The Dangers of Spiritual Formation and Spiritual Disciplines

Paula White Exposed [video]

THAT’s My King! Pastor Lockridge [video]

Powerful Prayers from Children-This Will Shake You [video]

The Fear of the LORD is to Hate Evil: Pride, and Arrogancy #shorts [video]

The Dangers of Spiritual Formation and Spiritual Disciplines

A Critique of Dallas Willard and The Spirit of the Disciplines

by Bob DeWaayPractices called “spiritual disciplines” that are deemed necessary for “spiritual formation” have entered evangelicalism. Recent encounters with this teaching narrated to me by friends caused me to investigate these practices. The first experience involved my friend and co-worker Ryan Habbena who went back to seminary to finish his masters degree. Here is his experience in his own words:

I recently took a seminary course on the book of Luke. It was a summer intensive and was one of only two classes being offered at the time. About midway through the week, while the class was steeped in trying to discern the intent and significance of the book of Luke, we began to hear the echoes of mystic chanting coming through the walls. As it turned out, the other class being offered was parked right next to ours. The paper thin walls were carrying the choruses of a class exploring the life and teachings of Catholic mystic Henry Nouwen. We proceeded, trying to concentrate on studying the Scriptures while tuning out the chants that were carrying on next door. Perhaps what was more unsettling though is the class studying Nouwen was chock full, while there were plenty of empty seats next door for anyone wanting to learn about the inspired book of Luke.¹

How can this be? A Baptist seminary was favorably studying the teachings of this Catholic mystic whose own biographers describe as having had emotional problems and homosexual inclinations.² Soon after talking to Ryan, I met a lady who attends a Christian college. As part of her study program she was required to take a course on spiritual formation at her college. Spiritual formation in her class also concerned the study of Roman Catholic mystics and the search for techniques to help those who implement them feel closer to God. This study also explored “spiritual disciplines” which promised to make those who practiced them more Christ-like. After she finished the class she shared her textbooks with me. This article will focus on the claims of one of these text books, The Spirit of the Disciplines, by Dallas Willard.³ In our study we shall see that those promoting spiritual disciplines in courses of study called “spiritual formation” make claims that are unbiblical and dangerous.

Jesus’ “Yoke” as “Spiritual Disciplines”

Dallas Willard bases his entire spiritual disciplines book on his understanding of Matthew 11:29, 30, which says, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. ³⁰For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Willard cites this passage at the beginning of a chapter entitled “The Secret of the Easy Yoke,”⁴ Willard says, “And in this truth lies the secret of the easy yoke: the secret involves living as he lived in the entirety of his life—adopting his overall life-style.”⁵ He also says, “We have to discover how to enter into his disciplines from where we stand today—and no doubt, how to extend and amplify them to suit our needy cases.”⁶ He claims that the “yoke” is to try to emulate Jesus’ lifestyle in every possible way.⁷ Willard interprets Jesus’ “yoke” as the practice of spiritual disciplines like solitude, silence, and simple living. He later adds voluntary banishment and others that we will discuss later.

Willard is very critical of traditional Protestant doctrine and practice, declaring it a massive failure.⁸ His remedy for this failure is to see the body and certain ascetic practices using the body as the means of change: “Looking back over our discussion to this point, we have connected the reality of the easy yoke with the practice of the spiritual disciplines. These in turn have led us to the body’s role in redemption.”⁹ He claims that we have been misguided by being concerned with the forgiveness of sins and “theories of the atonement.” He says, “Salvation as conceived today is far removed from what it was in the beginnings of Christianity and only by correcting it can God’s grace in salvation be returned to the concrete, embodied existence of our human personalities walking with Jesus in his easy yoke.”¹⁰ According to this thinking, the yoke of Jesus involves using the body in certain ways to accomplish changed lives:

Although we call the disciplines “spiritual”—and although they must never be undertaken apart from a constant, inward interaction with God and his gracious Kingdom—they never fail to require specific acts and dispositions of our body as we engage in them. We are finite and limited to our bodies. So the disciplines cannot be carried out except as our body and its parts are surrendered in precise ways and definite actions to God.¹¹

So evidently, rather than concerning ourselves with the blood atonement, averting God’s wrath against sin, salvation by faith through grace, we should be practicing spiritual disciplines with our bodies so that we could then be more like Jesus.

The concept of Jesus’ “yoke” being interpreted as an invitation to practice His life-style is reiterated throughout Willard’s book; see pages 91, 121, and 235. This idea is the framework and logical foundation of Willard’s entire thesis. But the question is, “Is this what Jesus meant in Matthew 11:29, 30?” Let us examine the passage in context to see if teaches the spiritual disciplines.

The True Meaning of Jesus’ “Yoke”

If we want to understand Matthew 11:29, 30 it is essential that we understand the context, particularly the meaning of verse 28. Jesus said, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). We must understand Jesus’ offer of rest in the context of His debates with the religious leaders. Their “yoke” demanded the strict observance of Sabbath rules and their oral tradition. Immediately after Jesus’ offer of “rest” in Him, there ensued a Sabbath debate with the religious leaders accusing Jesus and His disciples of being Sabbath breakers (see Matthew 12). They plucked grain on the Sabbath and Jesus healed on the Sabbath. Jesus was offering true Sabbath rest and the Jewish leaders were offering the yoke of the Law. Jesus’ yoke was different. Jesus perfectly kept the law so that all who would come to him would enter into the true Sabbath rest that could never be achieved by keeping the rules laid down by the religious leaders.

Taking this understanding of the term “yoke” we can see what Jesus meant in Matthew 11. His words came in the middle of a dispute with Jewish leadership. He had pronounced woe upon cities that did not repent (Matthew 11:20-24). He uttered this prayer:

At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. ²⁶Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight. ²⁷All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.” (Matthew 11:25-27)

The wise and intelligent were the Jewish Scribes and Pharisees who accused Jesus of being a Sabbath breaker and who refused to repent when they witnessed His miracles. They rejected both Jesus and John the Baptist in a most fickle manner (Matthew 11:16-19). They refused to come to God on His terms, but demanded that God the Son obey them on their terms! So Jesus pronounced the judgment of hardening on them and chose instead to reveal Himself to babes.

When Jesus said, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28), He was offering them what the Jewish leadership rejected—Messianic salvation. True Sabbath rest is only found in Christ (see Hebrews 4:1-9). Ironically, the people who accused Jesus of being a Sabbath breaker were the ultimate Sabbath breakers because they rejected the only one who could give true rest. They put the yoke of law keeping on the people but kept them from the one true Law keeper, Christ who died for their sins. Therefore, no matter how scrupulous and religious a person is, if he or she does not come to Christ by faith, that person is under the yoke of bondage rather than the Sabbath rest for the people of God.

There are other places in the New Testament where the term “yoke” is used in the sense of the requirement of law keeping. Two of them are very pertinent to interpreting Matthew 11:28-30. In Acts 15 the apostles gathered in Jerusalem to determine whether the new Gentile converts would be required to keep the Law. The three most prominent laws that marked off the Jews as unique were the food laws, Sabbath, and circumcision. Peter’s speech convinced the apostles that the Gentiles were not obliged to follow such Jewish laws:

“And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe. ⁸And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; ⁹and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. ¹⁰Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? ¹¹But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.” (Acts 15:7-11)

The “yoke” was being under the Law.

Now consider how Paul used the same term: “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (Galatians 5:1). The Judaizers wanted to put Christians under obligation to be circumcised and Paul called this “a yoke of slavery.”

So Jesus’ yoke is in stark contrast to the “yoke” that the religious leaders put on the people. He is offering salvation to all who come to Him by faith. Craig Blomberg summarizes this section in Matthew 11:

The sequence of thought of vv. 25-30 thus progresses as follows. The increasing polarization of response to Jesus in fact reflects God’s sovereign choices (vv. 25-26). Jesus is God’s unique agent in the outworking of those choices (v. 27). This gives him God’s authority to call people to himself (vv. 28-30). The invitation to come to Christ remains for all today, but now as then it requires the recognition that persons cannot come by exalting themselves (recall v. 23) but only by completely depending on and trusting Christ.¹²

Jesus’ Yoke is to Practice Spiritual Disciplines?

Therefore our conclusion is that in Matthew 11 Jesus was offering salvation to all who come to Him. Now let us examine Willard’s claim that Jesus was telling people to try to emulate His life-style. Willard claims that we are failing to practice the disciplines that would make us able to live better lives and that most Christians are failing to live lives pleasing to God. He further states that the solution is that we practice spiritual disciplines that are based on Jesus’ lifestyle and supplemented by practices of the Medieval Catholic Church. So he sees Jesus’ “yoke” as an offer to take up a life-style that will make us better people, rather than an offer of true Sabbath rest through Christ’s finished work on the cross. This is tantamount to substituting works for grace, and making Jesus an ethical teacher whose example can be followed rather than the unique Son of God who alone always does the things that please the Father. Willard offers no exegetical analysis of the passage in Matthew to defend his interpretation. In my opinion, his position is not defensible.

Does the Bible Prescribe the Spiritual Disciplines?

The spiritual disciplines are not taught in Matthew 11:29, 30 (Willard’s primary proof test), and even Willard admits they cannot be found elsewhere in scripture (we shall show this momentarily). But he is nevertheless enthusiastic about the recent rediscovery of the disciplines.

Dallas Willard is excited to tell us that finally, through the lead of people like Richard Foster, we are having a revival of the use of spiritual disciplines. Writes Willard: “Today, for the first time in our history as a nation, we are being presented with a characteristic range of human behaviors such as fasting, meditation, simple living, and submission to a spiritual overseer, in an attractive light.”¹³ He claims that ordinary means such as Bible study, prayer, fellowship, and evangelism are inadequate and having failed, have left most Christians as failures. He writes, “All pleasing and doctrinally sound schemes of Christian education, church growth, and spiritual renewal came around at last to this disappointing result. But whose fault was this failure?”¹⁴ The “failure,” according to Willard is that, “. . . the gospel preached and the instruction and example given these faithful ones simply do not do justice to the nature of human personality, as embodied, incarnate.”¹⁵ So what does this mean? It means that we have failed because our gospel had too little to do with our bodies.

The spiritual disciplines are supposed to remedy this deficiency. Willard says, “By contrast, the secret of the standard, historically proven spiritual disciplines is precisely that they do respect and count on the bodily nature of human personality.”¹⁶ Willard claims that Paul understood the need for such practices but that they were lost: “Paul’s teaching, especially when added to his practices, strongly suggest that he understood and practiced something vital about the Christian life that we have lost—and that we must do our best to recover.”¹⁷ Of course, had Paul bothered to write about these “lost” disciplines in his epistles, they would not have been lost.

So why did Paul fail to write about these secret, lost disciplines? Willard’s answer is that Paul had in mind, “. . . a precise course of action he understood in definite terms, carefully followed himself, and called others to share . . . So obviously so, for him and the readers of his own day, that he would feel no need to write a book on the disciplines for the spiritual life that explained systematically what he had in mind.”¹⁸ Translated that means that Paul did not write about the spiritual disciplines because everyone was practicing them. Willard goes on to say, “It is almost impossible in the thought climate of today’s Western world to appreciate just how utterly unnecessary it was for Paul to say explicitly, in the world in which he lived, that Christians should fast, be alone, study, give, and so forth as regular disciplines for the spiritual life.”¹⁹ There is a serious problem here that Willard overlooks: Paul did write about approaches like these—he wrote against them!

Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, ²¹(touch not; taste not; handle not; ²²which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men? ²³which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh. (Colossians 2:20-23)

They had ascetics in Paul’s day and he rebuked them. Willard never discusses this passage which teaches explicitly that “severe treatment of the body” cannot help us find freedom from sinfulness.

Where do we find this “wisdom” that Paul failed to write about? Says Willard, “This is not something St. Paul had to prove or even explicitly state to his readers—but it also was not something he overlooked, leaving it to be thought up by crazed monks in the Dark Ages. It is, rather, a wisdom gleaned from millennia of collective human experience.”²⁰ So the disciplines we need to be more like Christ cannot be found in the Bible, but they can be gleaned from religious history. Willard tells us, “But thoughtful and religiously devout people of the classical and Hellenistic world, from the Ganges to the Tiber, knew that the mind and body of the human being had to be rigorously disciplined to achieve a decent individual and social existence.”²¹

The obvious problem with this is that if this type of logic is valid, we could claim that we need Ouija Boards as part of our spiritual practice and that Paul and other early Christians must have been using them so regularly there was no need to write about them. Ironically, Willard admits that the Bible does not command us to practice the spiritual disciplines he prescribes.

To hear evangelicals like Dallas Willard and Richard Foster tell us that we need practices that were never spelled out in the Bible to become more like Christ or to get closer to God is astonishing. What is more astonishing is that evangelical colleges and seminaries are requiring their students to study practices that are relics of Medieval Rome, not found in the Bible, and closely akin to the practices of many pagan societies.

The False Gospel of Human Ability

As with most unbiblical approaches, the spiritual disciplines are based on the idea of innate human powers that can be harnessed for good. Holding a false concept of sin as a “disruption of that higher [spiritual] life,”²² Willard looks for a solution through finding our true potential, individually and corporately, through spiritual disciplines that will enable us to reconstruct the rule of God now. Willard says, “The evil that we do in our present condition is a reflection of a weakness caused by spiritual starvation.”²³ Rather than wicked rebels abiding under God’s wrath, humans are bundles of huge potential who have lost their way through “disruption of the higher powers.” We supposedly have great potential: “It is the amazing extent of our ability to utilize power outside ourselves that we must consider when we ask what the human being is. The limits of our power to transcend ourselves utilizing powers not located in us—including of course, the spiritual—are yet to be fully known.”²⁴ Willard gives this interpretation of 1John 3:2: “Because of his personal experience with spiritual powers brought to him in Christ, John sensed unimaginable greatness in our destiny.”²⁵

So how do we tap into this great human potential? He says we must tap into the spiritual dimension using spiritual disciplines. Willard shares his definition of “spirit”: “If the missing element in the present human order is that of the spirit, what then is spirit? Very simply, spirit is unembodied personal power.”²⁶ His idea is that “spirit” is the missing nutrient that we need to realize our full potential. The ideas of total depravity, the wrath of God against sin, the blood atonement, and the cross are either absent or distorted in Willard’s theology. What replaces these truths is the hope that we will realize our potential through tapping into the spiritual kingdom of God. This is to be done by the use of spiritual disciplines to obtain the necessary power to transform the world. The terminology that Willard uses is strange and unbiblical. For example, he writes,

“When the human organism is brought into willing, personal relationship with the spiritual Kingdom of God, ‘sucking in orderliness’ from that particular part of the human environment, it becomes pervasively transformed, as a corn stalk in drought is transformed by the onset of drenching rain—the contact with the water transforms the plant inwardly and then extends it outwardly. In the same way, people are transformed by contact with God.”²⁷

These ideas are more akin to Eastern Religion than Biblical Christianity. Our problem is not the need to suck in more “unembodied personal power” by techniques to contact God. We are dead sinners facing God’s wrath unless we repent and believe the gospel. Willard’s concepts are foreign to the Bible. He says, “A ‘spiritual life’ consists in that range of activities in which people cooperatively interact with God—and with the spiritual order deriving from God’s personality and action.”²⁸ This means practicing asceticism through the spiritual disciplines. He says, “The disciplines are activities of the mind and body purposely undertaken, to bring our personality and total being into effective cooperation with the divine order.”²⁹ This depends on us: “Yet even as we reach for more grace to this end, we also learn by experience that the harmonization of our total self with God will not be done for us. We must act.”³⁰

What results are in store for the church when we take action to tap into this spiritual dimension to realize our full potential? The church will be the incarnation of Christ and the kingdom of God will come through us, now, before Christ’s bodily return. Rejecting the pre-millennial doctrine, Willard says, “Often, we are told that the rule of God upon the earth will be fulfilled in a great act of violence, in which multitudes of people are slain by God, followed by a totalitarian government of literally infinite proportions, headquartered in Jerusalem.”³¹ He fails to mention that this “totalitarian” rule is the rule of Christ Himself as promised in the Bible. What is Willard’s alternative? – “I believe, to the contrary, that the coming rule of God is to be a government by grace and truth mediated through personalities mature in Christ.”³² It is amazing that he would consider Christ Himself reigning as “totalitarian” and us reigning as “grace and truth.”

For Willard, Christ is not coming for the church but in the church: “The real presence of Christ as a world-governing force will come solely as his called out people occupy their stations in the holiness and power characteristic of him, as they demonstrate to the world the way to live that is best in every respect.”³³ We gain the ability to reign over the world for Christ through spiritual disciplines.

Since these disciplines were the order of the day for Rome at a period where her goal was to rule over the world, I wonder why the result was the Dark Ages? What kind of glib optimism would make us think that if we try them again, this time we will have a better outcome? Whenever theology turns to human potential and human ability aided by some type of spiritual infusion, the result is utopian dreaming. Supposedly we do not need to have Christ return in judgment and set up His Kingdom; we just need to tap into great human potential that has never been fully implemented. Willard says that Christ’s way has not yet been tried.³⁴

According to Willard’s theology, just like Christ coming at the fullness of time during the first advent, the church will be the answer (not Christ’s bodily return) for the coming kingdom. We, not Jesus, will be the new incarnation: “[T]here is likewise a fullness of time for his people to stand forth with the concrete style of existence for which the world has hungered in its thoughtful moments and praised through its poets and prophets. As a response to this world’s problems, the gospel of the Kingdom will never make sense except as it is incarnated—we say ‘fleshed out’—in ordinary human beings in all ordinary conditions of human life.”³⁵

By downplaying the doctrine of total depravity and the sin nature, Willard makes it seem plausible that we can be infused by divine power and establish the kingdom now. The Bible, however, predicts apostasy and the revealing of the man of lawlessness just before Christ returns in judgment (2 Thessalonians 2:3-8). Willard’s assertions lack sound exegetical work from the scriptures for their support. He needs to offer a clearer definition of the kingdom of God and provide Biblical support for the idea that we can establish it before Christ returns. Lacking Biblical support, his arguments are unconvincing.

Which Spiritual Disciplines?

The spiritual disciplines that are supposedly necessary for spiritual formation are not defined in the Bible. If they were, there would be a clear description of them and concrete list. But since spiritual disciplines vary, and have been invented by spiritual pioneers in church history, no one can be sure which ones are valid. Willard says, [W]e need not try to come up with a complete list of disciplines. Nor should we assume that our particular list will be right for others.”³⁶ The practices are gleaned from various sources and the individual has to decide which ones work the best. Willard lists the following: voluntary exile, night vigil of rejecting sleep, journaling, OT Sabbath keeping, physical labor, solitude, fasting, study, and prayer.³⁷ Willard then lists “disciplines of abstinence” (solitude, silence, fasting, frugality, chastity, secrecy, sacrifice) and “disciplines of engagement” (study, worship, celebration, service, prayer, fellowship, confession, submission).³⁸

Willard offers a discussion of each of these, citing people like Thomas Merton, Thomas a Kempis, Henri Nouwen, and other mystics. We are told that practices like solitude and silence are going to change us, even though the Bible does not prescribe them. Willard writes, “This factual priority of solitude is, I believe, a sound element in monastic asceticism. Locked into interaction with the human beings that make up our fallen world, it is all but impossible to grow in grace as one should.”³⁹ So if we cannot grow in grace without solitude, how come the Bible never commands us to practice solitude? The same goes for many other items on Willard’s list.

Willard tells us that the list of disciplines he provides is not exhaustive. Others can be pragmatically determined. He says, “As we have indicated, there are many other activities that could, for the right person and upon the right occasion, be counted as spiritual disciplines in the strict sense stated of our previous chapter. The walk with Christ certainly is one that leaves room for and even calls for individual creativity and an experimental attitude in such matters.”⁴⁰ However, there is a serious problem with Willard’s logic here. Earlier he rejected such practices as self-flagellation, exposing the body to severities including being eaten by beetles, being suspended by iron shackles, and other means of severely treating the body in order to become more holy.⁴¹ Willard rejects these on the following grounds: “Here it is matter of taking pains about taking pains. It is in fact a variety of self-obsession—narcissism—a thing farthest removed from the worship and service of God.”⁴²

Willard had admitted that there is no clear list of the disciplines and that each person might choose different practices through pragmatic means. This does not give sufficient ground for rejecting such practices as self-flagellation. So Willard resorts to arguing that those who do such things have bad motives. But he cannot really know their motives, perhaps they determined that these practices “worked” using the same means Willard offered. If pragmatic tests are the means of determining which practices are valid, and if these people feel closer to God and more like Christ through their practices, then Willard has no valid way of rejecting their practices. Having no valid argument, he resorts to an invalid ad hominem argument.

He cannot have it both ways. Either God’s Word determines both how we come to God and how we grow in grace, or humans determine these things by pragmatic means. Willard has chosen the latter. But then he steps in and tells us that some practices are wrong, even though they fit his own criteria for validity. If a person feels that sleeping in a tiny stone crevice with all the heat being sucked out of his body makes him more spiritually disciplined, then who is to say that is wrong? Had he been willing to submit to the authority of Scripture, Willard could have refuted these practices based on Colossians 2:21-23.

Even though decrying some of the excesses of monasticism, Willard is fond of the monastics and thinks that the Reformation left us with no practical means of spiritual growth. He says, “It [Protestantism] precluded ‘works’ and Catholicism’s ecclesiastical sacraments as essential for salvation, but it continued to lack any adequate account for what human beings do to become, by the grace of God, the kind of people Jesus obviously calls them to be.”⁴³ This is simply false. Luther believed in means of grace that God has provided all true believers that they might grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord.⁴⁴ The difference is that means of grace are what God has provided for all Christians for all ages and they are determined by God, not man. These are revealed in the Bible. Spiritual disciplines are man-made, amorphous, and not revealed in the Bible; they assume that one is saved by grace and perfected by works.

Paul wrote, “Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? (Galatians 3:3). Paul rejected the idea that we are saved by grace and perfected by works. We are saved by grace and we grow by grace. Willard seems to miss this point. Here is how he views it: “The activities mentioned—when we engage in them conscientiously and creatively and adapt them to our individual needs, time and place—will be more than adequate to help us receive the full Christ-life and become the kind of person that should emerge in the following of him.”⁴⁵ Elsewhere he suggests that growth comes through human will power: “The entire question of discipline, therefore, is how to apply acts of the will at our disposal in such a way that the proper course of action, which cannot always be realized by direct and untrained effort, will nevertheless be carried out when needed.”⁴⁶ It is hard to see how this is anything other than [being] “made perfect by the flesh” which Paul said was impossible.

The Reformation understanding of means of grace was that they were God’s gracious means of working in a person of faith’s life. What ever is not of faith is sin. Even the Word and sacraments as Luther understood them were of no avail unless they were received in faith. No works righteousness could be tolerated. Willard’s approach is works oriented and man-centered; it was created by spiritual innovators who mostly did not find their practices in the Bible.

The Spiritual Disciplines as Presumption

The spiritual disciplines, as we have seen, are bodily activities that we engage in hoping to become more Christ-like. So we decide what discipline we need, perhaps with the help of a “spiritual director.” Since we have established (and Willard admits) that most of these disciplines are not prescribed in the Bible, we have to decide which ones will work for us. The problem is that this is the very opposite of what the Bible says about discipline: “And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: ⁶for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth” (Hebrews 12:5, 6). God, not man, determines what each of us needs because only God knows exactly what each of us needs.

For example, consider Paul’s thorn in the flesh described in 2 Corinthians 12: “And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure” (2Corinthians 12:7). Paul did not determine he needed this, God did. When Paul asked for it to be removed, this was the result: “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Corinthians 12:9). God allowed the thorn in the flesh for Paul’s spiritual good. God’s discipline is what He does sovereignly and providentially to bring each of us ultimately into the image of Christ. Willard is right that every person is different and has different needs. He is wrong that therefore we must experiment with spiritual disciplines to see what works for us. We don’t even know our own needs fully, only God does. If we need poverty to help us learn to trust God, He can arrange that. There is no need to take an oath of poverty and join a monastery.

God disciplines us in ways we could never imagine or never arrange. The Bible tells us, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). Obviously everything in the universe is at His disposal. Do we think He is unable to discipline us according to His infinite wisdom? Do we suppose that we know better what we need than God does? For one person God’s discipline could be the sorrow of loosing a job and the need to trust Him to find a different one. For another it may be that God thrusts him into a situation of great responsibility that stretches him to the utmost. If we need solitude, God can grant that. He might make it so the only job we can find is being a midnight shift watchman.

What is presumptuous about the spiritual disciplines approach is that the practitioner presumes to know what he or she needs when only God knows such things. The monk who takes a vow of chastity presumes to know that he is going to be more Christ like single than married. The person who leaves civilization on a voluntary exile into solitude presumes to know that he will be more Christ like exiled than interacting with others. This is the case no matter what activity we presume will make us more spiritual. The only exceptions are those things God has ordained for ALL Christians. We are never presumptuous to, in faith, avail ourselves of those practices that God has ordained. But this brings us back to means of grace, not spiritual disciplines.⁴⁷

Therefore, those things that are unique to the individual in regard to discipline God is in charge of. He disciplines every Christian for his or her own good according to His own infinite wisdom. Those matters that are necessary and common to all Christians are clearly described in the Bible; they are means of grace.

Conclusion

We began this discussion with a description of strange teachings and practices entering evangelical Bible Colleges and seminaries. They have been borrowed from Medieval Rome and dressed up for evangelical consumption. We have examined the teachings of one of the visible leaders of this movement. Starting with a serious misinterpretation of Matthew 11:29, 30, Dallas Willard built his entire system on the idea that Jesus’ “yoke” consists of various spiritual disciplines. The issue in Matthew 11 was Messianic salvation—finding true Sabbath rest in Christ rather than following meticulous religious rules decreed by the Scribes and Pharisees. The idea of practicing spiritual disciplines was imported to the text, not found there.

We live in an age of mysticism. People lust for spiritual reality and spiritual experiences. The danger is that unbiblical practices will give people a real spiritual experience, but not from God. Deception is the likely outcome. God puts a boundary around the means by which we come to Him and grow in Him for our own protection. If we ignore the boundary set by Biblical guidelines, there is no telling were we will end up. If however, we come to God on His terms, knowing that we have a High Priest who is at the right hand of God, and that we have access through His blood into the holiest place, we can be assured we cannot be any closer to God this side of heaven.

“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16)

End Notes

This happened during the summer of 2005 at Bethel Theological Seminary in Arden Hills, MN.
Michael Ford, Wounded Prophet (Image: New York, 1999); for a review: http://www.spiritualityhealth.com/newsh/items/bookreview/item_1589.html
Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines, Understanding How God Changes Lives, (HarperCollins: New York, 1991)
Ibid. 1.
Ibid. 5.
Ibid. 9.
Ibid. 10.
Ibid. 11-18.
Ibid. 40.
Ibid. 33.
Ibid. 40.
Craig L. Blomberg, “Matthew” in The New American Commentary (Broadman: Nashville, 1992) 195.
Willard, 17.
Ibid. 18.
Ibid. emphasis his.
Ibid. 19.
Ibid.
Ibid. 95.
Ibid. 99.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid. 63.
Ibid.
Ibid. 62.
Ibid. Willard errors in failing to tell us that this “destiny” is not one that is actualized now, but is linked to Christ’s return: 1John 3:2b –“but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”
Ibid. 64.
Ibid. 65.
Ibid. 67.
Ibid. 68.
Ibid. emphasis his.
Ibid. 238.
Ibid.
Ibid. 239.
Ibid. 243.
Ibid.
Ibid. 157.
Ibid.
Ibid. 158.
Ibid. 161, 162.
Ibid. 190.
Ibid. 142-144.
Ibid. 144.
Ibid. 145.
See Bob DeWaay, “Means of Grace” in Critical Issues Commentary, Issue 84, Sept./Oct. 2004. HTTP://CICMINISTRY.ORG/COMMENTARY/ISSUE84.HTM
Willard, 191.
Ibid. 151, 152 emphasis his.
The Bible does tell us to “discipline ourselves”; but in this context: “But refuse profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. ⁸For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come” (1Timothy 4:7, 8). Notice however that Paul is teaching the practice of godliness not “bodily discipline” to create godliness. Willard’s promotion of bodily activities as “discipline” is not supported by this text.

Spiritual Formation and Contemplative Prayer Exposed

Jesus Calling Devotional Exposed: 10 Things You Might Not Know

BEWARE of the Jesus Calling devotional book which is written by a full blown heretic, Sarah Young. This book continually assures things to lost souls (catholics, etc.) reserved only for the true Christian. It promises salvation, assurance, grace, mercy, the glory of God, etc to lost hell bound idolatrous sinners. Like antichrist Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Life book, Jesus Calling never calls sinners to repent which is a Gospel essential and without which God will never save any soul from sin and hell (Luke 13:3, 5). You will never hear Jesus’ born again commanded or command to repent in this heretical devotional book […]

SHOCKING List of Spiritual Formation Ministries

More Catholic Witchcraft Infiltrating the Apostate Seminaries, Ministries, and Churches “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; 2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron.” 1 Timothy 4:1-2 WHAT is spiritual formation / contemplative prayer or centering prayer? Spiritual formation/contemplative prayer/spirituality is just another self-centered, Christ-denying, self-righteous, works-based, occultic, pagan lie from hell! Seminaries teach it and now many churches today are practicing new age witchcraft called contemplative prayer, or centering Prayer which is part of spiritual formation. […]

The Book of Romans Narrated [podcast]

“And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:” Romans 1:4 Chapter 1-16 Chapter 1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, 2 (which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,) 3 concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; 4 and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead: 5 by whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience […]

Abiding

“Cursed be the Man that Trusteth in Man” [podcast]

A Nuclear Revelation

“Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.” Jeremiah 17:5

“Cursed be the man that trusteth in man” is a powerful verse from the Bible, commonly associated with a specific warning against relying on human strength rather than God.”

So many act like Spurgeon or some other mere man’s writings are on the same level as Holy Scripture. NOT! They prove their idolatry. They are in sin. They glory in mere men and not the LORD! Hell awaits. Jeremiah 17:5; Isaiah 2:22; 1 Corinthians 1:29-31, etc.

God calls us to worship, love, seek, trust, and obey Him as the ultimate authority of our lives in this world.

Another example of this is the idolatry of the demonic fraud CS Lewis!

CS LEWIS EXPOSED

THIS JUST IN:

“Amen! Amen for Prov 10:22. All glory be to Him!

By the grace of God I discovered last night your website, praise Him, in search for exposure on CS Lewis.

By the grace of God I learnt as a baby believer, 20 years ago, that his teachings are dangerous including that witchcraft book and movie, Narnia. Sadly, so called mature Christians in the UK are considering him a saint, a born again believer.

I sent prayerfully ( as I expected backlashes) to my friend last night, a few links exposing CS Lewis including the photo from your website which is brilliant exposure, praise Him but she is still claiming that he ” was truly a born again” ….. sending me his videos! It’s a principle: I don’t watch, read listen to CS Lewis and many others! The Bible is so rich in teachings, why do I need CS Lewis!? !?

My friend is a mature believer, born again believer for over 60-70 years and she cannot see it!

I had to use the VPN and duckduck search engine to get the website exposing CS Lewis, as in the UK, nothing will come up! Mostly of the Christians are bewitched by Narnia and Lord of the Rings! No wonder the country is in such a state of delusion! May the Lord have mercy!

Many blessings in His Name, V.”

CS LEWIS WAS A FRAUD – READ GOD’S WORD! REPENT AND GET IMPRESSED WITH THE LORD, BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE. IDOLATRY DAMNS!

“Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?” Isaiah 2:22

Those who look to men, who receive un-biblical counsel instead of testing it against the Word of God, are trusting in mere man and have brought a curse upon themselves (Jeremiah 17:5-6; Acts 17:10-11; 2 Timothy 3:16-17, etc.). Those who look anywhere except to the LORD Himself are idolaters, are committing spiritual adultery, and will without exception depart from Him and be lost (v. 5). Their names “shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters” (v. 13). The phrase “written in the earth” is in contrast to their names being “written in heaven” (Luke 10:20; Hebrews 12:23). Hell is in the bowels of the earth and that’s where every single person who is not looking wholly to the LORD will spend eternity (Revelation 20:11-15).

“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. 7 Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.” Proverbs 3:5-7

Trusting Man is seen in the lives of many who claim to be saved and yet trust man’s medicine and counsel wholesale.

Let me get this straight, you pretend to be saved and yet run to some foolish sinner to get drugged for lack of peace or ability to sleep or depression. You are completely deceived and God is calling you to repent now. If you knew Him, would you not be trusting Him and not sinful mere men? “Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD (Jeremiah 17:5).

Modern Sorcery Exposed

You’ve tried the CURSE and it never worked…. Are you ready to let CHRIST make you whole?

Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD. 6 For he shall be like the heath in the desert (spiritually dry, desolate), and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. 7 Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is. 8 For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. 9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? 10 I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. 11 As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not; so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool. 12 A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. 13 O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters. 14 Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.” Jeremiah 17:5-14

Psychology/psychobabble, therapy from mere men, sinners…. is a scam, and leaves the victim without hope. Jesus Christ is the only hope for man’s core dilemma—which is sin! ANY person pointing you to a “THE-RAPIST” is demon inspired. They speak against the Word of God and are the child of the devil! See Colossians 2:6-10. SINNERS need the Savior—not some sinner with an indoctrination in the fine of art of applying bandages, never getting to the root. Repent now (Jeremiah 17:9). Jesus alone can make a man whole! (Luke 4:18)

Man’s therapy and psychobabble are laughably insufficient and have never once gotten to the root issue of man’s dilemma which is sin. Jesus says that He “came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15).

Drugs and psychobabble are laughable mere band aids to rob unbelievers, gullible dupes of their money.

“Jesus Christ maketh thee whole”

Only One can make you whole—the One who made you and died and rose again for you.

“And Peter said unto him, Aeneas, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole: arise, and make thy bed. And he arose immediately.” Acts 9:34

“Yep that’s me, the woman with the Alabaster box. And that is all I need—my alabaster box and Jesus! No need for meds or to be psycho-analyzed by some quack. One touch from Jesus is all I need! Just as the woman who touched the hem of His garment and was immediately healed! Luke 8: 43-48. One touch is all she needed.” Karen Cochran

Upholding Jesus, the Only Head of His Body [podcast]

YOUR first thought when you hear “God” or “Christianity” should be JESUS! Not some church, pastor, or church program! The ministry continually receives emails from people who have latched on to some mere man, his personality – instead of worshipping Christ supremely (Colossians 2:18-19). And in doing so, they defend those mere men angrily, doggedly, having never stopped to put them to the biblical test. “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try (test) the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” 1 John 4:1 “Not everything is at it seems. Their […]

Is Your Church Your Idol? [podcast]

Is Your Church Your Idol? (below) Is Church Membership Biblical? (below) SO, YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR CHURCH, THE PASTOR, THE PROGRAM, AND HOW YOU LOVE IT AND THE MUSIC AND EVENTS…YET THE NAME OF JESUS NEVER FLOWS FROM YOUR LIPS IN PRAISE? WOW! IT’S TIME FOR YOU TO REPENT, RETURN TO CHRIST, AND COME OUT FROM AMONG THE WICKED BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE! (2 CORINTHIANS 6:14) EVER stop to ponder how we’ve commercialized, monetized, and grossly complicated what God ordained to be a time of rejoicing and blessing? Fellowship! Read Acts 2:42 and Colossians 3:16. Study the biblical model. Real […]

THE SIN, THE CURSE, AND THE FRUIT OF IDOLATRY [podcast]

“Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am the LORD your God.” Leviticus 26:1 Idolatry will damn the eternal soul to hell (Exodus 20:3-7; Galatians 5:19-21, etc.). Just one idol. ANYthing that is more important to you than Jesus Christ is an idol. You must repent and receive Christ or you will perish in the flames of eternal damnation (Luke 13:3; John 1:12). If you aren’t willing to give up your religion […]

Abiding

Modern Day Cult of Personality Exposed [podcast]

What is the Cult of Personality?

“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” 1 John 4:1

Beware when you see any mere man enshrined, basically worshipped by his followers. This is all too common in today’s church world and sometimes it’s very subtle. When people begin putting what a mere man says above what God says in His Word, when they quote him instead of the Bible, you know you have a cult.

One source notes:

“A cult of personality, or a cult of the leader, is the result of an effort to create an idealized and heroic image of an admirable leader, often through unquestioning flattery and praise.”‘

CS Lewis has a cult following today, 100%. I’ve encountered it first hand. These people don’t care what you show them as far as the blatant falsehoods he spoke, and have soul tied their affections to him and will defend him no matter what.

A quick search on “what CS Lewis said about the Catholic church”…

“As an Anglican, C.S. Lewis shared many beliefs with the Catholic Church, including the Real Presence in the Eucharist, the necessity of confession, and a belief in Purgatory. However, he explicitly rejected papal authority, the concept of papal infallibility, and certain Marian doctrines.

Shared Beliefs

Lewis held a deeply sacramental and traditional view of Christianity, which aligned closely with Catholic theology:

The Sacraments: He regularly went to confession to a priest and viewed the Eucharist as central to the faith.

The Afterlife: He famously argued that “our souls demand Purgatory”, writing that we would naturally want to be cleansed of our sins before standing in God’s presence.

Devotion: He had a high view of saints and appreciated traditional liturgical practices.”

The same is true for modern day celebrities such as Candace Owens. On a recent live broadcast where she interviewed a man, he showed her live on air, that she was wrong about several things and kindly asked her to apologize several times. Regrettably, Candace was unwilling to apologize, and most of her cult followers backed her up, cheered her on.

She was called to account for false info and didn’t apologize when asked to.

Her followers cheered her on, never stopping to question things.

Their hearts are set on her not Christ (Colossians 3:1-4).

No matter WHAT she says, they believe it.

Wow.

Jesus says:

“I receive not honour from men. … 44 How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?” John 5:41, 44

By saying this, Jesus condemns putting trust in any mere man.

Jesus makes it clear here that anyone who puts their heart affections in a mere man or woman, is unable to believe on the LORD Jesus Christ for eternal life.

“And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another. 7 For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?” 1 Corinthians 4:6-7

“4:6 He first explains that in speaking about the Christian ministry and the tendency to follow human leaders (3:5-4:5), he used himself and Apollos as the examples. The Corinthians were not forming parties around Paul and Apollos alone, but also around other men who were then in their church. However, out of a sense of Christian courtesy and delicacy, Paul transferred the entire matter to himself and Apollos so that by their example the saints would learn not to have exaggerated opinions of their leaders or to gratify their pride by the formation of parties. He wanted the saints to evaluate everything and everyone by the Scriptures.
4:7 If one Christian teacher is more gifted than another, it is because God made him so. Everything he has, he received from the Lord. In fact it is true of all of us that everything we have has been given to us by God. That being the case, why should we be proud or puffed up? Our talents and gifts are not the result of our own cleverness.” Believer’s Bible Commentary

“I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you.” John 8:37

“The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the LORD shall be safe.” Proverbs 29:25

“Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.” Jeremiah 17:5

“Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?” Isaiah 2:22

“LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am. 5 Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.” Psalms 139:4-5

“A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.” Jeremiah 17:12

“Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. 15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:14-16

1 Corinthians 1:29-2:5

“that no flesh should glory in his presence. 30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: 31 that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

2:1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. 4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: 5 that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

“2:5 Paul knew that there was the utmost danger that his hearers might be interested in himself or in his own personality rather than in the living Lord. Conscious of his own inability to bless or to save, he determined that he would lead men to trust in God alone rather than in the wisdom of men. All who proclaim the gospel message or teach the word of God should make this their constant aim.” Believer’s Bible Commentary

“Let my sentence come forth from thy presence; let thine eyes behold the things that are equal.” Psalms 17:2

“Sentence” here means verdict.

Prayer of Repentance to be Restored to the LORD: Holy Father, in the name of Jesus Christ and by His precious blood He shed to make me one with You, I come to you—in my sinful state. LORD, I openly acknowledge that I have departed from You and sinfully rebelled against You in the sin of idolatry. Right this moment, if never before, I call upon You, Holy Father, asking You to forgive my sins, to change my life, to break me to the core of my being. I fully believe that Jesus Christ is God Almighty, that He came in the flesh, lived a sinless life as the very only begotten Son of God, died on the cross for the sins of mankind, was buried, rose again from the dead, and is soon going to return! I love You my LORD Jesus and from this moment forward, I am all Yours! I will follow You according to Your Word and Holy Spirit. Please fill me with Your Holy Ghost and use me every day of my life that You grant! In Jesus’ name, amen!

CS Lewis Category

“Give Us a King!” [podcast]

“Give us a King.” 1 Samuel 8:6 As it was at the tower of Babel where fallen mankind sought to have their own way, do their own thing without God, independent of their Maker, so it is today (Genesis 11). Nimrod, an antichrist, ruled over them. Then when there was no king, anarchy reigned. “In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” Judges 17:6 Yet when the people wanted anarchy gone, instead of seeking the LORD, they raised up mere sinful men and yet, mankind is fallen. The final example […]

C.S. Lewis Exposed [podcast]

“I have the deepest respect for Pagan myths, still more for myths in the Holy Scriptures” (PP, p.71). CS Lewis In the above quote from C.S. Lewis, not only did he announce his “respect for Pagan myths” but also called the contents of the Bible “myths.” But Jesus called God’s Word “truth” when He prayed to the Father, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” (John 17:17) Any man who can read these quotes from this devil in the flesh, CS Lewis, and not wholesale reject him and his heresies, is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. “Tell most ‘Christians’ anything negative […]

Apostasy

Calvinism’s Origins and Historical Roots [podcast]

Calvinism’s Origins and Historical Roots

How did Calvinism Come about? Where did John Calvin derive his teachings, doctrines which many hold to today?

False Doctrines of the “Pope” of Geneva

Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, and Perseverance of the Saints.

HERE’S WHERE THE TULIP, THE 5 SOLAS, THE 5 POINTS OF CALVINISM CAME FROM. IT’S A CURSED ROOT AND THAT’S WHY CALVINISM CAN BRING FORTH NOTHING EXCEPT CURSED FRUIT (Matthew 12:33).

Calvinism was cursed from the beginning, at the root. Calvinism is “another gospel,” a false gospel, and a totally heretical system of theology spawned from an “accursed” demon-possessed wolf who murdered over 60 men and women for disagreeing with his lies (Galatians 1:6-9).

Was John Calvin the worst wolf in church history?

Demon possessed maniac John Calvin wrote the following:

“Chapter Four – Unbiblical Beliefs and Failures of John Calvin
Calvin on the Bible: In 1536 Calvin wrote: “The Bible is a knotty, difficult text, whose interpretation demands extensive knowledge. If brought into contact with it unceremoniously, many minds are upset and seized with confusion. The Bible is too old a text in too new a world.”23

God willed that man sin. Calvin wrote “God, in a secret and marvellous way, justly wills, the things which men unjustly do.” . . . “Although God and the devil will the same thing: they do so in an utterly different manner.”24 He said that God did not will that all men be saved saying, “. . .that few receive the Gospel; we must fully conclude, that the cause is the will of God; and that the outward sound of that Gospel strikes the ear in vain, until God is pleased to touch, by it, the heart within.”24

Calvinism is not only not “biblical Christianity”, it is a gross attack on the original Gospel of Jesus Christ and the character of a loving and just God. The origins of the cult of calvinism are disturbing to put it lightly. Its roots are cursed. It is “another gospel” and so all who espouse and promulgate it are “accursed.” (Galatians 1:6-9).

The following is from Kent Rieske

Everything One must first study the man, John Calvin, in order to understand the theology that has come to be called Calvinism. Here’s some facts you should know about this demonic fraud: Calvin was born July 10, 1509, in Picardy at Noyon, France, to devout Roman Catholic parents as Jean Chauvin and died at Geneva, May 27, 1564, at age 54. The family name, spelled in many ways, was Cauvin, latinized according to the custom of the age as Calvinus. John is commonly called Maître Jean C. Maître Jean C. is French for Master John C. His mother, Jeanne Le Franc, born in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cambrai, is mentioned as “beautiful and devout.” She took her little son to various shrines and brought him up a good Catholic. John was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church as an infant. On the father’s side, his ancestors were seafaring men. His grandfather settled at Pont l’Evêque near Paris and had two sons who became locksmiths. The third, Gerard, became procurator at Noyon and had four sons and two daughters. John Calvin’s father, Gerard, an attorney, had purchased the freedom of the City of Noyon where he practiced civil and canon law. Gerard’s four sons were made clerics and held benefices at a tender age. John was given one when a boy of twelve. He became Curé of Saint-Martin de Marteville in the Vermandois in 1527 and of Pont l’Eveque in 1529. Three of the boys attended the local Collège des Capettes, and there John proved himself an apt scholar.

Calvin’s formal education was complete in 1527 when he was eighteen. According to the Catholics, he drifted from his Roman Catholic faith to become a humanist and a reformer. The “sudden conversion” to a spiritual life in 1529 could possibly be interpreted as his becoming saved, but throughout his life he counted on his Roman Catholic infant baptism as the basis of his regeneration.

Theological Seminaries Are Centers for Higher Brainwashing.

John Calvin studied the voluminous writings of Saint Augustine, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Hippo (354-430 AD), much more so than those of Martin Luther, his contemporary. Calvin is continually praising Augustine’s work with numerous references and quotations. Augustine was greatly influenced by the Gnostics, an early Christian sect, whose doctrine was heretical. Gnostics believed that mankind was wholly evil, and some sects even renounced marriage and procreation. They also believed in two gods, one evil and one good. Their teachings are believed to have influenced Saint Augustine in the development of his theology of the “total depravity” of mankind and his concept of God. For nine years Saint Augustine adhered to Manichaeism, a Persian dualistic philosophy proclaimed by Mani (216-276? AD) in southern Babylonia (Iraq) that taught a doctrine of “total depravity” and the claim that they were the “elect.” Augustine could not advance in his Manichaeism religion because of his sinful lifestyle. He had a reputation as a “womanizer” and a fornicator.

Manichaeism – Wikipedia Encyclopedia

Manichaeism – Catholic Encyclopedia

Manichaeism – MSN Encarta Encyclopedia

Augustine then turned to skepticism and was attracted to the philosophy of Neoplatonism. He blended these beliefs with his later Gnostic and Christian teachings. Augustine’s prolific writings were more strongly biased by his previously-obtained theology than on his detailed study of the Christian Scriptures. He used Christian Scripture out of context when words or phrases could be adapted to match his theology. Augustine’s teachings were in turn passed on to John Calvin through his extensive study of Augustine’s writings, the most popular being his book, Confessions. It is very easy to follow the trail of John Calvin’s theology from the pagan religion of Mani in Babylonia to Saint Augustine and into his own writings in France and Geneva that distort the Word of God. Calvin’s false doctrine came directly from Augustine.

Calvin’s Book Supersedes the Bible

Calvin’s famous letter to King Francis I was dated August 23, 1535. It served as a prologue to his book, Institutes of the Christian Religion, the first edition of which was written in March 1536, not in French but in Latin. Calvin’s apology for lecturing the king was displayed as placards posted all over the realm denouncing the Protestants as rebels. King Francis I did not read these pages, but if he had done so he would have discovered in them a plea not for toleration, which Calvin utterly scorned, but for doing away with Catholicism in favor of the new gospel. “There could be only one true Church; therefore, kings ought to make an utter end of popery,” said the young theologian. The second edition of Calvin’s Institutes was written in 1539; the first French translation in 1541; the final in Latin, as revised by its author, in 1559; but that in common use, dated 1560, has additions by his disciples.

We know little of Calvin’s previous activities, but because of a war between King Charles V and King Francis I, he settled his family affairs and reached Bale by way of Geneva in July, 1536. He persuaded two of his brothers and two sisters to accept the Reformed views he had adopted and took them with him. At Geneva the Swiss preacher, Fare, then looking for help with his propaganda, besought Calvin with such vehemence to stay and teach his theologies that, as Calvin himself relates, he was terrified into submission. As a student, reclusive and new to public responsibilities, he may well have hesitated before plunging into the troubled waters of Geneva, then at their stormiest period.

Calvin had not introduced the legislative articles of Geneva; however, it was mainly by his influence that in January, 1537, the articles were approved which insisted on communion four times a year, set spies on delinquents, established a moral censorship, and punished the unruly with excommunication. There was to be a children’s catechism, which he drew up. The articles caused a dispute, and the city became divided into “jurants” who swore an oath to the articles and “nonjurors” who would not accept them. Questions had arisen with Berne concerning the points of major dispute, but Calvin made the claim in Lausanne for the freedom of Geneva. Discourse ensued in Geneva, where the opposition became more obstinate. In 1538 the council exiled Farel, Calvin, and the blind evangelist, Couraud from Geneva.

Calvin complained of his poverty and ill health, but these did not prevent him from marrying Idelette de Bure, the widow of an Anabaptist whom he had converted. Nothing more is known of this lady except that she bore him a son who died almost at birth in 1542, and that her own death took place in 1549.

Calvin’s Reign of Terror

After some negotiation, Ami Perrin, commissioner for Geneva, persuaded Calvin to return. He did so, though unwillingly, on September 13, 1541. His entry was modest. Geneva was a church-city-state of 15,000 people, and the church constitution now recognized “pastors, doctors, elders and deacons,” but the supreme power was given to the magistrate, John Calvin. In November 1552, the Council declared Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion to be a “holy doctrine which no man might speak against.” Thus the State issued dogmatic decrees, the force of which had been anticipated earlier, as when Jacques Gruet, a known opponent of Calvin, was arrested, tortured for a month and beheaded on July 26, 1547, for placing a letter in Calvin’s pulpit calling him a hypocrite. Gruet’s book was later found and burned along with his house while his wife was thrown out into the street to watch. Gruet’s death was more highly criticized by far than the banishment of Castellio or the penalties inflicted on Bolsec — moderate men opposed to extreme views in discipline and doctrine, who fell under suspicion as reactionary. Calvin did not shrink from his self-appointed task. Within five years fifty-eight sentences of death and seventy-six of exile, besides numerous committals of the most eminent citizens to prison, took place in Geneva. The iron yoke could not be shaken off. In 1555, under Ami Perrin, a revolt was attempted. No blood was shed, but Perrin lost the day, and Calvin’s theocracy triumphed. John Calvin had secured his grip on Geneva by defeating the very man who had invited him there, Ami Perrin, commissioner of Geneva.

John Calvin – Wikipedia Encyclopedia

John Calvin – Catholic Encyclopedia

John Calvin – MSN Encarta Encyclopedia

Calvin forced the citizens of Geneva to attend church services under a heavy threat of punishment. Since Calvinism falsely teaches that God forces the elect to believe, it is no wonder that Calvin thought he could also force the citizens of Geneva to all become the elect. Not becoming one of the elect was punishable by death or expulsion from Geneva. Calvin exercised forced regeneration on the citizens of Geneva, because that is what his theology teaches.

Michael Servetus, a Spaniard, physician, scientist and Bible scholar, was born in Villanova in 1511. He was credited with the discovery of the pulmonary circulation of the blood from the right chamber of the heart through the lungs and back to the left chamber of the heart. He was Calvin’s longtime friend in their earlier resistance against the Roman Catholic Church. Servetus, while living in Vienne (historic city in southeastern France), angered Calvin by returning a copy of Calvin’s writings, Institutes, with critical comments in the margins. Servetus was arrested by the Roman Catholic Authorities on April 4 but escaped on April 7, 1553. He traveled to Geneva where he attended Calvin’s Sunday preaching service on August 13. Calvin promptly had Servetus arrested and charged with heresy for his disagreement with Calvin’s theology. The thirty-eight official charges included rejection of the Trinity and infant baptism. Servetus was correct in challenging Calvin’s false teaching about infant baptism for salvation, but he was heretical in his rejection of the doctrine of the Trinity. Servetus pleaded to be beheaded instead of the more brutal method of burning at the stake, but Calvin and the city council refused the quicker death method. Other Protestant churches throughout Switzerland advised Calvin that Servetus be condemned but not executed. Calvin ignored their pleas and Servetus was burned at the stake on October 27, 1553. John Calvin insisted that his men use green wood for the fire because it burned slower. Servetus was screaming as he was literally baked alive from the feet upward and suffered the heat of the flames for 30 minutes before finally succumbing to one of the most painful and brutal death methods possible. Servetus had written a theology book, a copy of which Calvin had strapped to the chest of Servetus. The flames from the burning book rose against Servetus’ face as he screamed in agony.

John Calvin celebrated and bragged of his killing of Servetus. Many theological and state leaders criticized Calvin for the unwarranted killing of Servetus, but it fell on deaf ears as Calvin advised others to do the same. Calvin wrote much in following years in a continual attempt to justify his burning of Servetus. Some people claim Calvin favored beheading, but this does not fit charges of heresy for which the punishment, as written by Calvin earlier, was to be burning at the stake. Calvin had made a vow years earlier that Servetus would never leave Geneva alive if he were ever captured, and Calvin held true to his pledge. Truly John Calvin is burning in Hell for his heresy, blasphemy of God and murder of many.

Another victim of Calvin’s fiery zeal was Gentile of an Italian sect in Geneva, which also numbered among its adherents Alciati and Gribaldo. More or less Unitarian in their views, they were required to sign a confession drawn up by Calvin in 1558. Gentile signed it reluctantly, but in the upshot he was condemned and imprisoned as a perjurer. He escaped only to be incarcerated twice at Berne where, in 1566, he was beheaded. Calvin also had thirty-four (34) women burned at the stake after accusing them of being witches who caused a plague that had swept through Geneva in 1545. The number of people murdered by John Calvin has been a dispute — not the fact that he murdered them. Calvinists reject the references describing John Calvin’s reign of terror because they worship him. John Calvin’s actions were very paganistic like his mentor, Saint Augustine. Jesus and all of the Apostles would have abhorred and condemned these blatant mass murders.

Puritanism – Written and researched by Margaret Odrowaz-Sypniewska, B.F.A.

“Calvin and Farel returned on September 13, 1541 and re-established their theocracy. Between 1542-1546, they banished seventy-six (76) and fifty-eight (58) executions took place, including thirty-four (34) women, who were burned at the stake for spreading the plague by magical means.”

John Calvin: His Life in Geneva – A Bible Study Resource.

Calvin: A Biography by Bernard Cottret.

“9. (page 180) February 1545 – “Freckles” Dunant dies under torture without admitting to the crime of spreading the plague. His body was then dragged to the middle of town and burned.

10. (page 180) 1545 – Following the incident with Dunant, several more men and women were apprehended including a barber and a hospital supervisor who had “made a pact with the devil.”

11. (page 180) March 7, 1545 – Two women executed by burning at the stake (presumably for the crime of sorcery, i.e. spreading the plague). CALVIN INTERCEDED apparently to have them executed sooner rather than later after additional time in prison. The Council followed his directive happily and urged the executioner to “be more diligent in cutting off the hands of malefactors.”

12. (page 180) 1545 – more executions, tortures carefully watched to prevent death. Most of the tortured refused to confess. Means of death varied a little to include decapitation. All under the crime of spreading the plague. Some committed suicide in their cells to avoid torture, afterward the rest were handcuffed. One woman then through [sic] herself through a window.

13. (page 208) 1545 – CALVIN HAD the magistrates seize Belot, an Anabaptist (against infant baptism) for stating that the Old Testament was abolished by the New. Belot was chained and tortured.

14. (page 180) May 16, 1545 – The last execution concerning the plague outbreak, bringing the total dead to 7 men and 24 women. A letter from CALVIN attests to 15 of these women being burned at the stake. CALVIN’S only concern was that the plague had not come to his house.

15. (page 189) April 1546 – Ami Perrin put on trial for refusing to testify against several friends who were guilty of having danced. She was incarcerated for refusal to testify.

16. (page 190) July 1546 – Jacques Gruet was accused of writing a poster against Calvin. He was arrested and tortured until he admitted to the crime. He was then executed.”

The citizens of Geneva hated John Calvin as he clearly stated. In 1554 Calvin wrote “Dogs bark at me on all sides. Everywhere I am saluted with the name of ‘heretic,’ and all the calumnies that can possibly be invented are heaped upon me; in a word, the enemies among my own flock attack me with greater bitterness than my declared enemies among the papists.” Calvin, quoted in Schaff, History, volume 8, page 496. The history of John Calvin’s reign of terror in Geneva is undisputed. Calvin himself kept historical records that have survived to this day.

John Calvin had no love, compassion, patience or tolerance for those who did not believe his Institutes. Criticism of Calvin’s Institutes was considered heresy for which the sentence was death by burning at the stake. To his dying day Calvin preached and taught from his works. By no means an aged man, he was worn out in these frequent controversies. On April 25, 1564, he made his will, leaving 225 French crowns, of which he bequeathed ten to his college, ten to the poor, and the remainder to his nephews and nieces. His last letter was addressed to Farel. He was buried without pomp in a spot which is not now ascertainable. In the year 1900 a monument of expiation was erected to Servetus in the Place Champel. Geneva has long since ceased to be the center of Calvinism.

John Calvin’s murder of people who held different doctrinal views, his failure to acknowledge or repent from his sins, his incomplete gospel, his placing of his own writings above the Bible, his distortion of God and the Scriptures, and his dependence upon infant baptism places into question his salvation. In all of his writings is not found a clear declaration of his salvation by faith in the birth, life, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Calvin was a cruel, murderous tyrant who considered himself to be the pope of Geneva. The Bible never advocates harming an individual due to his unbelief or lack of understanding. Jesus taught to “turn the other cheek” instead. None of the Apostles taught action against unbelievers but instead taught the believer to seek them out and present the gospel in love.

Mark 16:15 And He said to them, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”

John Calvin showed no signs of being a regenerate man. He became more murderous and cruel during his rule in Geneva. He showed no inclination to be conformed to the image of Christ as described in Scripture for those who have been saved. Notice that Romans 8:29 below says we are “predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son” and does not say we are predestined to be saved as taught by Calvin.

Romans 8:29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined [to] [be] conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

One should not have to study the works of John Calvin but should study his life first in order to arrive at the conclusion that he was an ungodly man who could only produce a distorted doctrine that opposes the true teachings of Scripture. Calvin’s actions were directly opposed to the teachings of Jesus and His Apostles.

Matthew 10:14 And whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet.

James 3:17-18 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. 18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.

1 John 2:6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.

Calvin’s Margin Notes Supersede Scriptural Text

Calvin’s theology could not be ascertained by the typical student of the Bible without the external study of Calvin’s Institutes. Therefore, Calvin wrote commentary notes in the margin of the Bible to be used as the interpretation of the Scripture. A present-day review of these marginal notes shows they present doctrine that is not supported by the text. This commentary Bible with marginal notes came to be known as the Geneva Bible. Theodore de Beza (1519-1605) was the Protestant Reformer who succeeded John Calvin. Beza published the Geneva Bible in English between 1560 and 1611. William Whittingham, who was married to John Calvin’s sister, is believed to have assisted by translating most of the New Testament. He has been accused of having a theological bias and making other random changes in the translation. The source manuscripts for the work appear to have been the Textus Receptus and other Byzantine Greek manuscripts. The most disturbing feature of the Geneva Bible was the extensive commentary notes placed in the margins written by John Calvin, John Knox, Miles Coverdale, William Whittingham, Theodore Beza and Anthony Gilby. The marginal notes give an allegorical or philosophical explanation of Scripture rather than a literal explanation of the text. The Roman Catholic Church was enraged by the notes, because they deemed the act of confession of sin to men, the Catholic Bishops, as unjustified by Holy Scripture. Calvin can be congratulated for at least getting that doctrine correct.

The Geneva Bible and the doctrines of John Calvin spread across Europe as church leaders used the marginal notes as the basis for their lectures and preaching. King James I (1566-1625) was opposed to Calvinistic Presbyterianism and some claim he was infuriated by the Geneva Bible, because the marginal notes allowed disobedience to the King. This claim can be largely dismissed, because Calvin ruled as “King” of Geneva and allowed absolutely no disobedience. In the famous Hampton Court Conference, Dr. John Reynolds (a Puritan) requested that King James authorize the printing of a new Bible without the marginal notes. King James agreed. He authorized work to begin on the new Bible in 1604 with a team of fifty-four theologians and scholars, and it was printed in 1611. The Bible was to be a new translation from the Greek. The King James Version of the Bible was prepared from the Textus Receptus as well as many of the other 5,000 Greek manuscripts. It is known as the 1611 Authorized King James Version and held by many as the only “Inspired Word of God.”

The Dutch Church convened the Synod of Dordrecht in 1610 to resolve the dispute between Remonstrants (followers of Jacob Arminius) and the Reformed Church (followers of John Calvin) concerning the correct interpretation of the Bible. In the Reformed Churches of the Netherlands, Jacob Arminius began to teach doctrines contrary to the Reformed faith. The Remonstrants drew up five statements of doctrine in which they set forth their own views. The Calvinists answered the Five Points of the Arminians with their own, which have come to be known as the Five Points of Calvinism which form the acrostic T-U-L-I-P. The approval of the Calvinist position was sealed by a packed prejudiced Synod before it began, and the Calvinists relished the victory by murdering many of their opponents as they fled for their lives. This appeared to be a great victory for Calvinism at the time, but it has since been shown to have been the high point in their theological domination. Calvinism has continued to decline over the centuries, because John Calvin’s technique of terror is no longer allowed for the spread of his theology.

Neither Jesus nor any of the Apostles raised a finger against those who disagreed with them, but Calvinists continued to use the sword, beheading using an axe and burning at the stake as methods to eliminate any opposition well after the passing of John Calvin. Charles I succeeded King James in England. The Calvinists gained control of the English Parliament and waged a civil war against the king. They abolished episcopacy, ejected two thousand royalist ministers, summoned the Westminster Assembly, executed Archbishop Laud, and eventually executed the King himself in 1649.

Calvin’s Sovereignty Doctrine Distorts the Attributes of God

Calvinists are proud to proclaim, “The basic principle of Calvinism is the sovereignty of God.” This doctrine allowed John Calvin to misinterpret Scripture in any manner he desired in order to fit his Institutes theology. He simply claimed the sovereignty of God allowed it. God’s other attributes such as love, justice, mercy and grace became irrelevant so long as sovereignty reigned. John Calvin’s extreme definitions of sovereignty and sin (Total Depravity or Total Inability) laid the foundation for a religion that bears his name, Calvinism.

John Calvin falsely taught that God “elects” some people from eternity past to be saved while damning all of the others to an eternal Hell with no hope of being saved. This false doctrine is directly opposite to the Bible which teaches that God is “not willing that any should perish.” If salvation were entirely dependent on the sovereign God as taught by John Calvin then certainly none would perish, but salvation is dependent upon the free will of people to believe the true gospel by faith.

2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning [His] promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

Certainly God is sovereign. However, John Calvin used sovereignty as an excuse to formulate doctrines which violated God’s other attributes. Calvin’s doctrines of Unconditional Election and Limited Atonement predestine much of humanity to eternal torment in violation of God’s attributes of love, justice, mercy and grace. Doctrines which are correctly interpreted from Scripture will not violate any of God’s attributes.

Certainly God is sovereign according to the definition of sovereign in a dictionary. God is Number One — the Most High, but God does not control every event and action of mankind as if people were puppets, as claimed by John Calvin. The Scripture verses below clearly show that the unbelief of the Children of Israel in the wilderness “limited the Holy One of Israel.” According to the false doctrine of John Calvin, God cannot be limited. Scripture says He can be limited. God could not secure the entry of the Children of Israel into the promised land as He desired because they would not move forward. So God left them in the wilderness for 40 years because of their unbelief, arrogance and rebellion.

Psalms 78:37 For their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant. 38 But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath. 39 For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again. 40 How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert! 41 Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.

Calvinism has been called “the archenemy of soul-winning” and rightly so. John Calvin’s false doctrine declares that some people are predestined by God from eternity past to spend eternity with Him by His sovereign grace while others are predestined to eternal torment. This doctrine causes one to question the need for presenting the gospel. If Calvinism were true, why bother? Those who have been predestined to salvation will be regenerated by God’s unfailing sovereign will, and the others cannot be saved no matter how effectively the gospel is presented, because they are not the elect.

But soul winning is not the major tragedy of Calvinism. Failure to present the gospel of Christ is the real problem. One can easily notice that Calvinists discuss and present Calvinism with the notion that they are presenting the gospel. They quote the writings of Calvin and his followers and quote those Bible verses they feel are most supportive of Calvinism. The Bible is not taught directly and without bias. This is the reason John Calvin and his early followers prepared the Geneva Bible, which contained Calvin’s teachings written in the margins. Teaching was done from the marginal notes in lieu of the Scriptural text. We will see in our study of Limited Atonement that Calvinism presents a false gospel.

The god worshiped by Calvinists has different attributes from those of the Almighty Eternal God “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:4). The god of Calvinism is a false god who decides which people will spend eternity in hell by withholding faith from them. The god of Calvinism taunts the unbeliever with the verse “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” (Romans 10:9) all the while knowing that he (the god of Calvinism) has withheld the faith to do so. Calvinism presents a false gospel that neither offers eternal life nor allows salvation by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

As an example, Mormons (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) believe in a god and believe in a Jesus they say rose from the grave. However, Mormons are not born-again members of the Body of Christ. They are destined to spend eternity in hell. Calvinists will also spend eternity in hell. Calvinists believe in a false god and false Jesus with make-believe attributes much different from the true God and His Son, Jesus Christ, who took upon Himself the sins of the whole world.

“…Jesus Christ the righteous: 2 And he is the propitiation (atoning sacrifice) for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” 1 John 2:1-2

Calvin’s Predestination Doctrine Distorts the Character of God

Calvin’s doctrine of predestination teaches that God in eternity past established the course of all future events from the molestation of a child to a rocket trip to the moon. Calvin taught that God has decided in eternity past those persons who would spend eternity with Him and those who would endure eternal torment. This doctrine was not derived from the Bible but from the philosophical concepts called the “immutability of God” (unchangeable) and the “impassability of God” (unaffectable).

The pagan philosopher, Aristotle, born in 384 BC, wrote a book he called, Metaphysics. His reasoning concluded that “God can’t feel and can’t change.” This God must be unaffected by anything and unalterable. He is unchanging, for to change would be a weakness and change thus render Him less than the ultimate God. Aristotle’s God cannot love, cannot suffer and cannot be influenced. Saint Augustine incorporated this philosophy from Plato, Plotinus and Aristotle into his writings which were transferred to John Calvin. Thus Calvin’s doctrine of predestination was born.

We know from Scripture that God does change His mind. God does suffer. God is influenced by prayer. God can be sorrowful and God does love. God changes His intended purpose as He chooses in response to the actions of man. Calvin’s doctrine of predestination strips God of His character and is proven to be false by Scriptures that show God changing His mind in response to mankind’s prayer or repentance.

Romans 5:8 But God commendeth (demonstrates) his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

2 Kings 20:1-16 In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live. 2 Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the LORD, saying, 3 I beseech thee, O LORD, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore. 4 And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court, that the word of the LORD came to him, saying, 5 Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the LORD. 6 And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.

Genesis 6:5 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. 6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 7 And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.

Jonah 3:10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.

The God of the Bible is certainly not the immutable, impassable God of Plato, Plotinus, Aristotle, Augustine and Calvin.

All great Christian fathers from the Apostles to Martin Luther taught that the sovereign God placed free will in mankind to choose either good or evil. This free will is present and obvious in Scripture before the fall of Adam and thereafter. Calvin incorporated the heresies of Augustine into his doctrines. Was the Apostle Paul such a poor teacher that his followers didn’t understand his teachings? Certainly not. All of the writings of Church leaders that came after Paul and before Augustine taught that mankind had a free will to either choose the gospel or reject it. The truth was presented in a beautiful expression of free will and the supportive work of the Holy Spirit by John Chrysostom (347-407 AD).

“God having placed good and evil in our power, has given us full freedom of choice; He does not keep back the unwilling, but embraces the willing.” (Homilies on Genesis, 19.1)

“All is in God’s power, but so that our free will is not lost. . . . It depends therefore on us and on Him. We must first choose the good, and then He adds what belongs to Him. He does not precede our willing, that our free will may not suffer. But when we have chosen, then He affords us much help. . . . It is ours to choose beforehand and to will, but God’s to perfect and bring to the end.” (On Hebrews Homily, 12)

John Calvin and his followers teach that God makes everything happen because of His sovereignty. This doctrine makes God the author of sin, which is blasphemy. God allows Satan and man to do things but does not make them do so. This is clearly presented in Scripture. God kept the His dispensing of Grace a mystery because Satan, his evil demons and people under his control (rulers of this age), would not have killed Jesus had they known about the era of Grace. In Jesus’ death we become victorious over sin. We can now come into the Throne of Grace and live forever with God. The Dispensation of Grace was kept a mystery hidden by God in order to give us the way of salvation.

1 Corinthians 2:6-8 Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: 7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: 8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

Scripture Proves John Calvin Taught False Doctrines

John Calvin falsely taught that God draws only those to Himself whom He elects to be saved. Calvin taught that those chosen could not resist the call. According to John Calvin a person is elected by God, saved by God’s grace and given faith to believe as the final step. Calvin taught that this series of actions by Jesus Christ and God cannot be resisted by the elected person. On the other hand, Calvin taught that most people were not drawn by Jesus. Calvin taught that those not drawn by Jesus could not believe and could not be saved no matter what they did. Calvinists must twist Scripture, ignore the clear message given, and literally butcher the text in order to keep John Calvin’s chain of false doctrines from total collapse. Jesus clearly and directly spoke doctrines that refute these false doctrines of John Calvin.

John 12:32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.

1 Timothy 2:3-4 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; 4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

Jesus does draw all people to Himself. Jesus said He will draw all people unto Himself if He were to be lifted up and crucified. God desires all mankind to be saved, but most people resist being drawn. John Calvin’s doctrine of “Irresistible Grace” is clearly shown to be incorrect by Jesus’ clear declaration.

We believe that salvation is by grace through faith based upon the redemptive work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus took upon Himself the sins of all mankind by His death on the cross, and His resurrection from the dead provides salvation to all who believe. All who receive the Lord Jesus Christ through faith are born again of the Holy Spirit and thereby become the children of God.

Calvinism encompasses many of the features which are characteristic of a Christian cult. Calvinists hold John Calvin in such high esteem that his writings and teachings are studied and quoted in preference to Scripture. His teachings are used by Calvinists to interpret Scripture rather than the sound doctrine of using Scripture to interpret Scripture. John Calvin defined important doctrinal Bible words differently than the historic Christian interpretation. These erroneous definitions are needed to give logical support to Calvin’s blasphemous doctrines. This technique is typical of cults such as Mormons, who hold Joseph Smith in high esteem and base their doctrines on his writings. Calvinists are so indoctrinated with these false definitions that they cannot understand the opposition to their doctrines. Naturally Calvinists believe the false doctrines of John Calvin, because they believe the false definitions of major doctrinal words. The human brain is easily tricked when one does not search diligently for the truth. Calvinists have typically taught from the marginal notes in the Calvinist’s Geneva Bible in preference to the Scriptural text. King James ordered the King James Version translation of the English Bible to be printed in order to rid the church of Calvin’s marginal notes. John Calvin’s doctrines are an incomplete and inaccurate gospel which is not in agreement with the Holy Scriptures. This study of Calvinism will easily prove the doctrines of John Calvin to be unorthodox and contrary to the historic Christian Church.

History of the New Testament Scriptures.

Just as John Calvin “stole” Geneva to set up his personal kingdom with himself as “Pope,” modern Calvinists are stealing churches. Old Baptist churches in the United States are a prime target. A Calvinist will apply for an empty pastorship while keeping his belief in Calvinistic doctrine a secret. Upon being offered the position by unsuspecting church members he begins to bring in other undercover Calvinists who are promoted to ruling positions as deacons and elders. The undercover Calvinists quickly reach a majority in the ruling body of the church. The church appears to be prosperous and growing, because the undercover Calvinists recruit only other Calvinists as new members. The new members are all a part of the scheme. These wolves in sheep’s clothing make a power play after gaining a majority control. They force out the older non-Calvinist church members one at a time with rudeness, intimidation and insults. Slick scheme! The Calvinists have just stolen church property that could be worth $5 to $10 million or more. Calvinists rarely build a new church on their own. They may be proud of their success in stealing the church, but in reality they have only secured a ticket to the Lake of Fire.

Revelation 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

The Five Points of Calvinism which form the acrostic T-U-L-I-P will be shown here to distort and blaspheme the true attributes of God, the true nature of man and the Holy Scriptures. John Calvin did not summarize his teaching into five categories that have come to be known as T-U-L-I-P. The followers of John Calvin have summarized his false writings in this manner. The most faithful followers of John Calvin hold to all five of the doctrines and proudly call themselves Five Point Calvinists. They generally hold others in complete disdain who call themselves Calvinists but reject one or more of the five doctrines. Most are either four or five point Calvinists. The Five Point Calvinists argue that rejecting any one of the five points makes all of John Calvin’s doctrines collapse. This is the only claim made by Five Point Calvinists that is true. They do collapse. All five of the points are false and the rejection of any one of the points destroys them all. The following will show that each can be proven by sound Biblical interpretation to be false. T-U-L-I-P is the gospel according to John Calvin and his followers. Without T-U-L-I-P they do not know the gospel according to the Bible as proclaimed by the Apostle Paul. They are lost.

Calvinism’s TULIP

Total Depravity

Unconditional Election

Limited Atonement

Irresistible Grace

Perseverance of the Saints

Pastors Who Preach Calvinism Have Responded

Many pastors have written directly from their church website with insulting, hate mail after reading the truths presented here. These pastors are obviously not born-again, Spirit-filled Christians. They are fake Christians. Calvinistic preachers are our modern-day Pharisees who put Jesus on the cross. They are wolves in sheep’s clothing, preaching “another gospel” that the Apostle Paul warned us about. They are in the ministry for power, control and money. They are certainly destined to spend eternity in hell. Their letters have revealed their corrupt hearts to the Holy Spirit.

Canons of Dort – Wikipedia.com

“The Canons of Dort, or Canons of Dordrecht, formally titled The Decision of the Synod of Dort on the Five Main Points of Doctrine in Dispute in the Netherlands, is the judgment of the National Synod held in the Dutch city of Dordrecht in 1618 / 19. At the time, Dordrecht was often referred to in English as Dort.

Today, the Canons of Dort form one of the confessional standards of many of the Reformed churches around the world, including the Netherlands, Australia, and North America. Their continued use as a standard still forms an unbridgeable problem preventing close cooperation between the followers of Arminius, the Remonstrants, and Dutch Reformed Churches.

These canons are in actuality a judicial decision on the doctrinal points in dispute from the Arminian controversy of that day. Following the death of Jacobus Arminius (1560-1609), his followers set forth a Remonstrance (published in 1610) in five articles formulating their points of departure from the stricter Calvinism of the Belgic Confession. The Canons are the judgment of the Synod against this Remonstrance. Regardless, Arminian theology later received official acceptance by the State and has since continued in various forms within Protestantism.

The Canons were not intended to be a comprehensive explanation of Reformed doctrine, but only an exposition on the five points of doctrine in dispute. These Canons set forth what is often referred to as the Five Points of Calvinism.”

The Decision of the Synod of Dort ruled in favor of the doctrines of Calvinism, because the Calvinist has “fixed” the outcome beforehand. After the decision was rendered, the Calvinists proceeded to murder the supporters of Arminius in true fashion to the mass murderer they followed, John Calvin. The un-Christlike actions of the Calvinists prove that at Dort they truly lost any hope of ever being representative of Christianity.

God sees your heart and hears your prayer. You will have eternal life with God when by faith you believe on Jesus Christ for salvation. No works! No doing! No one else! No judge! God judges the heart. You can trust Him.

Click here to say, “Yes, I want to pray to God.”

Click here to say, “I just prayed to confess Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.”

More on Eternal Security/OSAS | Calvinism Exposed

John Calvin: Worst Wolf in Church History? [podcast]

Christ or Calvin? You Must Choose Demon possessed maniac John Calvin wrote the following: “Chapter Four – Unbiblical Beliefs and Failures of John Calvin Calvin on the Bible: In 1536 Calvin wrote: ‘The Bible is a knotty, difficult text, whose interpretation demands extensive knowledge. If brought into contact with it unceremoniously, many minds are upset and seized with confusion. The Bible is too old a text in too new a world.’ God willed that man sin. Calvin wrote ‘God, in a secret and marvellous way, justly wills, the things which men unjustly do.’ . . . ‘Although God and the […]

The Sovereignty of God as Defined by Calvinism vs Scripture [podcast]

Of the “sovereignty” claim of calvinism, Ken Rieske writes: “Calvin’s Sovereignty Doctrine Distorts the Attributes of God Calvinists are proud to proclaim, “The basic principle of Calvinism is the sovereignty of God.” This doctrine allowed John Calvin to misinterpret Scripture in any manner he desired in order to fit his Institutes theology. He simply claimed the sovereignty of God allowed it. God’s other attributes such as love, justice, mercy and grace became irrelevant so long as sovereignty reigned. John Calvin’s extreme definitions of sovereignty and sin (Total Depravity or Total Inability) laid the foundation for a religion that bears his name, […]

John Wesley on Calvinism, Once Saved Always Saved, and Conditional Security

John Wesley on Calvinism, Once Saved Always Saved, and Conditional Security “Calvinists, who deny that salvation can ever be lost, reason on the subject in a marvelous way. They tell us, that no virgin’s lamp can go out; no promising harvest be choked with thorns; no branch in Christ can ever be cut off from unfruitfulness; no pardon can ever be forfeited, and no name blotted out of God’s book! They insist that no salt can ever lose its savor; nobody can ever ‘receive the grace of God in vain’; ‘bury his talents’; ‘neglect such great salvation’; trifle away ‘a day […]