It's fact.
Now, you need to believe that to receive his righteous life, right standing before God.
And that's what you need for salvation.
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