By: Brenda Nickel

Recently we received comments from a reader upset by the exposé posted on our website about Calvinism. The reader misunderstood who authored the material and was surprised to learn that Calvinism exerts a strong degree of "mind control" over its adherents. The reader believes the material reveals a bent toward Pelagianism. Perhaps the astonishment is not so much with the written material but that anyone would disagree with Calvinism.

The reader writes:

"I have skimmed over Brenda's testimony and jotted down some comments, as well as given a rather cursory glance at the 300 page (!) refutation of Calvinism by Caryl herself. She has effectively thrown much of the discernment community under the bus."

"The most obvious problem is Caryl's assertion that Calvinism is something of a 'mind control' cult. She calls Lutherans "inconsistent Calvinists"--which makes me think that in order to be so unable to see the difference between Lutheran and Calvinist, she herself must be standing way over beyond Pelagius. The more I read the more astounded I was at her complete lack of understand of theology and Scripture regarding grace, sin, a Biblical anthropology, and sanctification. These are MAJOR ISSUES that deeply affect soteriology and the gospel itself."

Brenda's Response:

Thank you for taking the time to write in with your comments about my testimony and notebook (Basic Reformed Theology). First of all, let me take responsibility for all the written materials about Calvinism on Caryl Productions' website. I am the one who has authored these, not Caryl Matrisciana. She has graciously posted these to help Christian readers become educated about Calvinism and Reformed theology. This topic is one that discernment ministries should tackle but rarely do so since many in this arena are Reformed or Calvinists themselves.

Calvinist/Reformed discernment ministries rightly point out the errors of cults and heretical trends in Christendom and offer valuable information concerning these but in doing so promote their own particular views as biblically accurate. They rightly point out issues with Catholicism, Mormonism, Jehovah Witnesses or Seventh Day Adventism, and also Purpose Driven, Emergent, Contemplative, and Charismatics, but use these as backdrops against which Protestant theology appears to be correct. The disciple, who values and trusts their information about cults, may easily conclude they are correct in matters of doctrine as well. Therefore, even discernment ministries must be scrutinized since error can appear true when explained in scholastically erudite terms.

God warns us to be good Bereans (Acts 17:11) and search the scriptures to see if the things taught are true. We need to keep the whole counsel of God in mind, filtering what we learn through the lens of God's character and the gospel, so we aren't led astray. Paul tells us to "...put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him..."(Col 3:10). We are instructed to "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth"(2 Tim 2:15). We are cautioned that "Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them" (Acts 20:30). We are forewarned, "...lest any man should beguile you with enticing words" (Col 2:8).

All it takes for someone to be taken captive to an unbiblical teaching, is for untruth to significantly impact the unsuspecting as truth. So yes, Calvinism exerts a strong degree of "mind control" when a person is taken captive to the perception of God's absolute, predestining, mysterious, electing sovereignty. Instead, the Bible teaches God sovereignly gives man the ability and responsibility to believe, for which he will be held accountable.

The inquirer also uses my comments about Lutherans to suggest I'm way over the Pelagian line. Pelagianism is a scholastically loaded term used by Calvinists to accuse their opposition of things they don't actually believe. Pelagius, a contemporary of Augustine in the late 4th and early 5th centuries, rejected the Augustinian ideas of total depravity (man is too depraved in sin to make a decision to believe), infant baptism, and forms of [irresistible] grace (ability to believe apart form the consent of the individual). Therefore Calvinists, who say man is too depraved to understand the gospel apart from God's intervening grace, charge anyone who believes in free choice of being a Pelagian. In short, they say that placing personal faith in the gospel is the same as saving ourselves. Of course no one can save themselves. Only God can do that. And God promises to save those who meet the condition of faith. Man has been totally corrupted by sin, but can totally reason through the truth claims of the gospel. It's not that man can't believe, it's that he won't believe.

The inquirer also thinks I don't understand Biblical or Reformed Theology. The problem is only that I probably don't understand them in the same way he does. Each system has differing views about sin, grace, the nature of man (anthropology), the Christian life (sanctification), salvation (soteriology) and the gospel (soteriology). The inquirer is arguing from a Reformed vantage point, and I'm defending the Biblical standpoint. Reformed theology's gospel of Calvinism misunderstands man's sinfulness as inability to make a decision for Jesus Christ through personal faith in the Gospel. Therefore, they suppose, the totally depraved sinner must be "preselected" to receive irresistible grace that causes him to be born again before belief. Only then are the so-called "elect" properly equipped with a supernatural faith that enables them to believe the gospel when heard.

In the Reformed view God has pre-selected and equipped an elect few to receive salvation, while the Bible teaches that God has equipped all men with the ability to exercise personal faith for salvation. Conversely, consider that the responsibility for God's non-choice of some is vicariously shifted to the non-elect who will bear the consequences of God not choosing them for all eternity in hell. In short, the gospel shifts from faith in the cross, to faith in election, highlighting that these two understandings of the Bible, God, and the gospel are very different systems indeed.

For the sake of truth that sets free,

Brenda Nickel

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