The Christian message I've been hearing is that not everybody can be saved and there is predetermination.
But now I'm hearing that is not the case and there are quote from the NT that indicate all can repent and be saved.
Are these Calvinists spreading a bad message? Why are they allowed in here? They are spinning my head with their false doctrine.
I don't need this, I need the truth.
Because Christianity is not united in its theology of salvation (what we call soteriology) different traditions/denominations have different soteriological views.
Calvinism is a theological perspective that is rooted in the work and writings of John Calvin, a French reformer (who later fled to Switzerland) and one of the major influences on the Reformed tradition of Protestantism.
When talking about "The Protestant Reformation" we are actually talking about several different things. There wasn't a single "Reformation" going on in the 16th century.
The "Protestant Reformation" can be divided into three broad categories:
The Magisterial Reformation refers to that side of the reformation which sought reform from within the established church. This can actually be further divided into two camps: the Evangelical or Lutheran Reformation which is named after Luther and the early Evangelical (aka "Lutheran") reformers like Luther and also the Reformed Reformation which was largely influenced by John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, and John Knox.
The Evangelical and Reformed shared a lot in common, but disagreed on a number of significant points. Both, for example, affirmed Justification by grace alone through faith alone on Christ's account alone; both affirmed that election was the choice and work of God to predestine people to salvation. However the Lutherans and the Reformed had some significant differences between them on the subject of Election and Predestination. Which along with differences on, for example, the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, led to there being a failure to unite together in a common confession between the two. Lutherans have their Confessions (contained in the Book of Concord) and the Reformed have theirs, and became the Presbyterian Church in Scotland and the various Reformed Churches in Continental Europe.
Additionally there were two other categories of the Reformation:
The Radical Reformation refers to those movements which arose largely in opposition to the established church, and were often given the name "Anabaptists" because many of these rejected infant baptism and so had themselves re-baptized ("anabaptist" means "one who is re-baptized"). The views of the various Radical Reformation movements are highly diverse. Some like the Mennonites retained basic orthodox Christian belief, such as in the Trinity. But others rejected the Trinity, such as the Socinians.
The English Reformation refers to the turbulence of the English Church's break from Rome when King Henry VIII declared himself head of the English Church--mostly because the Pope refused to annul his marriage. Henry VIII, however, had no affection for the things happening on the Continent. But over time Protestant influence did make its way into the English Church, but there was always different factions who wanted more or less reform. This has led to the Anglican Communion of today viewing itself as a Via Media between the Catholic and Protestant sides, and is a big-tent church with high church Anglicans (Anglo-Catholics) who are nearly indistinguishable in a lot of ways from Roman Catholics (though without the Pope of course) to very low church Anglicans who are nearly indistinguishable from Evangelical Protestants.
But for the sake of this discussion, we really only need to talk about the Magisterial Reformation, since the subject on the table is Calvinism.
Not all Reformed theologians were necessarily in total agreement on everything. But the works of Calvin, Knox, and Zwingli were very influential, especially Calvin's
Institutes of the Christian Religion. However in the 17th century a dissenting group emerged within the Reformed Church of the Netherlands led by Jacob Arminius. Arminius and those who agreed with him were known as the Remonstrants, and they took issue with some points of Reformed theology. And so they put forward Five Articles of Remonstrance, in which they challenged those things.
A church council or synod was held in the city of Dordtrecht (aka Dort/Dordt), and the famous Synod of Dordt repudiated the Five Articles of Remonstrance with their own five articles of faith, which in English had famously become known as the Five Points of Calvinism aka TULIP.
TULIP stands for
Total Depravity
Unconditional Election
Limited Atonement
Irresistible Grace
Perseverance of the Saints
Total Depravity indicates the totality in which sin has affected the human person, such that a person is completely unable to turn toward God by their own will, the will is held in bondage to the flesh. Thus it is impossible to be righteous through good works or to turn toward God for salvation.
Unconditional Election indicates that God, by His sovereign choice, chose that some would be saved, predestined to salvation, unconditionally--not because of anything they would do, but by His sovereign choice alone.
Limited Atonement indicates that Christ only died for the elect, only those whom God foreknew and predestined to salvation benefit from Christ's death on the cross.
Irresistible Grace indicates that those whom God has predestined to election are unable to resist God's call through the Gospel, so that when one of the elect hears the Gospel they believe and are thus saved.
Perseverance of the Saints indicates that those whom God has elected to salvation, having heard the call of the Gospel and believed, can in no way turn away and become an unbeliever but will, by the grace and power of God endure until the end. Once saved, always saved.
The position of Jacob Arminius and the Remonstrants was rejected by the Dutch Reformed Church, but the Remonstrants didn't die out. The views of the Remonstrants--aka Arminianism--remained even though the Dutch authorities outlawed their beliefs. One of the most famous of the Remonstrants, Hugo Grotius, would go on to influence certain English theologians. It was this English Arminianism which would influence a young Anglican priest by the name of John Wesley, who would become one of the most influential figures, especially in 18th century colonial America and give rise to Methodism in America. Wesleyan Methodism in America was characterized by the Arminian views of John Wesley and his brother Charles (one of the most prolific English hymn-writers in history, whose hymns can be found throughout the English speaking world to this day); though George Whitefield, another Methodist in Great Britain, was himself a Calvinist, and thus British Methodism, in contrast to American Methodism, was more Calvinist-influenced.
Through Methodism in America, Wesleyanism as a theological movement would become more influential on American Protestantism; whereas the dominant form of Protestantism in America (going back to English Puritans and English Baptists who came to North America) was principally Reformed/Calvinist. American colonial Protestantism was chiefly Anglican (after the Revolution, known as Episcopalian), Presbyterian, and Congregationalist (the latter two being Reformed, and even many Anglicans had Reformed-leanings). But Wesylanism gained stronger influence, especially in the 19th century during the Second Great Awakening.
This has led American Protestantism, of various stripes, often existing somewhere along a spectrum between full Calvinism on the one hand (such as held by the Presbyterians) or full Arminianism on the other (such as Methodism), to various in-betweens represented by various Evangelical churches of different denominations and non-denominational churches. This kind of in-betweenism between Calvinism and Arminianism can be traced to Revivalism in 19th (and early 20th) century America, and was influenced by Revivalist preachers such as Charles Finney, Billy Sunday, Bill Bright, and Billy Graham. This inbetweenism holds that salvation is a personal decision one makes to follow Jesus, which is available for everyone to make out of their own free-will choice (this is rather Arminian) but also holds (often) that once a person has been saved they are forever saved (this is rather Calvinist).
And so the overwhelming majority of Protestants in the English-speaking world are going to likely be somewhere on this Calvinist-Arminian spectrum, either as full Calvinists or as full Arminians. Other forms of full Arminianism can be found in the Wesleyan-influenced Holiness Movement, which gave rise to the Church of the Nazarene (as an example), which itself influenced the early Pentecostal pioneers following the Azuza Street Revival of 1906. Virtually all Pentecostal denominations are indebted to an Arminian-Wesleyan theological tradition. Though I have heard there are Pentecostal Calvinists, though this is very rare.
And all of this has only touched the very tip of the iceberg. I haven't bothered to go into much detail at all. And I haven't even touched upon Catholic and Orthodox soteriology whatsoever.
So even just talking about two soteriological systems: Calvinism and Arminianism, there is a tremendous amount of diversity and disagreement, because often these two are two points on a spectrum of theological variation among modern Protestants.
I'm a Lutheran, and I briefly mentioned that Lutherans disagreed with the Reformed, but hardly went into detail there--but to put it simply, Lutheranism is entirely outside of this Calvinist-Arminian debate. Representing its own branch of theology on what is broadly called "Protestant".
As I said, soteriology is a diverse topic, Christians often have wildly different views.
No, Calvinists aren't a cult or in a cult. Calvinism is simply one particular set of theological views as it pertains to soteriology.
And, to make things more complicated, even among Calvinists there are some significant differences of opinion.
EDIT: For some reason I said George Edwards rather than George Whitefield. I don't know where "George Edwards" came from in my head, but I've fixed that now.
-CryptoLutheran
