[This series is "The 9 Marks of a Calvinist Cult" split up into smaller, individual posts.]
3. Multiple Layers for Maximum Deception
In Calvinism, there are always layers, at least two: the one they want you to see and the one they don't. What they say and what they mean. What they want you to think they really believe and what they really believe.
If you read Piper's article, you'll notice how somewhat sweet and humble he makes his hard-core Calvinism seem. But do you notice what's missing?
The flipside. The bad parts. The parts that would raise most Christians' red flags. The thing is, he's only sharing one layer of Calvinism, only telling the story from the side of the Calvinist elect and God's relationship to them. But he hides the deeper, darker layer, completely ignoring how God relates to the non-elect.
If Calvinist teachings sound like "good news," it's only because they're telling it from the perspective of "the elect." And only the elect.
But if Piper (and all Calvinists) was fully honest, he'd have to share the alarming parts of Calvinism too, such as "God predetermined to create most people for hell, to hate them before they were ever born, apart from anything they did or any decision they made. Jesus didn't die for them, because God predestined them to eternal damnation for their sins and unbelief (which He ordained and ultimately caused), and there's nothing they can do about it. God ordains, orchestrates, and gets glory for all sins, evil, and unbelief, just as much as He does for all good."
Could you imagine if Calvinists shared Calvinism's views honestly and fully?
But they don't. "For our good." Because we "won't understand."
This is critical, so achtung baby ("Attention/watch out, dear one!"):
Calvinists will agree with every biblical thing we say, but...
they've got big 'buts' (and I cannot lie 😄).
Calvinism has a biblical surface layer we'd all agree with, but then it has a deeper, hidden layer underneath which contradicts, negates, or totally alters the surface layer.
At first, Calvinists will reveal only the biblical surface layer. And it hooks us. It makes us think we're all saying the same thing, all on the same page. And this will make us trust them more, let our guard down, take off our critical-thinking cap, turn down our red-flag radar, and accept what they say. Because we all believe the same things, right?
(And before we know it, we're being slowly drawn into Calvinism's deeper, unbiblical layers without realizing it, through their use of clever-sounding arguments, strategically-worded questions, carefully-chosen-but-misinterpreted verses, etc.)
But if you talk to them long enough, ask more questions, listen deeper, and make them explain themselves more, you'll notice that they have a "yes... but" for all easily-understood Bible verses and concepts.
For example, here's the surface layer they'll tell us at first, making us think they agree with us, that we're all on the same page:
"Yes, the Bible says God loves all people and calls to all people. He tells all people to seek Him, to repent, and to believe in Jesus because He wants all men to be saved and no one to perish. Anyone who wants to can come to Jesus. And we are responsible for our sins/unbelief. We choose to do what we want to do, and so we choose to sin because we want to sin. God does not force anyone to sin or to reject Him."
Taken at face value, it sounds good, doesn't it? Accurate? Biblical?
But the thing is,
But here are their big 'buts' exposed (Yes, I'm having fun with this!):
"Yes, the Bible says God loves all people... But He meant all kinds of people, not all individual people." [Or "... but He has two different kinds of love, a saves-your-soul kind for the elect and a gives-you-food-and-sunshine kind for the non-elect."]
"Yes, the Bible says God calls to all people... But He has two different kinds of calls, one for the elect that they have to respond to and one for the non-elect that they can never respond to."
"Yes, God tells all people to seek Him, to repent, to believe... But He didn't mean that we have the ability to seek Him or repent/believe on our own. He decides who will believe and who won't, and He is the one who causes the elect - and only the elect - to seek Him, repent, and believe. But He makes sure the non-elect can never do these things."
"Yes, the Bible says that God wills that all men are saved, that He wants no one to perish... But God has two different levels of want, two different Wills. He has a revealed Will where He says He wants everyone to be saved and no one to perish, but He has a secret Will that really does want people in hell. God can want one thing but cause the opposite. On one hand, He wants all people to be saved, and so it will still make Him sad that anyone is in hell. But on the other hand, what He wants more is more glory for Himself. He wants the glory He gets for demonstrating His justice by punishing sinners in hell. If there were no sinners to punish, He couldn't demonstrate His justice or get glory for it. And so even if it makes Him sad on one level, He needed sinners to punish to get more glory for Himself."
"Yes, anyone who wants to can come to Jesus... But only the elect can/will want to come to Jesus because God regenerates only their hearts, giving only them the desire to come to Jesus. The non-elect will never want to and never be able to come to Jesus because He doesn't regenerate them."
"Yes, we are responsible for our sins. We choose to do what we want to do, and so we choose to sin because we want to sin. God does not force anyone to sin or to reject Him... But God has predestined everything that happens, even our sins and unbelief, and we can only do what He predestined we'd do. But He does not force us to sin or to reject Him - because He doesn't have to. We make our choices according to our nature, the desires of our nature. So God doesn't have to force us to sin because our nature makes us sin. You see, the unregenerated-sinner nature of the non-elect comes with only the built-in desires to sin and reject God, and so since that's the only thing they can want to do, that's the only thing they can 'choose' to do. They can never desire to seek, believe in, or obey God because those desires aren't in their natures. Those desires are only in the regenerated nature that God gives to the elect. We can only do what the desires of our nature tells us to do. But even though God determined which nature we get and even though He 'ordained' all sins and unbelief, He will still hold people responsible for it. We can't understand it, but we just have to accept it, even if it causes tension."
I think these are some ugly "buts," don't you? And they are very different from the layer they want you to see, aren't they? (And can you see why I say deception is so much more difficult to deal with than outright lies, and why it's so much more effective?)
But that's what Calvinists really believe (or at least convince themselves they believe), underneath the surface layer. (Are any of their "buts" clearly and plainly taught in any verse in the Bible?) But they hide these deeper views as long as possible while they lay the groundwork of slowly molding your perspective to Calvinism, bit by bit, until you're ready to accept the harsher "truths" of Calvinism.
In Piper's article, notice this piece of exceptional deception: "I believe Christ died as a substitute for sinners to provide a bona fide offer of salvation to all people."
Calvinists do not believe that Christ really died for all men's sins, at least not in the same way. But they want you to think they think that, at first. They want you to think they believe that Jesus died for all people and that all people really do have the chance to be saved. And so they use the same words, concepts, and verses, but they have very different (hidden) meanings.
When a Calvinist says that salvation is "offered" to all people, he doesn't mean that all people can accept the offer. In Calvinism, the non-elect have no ability or option to accept the "offer." They are predestined by God to reject the "offer." And yet, Calvinists (and only Calvinists) still call it a "real" offer. But that's as real of an offer as me offering a life-vest to a drowning person while refusing to throw it to them because it was never intended for them.
When a Calvinist says that anyone can be saved, he doesn't mean that all people have the chance, ability, opportunity to be saved. He just means that anyone could be one of the lucky chosen ones, that anyone's name could've been drawn in the salvation lottery. But if yours wasn't, then you're out of luck.
When a Calvinist says that Jesus died for all people, he doesn't actually mean that His death paid for all men's sins and that all men have the ability to accept His sacrifice in their place. But that's what they you to think they mean. But what they really mean is that (on one level) Jesus's death was theoretically enough to cover all men's sins, but (on a different level) it is only applied to the elect. "Sufficient" for all, but "efficient" only for the elect. Calvi-Jesus's blood was valuable enough to cover all, but it is only actually applied to the elect. This would be like me saying that the money in my bank account is sufficient to buy food for one thousand starving-to-death people, but that it's only efficient for ten. I have enough for a thousand, but I only buy food to save ten. Ten prechosen people. And I pre-decided to let everyone else starve to death because it brings me more glory.
Knowing this, would you call Calvinism's view of salvation a "bona fide offer of salvation to all people"? Would anyone but Calvinists call it that? And does it not anger you that they are playing us for the fools with their word-games and hidden layers? Does it not sound cult-like?
Calvinists have a deeper, hidden layer because they think the Bible has a deeper, hidden layer. They don't take Scripture at face-value, but they think there are deeper, obscure "truths" that they figured out, that God revealed to them. And only them.
If they used that "rule," they would believe that John 3:16 means that God loved everyone enough to send Jesus to die for them and that anyone can believe in Him and be saved, that it's our choice - because that's how it's understood when read at face-value, in a commonsense way.
But Calvinists don't take Scripture at face-value, in the plain way it's supposed to be read. And so they don't think that "for God so loved the world" means that God loved all people enough to send Jesus to die for them. They think "the world" means "the elect from all over the world, from all nations." They don't think John 3:16 is what it appears to be: instructions on how anyone can be saved, telling people how they too can be believe in Jesus and find eternal life. They think it's merely a description of how the elect are saved. But it takes a lot of twisting to come to their conclusions, and it certainly doesn't fit with a plain reading of Scripture.
[I can't remember which article I saw it in, but a Calvinist was trying to explain what Calvinists should tell people they need to do to be saved. In Calvinism, God is the one who causes you to believe and have faith, and so honest Calvinists can't tell you to believe and have faith as if it's your choice. So how should Calvinists word it? Now, Calvinists will usually say "repent and believe" because "that's what the Bible tells us to say," even though they believe it's not our choice and that God causes the elect - and only the elect - to do these things. But this Calvinist had a different idea: Tell people their job is just to "show up." Basically, tell them God does it all, and so all they have to do is "show up." All they have to do is wake up one day and realize that God gave them faith and made them believe, just claim it and "show up" as one of the elect. Is this message, this version of the gospel call, anywhere in the New Testament? And can people truly be saved if they never make a willing, conscious decision to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, but instead they simply woke up one day and thought "Oh, I guess I'm saved. God gave me faith."? So deceptive. So destructive.]
Ironically, the name of Piper's article is "Saying what you believe is clearer than saying 'Calvinist'".
But no, it's not clearer at all. Leaving out the bad parts while listing only sugarcoated beliefs that have hidden secondary layers (using lots of Bible verses that appear to back them up) provides them ample opportunity to deceive us and confuse us. And it gives us little opportunity to research it for ourselves because they hid the name of their theology.
Thomas Schreiner, in the YouTube clip we looked at in #1, does something similar. He says that he doesn't use the word "Calvinism" but that he teaches it through things like "We believe in the sovereignty of God. Salvation is of the Lord. Humans are dead in sin and need the grace of God to have new life, etc."
All of these things we'd agree with on a surface level. But Calvinists don't stop at the surface level. They have a deeper, hidden, contradictory level. And so to understand what a Calvinist really means, all their phrases and words need to be clarified, expounded on, defined. (But most of us don't realize we need to do this because we're trusting that they mean what they say and say what they mean.)
In Calvinism, "sovereignty of God" doesn't just mean (as most of us would think) that God is in control or that He is the highest authority there is. In Calvinism, it means that God preplans and controls everything, down to our sins and unbelief.
In Calvinism, "salvation is of the Lord" doesn't just mean (as most of us would think) that salvation was God's idea, that He made it possible and offers it to us free of charge, and that we can't work our way to heaven. In Calvinism, it means that God decides who gets saved and who doesn't, that He causes the elect to believe, and that the non-elect can never believe.
[If you look up the word "salvation/saved" in the concordance, you'll see that in many verses Calvinists use to support their Calvinist view of election and predestination, it doesn't have to do with "eternal, going to heaven, soul salvation" anyway. It often has to do with God saving people from earthly problems like enemies, trials, risky situations, etc. (such as Jonah 2:9's "Salvation is from the Lord"). Or it may have to do with God saving believers from the end-times wrath He will pour out on unrepentant mankind (such as 2 Thess. 2:13: "... God chose you to be saved...", which I think is about the rapture, about believers being saved from the tribulation). See "Why is Calvinism so dangerous? #12 (Predestination, election)". Always research the verses and words they use to support their views. The more you do so, the less you'll believe in Calvinism.]
In Calvinism, "we are dead in sin and need God's grace to have new life" doesn't just mean (as most of us would think) that we are separated from God because of our sins and that we needed Jesus's gracious sacrificial death on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins to make salvation possible for us. In Calvinism, it means that we are so totally "dead" that we can't do anything - not even seek God or believe in Jesus - unless God causes us to. And He will only cause the elect to, but He prevents the non-elect from believing in Him because He predestined them to hell.
The deeper layer of Calvinism is very different from the surface layer, from the one they want you to see until they think you're sufficiently indoctrinated enough to accept the darker, more sinister parts.
[If their deeper layers are so biblical and God-glorifying, why the need to hide them, to sugarcoat them? And if God Himself controls who believes and when, why do Calvinists feel they need to be careful and strategic in revealing their deeper layers? Nothing should be able to scare off the so-called elect from believing (not even revealing terrible, contradictory theological beliefs that make God seem like a monster), and nothing should be able to draw the so-called non-elect into believing (not even sugarcoating your theological views or being strategic in when and how you reveal them).]
The problem for us is that to truly understand what Calvinists really believe, we would need to first realize that they mean something different than what they're saying. And then we'd need to figure out what their definitions are and what they're hiding and where their beliefs lead (carrying them all out to their logical ends to see the damage it does to God and His Word and the contradictions they create). And we'd need to look up each verse they give us in context (and cross-reference them) to compare their interpretations of Scripture to what it really says, plainly and clearly, in commonsense ways. Etc.
And since all of this takes so much time and effort... and since they sound so educated and confident and forceful and "humble"... and since we're unaware of the alarming parts and their hidden layers and their bad definitions... and since they're using the same words we use... and since they called themselves "biblical"... and since we don't want to be divisive troublemakers... we'll probably just nod our heads and say "Sounds good" and go along with it.
But if they had just said "I'm a Calvinist," we could've gone right to many sources that break it all down for us. We could've looked up people who've already been through it all and done all that work before us, who share all the wisdom and information that took years to get. (That's why I write what I do.)
Many Calvinists will do as Piper and Schreiner did - give enough clues of their Calvinism, but not too much. In Stealth Calvinism, there is enough indications of Calvinism that those in-the-know will catch on, but these indications are obscured enough that those not-in-the-know won't.
This is one reason why Calvinism spreads like it does and often goes unnoticed and unopposed.
Pastor Search Committees and Stealth Calvinism
Stealth Calvinism's New Brand: 3 Dot Theology
Calvinist Infiltration Prevention Resolution]
But wait, folks, there's more. We haven't even covered the fun stuff yet.
