The Calvinism Debate - Way of Life Literature

Calvin’s Camels“Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow acamel” (Matthew 23:24).Having read John Calvin’s Institutes and having studied thewritings of many Calvinists both ancient and contemporary, Iam convinced that Calvin was guilty of straining at gnats andswallowing camels. To accept Calvinism (in any of its forms)is to deny the plain teaching of dozens of Scriptures. In fact, itis to deny the entire tenor of Scripture.I have examined Calvinism many times during the 40 yearssince I was saved. e first time was shortly aer I wasconverted, when I was in Bible College, and Calvinism wasone of the many topics that were strenuously discussed by thestudents. I had never heard of Calvinism before that, and Ididn’t know what to think of it, so I read Arthur Pink’s eSovereignty of God and a couple of other titles on the subjectwith a desire to understand it and to know whether or not itwas scriptural. Some of the students became Calvinists, but Iconcluded that though Calvinism makes some good pointsabout the sovereignty of God and though I like the way itexalts God above man and though I agree with its teachingthat salvation is 100% of God and though I despise and rejectthe shallow, manipulative, man-centered soul winningscheme that is so common among independent Baptists andthough it does seem to be supported by a few Scriptures, thebottom line to me is that it ends up contradicting far toomany plain Scriptures.In the year 2000, I was invited to preach at a conference onCalvinism at Heritage Baptist University in Greenwood,Indiana, that was subsequently held in April of 2001. econference was opposed to Calvinism, and I agreed to speak,because I have been in sympathy with such a position eversince I first examined the subject in Bible College. Before Iput together a message for the conference, though, I wantedto re-examine Calvinism in a more thorough manner. I50