Calvinism versus Arminianism. In this video, I'm going to share 5 points of Calvinism that by now
probably you know but those of you who are new to faith, I will share with you the difference
between two systems of theology that seem to be in sharp disagreements and there's a lot of fights
on YouTube about this and a lot of the critics from my ministry personally, mainly will come
from people of reformed theology or Calvinism. I'm going to explain a little bit about the difference
and at the end, I'm going to share personally, Why I'm not a Calvinist as well as some questions
for you to consider if you're not sure what you really believe, Calvinistic theology or Arminian
theology. So Calvinism and Arminianism are two systems of theology. They seek to attempt to
explain relationship between God's sovereignty and man's responsibility in the matter of salvation.
So Calvinism is named after John Calvin, a French theologian who lived in around 1500s
and Arminianism is named after Jacobus Arminius, a Dutch theologian who lived in around the same
time 1500 and so we know that the big idea for Calvinism is Romans chapter 9 and that is,
"I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy," and the central biblical passage supporting Arminian
theology is that God wants everybody to be saved and come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Calvinists believe that early Church father, Augustine of Hippo was a Calvinist before Calvin
and Arminians claim that, Calvinistic view was not heard until 5th century and it was not emphasized
by apostles or early church fathers. So these are five core Calvinistic or Reformed theology points.
First one is Total Depravity. Human beings are by nature spiritually dead and no one naturally seeks
or desires God. Romans chapter 3 and Ephesians chapter 2 are the scriptural foundations for
that. It points to the depravity of sinful nature believing that we cannot choose where we spend
eternity meaning, we're so depraved, lost and dead. We can't even make a choice to believe in
God. Arminians, people like me, We believe that we do have a sinful nature. We are dead in our
sin but the Bible does seem to point to the fact that we can choose to place our trust in Christ
that Yes, it's the work of the Holy Spirit that is working on our hearts but it still is our choice
whether to accept Jesus or not to accept Christ. Yet in the matter of that human responsibility,
we still cannot save ourselves. Only God can save us. The second point of Calvinism is unconditional
election. If somebody trusts Christ, it is because God chose to regenerate that person
so God's choice is unconditional. It's not based on any human decision. John chapter 6 and Romans
chapter 9 are the scriptural references for that. This second point really teaches that God chooses
who will go to heaven or who goes to hell but you know I have a problem with that of course,
because I believe God's word tells us that God doesn't want anybody to perish so God doesn't
choose people to go to hell. People go to hell because they refuse God's free gift of salvation.
We believe that before the foundations of the earth, God chose to save everyone who would freely
choose to trust in Jesus. Point number three is limited atonement. Christ's death only atone for
those who would trust in Him. So Jesus laid down His life only for His followers not for all the
humanity and the scriptural references for that as John chapter 10 as well as even Matthew chapter
1 where He will save His people from their sins. Now this belief that Jesus died only for certain
individuals, we don't accept that we believe that Jesus died for all according to Hebrews chapter 7
verse 27. Hebrews chapter 9 verse 12. We believe that Jesus died for everyone but His death only
redeems believers. So that's just different from the Calvinistic view is that Jesus died
for everybody but His death will only redeem the believers. 1 John chapter 2 verse 2. John chapter
1 verse 29. John chapter 3 verse 16. The famous verse you know, "For God so loved the world that
whoever believes in Him, will not perish but have everlasting life." 1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 6 and
2 Peter chapter 2 verse 1. And so you can't preach the gospel with confidence if you believe in
limited atonement. Christian tradition has always opposed limited atonement that Jesus died only for
limited amount of people. We believe that Jesus died for everyone but the benefits of His death
will only redeem those that place their trust in Jesus. Fourth point of Calvinism is irresistible
grace meaning, when God regenerates somebody that person cannot resist or reject God's grace. That's
John chapter 6 verse 37 and John chapter 6 verse 44. This belief states that elect individuals
cannot resist God's grace the meaning like if God chose to save you, there's nothing you can
do to stop that like it really has nothing to do with you. You don't have to want it. You don't
have to believe it. God's just going to really get you saved. You can't resist it but we do see
in instances in the Bible where people resisted God's grace and that we can choose to receive or
reject God's invitation you know Acts chapter 7 verse 51, Acts chapter 10 verses 32 and 33 and we
see that people can reject God's attempt to save them you know God doesn't force Himself on people,
it's a relationship and you know part of relationship and love is you know you can't
force somebody else to love you, that's just not the way the relationships work. Number five is the
perseverance of the saints. This means that every authentic genuine believer will persevere in faith
and in good works until the end. So this is not teaching for saints to persevere, it's teaching
the saints will persevere if they're born again, at this point asserts that no matter what happens,
saints will persevere. However the key word should be on the perseverance because it's when we are
faithful that God preserves us. Psalm 31:23, Psalm 37:38 and Psalm 97:10. You know the scriptures are
clear that Christians can forfeit their salvation that you can be a branch on the vine, connected
to the vine and if you choose not to abide that you will be you know dried up and you will be cut
off so I have another video in the link below or click on the card up where you can watch about,
"Can Christians lose their salvation?" So pretty much in summary is that Arminians believe in
Free Will. Calvinists believe in total depravity. Arminians believe in human inability meaning, we
don't have ability to save ourselves. Calvinists believe in total inability. Arminians believe in
conditional election; Calvinists believe in unconditional election. Arminians believe in
universal redemption. The scope of redemption is universal. The Calvinists believe in a particular
redemption that it's only for those that will be saved. Arminians believe in general atonement,
blood was spilled for everybody and then Calvinists believe in limited atonement
and Arminians believe that the Holy Spirit can be resisted and Calvinists believe that grace cannot
be resisted. Once God plans to save you, there's nothing you can do about it and then Arminians
believe, you can fall from grace and then Calvin is believed that you cannot lose your salvation.
My issue with Calvinism is that man is not accountable for his actions since it is God
who has the final control of His will, it's very difficult to send a person to hell for God if the
decision to send him to hell lies with God. So if God chooses from me to go to hell before I
was born, nothing I did to deserve that, it's not my choice. It's God's decision then why am
I going to hell if God chose that is the final decision rests with me or it rests with God. The
Calvinists will say that it's a sovereign grace of God and then the Arminian will say that you know
free will of men meaning, we do have a decision to say 'yes' to Christ or 'no' to Christ. That's why
we evangelize. That's why we preach the gospel, we tell people. Otherwise what's the point of you
know evangelizing if God just makes a decision to send people to hell. Some people He sends to
heaven and there's nothing we can do about that. My second issue i Calvinism makes it seem like God
is the author of evil, sin, innocent suffering and honestly He's not much different than the devil.
Now I understand that a lot of Calvinists they don't see it like that but their theology makes it
seem like that the difference is the devil wants everyone to go to hell and God wants some people
to go to hell. God of course wishes that hell was not necessary but He does send people to hell for
His glory. God of course wishes that people won't be raped, abused but He does allow that
and He does make that happen for His glory. We as Christians and Arminians believe that there is
evil in this world and God doesn't will evil. He is at war with evil. That's why Jesus healed the
sick. He calmed the storms and He cast out demons because evil is not part of God's nature. If it
would be Jesus would be confirming sicknesses, Jesus would be endorsing storms. He would be
endorsing demonization, not fixing stuff and Jesus is an expressed image of God. Jesus is God. If
you want to see who Jesus is, the photo of God is Jesus. Jesus is God. We see Him at war with evil
not endorsing evil or saying, Oh this is God's will. He was God's will and He healed the sick,
cast out demons and raise the dead and so I have a hard time reconciling with the Calvinistic view
that not only that God allows for things to happen but God is responsible for all these
things. He causes these things to happen for His glory. We just had a shooting that happened
where a transgender male, biological female went and shot up kids, killed kids and adults. A
Calvinist will look at that and say well, it's for God's glory like all of this is for God's glory
but you know God doesn't get glory from the human suffering. Now, can God redeem stuff for our good?
Yeah God redeems it. But God doesn't cause that. This was caused by evil you know when Cain killed
Abel, this wasn't God causing him to do that. This was sin and this was evil. We believe that there's
evil and humans have free choice and God doesn't endorse evil. He is at war with evil so that's my
second issue with Calvinism and the third one why I'm not a Calvinist is that in Calvinism, Satan is
seen as God's instrument not really a true enemy of God and he is presently an instrument in God's
arsenal. We believe that Satan is resisting God's will and he is God's enemy and we are at war with
demons and with Satan and with principalities. Again, not all Calvinists maybe believe these
things that I'm saying or hold on to them but quite few of them, their theological framework
really causes person like me to look at it and say, Hey Satan is not God's instrument. We are
God's instruments. Now does God sometimes can use certain things? Satan did. Yeah. I mean what Judas
did was used to accomplish the plan of salvation but God was still accomplishing that regardless.
Judas was not used by God per se the God planned for Judas to do this because if that was the case,
then Judas had no choice and he's going to go to heaven and probably get a reward because look what
he accomplished for God. He brought us salvation but Jesus clearly portrayed Judas as Satan. He
called him Satan and the Bible says, Satan entered Judas. He was a greedy man and Jesus said, It
would have been better for this guy not to even be born. So I don't see Satan as God's instrument. I
see Satan as God's enemy and we are to resist him and he is resisting God's will. The other issue is
that Calvinism perceives salvation as a condition not a relationship. Relationship requires free
consent and in Calvinism, it does not seem like you have a choice when it comes to salvation.
Now everything of course is put on God in the sense that you know look how good God has been
to you and glorious that He chose you and you had nothing to do with it. It's true, we cannot earn
our salvation. It's true that God is the one that extended forgiveness over sins 100% and we are
forever grateful. Grace is not something we earn; it's something we receive. But John 3:16 just kind
of honestly stabs this whole thing straight into the heart because the Bible says, "For God so
loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever," not that God chooses that for us,
but "whoever believes, whoever believes will not perish." So not whoever God chooses. So we just
showed up and God already chose us but whoever believes. So it's a relationship and free consent
is needed. On a personal note, you know some Calvinists are super arrogant in their theology,
extremely rude and deny the supernatural and maybe they got burned by the supernatural. Maybe they
got burned. Some of them you know went to word of faith kind of churches. They went into charismatic
churches and they got pretty burned with a lot of you know abuses that they've seen and so they went
to the other side now just kind of rejecting all of that becoming cessationists and a lot of them
are really mean people. Not all of them but a lot of them are pretty mean and very arrogant in their
theological preferences and they see everybody who opposes them as dumb, theologically shallow,
false prophets and all the false teachers and all of that. If you're not sure what you believe,
if you're a Calvinist or uphold that and some of you say, Well, I just believe the Bible. Well,
the thing is that within the Bible you can look at this verse and see it one way or the other
way. If you have a predisposed view already, you have a framework through which you look at it. We
have to look at the Bible and you will typically lean either toward one way or the other way. So
if you're watching this video and you're like, Vlad you know I'm kind of leaning more with you
or maybe I'm leaning more with the Reformed theology because you know I follow some of
these Reformed guys on YouTube or read their books maybe you're not sure. So I'm going to
give you just three questions to ask yourself if you're not sure. First question is which view is
most consistent with the portrait of God in Jesus Christ. The picture of God and in the scripture
as a whole not just if you take one particular verse but as a picture as a whole not just if
you take the story about you know God choosing pharaoh and pouring His wrath and choosing Him
for the wrath and you know choosing Jacob and not choosing Esau but if you take just as a scripture
as a whole and if you look at Jesus, Which view do you think is most consistent with Arminian or the
Calvinistic? The second question you should ask, Which view is most internally consistent? Both
views have some questions that they don't have really answers for and have some problems but
which one has problems you can live with? Which one has problems you cannot live with? So like
for me I cannot live with the fact that Jesus died only for certain amount of people like that's just
something I don't see that in the Bible. I have a difficult time to reconcile that. I also have a
very difficult time reconciling the fact that God chooses people to go to hell. John 3:16 seems to
debunk that for me as well as that we are depraved to that degree, we cannot choose even you know
choose to follow Jesus or reject Jesus. I also you know have an issue that a Christian can be trapped
in salvation. And if you genuinely believing in Jesus, you can never lose salvation. So I pretty
much have issues with almost every single point of Calvinism and so I have a hard time reconciling.
I've read some stuff and I know there's very good theologians that's there. Smart people,
God loving and God-fearing people who believe in that but I just have a hard time reconciling
those things and those are the problems I'm not going to be able to live with and so I choose
more of this view not only because of I'm part of the Assemblies of God but also it's the way
I grew up and then looking at these scriptures, it seems to make sense more and there is more
consistency by looking at the view of Arminians. The third question that you should ask yourself,
Why is Calvinism unheard of before Augustine in the 5th century? The view of God's sovereignty is
completely absent in the earlier Greek speaking Church fathers. The earliest
Church fathers rejected determinism and affirmed free will. So if you look at
the early church fathers until Augustine, you will not see Calvinism there. So it is something that
started more later from saint Augustine and onward. I think that it's safe to say that,
Hey there was a reason why they affirmed free will as well as rejected determinism which means that
God determines whether you go to heaven or not regardless of what you're going to do He chooses
you to be saved. Answer those three questions and I think it will help you to land in the right
path. Thank you for watching this video. If you are from a Calvinistic reformed theology, Hey, I'm
pretty sure you're going to let me know that in the comments. I don't have to ask you for that. If
you were confused and now it's just more clear for you, let me know in the comments below as well.
Let's have a healthy and respectful discussion and we can disagree. It doesn't mean that we have to
be nasty and we have to be disrespectful. Thank you. God bless you until next time.