How did you arrive at Calvinism?

[Walpole]

And I was correct. The instigation continues.

Please start a new thread with such questions.

Because this is: 'How did you arrive at Calvinism?'

It's been discussed. Scroll through this tread starting here ---> www.baptistboard.com/threads/the-effects-of-calvinism-on-scripture.114282/page-2#post-2550598


Judas aside, isn't it illogical for a Calvinist to ask, "How did you arrive at Calvinism?" Shouldn't a more logical question be: "When did God drag you?"

 

[S0l0m0n]

It's been discussed. Scroll through this tread starting here ---> www.baptistboard.com/threads/the-effects-of-calvinism-on-scripture.114282/page-2#post-2550598


Judas aside, isn't it illogical for a Calvinist to ask, "How did you arrive at Calvinism?" Shouldn't a more logical question be: "When did God drag you?"

Perhaps I'll even go off the thread subject.

As there is irresistible grace, then is it possible that God allows Satan to drag sinners into evil acts, being possessed of a devilish spirit?

That devilish spirit would then inevitably show some of the following attributes:
debate (here's the starting point; where it's not iron sharpening iron, but iron trying to cut flesh),
deceit (presenting a loaded question with only the intention to entrap),
malignity (there is nothing but hatred for what they deem to be 'Calvinism'),
proud (they are unteachable in the truth),
implacable (they never let up until they lose interest; almost animalistic, the 'brute beasts' of 2 Peter and Jude).

 

[InTheLight]

This is the trouble with this entire 'Calvinism & Arminianism Debate' forum.
It is anti-Calvinist. (Actually the entire forum is itself.)

Thanks for the laughs. It was needed.

 

[Particular]

It's been discussed. Scroll through this tread starting here ---> www.baptistboard.com/threads/the-effects-of-calvinism-on-scripture.114282/page-2#post-2550598


Judas aside, isn't it illogical for a Calvinist to ask, "How did you arrive at Calvinism?" Shouldn't a more logical question be: "When did God drag you?"

Start a new thread. The OP asked nicely. Does Squire need to talk with you?

 

[S0l0m0n]

Thanks for the laughs. It was needed.

Said the man with the Looney Tunes inspired profile pic, who expects people to take him seriously.

 

[InTheLight]

Said the man with the Looney Tunes inspired profile pic

Fail.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

 

[S0l0m0n]

Fail.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

It is exactly like Looney Tunes, it's similar to Hitchcock's Vertigo.

Then where is it from? Look up both of those. I'm not slandering you... you picked the cartoon profile pic.

 

[Walpole]

Start a new thread. The OP asked nicely. Does Squire need to talk with you?

Who is Squire and what does he / she need to talk to me about? Have him / her reach out to me if there's anything I can do.

 

[InTheLight]

It is exactly like Looney Tunes, it's similar to Hitchcock's Vertigo.

Then where is it from? Look up both of those. I'm not slandering you... you picked the cartoon profile pic.

I see that you joined five days ago. I've been here for nine years. (Hey, my anniversary date is tomorrow.)

You made a comment that this particular forum and this entire board is anti-Calvinist. Because I have history here I can tell you that you are incorrect. There are significantly more Calvinists here than non-Calvinists. Also, the Calvinists are a louder group and post more frequently. Most of us non-Cals are weary from the constant rotation of Calvinists that come on here and rehash all the old arguments. This is why I have a numbered guide to the arguments in my signature. Generally speaking we non-Cals rarely rise to the bait anymore.

Five days in and you are already making snide remarks about people on here. I created my avatar by photo-shopping a stylized image of the sun and overlaying it with a photograph of myself wearing sunglasses.

I'm "In The Light", get it?

This is the Looney Tunes logo:



And this is the movie poster from Vertigo:




So yes, you failed with your assertion that I was using the Looney Tunes logo for my avatar pic.

 

[InTheLight]

Who is Squire and what does he / she need to talk to me about? Have him / her reach out to me if there's anything I can do.

Squire Robertsson is one of the moderators. Particular is suggesting that you need to be disciplined for posting something not related to the original subject matter. Like that NEVER happens around here, and Particular has never been an offender in this regard. Sheesh. Besides, I think Squire has better things to do than come to the aid of someone that is so easily insulted by an off-topic post.

 

[Walpole]

Squire Robertsson is one of the moderators. Particular is suggesting that you need to be disciplined for posting something not related to the original subject matter. Like that NEVER happens around here, and Particular has never been an offender in this regard. Sheesh. Besides, I think Squire has better things to do than come to the aid of someone that is so easily insulted by an off-topic post.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8of00uEVRRAOn no![/url
Oh no!

I guess I'm really in trouble now...

 

[tyndale1946]

Oh no!

I guess I'm really in trouble now...

Yeah!... After the Squire gets done with them, they kinda look like that... Brother Glen

 

[Particular]

Who is Squire and what does he / she need to talk to me about? Have him / her reach out to me if there's anything I can do.

@Squire Robertsson can discuss flaming on a thread and failing to speak to the topic. Perhaps he would prefer a pm. But, you have been asked by the OP to address the topic and you refuse.

 

[S0l0m0n]

Five days in and you are already making snide remarks about people on here.

?! Said the man who previously mocked my serious comment by saying out of the blue:

Thanks for the laughs. It was needed.

And you need to see Vertigo... see, it is similar.

 

[S0l0m0n]

@Squire Robertsson can discuss flaming on a thread and failing to speak to the topic. Perhaps he would prefer a pm. But, you have been asked by the OP to address the topic and you refuse.

Now that I've practically derailed the thread myself.

Thanks Particular for attempting to keep some order.

 

[S0l0m0n]

Generally speaking we non-Cals rarely rise to the bait anymore.

Are you kidding me?
You came out of the woodwork to mock this thread in post #7.
You only came to sow discord.

1 Timothy 4:2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;

 

[tyndale1946]

Now that I've practically derailed the thread myself.

Thanks Particular for attempting to keep some order.

For those of you who are new it is in his discretion to close the OP... When he has felt the OP has run its course he will let us know he is closing it and also tell us when he is going to do it... Sometimes he will close it with no notice... The poster has been banned, the post has been derailed, or reported... I feel it in my bones he's near... He is known on here as The Closer!... FYI... Brother Glen

 

[Walpole]

@Squire Robertsson can discuss flaming on a thread and failing to speak to the topic. Perhaps he would prefer a pm. But, you have been asked by the OP to address the topic and you refuse.

I just reached out to him and I copied you on it so you are in the loop. Thanks for letting me know he needed to talk to me.

 

[S0l0m0n]

Thank-you Particular, Dave Gilbert, Brother Glen, Reformed, 1689Dave, and Yeshua1 for giving an informative and well thought out response.
(My apologies if I forgot someone.)
Your posts were edifying, and I'm sure there will be others who are helped and strengthened by the posts as well.

I don't think I ever arrived at Calvinism, if you mean a follower of John Calvin.
I was raised in a free will church (what some coin "traditional" Baptist). I went to a college that taught unlimited atonement and praying the sinners prayer to "get saved."
God brought some significant grief into my life and because I thought I was the person whose words and actions were the reason a person would be saved, I was devastated to have my best friend die in his sins. I took full blame and refused comfort. I thought I had failed God and as a failure God must hate me. I was at the brink of suicide, but God caused me to just read the Bible.
I read Romans and saw grace. When I read Romans 7, I related with Paul. "Who will deliver me from this body of death?" Then came Romans 8, that blessed chapter. "Thanks be to God, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
The phrase "in Christ" caught my eye. I wanted to study that phrase, so I got a concordance and Bible dictionary to learn what it meant. I looked up every place where the Bible said in Christ. From there I started seeing the word "chosen." I wanted to know more. The more I studied, the more I saw that God determines our salvation, but he uses Christians and the Bible to speak the message of reconciliation. The more I read scripture the more I saw God choosing from Adam onward. It was probably 5 years or more before I heard someone call me a Calvinist when I was talking to them about faith. So, I looked it up and what I read looked like what I had come to believe. Am I a Calvinist? I haven't read much that John Calvin wrote. I have read and listened to various pastors and teachers who are labeled Calvinists. People like John Piper, Alistair Begg and Voddie Baucham. I am enamored with the Supremacy of God and God removed all my guilt. I have been learning to say like Paul, "In everything I am content." I never thought I would ever be at this point. I thought I would be dead, because I thought I deserved it. But God...made me alive with Christ.
My favorite verse is this:

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
~ Galatians 2:20

Careful reading and belief of the Scriptures, over a significant period of time.
It took a while for all of it to sink in.

I saw "eternal security" early on, probably in the early '80's ( I've been a believer since 1978, when I heard the Gospel in a "Traditionalist" Independent Baptist church during a revival meeting at the age of 12 ).

Then I saw individual election in 2003 after a friend of mine showed me three passages:
Romans 8:29-30
Ephesians 1:4-5.
2 Thessalonians 2:13-14.

I had been a believer for about 25 years before I saw these, due to my neglect of the Scriptures over that time period.

Added to that I found:
Psalms 65:4.
John 6:29.
John 6:64-65.
John 10:26
Acts of the Apostles 13:48.

and many others.

My favorite verse is in my signature.
But if I had to choose another, it would be the one @Particular has listed.

Like him, I've not read much of John Calvin, if at all.

I've only recently begun listening to men like Rolfe Barnard, DJ Ward, Voddie Baucham, Henry Mahan, Don Fortner and others on Sermon Audio / Free Grace Radio, and I find their preaching very refreshing in these last days.

But, I've never felt that I needed anything other than God's word, truthfully.
Preaching like these men do is simply icing on the cake.

I didn't arrive at Calvinism, I was brought up in it... I started going with my folks and family at the age of seven when they joined the church... I sat under this doctrine and heard the true doctrine of Sovereign Grace, preached from the KJV and joined the saints of God at the age of 22, and never looked back.

I never needed to search for the truth because I grew up in it... No one had to teach me TULIP because that is all, the preachers, preached... True Sovereign Grace doesn't allow for a works doctrine, no matter what any man says... God is Sovereign and man is not... Like kyredneck a good friend and brother said on here awhile back, until you understand Total Depravity, you will never understand TULIP... I've been Sovereign Grace and embraced TULIP for over 50 years... Brother Glen

When I became a Christian I was in a segment of Christianity that treated Calvinism and John Calvin as "He who shall not be named." There was never any debate for or against the merits of Calvinism, just disdain and ridicule. This carried over to a Bible college I attended. I began to wonder what all these critics were afraid of. No debates. No wrestling with the text. Just condemnation. I began to ask questions about Calvinism and TULIP and was told how dangerous they were. Being told to avoid something without a reasonable explanation just increased my curiosity, so I began to study the issue. It began by reading the book of Romans followed by reading Ephesians. I never had a "light go off in my head" moment. My study of scripture began to increase my questions. Since there were no honest answers forthcoming from my pastor and deacons, I had to seek counsel elsewhere. Reading Charles Spurgeon had a tremendous influence on my thinking. Eventually, I saw the answer to my questions in scripture. Like Spurgeon, I began to understand the term "Calvinism" from a Baptist perspective. The term was synonymous with the Reformed view of predestination and election (a.k.a. the Doctrines of Grace), not everything else John Calvin believed. I became convinced that the Calvinistic view of predestination and election was what the Bible taught. The rest is, as they say, history.

The response to my theological change ran the gamut from disappointment to outright vitriol. While the resistance I received did not make my changed understanding correct, the fact that no one tried to change my mind by reasoning from scripture convinced me that they did not know why they believed what they believed. So, in the end, it was the study of scripture that changed my mind.

Escape from a Death Cult:

Once, while young in the faith, I fell into what would become one of the deadliest Word of Faith cults in North America, the Glory Barn Faith Assembly of northern Indiana. God providentially delivered me by what most would call a twist of fate.

I ran into this group through another Pentecostal group. Later, after a job transfer into their region, I began fellowship with them. Nothing stood out as unusual. They had the typical adrenaline driven praise and worship most Pentecostal churches have. But I left the region after a year when my job ended. After a couple of years my wife and I returned to the region and they had grown from around 100 to perhaps a 1000.

During this time, we heard about a few people dying of treatable reasons. But they blamed this on lack of faith. Or their faith must not have been genuine. But it wasn’t too long before God led us out in a most unusual way.

One night they presented the Limited Atonement doctrine so they could teach against it. This was the first I ever heard of Limited Atonement. But the doctrine, even though presented in the most disagreeable way, spoke to me. And after hearing the universal atonement doctrine in contrast, it dawned on me that we had come to an impasse.

I needed to make a choice. If Limited Atonement is true, then faith and healing didn’t work the way they said it did. And it would explain why some died from commonly treatable ailments. After a group discussion on the way home, it was our last involvement with them.

I began studying Reformed Theology augmented by Baptist theology ever since that time.

Started from the scriptures, but really started to notice it as being taught in Bible when reading books authored by JI Packer, Spurgeon, and Leon Morris!

Other than Bible, single biggest contribution was when read Martin Luther on the Bondage of the Will!

 

[Particular]

Thank-you Particular, Dave Gilbert, Brother Glen, Reformed, 1689Dave, and Yeshua1 for giving an informative and well thought out response.
(My apologies if I forgot someone.)
Your posts were edifying, and I'm sure there will be others who are helped and strengthened by the posts as well.

You can contact @Squire Robertsson and ask him to close the thread if you wish. That would end the negativity.
God is good.