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  • Patrideus the Sovereign

    Claim:

    The video below depicts Calvinism accurately.

    Patrideus the Sovereign
    Refuting Calvinism:
    Refutation

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    Supporting Calvinism:
    Support

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  • Num 13-14

    Claim:

    Num 13-14 refutes Calvinism.

    Refuting Calvinism:

    They said, We're all gonna die! 1

    Israel said that God brought them out of Egypt to die in the wilderness:

    And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness!

    And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt? - Num 14:2-3

    And it happened!

    This is precisely what actually happened:

    I the Lord have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die. - Num 14:35

    Calvinism says ... 

    Since this (Israel dying in the wilderness) happened, per Calvinism, this was God's plan all along; it was the ordained will of God. We shall refer to this as the Calvinistic truth.

    So, those who said that God brought them out to kill them were - per Calvinism - correct! (NOTE: correct per Calvinism, not necessarily correct per God!) God's will was not what happened, nor was it what God planned.

    The reward for proclaiming the "Calvinistic Truth" ...

    Was God pleased with the Calvinistic truth being proclaimed?

    And the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them? - Num 14:11

    Whoa! God seemed not too pleased with what they were saying - the Calvinistic truth.

    Calvinism says, "But they were telling the truth! God even confirmed it by saying He would do what they said. Since this happened, it must have been God's plan. It happened! They just told the truth, that it was God's plan, since that was what happened, and everything that happens has to be God's plan!"

    How did God reward those who spoke the Calvinistic truth of God's plan for Israel? 

    Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the Lord. - Num 14:35

    Obviously God was not pleased with what they said, even though it was true - per Calvinism - that God's plan or will was for them to die. It is equally obvious that it was NOT God's plan and will for them to die. God was upset that they believed the Calvinistic truth regarding His plan. (Apparently, God is not a Calvinist, and the Calvinistic truth is not true.)

    Hebrews tells us their unbelief was what kept them out of the promised land, and was why they fell in the wilderness. They missed the promised land because of believing the Calvinistic truth instead of what God said. 2

    • 1See also https://godisopen.com/2018/02/08/apologetics-thursday-bad-report/
    • 2And it shall be when the Lord shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee, a land flowing with milk and honey, that thou shalt keep this service in this month. - Ex 13:5
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  • Philosophical Concepts of God

    Claim:

    Western philosophy has provided much of contemporary western understanding of God.

    Refuting Calvinism:

    A Professor teaching an Old Testament class claims students in the Old Testament class have preconceived notions of God that are at variance with what the Old Testament says about God, and that they got those ideas from western philosophy, rather than from the Bible. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkFJvEtI1WI

     

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  • Philosophical roots of Calvinism

    Claim:

    Calvinism's concepts are rooted in philosophy, not the Bible.

    Refuting Calvinism:

    Augustine

    The research of Augustinian expert, Kenneth Wilson (MD, MDiv, ThM, PhD), 1 one of the top scholars in the world on Augustine, shows that before Augustine (for the first few centuries of the church), Christian teachers taught free will, and none taught determinism. It also shows Augustine to have been ...

    "... heavily influenced as a young man by participating in the three most highly deterministic systems that have ever existed—Gnostic Manichaeism, Neoplatonism, and Stoicism." - p. 94, The Foundation of Augustinian-Calvinism

    From his 2019 book, THE FOUNDATION OF AUGUSTINIAN–CALVINISM, page 94: [emphasis added]

    ... Augustine was the only Christian bishop in history known to have been heavily influenced as a young man by participating in the three most highly deterministic systems that have ever existed—Gnostic Manichaeism, Neoplatonism, and Stoicism. Augustine's deterministic ideas did not come from the apostle Paul (a Pharisee who believed in free choice). Over fifty earlier Christian authors fought against those fated philosophies by teaching free choice. This new knowledge of how and why Augustine moved back into pagan determinism should greatly concern us. When these facts are combined with the knowledge that both Luther and Calvin mistakenly believed Augustine was merely teaching what all the earliest church fathers taught, Augustinian-Calvinism is exposed as built upon an unstable foundation of pagan sand.

    Beginning with "God is sovereign" is not a Christian, but a Stoic foundation of philosophical theology. ...

    The quote above is from this book:

    The Foundation of Augustinian-Calvinism Kindle edition by Ken Wilson. Religion & Spirituality Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com. (n.d.). Retrieved August 6, 2019, from https://www.amazon.com/Foundation-Augustinian-Calvinism-Ken-Wilson-ebook/dp/B07VTS48L6

    R.C. Sproul has pointed out that someone said that all modern theology is just a footnote to Augustine.

    Books by Ken Wilson M.D., M.Div., Th.M., Ph.D.

    https://www.amazon.com/Augustines-Conversion-Traditional-Choice-non-Free/dp/3161557530

    https://www.amazon.com/Foundation-Augustinian-Calvinism-Ken-Wilson-ebook/dp/B07VTS48L6

    Info below is from https://www.mohrsiebeck.com/en/book/augustines-conversion-from-traditional-free-choice-to-non-free-free-will-9783161557538?createPdf=true

    Kenneth M. Wilson

    • 1981 Doctorate in Medicine from The University of Texas Medical School;
    • 1989–95 Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Oregon Health Sciences University;
    • 2003 M.Div.;
    • 2006 Th.M.;
    • 2012 D.Phil. in Theology from the University of Oxford; thesis, “Augustine’s Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to ‘Non-free Free Will’: A Comprehensive Methodology.“
      currently a
    • Board Certified Orthopaedic Hand Surgeon in Salem, Oregon
      and
    • Professor of Church History and Systematic Theology at Grace School of Theology in The Woodlands, Texas 
    Here is Dr. Wilson interviewed by Leighton Flowers
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  • Ancient roots of Calvinism

    Claim:

    Doctrines of Calvinism have been influenced by Plotinus who was arguably demonically influenced.

    Refuting Calvinism:

    Teachings from a Neo-platonic philosopher, apparently influenced by a spirit guide, influenced Augustine who influenced Calvin & modern theology. Thus, teachings and doctrines of devils may have ultimately influenced ideas of Calvin and modern theology (including Calvinism).

    The trace-back is 

    modern theology - Calvin / Augustine - Neoplatonism - Plotinus - devil?

    Historically, Calvin claimed he could have written most of his teachings by quoting Augustine. 

    Augustine was influenced by Neo-Platonic philosophy. The major figure of Neo-Platonism is Plotinus, who is "generally regarded as the founder of Neoplatonism." 1

    Porphry, who knew Plotinus, reported that an Egyptian priest of Isis claimed, on meeting with Plotinus, that  Plotinus had a spirit guide who was a god. .. or, a devil? 2

    HOMAGE TO PLOTINOS FROM A VISITING EGYPTIAN PRIEST.

    Plotinos showed a natural superiority to other men. An Egyptian priest, visiting Rome, was introduced to him by a mutual friend. Having decided to show some samples of his mystic attainments, he begged Plotinos to come and witness the apparition of a familiar spirit who obeyed him on being evoked. The evocation was to occur in a chapel of Isis, as the Egyptian claimed that he had not been able to discover any other place pure enough in Rome. He therefore evoked Plotinos's guardian spirit. But instead of the spirit appeared a divinity of an order superior to that of guardians, which event led the Egyptian to say to Plotinos, "You are indeed fortunate, O Plotinos, that your guardian spirit is a divinity, instead of a being of a lower order." ...

    PLOTINOS'S ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE PUBLIC MYSTERIES.

    As Plotinos's guardian spirit was a divinity, Plotinos kept the eyes of his own spirit directed on that divine guardian. That was the motive of his writing his book 3 that bears the title "Of the Guardian Allotted to Us." ...

    Even if merely thought to be not of a devil, and really human in origin, we might think twice before blindly accepting those ideas Plotinus taught. Why were those ideas considered by his student to be those of some spiritual entity? Was Plotinus hallucinating? Do we want to build important concepts on such a foundation?

    1 Timothy 4:1
    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;

    We can trace influence as Calvin <- Augustine <- Plotinus <- devil?

    If one discounts the existence of spirits, one might question any doctrines arising from one supposedly guided by such. On the other hand, if one does admit the existence of spirits, one might find even more reason for concern before blindly accepting the tenets of Calvinism. The Bible warns not to believe every spirit (1 John 4:1), and warns of doctrines of devils (1 Timothy 4:1). Either way, the theological concepts of Calvin that are rooted in the ideas of Plotinus become significantly questionable.

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