Why I Think Calvinism Is Unbiblical

so anyhow we're good and we're ready to go so I'm Pastor Mike winger by way of introduction this is the theology and apologetics livestream I generally do every Tuesday at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time and today we're tackling the topic of Calvinism and I want to start by explaining what you can expect for the rest of this video so let me give you a quick rundown because you know I'm gonna go in-depth we're gonna deal with a lot of details this is specifically to me a key issue regarding Calvinism it's one of the main reasons one of the reasons why I'm not a Calvinist is is this thing right here that I'm about to unpack for you so some issues relating to the debates between say Calvinism and non Calvinism or Armenians or traditionalists or fill in the blank its fluff and I am NOT interested in the fluff I don't care if it's effective I don't care if it's rhetorically useful I'm just not interested in the fluff I want to know biblical reasons for holding things is it biblical that's all I care about right I'm gonna embrace it if it is and I'm gonna try and reject it if it's not and just Mike my goal then is is it biblical so this is a Bible focused issue right here and I do think it's theologically central to the issue it's not the only issue that's central and it will connect to other issues but I think it's very important so allow me to unpack it I'm gonna share Calvinist quotes to support what I'm saying I'm gonna share several Calvinist quotes I'm gonna go to the scriptures to establish my points and then I'm gonna show you how there's a biblical truth that I'm gonna demonstrate how it unreal mine's a pillar of Calvinism in my opinion so that's kind of the plan for today and I want to offer a disclaimer for my Calvinist friends I consider this a family matter you are my brother and sister in Jesus well or sister not both but we're we're part of a family discussion here I don't vilify Calvinists I don't vilify Calvinism I really want to maintain I hope some respect between me and those who I disagree with on this topic I know a lot of Calvinists follow me and follow my teaching and you might be cringing than I'm even covering this topic let me assure you this is not my normal topic I'm not gonna be you know camping out on this all the time that's not gonna happen I'm also not going to demonize you and your views and I'm gonna do my best to try to represent them carefully and thoughtfully even though you might feel I'm misrepresenting I'm really trying not to I really am at the end of the stream we're gonna handle your guys comments and I will actually answer the comments you're putting in the live chat right now but I'm gonna prioritize I'm gonna ask AJ that you do this prioritize the comments coming from calvinists specifically if you think I think that's from you from a Calvinist or they say they are then prioritize that so that you can respond to the things I'm about to say so here's the issue is faith a work is faith of work and some would say Mike that doesn't matter if it's a work this is irrelevant I really disagree I think that whether or not faith is a work connects deeply and presently to the topic of whether or not Calvinism is true and my contention is that Calvinists they treat unjustifiably will treat faith or act as though faith is a work when they're discussing how they defend their Calvinist positions and if if we can undermine that and say faith is not a work then all of a sudden I have less reasons to be Calvinist if not no reasons maybe not none there might be one other major pillar that I'd like to cover someday but probably not anytime soon so is faith the work does Calvinism teach that faith are a free will to choose faith that this is a somehow a meritorious labor for God so let's start with the Bible let's go - we're gonna go to Romans chapter 3 and I'm actually gonna put up on the screen for you Romans chapter 3 and we're gonna be looking at the concept of whether or not faith is a work so here it is Bible first then we'll do Calvinist quotes then I'll respond and then I'll do your guys comments as well so Romans 3 verse 20 it says for by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight since through the law comes the knowledge of sin so by works of the law no one's justified we're not justified by these works but now verse 21 the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law although the law and the prophets bear witness to it the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe for there is no distinction and the idea here is simply that when I believe I am therefore made righteous and that is the opposite of works now most comments are like yeah I'm like I agree how is this even relevant well well let's think about this the works of the law Jesus summarized the entire law with two commands he used love God with all your heart soul mind and strength love your neighbor as yourself and that's the whole law so we're saying anything that fits in that whole category right loving God loving your neighbor this is every work every good work you can imagine that might merit salvation that's not how we're saved instead we're saved by believing so works is juxtaposed or put against faith as of these two things are contrary to each other let's read more because it gets more clear as we go down to verse 27 Romans 3 27 it says then what becomes of our boasting it is excluded it is excluded by what kind of law by a law of works no but by the law of faith for we hold that one is justified by faith apart from the works of the law or is God the God of the Jews only is he not the God of the Gentiles yes he is the God of the Gentiles also since God is one who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith do we then overthrow the law by this faith by no means on the contrary we uphold the law so this this is actually also really key in our conversation remember Romans 327 in particular because it's saying that if we're saved by faith not by works then that means we have no reason to boast that faith itself establishes that you are not working belief being the thing that gives us salvation through Christ and through what he has done for us not just faith in general but faith in Jesus because of his finished work on the cross that that that faith means I have no reason to boast so this is super simple stuff right and for me being a guy who was I've never been a Calvinist I've been exposed to Calvinism a decent amount but when I heard Calvinists start acting like faith was a work I was like but wait I mean the Bible makes it clear that faith and works are contrary to each other that one rules out the other if I'm saved by works it's not by faith I'm saved by faith it's not by work okay so this is easy stuff right this is easy simple Bible study stuff remember Romans 327 will come back up in a minute alright Romans chapter 4 verse 1 now we get to Abraham what then shall we say it was gained by Abraham our forefather according to the flesh for if Abraham was justified by works he has something to boast about same concept as in 3 it's about do you do you get you get credit right if I can boast is because I get credit do you have any credit any measure of credit for your salvation not if you're saved by faith that's what this is about yes if you're saved by works then you can boast if it's by faith you can't boast because you didn't earn it it's not meriting anything faith merits nothing for if Abraham was justified by works he has something to boast about but not before God for what does the scripture say abraham believed god and it was accounted it was counted to him as righteousness his belief counted his righteousness it's not righteous it was counted he was given righteousness because of his faith now to the one who works but his or his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due and to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly his faith is counted as righteousness now again the I'm just kind of burning the point into your mind right that faith is not a work because look at verse 5 to the one who does not work but believes well if believing is not working then faith is not a work his faith is counted his righteousness just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works so we have again another passage there let's scroll down to Romans 4 verse 13 and it says again here in Romans in Romans of course I mean I love the book of Romans you guys know I mean I've a whole 49:49 part series teaching through the book of Romans available on YouTube but here we are at Romans 4:13 beautiful beautiful stuff it says for the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith now since Romans is already established that faith itself isn't meriting anything righteousness of faith means I believe God he gives me righteousness that's what it means God gets all the credit and I can't boast that's what Romans is saying in Romans 3 and 4 verse 14 for if it is the adherence of the law who are to be the the heirs faith is null and the promises void for the law brings wrath but where there is no law there is no transgression and then we read verse 16 that is why it depends on faith in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring not only to the adherents of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham who is the father of us all verse 16 Romans 4 16 is massively important on this issue this is why this is why God's making it depend on faith why salvation depends really requires it must have faith on the part of the person to be saved why it depends on them is so that the promise can rest on grace faith establishes grace if it's by faith then it's gonna be by grace okay let's look at Galatians Galatians 2 and we'll look in verse 16 Galatians 2:16 says yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ so we also have believed in Jesus and Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith and not by works of the law because by the works of the law no one will be justified just again the juxtaposition right if it's by faith it's it's grace it's free you don't get to boast if it's by works you could boast but guess what everyone fails no one's justified that way by works so faith is obviously not a work it seems that if you're gonna take the Bible these Bible passages seriously you cannot later on try to pull a switcheroo on me and tell me that me believing is a meritorious and boastful and it's somehow earning something and giving me credit for my salvation so let's continue Galatians 3 2 let me ask you only this did you receive the spirit by works of the law or by the by hearing with faith just one or the other right it's not both did you it's either by the works of a lot or by the hearing of faith and here it's hearing with faith like you you heard right but you had to have faith as a Hebrew says like the word did not profit them because it was not mixed with faith in those who heard it so you have to hear and believe you have to do both of those things and then Galatians 3 verse 5 and 6 this is actually the last two verses I'm going to cover I think maybe one more before we look into some Calvinist quotes so relations 3:5 does he who supplies the spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law or by hearing with faith which one is it right just as abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness now Abraham doesn't get a boast you don't get a boast you don't get any credit faith equals grace faith equals no boasting faith equals all credit to God all credit to God that's what faith means but in the Calvinistic system this is very quickly changed and this is one of the reasons again why I cannot be a Calvinist now if anyone's wondering like Mike why are you covering this topic I just want to throw it out there I did a poll on my YouTube channel where I asked you guys what do you want me to talk about and I brought up two issues the passion translation that's coming out do a review of that or deal with faith as a work in Calvinism and over 900 people voted 500 of them specifically said hey we want to see we want to see this Calvinist issue unpacked and dealt with and so I'm dealing with it today actually because so many people voted for the passionate translation I'm gonna do that next week about 400 something voted for that so obviously there's a lot of interest in that I'm doing my work on that and I'm actually it's funny on with Calvinists I'm so willing to disagree that I'm actually like more passionate about dealing with this passion translation then I am about this issue of Calvinism but I I think for the sake of loving biblical truth and seeking biblical clarity that this is a good thing to talk about and and I do think that the Bible is very clear on this issue and Calvinism muddies it for us quite a bit actually starts changing definitions and moving things around so so here we go to things that we've got so far to these passages I should take three things really works as in earning salvation we hate that's unbiblical nobody gets that like you there's no such thing as works for salvation it will never happen all have fallen short of the glory of God right all are condemned and can only be saved through Jesus Christ it's through believing in him that's my action I believe in him but that's not a work in the sense that it's it merits anything no he merits at all and when I believe I don't now have a reason to boast I don't have any any credit that goes I believed I trusted them you know I did a good job like the Bible says because it's my faith you can't boast so don't tell me I'm boasting in that regard so um works we don't like works are bad faith is not a work that's the second thing faith is not a work in fact faith establishes grace and faith gives no reason to boast you can't boast if all you had was faith the Bible is very clear so let's move forward how does Calvinism treat faith as a work well if we're gonna talk about this issue we're gonna need to quote some Calvinists so here is um RC sprawl and he deals with the issue here of synergism and monetarism now hold on let me come back to that in a second I'm not gonna for those of you I'm hoping you're at least a little familiar with Calvinism you're watching this video this is probably not the video for introducing you to the topic this is a video for helping you understand it and I think a better way in a more simplistic and clearer way but but you've got to know at least these terms synergism Monitor jism so I'm just going to teach you these I think this is it it's the only two fancy words if you don't know these words you need to know them for the sake of this discussion because they come up constantly so what is synergism and what isn't monitor jism and how does it relate to this issue so here's a quote from RC sprawl on monitor jism and synergism again he is of course one of the proponents well-known well-respected proponents of Calvinism and I went to be with the Lord recently I love RC sprawl I recommend listening to his stuff catch this I recommend it I think it's a good thing here I I feel like I feel like something's wrong that I'm not on the screen okay let me okay there we go so here's what our C sprawl says about monitor jism and in his own words this is a Calvinist right he's gonna he's gonna take everybody and lump him in two categories you're a synergist or you're mono just and I'm gonna argue with that so he says the doctrine of justification by faith alone was debated during the Reformation on the deeper level of monarchist stick reject regeneration being that we we're initial point of salvation regeneration that happens maaan urges tically with only God working so let's explain the term this technical term must be explained mono jism is derived from a combination of a prefix and a root we're talk about the etymology or the pieces of the word the prefix mono is used frequently in English to indicate that which is single or alone single or alone and it sounds so depressing just kidding the root comes from the verb to work though so we have a mono which means a loan and we have sinner synergistic or synergy or an urges - this is the idea of I'm sorry I've just confuzzled it or gistic that's that second part has to do with work or labor so the root comes from the verb to work the ERG of monarchy comes into our language to indicate a unit of work or energy when we put the prefix and root together we get mono G or mono jism so modernism is something that operates by itself it operates by itself or works alone as the sole active party sole active party mono jism is the opposite of synergism synergism shares a common root with mono jism but has a different prefix the prefix sin comes from a Greek word meaning with synergism is a cooperative venture of working together of two or more parties so if that if I lost anybody there I will now just summarize what I just read from RC sprawl super genius brilliant guy but he says basically right mono jism is when only one person is doing all of the work all of the labor all of the effectual things happening only one person does it synergism is when more than one does it so synergism if two people are rowing a boat that's synergism but if one person sitting in a boat and the other person is rowing the that's monetarism one guys doing all the work so how would you describe salvation well every Christians gonna go well it's monitor jism obviously it's moderate ISM right God does all the work I just sit in the boat you know I just do nothing he does everything for me and here is where the switcheroo is gonna take place Calvinists are going to start to say that because you believed the if you think you believed based upon a decision you made yeah and I don't even mean without the help of God right with God helping you with with the Holy Spirit working in your heart with the gospel being proclaim to you and God drawing you but you made a freewill choice like you could have accepted it you could or reject it you chose to accept it that's synergism you did some of the work and here's where I go wrong didn't we just go through a bunch of scriptures that says faith is not a work so don't say that my choice to believe makes me a synergist in regards to salvation because it starts to be a switcheroo you start to act like the the the act of believing is a work remember that the two sin arrghh two people are more working I'm working for my salvation faith is now working for salvation that is not biblical this is a unbiblical definition of faith an unbiblical definition of choice that is not that is not true so let me share with you now a quote from a guy who I hate to quote right now and I'll tell you why this is James white on the topic of synergism here's the reason why I'm hating to quote him I love James white and I've never played any of his videos except this first time and now it's to disagree with him and I kind of that kind of makes me sad I really love James white I highly recommend you listen to his content and I just think he's wrong about Calvinism but but specifically I want to play a quote where he defends Calvinism and he does the synergism monetarism thing and I think it's worth us listening to to talk about so I'm gonna play a quote now from dr. James white whom I love and respect and who I'm about to say I think is wrong so I have grace upon me what binds all synergists together is that God is not the one who saves he makes salvation possible he aids by some kind of grace whether it's a previant grace or whatever else but unless you're a full-on Pelagian you will at least acknowledge the necessity of some level of God's grace and so what binds everyone together is that if you're a modernist God can actually save if you're a synergist God can only try to save and you can give him all the credit in the world sign everybody have been able to save myself that's true but you also have to turn around if you're a sinner just to say and God could not have saved me without me that's that's the issue that's the fundamental issue okay I gotta come in here and I'm actually gonna play this again now you've heard everything he said and I think I gave enough context so that you can understand what he's talking about there's this is a long video it's like you know very long where he talks about synergism and other things in James White's view synergism includes not only Mormons Jehovah's Witnesses Islam and even Catholicism in that they all have one thing in common they all appeal to God giving some measure of grace but they also all say that man has to do certain works to be saved so that's sinner to me that's synergistic in the true sense of the word man is doing works and God did works so we both work together so that I can be saved that's that's to me true biblical use of the term synergism but because you choose to believe within the non Calvinist view you you you believe Jesus did all the work but you chose to just trust him we're gonna call that a work now so now we can say you two are lumped in with couch with Catholicism which truly does have a false gospel and I have a whole series on that if that if that raises your eyebrows to hear me say that I'm not attacking Catholics I'm just I have a series on that go look up my series on Catholicism online but I'm loved him with them Mormons Jehovah's Witnesses and every other false belief system so I'm gonna play this again and I want to pause it a little bit to kind of respond to some of the things that James White says here it's all synergist together is that God is not the one who saves okay pause this is of course a big bold statement here right all synergists again it includes me I'm considered a synergist even though I'm I'm firm like grace alone salvation now James wouldn't demonize me he would say that I'm just i have inconsistencies and he would still accept me as a brother and I appreciate that but God alone doesn't do the saving so the implication is that me just by believing me just saying I trust you Jesus I'm doing some of the saving that's not biblical is it the verses we read are very clearly saying that you just believing means you did nothing and God gets all the credit all the glory and it was by grace let's keep listening make salvation possible he aids by some kind of grace whether it's a previant grace or whatever else but unless you're a full-on Pelagian you will at least acknowledge the necessity of some level of God's grace okay so we this is I think an incorrect view of say myself a non Calvinist who would say I recognize that I entirely need God's grace like I fully 100% need God's grace there's no grace or no work that I do I just believe but the the Assumption that's underlying what he's saying is that my belief itself my choice just trust in Christ that itself is a work that I do even if I believe that the Holy Spirit did a work in me to help me to do it that I didn't even do that alone right like God called out to me reached out to me his word preached to me the gospel impacted me I'm believing all this stuff but that still means I'm getting some credit but that's not biblical let's just keep listening and so what binds everyone together is that if you're a modder Jew God can actually save if you're a synergist God can only try to save and you guys give up postures like he's gonna say more actually let me let me play the rest of what he says here I don't want to I don't want to cut him off we can give him all the credit in the world sign everybody have been able save myself that's true but you also have to turn around if you're a synergist and say and God could not have saved me without me that's that's the issue that's the fundamental issue so the that's the end of that video from James so the fundamental issue is monarchist is believing that God saves you entirely and that includes making you have faith somehow whether he he he gave you the ability to only choose faith that's I don't know how else to put it I'm trying to fairly represent Calvinism here but then the sinner just view what they call synergism is the view that I just I just chose to trust that's it but that's not synergism right the Bible explains God's doing all the work in that exact scenario so that's that's the James white thing to suggest that this means God tries to save and can't this to me I'm gonna call that fluff right that's right that's rhetoric that's not accurate I don't think that that's accurate and all respect to James white man I love the guy they just did a debate by the way him and dr. Michael Brown did a debate against some to pro gay advocates on its online you should totally look it up wonderful stuff love those guys hate to disagree with them now I want to look at a quote from RC sprawl jr. this is a quote from RC sprawl jr. and see if you can't tell where he violates the biblical text that we just read earlier so in his faith of work on Ligonier org he says faith is not a work on two counts and he's gonna give us two reasons why faith is not a work and I want to show you how this this violates the text we read first it is a gift from God it is not just received by grace but it but is a grace now for those who just you just read the Bible like you don't look to church councils you don't know that kind of stuff when you say it is a grace you don't even know what he means by that because this is not this is not so much biblical language as it is language that comes from the council's and the debates of the church history but anyways he says it is a grace meaning that I'm not even choosing faith it's something kind of given to me boom I have faith so faith is something God gives to us on our own it is not possible for we are dead in our trespasses and sins and note that our faith has been a specific object as he has offered to us in the gospel so they he's gonna take I'm not gonna cover this of course today but he's gonna take the idea that you're dead incensed I mean you couldn't even say Lord I believe you can't even say that dead in sin means you can't even say I believe to the gospel even with the the help of the Holy Spirit you have no no you have to actually get regenerated first so listen to the second reason because my contention is this the first reason is is is sort of Calvinist teaching that I think is an untrue right the second reason proves the first one's unnecessary listen to his second reason second reason to my faith is not a work faith by its nature is passive we rest we don't work we receive we do not earn there is more to resting than mere assent but there is not more work indeed there is no work at all just resting and receiving the very ground of our salvation the work of Christ for us and I'm like look if faith is just receiving and just trusting if it's not work then I don't need the first half of what you said to be true more importantly it's not clearly taught in the scripture that faith is a gift in that sense a monastic work of God where he makes me have faith that's not anywhere in the Bible is my contention and I'm very happy to talk about the passages where people say they find that one more sort of I'm trying to lean towards Calvinist people respect here so I hope this is a good source that I've chosen but Reformation theology calm under is faith of work says we confess with the Bible that our regeneration or new birth in Christ is monastic a work of God alone and not synergistic a cooperation of man and God in regeneration no I agree in the sense that faith too not merit anything right salvation is entirely mana gistic I think I'm a monarchist but they're gonna say no you're not and the reason is because they think faith is a work so thus our faith in Christ arises out of a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit to change in softener annouced natural hostile disposition towards God we likewise affirm that only by upholding monastic regeneration do we faithfully Herald the biblical doctrine of Sola gratia or salvation by grace alone all other schemes in which unregenerate man either takes the initiative well I don't know anybody who thinks we take the initiative God obviously took the initiative both in making me sending Jesus to save me and then reaching out to me with the gospel along with the work of the Holy Spirit in my life but I did a sent I did make a choice there that seems to be what Scripture teaches and that's not a work so all of their schemes in which unregenerate man either takes the initiative or cooperates to be regenerated by a faith produced or drawn from their own native ability should be considered synergistic some may be unhappy with being called a synergist because it implies that they believe manna God work together towards salvation which clearly is a form of semi-pelagianism I'm not going to get into the issues of what's Pelagianism and semi-pelagianism it just takes a lot to unpack all that but but clearly he starts off by saying salvation is entirely work of God and but then the rest of the article is like saying hey that's why you can't believe because if you even if you even respond in faith to the drawing of God if you have any part if any part of your will said yes Lord I want you I want to be forgiven I want to know Christ I want to risk see I hear the Holy Spirit calling and I'm saying yes if any part of you says yes then you are therefore you are therefore working for your salvation I mean am I getting it wrong look at the last sentence some may be unhappy with being called a synergist cuz it implies that they believe man and God work together towards salvation now biblically working for salvation that's the naphtha m'a to me that's a false gospel right but you're saying that me just believing is a work hence the Achilles heel of Calvinism right faith is not a work according to the Bible faith establishes grace it doesn't ruin it you choosing to trust in Christ doesn't undermine God's love doesn't undermine God's power his glory or him monastic 'le saving you it just doesn't change that at all so this is a big deal there's there's just something about about you just trusting in God that that in Calvinism they'll elevate this and make it a gospel issue which is why some Calvinists not all in fact maybe not even most probably probably a minority will actually look at what I'm saying today and they'll be like Mike you're you have a false gospel like you are you are your Anathem alike you're cursed to hell for this false gospel but most of them I don't think would have that particular perspective now I'm gonna do something a little different which is um I want to take you guys to the tulip test and now I had an interaction with psy ten brueggen Kate not long ago on tulip and I'm tulip on presuppositional apologetics and he had sent me on Twitter this thing this thing called the tulip test so let me let me get how do I get to the beginning of this let me let me bring it there this is I hope I didn't delete it off of my okay give me a moment I'm gonna bring it up this is the tulip test and the tulip test is a boom there it is is is basically in my opinion that this to live test is a sneaky way of getting people to think that faith is a work and so now that I've kind of done the hard work the homework of saying hey faith is not a work that the Bible says it Calvinists tends to say that it is now I can actually respond to this so let me get myself a little bit more out of the way so you can read because you need to read the text of what he says this is on proof that God exists org this is size website and here's psy I love you brother actually had a really good time talking with you but this is these are just trick questions that's ultimately what they come down to so I got to get to the beginning of this let me let me just agree with him here so that he'll so that he'll get me to the beginning of his cycle there does start ok this is the tulip test this is supposed to convert you you know you're thinking right so first question is the Word of God your ultimate authority I'm gonna answer this the way you would if you were not ready if you didn't have my training I just gave you on the topic you'd be like well yeah I believe the Bible okay so any doctrine which denies Jesus Christ the glory he's due is wicked do I agree with that yeah like don't be stealing glory from Jesus that's evil how much glory does Jesus get for my salvation all of it Jesus gets all the glory he alone saved me through all of his glorious work he did it he gets all the glory amen what makes you different from the Damned different from the Damned well I'm saved I mean that's not damned you're saved look that's the difference right so what was it what I did or what Jeep well it was what Jesus did obviously Jesus what he did did Jesus do the same for everyone oh wait a minute I thought Jesus died for the whole world so I'm gonna say he did do that for everyone and then he's gonna say well down at the bottom here if Jesus did the same for everyone then what makes you different from the Damned must be what you did well does that mean that what I did okay so what I did is I guess cuz I believed right oh yeah I believed and they didn't believe so what I s that mean that's what made me different how much glory does Jesus get for my salvation Oh easily he just he gets all the glory but oh you're asking me this because I think that if I if I did the did the belief and that's what makes me different than I'm I get the glory for my salvation or at least some of it and that's what he says at the bottom here it's hard to read if what makes you different from the Damned is what you did then you share the glory of your salvation with Jesus if that's the case then Jesus does not get all the glory for your salvation you're denying him a physical Orion you as you're admitting are adhering to a wicked doctrine because I said it was wicked to give glory to someone that belongs to Jesus Wow okay so Jesus gets all the glory for my salvation so then what brings you back to what's the difference I guess it's what Jesus did then jeez these are the same for everyone I guess not I guess I guess I'm I'm a Calvinist I guess I just became the Calvinist now let me show you if you don't already notice where the trick took place but this is this is perfect there's a perfect example because it's this is exactly how it goes down right the Word of God I mean you know God spoke through his word God's my ultimate authority that's to be more clear I would say God's my ultimate authority but he did inspire the word so the Bible carries God's authority so let's say yes to this any doctor which denies Jesus his glory is wicked I fully agree again I agree how much glory is Jesus get all of the glory for my salvation what makes me different from the Damned and here's where the trick comes faith isn't a what I did thing is it I mean I believe but it's not a work that does that makes me different Jesus I believed him but it didn't earn anything I didn't gain anything so Jesus he saved me right he not only died on the cross for the world but then he brought me into that salvation so I'm gonna say it was what Jesus did and did use do the same for everyone absolutely he did the same for everyone sort of right because he died to save me but then well okay so then what what what I did because it was my belief and this is again where where where this is where the the switcheroo takes place how much glory did Jesus get for my salvation he gets all the glory you know why because Romans 327 Rome let me take you there boom and boom and boom remember the verse I said we needed to remember was Romans 327 then what becomes of our boasting it's excluded by what kind of law by law of works no but by the law of faith I don't get a boast because it was just faith that's all I did I just believed and faith is resting and faith is not a work as RC sprawl jr. said in his second reason my faith is not work so I get no glory so Jesus gets even though my belief is a difference between me and the unsaved what makes me different what makes me saved is G what Jesus did not my so he gets all the glory so again this is just it's a switcheroo and I see all the time and it's subtle and it's sometimes hard to find but it is indeed in my opinion the ultimate switcheroo um so I asked I'm about to go to your guys questions in in a few minutes here but I asked these two questions on my Facebook page and I also asked on Twitter and I wanted to get responses in preparation for this so here's my two questions I asked Calvinists I said Calvinist friends and for them only do you consider faith to be a work in the sense that it merits anything if not then how can a non Calvinists position be considered synergism okay so that was the question now I would like to share with you guys some of the responses to that question and see if you can't tell we're on in it's like it's like left-brain right-brain like like like left brain of the Calvinists wants to say faith is not a work but then right brain says but faith is a work because if you have it without God making you have it then you get glory and that's a work that earns you salvation so see how they're conflicted here and I want to free you with the Bible you know from that conflict so Jeff Robinson he responded to my request he says according to Ephesians 2 salvation is by grace so there's no boasting I agree and faith itself is a gift that's not what Ephesians who says it is given to us otherwise there would be grounds for boasting wait faith is grounds for boasting but that's can I take us boasting is excluded why by the law of faith no boasting in okay so let's go back to those two questions David Wilson says sup Mike sup David he says I put faith in a different category than works in that it's different than something like feed the poor however it is still a command so it is similar in that way if putting faith in Christ is a good thing then it follows that God saves us based on good things we do which is ultimately salvation by merit even if it's merit light and I'll say David that is exactly followed the track of Calvinism right faith is no it's not really work but you know what it's a thing faith is something you do and the aren't things you do works but the Bible is clear in when it comes to or earning salvation faith is not a work so problem solved face not a work so it's not synergism Steve Hayes and some of these guys are actually I think well-known guys and professors and people who write books about Calvinism and grateful to have their responses I'm Steve hey said two questions for my Calvinist friends my first question he answers in Calvinism both faith and works are nonmeritorious notice how he says in Calvinism I just want to know in reality right but in he says in Calvinism they don't earn anything - if not then how can an on Calvin his position be considered synergism he says in freewill theism faith is an independent contribution made by the sinner no no it no it's something I do but I don't even do it alone I don't do it in a vacuum I don't do it without the poll of God on me but I do make a free decision I could accept or reject and I choose to accept so he says in Calvinism faith is the inevitable result of monitor gistic regeneration God causes or engenders saving faith in the elect in other words in Calvinism if God didn't make you have faith it would be a work now I would say it's not and so Calvinism is unnecessary Joe Dunn he says - number one definitely the answer is kinda faith this kind of a work it takes a certain kind of work to focus on faith action God can't be pleased without that if we do please and that is in some sense merit since number one is essentially a yes number two doesn't apply in my case and I agree yeah if there's a work then obviously I'm a synergist if I don't think God gives me that faith but may I take us back to the scripture here faith is not a work right by the law of faith boasting is excluded one is justified by faith apart from the works of the law so it's apart from works okay so let's go back to those two questions and let's see which one of my own now there we go Joe's question and our Joe statements and then Terrence Theodore says faith is a work performed by God that's a consistent Calvinist position in fact that's the most consistent one faith is a work and God does it but it's not biblical number two he says the non Calvinist position is considered synergistic because of how the Arminian understands freewill they believe that they chose to in and of themselves hints synergism not quite accurate there's there's a belief that God was was drawing me but I did make a decision it was a free choice or I could have chosen to believe or chosen not to believe and every time God says choose like choose you this day whom you will serve this implies free well the plain reading of the text is that we have free will from Sonny Burrell it says I'm a little rusty so I'm open for modification and Sonny says no faith is neither a work nor meritorious I agree the Bible agrees good answer number two a non Calvinist position is synergistic because it has an effect made faith meritorious and that's right okay no we don't that's just something that that's something that is say set in Calvinism to push you to Calvinist views this assumes that to make faith meritorious is either necessarily or on account of some other part of the non Calvinist position to make it synergistic yes if faith is meritorious then it's synergistic it faiths not meritorious as the Bible says it's not synergistic I don't need it to be done to me I'm able to choose to trust in him what is ruled out for the sake of this discussion therefore whether subjectively are objectively is the idea that the non Calvinist position can be synergistic without also making faith meritorious ok so a little complicated there but I'll move on so Laura Elizabeth McGregor answered on my Facebook page and she says yes yes faith is God's work and it merits everything and I would say I disagree with that but it's consistent cuz she goes do I have to even answer the second question and I was like no you don't because if faith is meritorious boom right then then BOOM here's then there's my questions I'm gonna show my questions again if faith is meritorious then she's right if faith is a work then yes non Calvinist positions are synergistic if faith is not a work Calvinism is unnecessary ultimately I'm gonna go to Twitter this is some stuff we got on Twitter pre-sub guy says no faith is not meritorious it's not a work and then number 2 choosing something is a work so in his view the faith wasn't to work but choosing to have faith that was a work okay but that's not what scripture says this is a a policing or how do I say this this is a fail-safe to keep you in Calvinism is to on one hand recognize faith is not a work and on the other hand try to somehow make it a work so that I have to say that regeneration precedes faith so I have to say that God has to do all the faith in me faith is a gift of God and it it's mono gistic the fact that I believe is just because God made me believe or else I'm or boasting I'm somehow better than the unsaved but that's none of those things are biblical faith alone is God's work Ashley Gardner says and I don't agree and that's not what scripture indicates alone God alone makes me have face so I have no free will and in it but that's not established with Scripture a reformed Christian apologist I like this he just goes yep that's and that's the consistent Calvinist view so these are these are some of them I think I had one more I wanted to bring up let's see I want to bring up Aaron break because Aaron's a buddy of mine and even has a video on my channel dealing with abortion really really well done good educational stuff on you check it out so he says do you consider faith to be a work in the sense that it merits anything and Aaron says no faith is not a work but is itself a gift of God and again that's not what Ephesians 2 says that faith in and of itself is a gift of God that's not what it says it says that being saved by grace through faith that's a gift of God so salvation is a gift of God when a Calvinist refers to faith as meritorious as a meritorious work it is usually in critique of freewill theism or Arminianism in other words the critique is that a synergistic model of regeneration in effect turns faith into a work rather than a gift since it's something man contributes to his own salvation so faith is so Aaron I love you brother right but you're saying faith is not a work but it is and that's why you can't have faith on your own and you're blaming it on me like I'm the one making it work but over here I'm here the non Calvin is saying faiths not a work end of story there's no other it's pretty simple stuff you know number two if not then how can a non Calvinist position be considered synergism it is termed synergistic because man must cooperate with God's grace for the act of regeneration to take see when we go cooperate we start to change the language cooperate synergism man must do something man has to work that's labor that's Merit that's earning salvation but that's not biblical the Bible again says faith is not a work so on the free will theism or Arminian view or minion view God's grace is necessary to save but not sufficient and therefore seen by is seen by Calvinists as undermining the reformed principle of Sola gratia see I get where they're coming from they're just wrong it's adding having faith to access what God has done does not undermine grace at all it establishes grace that's what the scripture has said it establishes grace so as we read earlier so um here's what I would like to do right now I there's a lot of directions we could go right now but I want to go to your guys questions first cuz here's the thing we're gonna prioritize you telling me I'm wrong and I don't mind but I'm gonna ask this as you're putting those those statements in the comments be specific be clear and actually deal with what I've said if you're gonna change the subject I'm probably not gonna respond to that because I like having focused videos that stay on topic as much as possible and and then if you guys want we can deal with some of the other issues like the issue about whether or not faith is a gift and have some scriptures I can bring up when you talk about that for a minute but but let me just deal with some of your objections first so here we go this is from Michael Cato he says question for Mike regardless of whether faith is a work or not would not passages such as acts 13:48 in John 6:44 suggests that God is absolutely the catalyst for this belief thanks always ok so this is a question about what what causes me to have faith and let's bring those verses up let me bring up my my software again there it is so acts 13:48 and when the Gentiles heard this they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed okay so this is where I mean that this passage doesn't say anything about God being the catalyst for belief except that God's ordination God's God's election of those people from before time is there and I believe in got an election I have a video on called a Calvinism Arminianism predestination and election that's the title of the video and actually it's linked in the video description because I kind of anticipated this might come up so you're welcome to check that out and see how I answer that in more detail I'll say though off the cuff what I want a scripture to tell me is man makes no decision about believing God or I mean we start to get into libertarian free will and compatibilism and things like this but the Bible doesn't talk clearly about those issues it just seems to imply like you make a choice to believe and I'm gonna trust that unless I have some good clear scripture that says something otherwise so I believe God is working in me and I'm making a choice to believe and he elected me from before the foundations of the world and my belief is involved in all that so John 6:44 this always comes up in the debate with Calvinism it says no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day okay so I would say God as I've kind of hinted at it sure already God doesn't work in my life right through the Holy Spirit the spirit and the bride say come you know through the conviction of sin righteousness judgment to come through the preaching of the gospel because the gospel goes out with power and so all of these things are drawing me and when I ascent and I do think I have to assent and I think God ordained that and that's that part of believe or don't believe then I am drawn that drawing has been has come to completion you know so God there's a there's a reaching out to all people but he does not draw all people to himself entirely the to me John 6:44 doesn't pose a problem here so I'll let someone else bring up another issue there but okay Christopher jank says I'm a Calvinist how does one explain scriptures like Peter 2:8 or other clear teachings of double predestined I'm trying to remember is that first Peter 2:8 yeah okay so they stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do so okay this is getting off topic I'd like to deal with this issue sometimes people have asked me like do a video on mullen is a mic okay so yeah this is gonna deal with some other things like that I think I'm trying to think of how to not make this too much information right um I think that from my perspective I can look at God's ordination of events and I can say yes God ordains events and man makes free will choices I believe both of those things are true so when it says God ordained it that doesn't somehow controvert people making free will choices and so the first Peter passage first Peter 2 it's specifically talking about how when Christ came the rulers and the people they didn't know and God had a hand in that he ordained that Jesus would be rejected by the people of God or the Jewish people I should say that Jesus would be crucified under Pontius Pilate and that Judas himself would betray him but that doesn't mean that Judas didn't make a choice or Pilate didn't make a choice or the Jewish people didn't make a decision about Jesus so God both ordained it and they made choices it was it was both in my opinion I don't see that this has anything I don't think it changes my view on this issue so that's my understanding Thomas Rize says Mike I'm a Calvinist and I appreciate your videos and I'm very thankful for your exegesis of Scripture I would just ask if you would have a good in-house conversation with James white I'd be terrified to talk to James white man James why I love Jews why man and and and he's that he's an experienced and skilled debater and I would be totally scared to go against him in a conversation like that which the goal would be to prove me wrong but I would consider it just because almost aired doesn't stop me from doing it I mean right so no I I would I would consider that yeah I would consider it I would probably want to do a whole lot more preparation than I have done in order to have that conversation but I'd be open to it you know so Michael Celestia's I'm a Calvinist and never heard that faith is a work where these points pulled from well okay so I gave you the quote I think you probably asked that before I gave you all those quotes from Calvinists where the other they're saying yeah if God doesn't create faith in you in some sense there's a few different options either God makes you he changes your will so that now you want to have faith in which case he didn't make the faith he made the one for the faith or he gives you the faith itself faith is a gift and God just gives it to you and now I do believe as a pure work of God those are the quotes there's a kind of a couple of ways of which they unpack it so triggerman 1976 says Mike you claimed that faith is not a gift in Ephesians 2 however verse 8 clearly says faith is a gift please defend your claim all right let's let's do it Ephesians 2:8 I'm gonna we're gonna talk about a little bit Greek all right here's how a Calvinist reads this some Calvinists read this here we go let's write this down so I can see what I'm doing okay for by grace you have been saved through faith and this and not word this or in some translations that this is the whole focus is on what does this word mean so this is not of your own doing it is the gift of God okay so what's the gift of God so some Calvinists will say faith faith is the gift of God is the last thing that was said in Ephesians 2:8 the first sentence there for by grace you've been saved through faith it is the gift of God end of story problem solved but others will point out that there's a problem in the Greek here and I'm gonna give you the problem in the Greek that I'm gonna give you the Calvinist response to that problem okay so I'm gonna unpack the whole issue here let's just dig in right at least to the best of my ability I'm not like a Greek scholar but I try to study these things to understand them so in the Greek there's ways of tying words together in a sentence that we don't really have in English very well or at all and it has to do with the feminine neuter or masculine of the word and so in in this sense the word faith is a let me see Ephesians 2:8 I'll just double-check this slide so I get it right the word faith is past ASR Christos and it is a feminine it is a feminine word and so the problem is that the word this this is not your own doing that word is in the neuter that means let my unpack what that means that means that this is not connected to the word faith not specifically and that's what Calvinists need it to mean to say that faith is the gift now that the now the response to this from the Calvinist will be yeah but the word this isn't connected to any of the words that come before it and that's true they're all either masculine or feminine and then the word this that's neuter what does that mean when you have it not connecting to any specific word it means that this is the this so far but grace you've been saved through faith that is the gift of God it's not the grace it's not the saved and it's not the through faith it's the whole idea saved by grace through faith so the Calvinist responds and goes it's the whole idea you mean it's each piece of the idea and they say grace is the gift of God saved is the gift of God faith is the gift of God ah but there's a problem the word this is not plural it's it's not it's not plural it's not these are the gift of God it's this is the gift of God so for those who are still with me today we have to take it as an inclusive term about salvation grace saved through faith that is God's gift he gives you the gift of being saved by grace through faith that's the gift you can't say grace is the gift I mean grace is a gift is a tautology that doesn't mean anything you you can't say saved is the gift you can't say faith is the gift you got to include them all together so so in that sense faith is not it's not a gift in that text that's the Ephesians text there's other verses I'll try to use this but that's probably the most popular one okay so next question this is from a gospel hand yeah my wife has some Calvinist friends who have thrown some verses I would like Mike Wenger to answer John 6:44 where Jesus says no one can come to me unless the father draws him okay so I did already get to that one so the next question also from gospel hand is the second verse I would like Mike to address would be Matthew 6:7 1617 where Peter says Jesus is the Christ and Jesus says it wasn't Peter who did who decided that but the Holy Spirit revealing it so let's look at that verse and we'll bring it up on screen Matthew 16:17 hold on just a moment here okay this verse jesus answered and blessed are You Simon bar Jonah for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my father who is in heaven this is a good example to me where sometimes a Calvinist I shouldn't put it that way sometimes a person because Calvinist non Calvinists anybody can do this this is a really common thing we are just sometimes not good at limiting ourselves to the meaning of the text like we read meaning into it it's called eisegesis there's a term for doing this it's when you draw try to try to get meaning out of the text is not there so you just put your own meaning into it what is this saying it just says Simon knew the identity of Jesus that he's the Christ the Son of the Living God he knew it because it was revealed to him from the father that's it it how does this have to do with whether or not we can make a decision when it comes to faith it just doesn't mean anything just yeah it's just an unrelated verse and get-get your radar ready Christians right to be able to hear when someone uses a verse to say this means that and the verse has some connection but not really like just notice it just go that verse just isn't saying that and give yourself the courage and the willingness to just say hey it doesn't mean that and as up as pastors if ru T if you're a teacher and you listen to me you've got to have a rule like firmly in your heart and you know what I mean when I say this you will not teach something because it preaches well you will cuz it's true no matter what you're gonna use this verse you know I want to use this first to help make this point as you read the verse ago it doesn't really say that you better not use that verse you better not you're compromising your own integrity as a teacher but you're you're breaking the ability of your people to discern what the scripture actually means because you're teaching them to misuse it instead of use it properly so sorry for a sort of get them out my pulpit there okay so Sarah boot camp or boat Beauchamp I'm sorry if I'm pretty mispronouncing your name it she says 70 75 percent Calvinist lol I'm not sure what that means hot hi Pastor Mike thank you for all your videos I'm following what you're saying tonight but I get hung up on the dead in trespasses and sins point because even if faith isn't to work what can we do or accept or believe or receive when we're dead we're lifeless and unable to comprehend or accept faith by faith anything now please help me understand this thank you Pastor um okay so and this is let me let me make it even more in the common way I hear this stated it's the Lazarus analogy the analogy goes like this you know you're dead in your sins and trespasses Ephesians right you're just you're dead you're a dead man now when Jesus went and raised Lazarus you know he calls Lazarus Lazarus come forth so Lazarus comes forth you know Lazarus he had no ability as a dead man to respond to the voice of Christ Jesus had to literally make him alive first in order for Lazarus to even hear his voice and this becomes an analogy for the gospel right God has to regenerate me save me so that I can have faith so that I can believe and I'll say that's a great analogy but that's not what Lazarus is about and the Bible doesn't use the story of Lazarus as an analogy for this issue Ephesians dead in trespasses and sins and Lazarus don't go together in my opinion so what did it mean that we're dead in trespasses and sins it it's the same kind of death that Adam and Eve experienced immediately upon eating of the fruit they're lost in sin they're conscripted over to the bondage of sin and of the flesh and of the domination of wickedness in their lives does this mean that they can't even with the work of the Holy Spirit with the of God they can't just say yes to the gospel I don't think so so dead in sin doesn't mean dead dead right because if we were all dead I wouldn't be making a live stream like right like if you were a baseball player and you were unsaved you wouldn't be unable to swing the bat because dead people can't swing bats like you you just got a you know let let Ephesians stand on its own in that in that context so the dead doesn't mean unable to make choices unable to respond to what God says it does mean unable to do good works that please God but faith is not a work and so it wouldn't be in that category okay so I I don't know do I have more questions here or I'm just uh okay I see these are these are non Calvinist questions so let me let me come to those in just a moment let me first if I can recap some of these things some other objections that might be there if if if I'm right and faith is not a work and this whole concept of synergism monetarism that is very powerfully used to sway people towards Calvinism if it's just a misapplication of synergism to faith like that's not synergism then that means that it's perfectly okay for man to believe that responding to God in faith doesn't rob God of glory it gives him glory trusting God doesn't give me glory it gives God glory the act of just believing while it might be an act or something I do it's not in the category of work that merits anything in fact it establishes grace and it establishes that I cannot boast remember my two questions write it face not a word basically why do I need Calvinism I mean in that in that sense there's more to the story but to me it's a major pillar of Calvinism so um yeah let me look at your guys other questions here from Michael Cato no no that's I think I got all those yes non Calvinist questions alright Luis Hernandez what do you think about the g12 movement among churches I don't know much about it honestly Louis or Luis I think it's Luis I don't know that much about the g12 movement I know they have like a g12 conference and I've heard about it and I heard some of the speakers and thought oh like to go like but really but I don't know much about it to be honest Judah Matthew says Mike how does the need for a cultural historical context fit with the sufficiency of Scripture I often hear you need to know X about the culture to get this passage if so is it really sufficient well it's if what we mean by sufficiency of Scripture is handsome when a Bible and they don't need any other information to help understand that Bible then I don't think that that's what it was meant by sufficiency of Scripture I disagree with that definition because consider this like let's say I hand you a Bible and it's in it's in Spanish but you don't speak Spanish you you speak English but it's in Spanish it's the only bottle around I hand it to you and I go don't worry it's totally sufficient and then you look around you're like well someone help me learn Spanish you know maybe the only Bibles are in Spanish - you helped me learn Spanish and then then you start to wonder wait if I have to learn Spanish to understand this in fact if I have to learn to read to understand if I have to even learn grammar and rules of language to understand this than is scripture really sufficient so what is scripture sufficient force the Bible is not sufficient for teaching you English it's sufficient for all the good works that man needs to do in order to honor God so the theology and the teaching and that sort of thing and there will be things you don't understand in the Bible because of your own lack of knowledge just as there's things I don't understand my lack of information lack of background knowledge lack of wisdom lack of biblical categories in my own head or something like that but the scripture itself itself is sufficient I guess where I would then draw the line it's I'd say scripture sufficient that doesn't mean I'm sufficient and and and its sufficiency I think for enabling me for good works and enabling me for good theology is still going to be intact even if I don't understand certain passages that we might my short answer or long answer whichever you consider it one pole guren says hey Mike do you think being Calvinist is dangerous can it cloud interpretation of Scripture and force the Calvinist opinion when they read certain verses let me answer that as two questions is Calvinism dangerous maybe you know some Calvinists will take Calvinism and do things with it that I think are bad others will hold Calvinism and then live these wonderful like lives that I would aspire to live myself and so I this is the rhetorical side I hesitate to blame Calvinism for lack of missionaries especially especially when I find out in church history there's these incredible missionaries that were driven by not only their belief in the Bible but there are Calvinistic assumptions actually some sometimes helped them go out there and do more evangelism whereas other guys there Calvinistic assumptions stopped them from doing evangelism so I kind of blame the people for that and try to I just try to avoid dealing with the rhetorical side of things but you said can it cloud your interpretation of Scripture and forced Calvinist opinions when they're reading certain verses yes absolutely I mean of course it can and if I'm wrong about my belief about free will it it may I'll be confronted with Scripture that's gonna show me I'm wrong and I'll I'll be finagling my way around it or I'll let it say what it says so yeah it could cause a problem so Justin Barnes says Mike could you exegete the golden chain of redemption in Romans 8:28 through 30 if you haven't already done by the end of the video I think that's kind of a lot to get into at the moment tell you what I'm maybe I'll do a whole video on that because here's what I would want to do if I'm gonna talk about this I think I should go and dig up some informed Calvinist opinions about this passage and do it to do a better justice do you believe I'm sorry Lauren B says do you believe once saved always saved or does one sin cause us to lose salvation I don't think one sin cause us to lose salvation I don't think that's on the table for anybody I don't think well I think hardly anybody would think that and as far as oh do I believe once saved always saved I could ask this question all the time and I wish I had a better answer for you I'm gonna say two things one I'm not sure and I honestly I'm not I'm not certain where I stand on this issue this doesn't mean I doubt God's ability to keep me it doesn't mean I doubt his Grace and goodness and it doesn't mean I think that people have like like ooh when you blew it you're gone you're unsaved but there are certain passages of scripture where I just I go I don't know how to interpret that with the belief that once saved always saved then there's other passage in scripture where I go I'm not sure how to how to handle that with the belief of losing your salvation and so I have not come to a place where in my understanding where I feel like I understand the Bible well enough to teach this topic so I that's why you don't have I don't have videos on it so Lauren I'm saying this I don't know and I'm not your source on this issue I would encourage you to find you know someone else and hopefully one day I can I can bring a clear and biblically faithful you know explanation of this topic I would really hope to do that sometime the Judah Matthew says Mike how does the need for a cultural historical context fit with the sufficiency of so I already read that okay all right good oh and one more Calvinist question from Cyprus Psalm says Mike isn't faith more of a work when we have the choice to believe or not partial depravity versus God being solely and I mean solely responsible for salvation total depravity isn't faith a work when we have the choice to believe or not that's this whole video that's what this is about is faith the work when I merely make a choice to trust God not according to the Bible not according to the passages that we read the multiple scriptures we've read and if I could just remind you again Romans 3 Romans 4 was read through Romans 3 and 4 and asked yourself you know why doesn't Paul in the course of Romans 3 and 4 why doesn't he say somewhere in there but your faith was given to you by God it and not just given in some general sense but in the specific sense in which you didn't even choose salvation you didn't even choose Jesus of your own of your own will God changed your will or just imparted faith to you those are the two options I see but I don't think that's the case so there's my spiel there to me is I think a very legitimate and real Achilles heel of Calvinism this is why in other videos I've said faith is not a work faith it's not a word colectomy this answers the whole question faith is not a work now I've been able to unpack this and explain this more in more detail way so you don't think I'm just kind of being casual and flippant about some deep issue I hope that this has been helpful to you guys I hope that this is something that's gonna make a difference for maybe even some Calvinists do I want you to change from Calvinists to non Calvinists well yeah but here's why because I think you're going from less biblical to more biblical in that change that's the reason now I'm on I'm on record and I'll say it again if Calvinism is true I want to be a Calvinist I will not demonize I will not attack it from some emotional side I'll just be like no I want to believe what God says in his word his word is an authority over me and I fully want to submit to whatever God says so next week I'm gonna be dealing with the passion translation this to me is is a danger I have it around here somewhere but there it is I've been looking into the passion translation and this is a new translation produced by a gentleman who says and I quote it is a heart level translation that expresses God's fiery heart of love to this generation so I have some issues and concerns with the translation I'm gonna try to unpack those things and and I think it's really worth doing and in yes so I hope that this has helped again I'm not gonna harp on Calvinism this isn't this isn't my ministry that's not what I'm gonna constantly talk about but I do I want to remain unafraid to tackle any issue that I feel I can be confident about the biblical truth of it and to share it with you and you do not have to take my word for it and you don't have to agree with me and just like I recommended RC sprawl and James White strong Calvinist proponents I think we've got to learn to listen to people who don't hold all of our opinions so we're not living in an echo chamber but we have a group of guys who love the Word of God and they hold fast to the Word of God that we can listen to and even though they have a variety of opinions we can have a variety of teachers it rounds us out as Christians I think it's a very healthy thing so Lord bless you guys thanks again for being here this has been I can't believe how many people we've we've we've had on the on the stream there's over 300 people at one point it's kind of scary why are people watching me so so yeah we'll be on again next week at 5 p.m. Pacific Standard times talk about the passion translation and I will later tonight try to be kind of watching the comments and stuff like that on this video at least for a few hours I can't keep up with comments anymore but I can try to watch at least when it's a fresh video so I can see what you guys have to say and get your feedback and I would love to know Calvinist if you've stuck with me this long and you're a Calvinist I would love to know your opinion about the things that I've shared even if you continue to disagree with me that's okay god bless you guys

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Keywords: Mike Winger Calvinism, Why I think Calvinism is unbiblical, is calvinism biblical, is faith a work, is faith meritorious, faith is not a work, calvinism and faith as a work, Calvinism is unbiblical, monergism vs synergism, is faith a synergistic work, mike winger monergism, mike winger synergism

Id: oxakEl8BYBE

Length: 73min 46sec (4426 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 11 2018