Your thoughts.

[Soverinth]

I am posting these videos to get your guy's opinion.

These videos have nothing to do with me, i just want to hear what you guys think about what the guy says he believes. I just came across these like 20 minutes ago and they looked interesting.

I quite honestly think what this guys says is true.

What do you guys think? Do you believe what he says or do you believe differently? Tell me what you think in regards to your beliefs and his beliefs.

There are 9 parts, each about 7-8 minutes long.



CALVINISM- 'Why I Am Not A 5 Point Calvinist' - By Dr. Norman Geisler (1 OF 9) - YouTube



CALVINISM- 'Why I Am Not A 5 Point Calvinist' - By Dr. Norman Geisler (2 OF 9) - YouTube



CALVINISM- 'Why I Am Not A 5 Point Calvinist' - By Dr. Norman Geisler (3 OF 9) - YouTube



CALVINISM- 'Why I Am Not A 5 Point Calvinist' - By Dr. Norman Geisler (4 OF 9) - YouTube



CALVINISM- 'Why I Am Not A 5 Point Calvinist' - By Dr. Norman Geisler (5 OF 9) - YouTube



CALVINISM- 'Why I Am Not A 5 Point Calvinist' - By Dr. Norman Geisler (6 OF 9) - YouTube



CALVINISM- 'Why I Am Not A 5 Point Calvinist' - By Dr. Norman Geisler (7 OF 9) - YouTube



CALVINISM- 'Why I Am Not A 5 Point Calvinist' - By Dr. Norman Geisler (8 OF 9) - YouTube



CALVINISM- 'Why I Am Not A 5 Point Calvinist' - By Dr. Norman Geisler (9 OF 9) - YouTube


Edit: Most of my issues concerning this have already been answered below and on other pages of this thread, so i am content now. If you still wish answer this first post, go right ahead.

 

[Girder of Loins]

Yup. Predestination isn't my favorite theology.

 

[true2theword]

Calvinism is wrong before it even gets out of the gate

 

[Harry3142]

John Calvin was a theologian who could not accept 'salvation by grace', which was taught by Martin Luther. However, since Scripture clearly supports salvation by grace rather than works, he formulated a theology whereby a person would have already been programmed to live a totally righteous life before he was born, and so would earn in a subtle way his own salvation. Those who were not preselected for salvation would not have this same desire for practising piety, and that distinction would mark them as being among the lost.

But this piety would not show itself through the actions which Jesus Christ himself pointed out as important in Matthew 25:31-46 (the 'feed the hungry' passage). To them those in need were to be seen as deserving of their suffering (it's called 'prosperity theology' today), and any desire to help them was criticized as interfering with God's just punishment of them. This attitude was overturned by later teachers of calvinism.

But predestination has a major flaw that negates it. It presupposes that there was a Book of Life containing the names of everyone throughout history whom God had already chosen to be among the saved before the earth was even formed. This intimates that God himself created both Adam and Eve with the fatal flaw that ensured their yielding to temptation in The Garden of Eden. This is in direct violation of Genesis 3, where God clearly exhibited anger that they had failed to obey him, as well as violating James 1:13-15, where God is described as never tempting anyone to sin.

 

[true2theword]

John Calvin was a theologian who could not accept 'salvation by grace', which was taught by Martin Luther. However, since Scripture clearly supports salvation by grace rather than works, he formulated a theology whereby a person would have already been programmed to live a totally righteous life before he was born, and so would earn in a subtle way his own salvation. Those who were not preselected for salvation would not have this same desire for practising piety, and that distinction would mark them as being among the lost.

But this piety would not show itself through the actions which Jesus Christ himself pointed out as important in Matthew 25:31-46 (the 'feed the hungry' passage). To them those in need were to be seen as deserving of their suffering (it's called 'prosperity theology' today), and any desire to help them was criticized as interfering with God's just punishment of them. This attitude was overturned by later teachers of calvinism.

But predestination has a major flaw that negates it. It presupposes that there was a Book of Life containing the names of everyone throughout history whom God had already chosen to be among the saved before the earth was even formed. This intimates that God himself created both Adam and Eve with the fatal flaw that ensured their yielding to temptation in The Garden of Eden. This is in direct violation of Genesis 3, where God clearly exhibited anger that they had failed to obey him, as well as violating James 1:13-15, where God is described as never tempting anyone to sin.

and the list goes on and on

If the name itself doesn't raise a red flag to the OP would will

follow Jesus, Paul warned the church of such men and their theology

 

[hedrick]

Just so you know: these responses aren't necessarily typical of Protestant reaction. Reformed theology (the tradition of Calvin) was the theology of the pilgrims, and has been more of the most influential Protestant traditions. I'm not sure whether I'm still an orthodox Calvinist or not, so I'm not trying to promote the Calvinist position at the moment. But I don't think his objections make sense.

1) Total depravity. He is confused about what the point means. He's absolutely right that faith comes before salvation, if salvation means having your life changed. However what Calvin actually meant was that God starts working with us to enable us to respond to God. Our faith isn't something we do on our own, but is something that results from God already working on us. But this is just a kind of preparing the way, not real salvation. That comes only from faith. I also think his exegesis is confused.

2) Election. He says that according to Calvinism God saves people independent of their faith. No Calvinist believes that. Calvinism says that God saves people by grafting them into Christ and bringing them to faith. Salvation certainly requires faith.

It's too late at night for me to spend an hour on this, so I haven't listened to the rest. I don't believe limited atonement is necessarily part of Calvinism, so I probably agree with him on the third point.

I'll give a bit more thought to this tomorrow night and try to give you a more considered view of Calvinism itself.