Why are some christians calvinist?

Why are people Calvinist?
What would you say, from a word of faith perspective, are the underlying motivations of a person to believe the calvinistic doctrine. I am currently dealing with this issue and I believe I have some of the answers to why.
1. Innacurate understanding of what it means for God to be sovereign.
2. Lack of understanding of the authority of the believer.
These are the 2 main underlying reasons, namely lack of understanding of the authority of the believer.
I believe it is equally important to know why a person believes what they believe as it is to know what they believe. Its getting to the root of the issue.
The purpose of this post, well first I want to know your thoughts. Secondly, I believe, through others input, can educate many to know how to approach those who are calvinists or influenced by them.
Your thoughts are appreciated. Thanks,
PastorJ

MOD NOTE: Moved from Denomination Specific Ethics to WOF as it is a more appropriate forum for this discussion.

I am first interested in what calvanist theology is. I have a rough idea of the ideas that John Calvin put forward, but before we go on, could we first establish what the main ideas of calvanism are?

Sure Godson, Basically Calvinist hold the beliefs of a man named John Calvin.
They believe that God chooses those who will be saved and chooses those who will not be saved. They believe further that Jesus' sacrifice only atoned for the sins of those that He 'chose' to be saved. Also, they believe that those He has chose cannot resist His calling. There are many other beliefs they hold, but this is the most crucial one to their doctrine. They dont accept that Jesus died for the whole world because they feel that it would infringe on His almightyness or sovereignty for someone to resist His will for them to be saved. So, their solution for this delima is to hold to a doctrine that leaves no room for mans free will to be involved. They wouldnt like this analogy, but in their view, we are basically nothing more than 'robots' programmed to do His will. My question is if He has preprogramed a person to be saved, then why didnt He go ahead and finish the job and make them perfectly submitted to His will, never to sin again?
Pastor J

True.

I think it comes down to a misunderstanding of the Soverrinty of God. There are three main things that because they don't understand them, they have gotten into this false doctrine:
1. Satan is the God of this world
2. God has given us free will
3. God is bound by His Word because He would cease to exist if He was to break a covenant or lie.

Hi Godson

Thanks I liked your last post.
You are right. I like what you said about them not understanding about satan.
The 2 main reasons I see is:
1. Their lack of understanding of God's sovereignty.
2. Their lack of understanding of the authority of the believer.
PS Did you see my reply to you about the spiritual gifts?
PJ

Yes I did. Thankyou very much. It is very interesting. I have now come to the understanding that there are three catagories of gifts:
1. 5 Fold Ministry gifts
2. Spiritual Gifts or Manifestations of the Spirit
3. Motivational/Grace gifts

I have found an incredibly anointed teacher on the internet at: http://www.eaglevision.com.my/complete.htm
and he has a remarkably accurate and thorough teaching series on the gifts of the Holy Spirit and things like that (as well as many other topics). I believe that as I get into his series on this subject further insight, knowlege and revelation will be given to me.

Be blessed!

PastorJ

I began looking into Calvinism about five years agao when I was doing research on the Faith Movement. First of all, I 100% agree with your post. I really believe that Calvinists have a difficult time with your two underlying reasons which is why the critics of the faith movement that embrace Calvinism in some form (John MacArthur, Curtis Crenshaw, Hank Hanegraaff, and it seems even a Pentecostal like D. R. McConnell to a certain extent) focus a lot of their ammunition on their claim that faith teachers deny God's sovereignty and their belief that we make man a boss over God (their distortion of our teaching that the believer has authority). I can say more on this but I will hold back for right.

This is not to say that only Calvinists criticize the Faith Movement. Dave Hunt is a WoF critic but he has written a book refuting Calvinism. His is certainly NOT the best refutation I have read on the subject but it seems to be the most popular. I also know of one strongly Arminian brother who has written a book criticizing the movement. I have yet to read his book but I may do so just to see what type of arguments our Arminian brothers have against us, especially since I have always believed that much faith teaching has it's origins in Wesleyan Arminianism and Finneyism.

Anyway, my research has led me to these conclusions concerning Calvinism and its adherents:

1. Calvinism is portrayed as quintessential orthodoxy. Anyone who does not embrace Calvinism is basically a heretic. Many Calvinists today are not as harsh on Calvinism as they used to be but even people like R. C. Sproul still refer to non-Calvinists as "semi-pelagian" (For those who don't know, Pelagius was a monk who went overboard on the Free-will issue in Augustine's day, thus being branded a heretic).

2. Because of number 2, people do naturally do not want to be branded as a heretic and want to be aligned with orthodoxy. By embracing Calvinism, people have a sense of "belonging" to a "pure unadulterated" theological system. They have the assurance that they are truly "orthodox." Due to the fact that many great men such as Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon, and others were self-proclaimed Calvinists, many people feel that they have a strong heritage by aligning themselves with this system. No one could believe that maybe God used these men in spite of their Calvinism and not because of it. By the way, I love Charles Spurgeon and enjoyed many of his sermons. He even taught some stuff that many anti-wofers disparage.

3. Calvinism is intellectually appealing due to its supposedly coherent and logical system. While I personally find it incoherent and illogical (and I find it very much anti-scriptural), it has been promoted by some of the most educated men/theologians throughout the centuries. It was the staple of orthodoxy at Princeton under men like Benjamin B. Warfield (who also strongly promoted the doctrine of cessation of the Charismata in the last century).

I believe that the Faith Movement (perhaps unknowingly) provided opposition against three prevailing theologies: Calvinism, Cessationism and Liberalism. One need not wonder why.

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Let the Scriptures Determine Your Theology, Do Not Read Your Theology into Scripture.

Thank you very much victory word,
Your imput has helped me much in my studies as well as confirmed them.
Pastor J

As an ex calvanist I know that I believed in the sovereignty of God and that God can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants to whomever he wants...but this is not true.

God cannot go against his word for one thing...if God says that whosoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved...can God then change his mind...I am not saving anyone today...or I never meant for you to be saved... No! God does what he said he would do in his word and so God's sovereignty is limited to what God said he would do...

I also believed that Jesus only dies for the elect but this is also not true...God gave his one and only son for the "whosever believes"...there are many other things but these are the main ones...God bless, Mike.

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Psa. 3:3 But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.