Questions for Calvinists

 I have debated about doing this post. It may offend Calvinists who read it, but I have a couple of thoughts on that:

#1. I am very offended by the portrayal of God by the TULIP Calvinists, more than they would be by my questions.

#2. If Calvinists can't handle honest questions about what they believe and why, then maybe they need to examine why they feel so defensive.

#3. These are meant to be questions, and not an attack on Calvinists. These are honest questions I'd like a Calvinist to answer without giving canned answers.

#4. I see a lot of posts by Calvinists mocking we who don't believe as they do, and posts pointing out how wrong we are on their favorite TULIP points.

  Only in recent years have I run across TULIP Calvinists. I had previously run across those who believe once saved, always saved. I have issues with that belief, but this post is not to point out why I believe that. And to be honest, I am not extremely offended by that belief. I can see why it is attractive and why one would want to believe that. It is some of the other points of Calvinism that I find offensive, and ask myself why on earth......

 And to be blunt: I find Calvinism and their views of God extremely wrong and offensive. That doesn't mean I have no respect for people who are Calvinists. I do, especially the ones who don't make their entire existence as a Christian to be all about Calvinism, and who do not constantly bring their Calvinist beliefs up.

 A few years ago, a man in one of the groups I am in for same-sex attractions added me on Facebook. He was what I'd call a hyper Calvinist, constantly putting down any non-Calvinists, and posting very offensive stuff. I told him a few times how offensive he was, but he kept it up.. so I blocked him. Recently, he made a new account and sent me a friend request. As I debated, he messaged me and assured me he had changed and was not the arrogant hyper Calvinist he had been... so I added him. Mistake. He had not changed, and was soon back to his bashing and offensive posts.... so he is gone again.

 Not all Calvinists are like him. I have many Calvinist friends who never post anything about predestination and election, and never post jokes about non Calvinists. Those are the people I don't want to offend.....and this post is meant to ask questions. I am weary enough of  the Calvinist posts, that I am finally posting it after holding it for a few months.

 Anyway, on to my questions:

1) Why do you so staunchly and vehemently defend your belief in no free will, and predestination? Do you not realize it makes God look bad?

2) If God picks and chooses who He will offer salvation to, and who He will send to hell with no chance at redemption, then why witness or preach to people? You are wasting your time if the person is not one of  the elect.

3) If we have no free will and we will become a Christian if God wants us to be one, again why bother with preaching, evangelizing, and witnessing?

4) If God sends people to hell because He picked them out ahead of time to burn for all eternity, how can He judge those people for their sins and be a just God?

5) How can you tell someone God loves them? If they are not one of the elect, God does not love them.

6) If God is love, how can He pick so many people He is going to send to hell and not offer them salvation?

7) The Bible says that it is not God's will that any should perish, but that all would come to repentance. In light of that verse, how can you say it is God's will that many will go to hell without a chance at being saved?

8) Do you not realize what kind of God you are portraying to the world? In blunt terms, you teach and preach a God who picks people out ahead of time to toss into hell and never give them a chance to serve Him. You portray a God who forces people to be Christians who He has picked to be Christians. If a parent decided to just love some of their kids and provide for only some, we would have strong language for what kind of parents they were.....yet your portrayal of God is even worse than that.

9) Which God would you rather serve and tell people about: A God who loves everyone and who will save anyone, or a God who picks and chooses who He will save and who He will not, and forces people to serve Him?

10) If we have no free will, then why did Jesus say "Behold I stand at the door and knock......"?

11) How do you deal with this verse: "1 Tim 4:10 For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe."

12) Why are so many Calvinists so mean? Use Google images and Google Calvinism and Calvinism vs Armenian......there are some very hateful memes mocking we who are not Calvinists. And Google "why are Calvinists.... and check out the suggestions. They aren't nice suggestions.......

13) Is there any pride and arrogance is declaring you are one of the elect? If not, then why do so many of you bring it up so often?

14) What if a person wants to be a Christian and is not one of the chosen? How would you address that? (I have heard the argument that if a person is not the elect, he would have no desire to be a Christian, but that is a canned answer that cannot be proven).

15) How would you feel about God and election if your children were not of the elect?

16) If we are once saved always saved, why does the devil fight us so hard?

17) If we are once saved always saved, why fight temptation so hard.....why not just give in?

18) If God so loved the world that He sent His only Son to die, then how could that same God be so partial and vindictive with His love?

19) What happens to babies who are not the elect and die before birth or in infancy? Does God send babies to hell? And if so, how can you serve a God like that?

20) If God is so totally sovereign that He is in charge of everything we do, then does He make us sin when we sin? Example: Pastor-author John Piper believes if you are playing Scrabble, God causes you to pick the letters you pick. If that is the case, then wouldn't you have to believe that God directs us to commit every sinful act committed?

21) If we have no free will, and God basically forces us to be Christians, then are we not puppets and robots? Is not God just an evil puppet-master?

22) Are you trying to win disciples to John Calvin, or to Jesus? Are you preaching Calvin, or Jesus?

23) What reason is there to do posts mocking Arminians? Is that Christian? Is that loving? Is that "living peaceably with all men?" Do we make you insecure in your beliefs, so you must mock us to feel superior to us?

24) Why must so many of you constantly point out how wrong you think we are on free will and God offering salvation to all? If you are trying to win the lost, then why focus on and broadcast so often the fact that God does not offer salvation to all, and that you really don't have a choice in whether you serve God or not......how is that spreading the good news?

25) If we truly all sin daily, then why not give into temptation? Why shouldn't I be a gay Christian? If you have your sins that you commit daily and can be a Christian, then why can't I do the sin that tempts me daily?

26) Jesus compares God to a Father and says if a father knows how to give good gifts to His children, how much more does your Heavenly Father know how.....and yet you claim that same Heavenly Father sends people to hell without offering salvation, and judges them for sins they had no chance to repent of......how does that fit in with what Jesus said? It would appear the God you preach is worse than many earthly fathers.

27) What if you're wrong?

28) Why do you focus so much on God's sovereignty over His love? God's love is seen all through the Bible. A God who loves so much that He sent His Son to be one of us, to die at the hands of me, so that whosoever believes  can have eternal life. And you step on top of that to declare God is sovereign and can thus offer salvation to some, and not offer salvation to others......seriously. Why? God IS love, and a God who IS love cannot be the God you claim He is.

29) How does it glorify God or His Kingdom to be constantly pointing out that you believe God picks and chooses who He will save and who He will not?

30) If salvation is a gift, then why does God supposedly give no choice in who receives it or refuses it?

  The most well known verse in the Bible says that God so loved the world that He sent His only Son, and that whoever believes on Him will have eternal life. We are about to enter the Easter Season, the time we observe Jesus dying on the cross for our sins and rising from the dead. The Good news of the Gospel is that Jesus died for the sins of everyone....not for a select few. He offers salvation to all, and this mighty God gives us the choice to serve Him, or to refuse Him and eternal life.

 I asked the question above, but it does totally boggle my mind why so many Calvinists can't leave the predestination and election crap alone. To keep insisting that God picks out who He will save and who He will not, and that we have no free will......that is so far removed from what the Good News of the Gospel is that I honestly can't comprehend why it is more important to spread that message of John Calvin's instead of declaring the Good News that Jesus loves you and will save you. It would almost seem that predestination, election, and God's sovereignty are more important than God Himself, and spreading the news of God's love. It seems so many of them would rather spread the news that God picks and chooses who He will save, and you have no choice in the matter.

 For years, I struggled to believe God loved me. There were many factors I won't go into here, but it was only about 5 years ago that I finally believed God loved me. What if I had been a Calvinist? I would most likely have just figured I wasn't one of  the chosen ones and given up completely on being a Christian.

 And if I did believe as the Calvinists do, I believe I would most likely become an atheist...... for I could not serve the God they present... a God lacking mercy, justice, and love, and only dolling it out to those He picked ahead of time to force it on....which really isn't love or justice either.


 In closing, I was talking to my Sunday School teacher, who is the smartest person I know. Seriously. I brought up some verses that outright contradict Calvinism and asked how they could argue with them. He said they just always bring up God's sovereignty to deflect any of those questions.... so maybe that is more important to them than God's love.

In eternity past God decided to make an entire group of people for the express purpose of sending them to eternal damnation as a witness to his divine love. He then commissioned Calvinist preachers to call that doctrines of grace -Calvinism