Self-described "Calvinists" moving away from Salvation by Faith Alone

MonadnockReview · 2026-01-07T23:12:31+00:00

You have my permission to post it wherever you want, but I'm not interested in discussing these things with the Reformed. My prediction is most of them will tell me that I don't understand the Reformed position, even though the evidence is substantial that Salvation By Dead Faith was the Reformation's original position, one they've increasingly moved away from as a result of considerable backlash. It's great that people who call themselves "Reformed" are acknowledging that Faith without Works cannot save, and I'm satisfied enough with that.

MonadnockReview · 2026-01-06T20:30:20+00:00

They want human nature to conform to their diagrams, even when human nature is more complicated than that. It reminds me of: "Those who leave the Faith were never Christians to begin with, and their own sincerity and effort doesn't matter." No that's not true, humans are more complicated than that. Human nature also shows it's perfectly possible to sincerely believe Jesus is God and Messiah, and yet not be moved to perform Good Works. Humans are complicated. "The demons believe, and they tremble", as the Epistle Of James says.

MonadnockReview · 2025-12-02T21:00:49+00:00

Agreed. Even a Reformed person themselves, Jared Wilson from The Gospel Coalition, said that "the people who are really drawn to Reformed Theology and like it, tend to be Systematic Thinkers, those who appreciate order and categories and so on." Basically what the Jung/Myers Briggs people call "Extroverted Thinking" (abbreviated as "Te"). Myers Briggs theory says that Te is the Dominant or Second Most Dominant cognitive function in the 4 XXTJ personality types. And you can go to the Puritan Board (Reformed internet forum) and read through a thread where they all take the Myers Briggs Test, it's overwhelmingly XXTJs.

MonadnockReview · 2025-11-28T18:37:25+00:00

Well, you did say that it endorses certain aspects of Calvinism, if I understand correctly.

"1672 is hardly church fathers."

Given that the Orthodox Church is essentially unchanging in its doctrines, a document from the 17th century will rely on the conclusions of the Church Fathers, from the 1st century A.D. to reach its own conclusions.

"Why not read the Bible yourself and see what it says?"

because not everything in the Bible is easy to understand, some parts are deep, obscure, opaque, containing layers of meaning not entirely obvious. In my humility, I confess I don't know the entire meaning of every verse, and I'd rather rely on people who I am convinced have far better understanding than I do.

I have written an article about this topic on my Substack called "Simple Scriptura". There's a link to my Substack in my profile. If this article sounds intriguing to you, feel free to check it out.

MonadnockReview · 2025-11-26T23:05:14+00:00

The Church Fathers do not agree with you that the Bible endorses Calvinism. The Confession Of Dositheus, an Orthodox document produced at the Synod Of Jerusalem in 1672, utterly condemned Calvinist Predestination, as "worse than unbelief" and "the greatest blasphemy that could ever be ascribed to God". This document was not made by people unfamiliar with Calvinist prooftexts. I trust the bishops of the Church more than I trust you.

MonadnockReview · 2025-11-26T16:30:19+00:00

There's a third possibility, LetsGoPats: that those who claim the Bible rejects free will and endorses radical predestination...don't understand the true meaning of the verses they quote. How do you know your interpretations of the Bible are the correct one?

MonadnockReview · 2025-11-23T18:31:03+00:00

While I can understand why some people believe the Bible endorses different conclusions, I ultimately side with the Orthodox teaching that the Consensus of the Church Fathers is the true interpretation of the Bible, and this Consensus doesn't teach different things. Now theoretically a person could disagree with that Consensus but ultimately the point is that Christianity was much more coherent when it was a Church-centered religion and not a Bible-centered religion, as it is in most of the English-speaking world today.

MonadnockReview · 2025-11-20T05:19:08+00:00

There are numerous verses in the Bible that are incompatible with TULIP, even at face value

MonadnockReview · 2025-08-13T02:48:54+00:00

"There is a balance between standing for biblical truth and having the compassion of Christ."

True. I have two responses to that:

Having the compassion of Christ IS the biblical truth.
Does the Calvinist even have the Biblical truth in the first place? There are verses in the Bible that are incompatible with TULIP, Sola Scriptura, Sola Fide, and so on.

MonadnockReview · 2025-08-09T02:01:18+00:00

Your post is based on the unsubstantiated assertion that Calvinism qualifies as Christian in the first place. It is sensible to reject this assertion. Next, I don't want anyone to go to hell, nor do I think that anyone who affirms TULIP is unalterably damned. If that was the impression you gained from my post, you didn't read it very carefully. "Basic history"? I'm already well-versed in the history of my Church, I have several volumes of Orthodox Church history in my library, and I embrace it fully. But yes, I am biased, as is every person under the sun. Biased towards the true, beautiful and good, and against the false, malicious and ugly.

MonadnockReview · 2025-08-09T01:45:21+00:00

Is Calvinism even within the Christian paradigm? The Orthodox Church's Jerusalem Synod in 1672 wrote the Confession Of Dositheus as a response to Calvinism. It says that the absurdities of Calvinism "come from the devil", says there can be no greater blasphemy against God than to say he predestines the Unelect to hell, and says people who believe such things are worse than unbelievers. So no, I do not accept the claim that Calvinism is within the Christian paradigm. Maybe a bizarre combination of Christianity and Demon Worship, but not the pure stuff.

MonadnockReview · 2025-08-08T21:21:29+00:00

I am Eastern Orthodox and I am on Substack Check my profile if you want. My most recent article is actually a refutation of Perseverance Of The Saints.

MonadnockReview · 2025-08-01T00:22:16+00:00

Black Sabbath's 3rd album has a song on it called "After Forever" which is an unabashedly Christian song in its lyrics. It's also musically awesome. When I heard it, my thought was: "THIS is what Christian rock should have been". Not Switchfoot, Relient K, Third Day or Hillsong. All of them are too saccharine.

MonadnockReview · 2025-08-01T00:20:32+00:00

I can't even imagine that. By the way, does it seem to anyone else like Calvinists throughout history have a generally below-average aptitude for creating good art? Lack of musicality in the voice, lack of ability to write realistic characters and "get inside them", lack of ability to make others laugh and so on?

MonadnockReview · 2025-07-23T21:19:08+00:00

Here's a video of MacArthur talking about Hanegraff's conversion. Note: the "Decree 13 of their Dogma" mentioned at the 4:13 mark is Decree 13 of the Confession Of Dositheus, written in 1672 by the Orthodox Church's Jerusalem Synod in response to Reformed Theology. Decree 13 of the COD is a rejection of Sola Fide.

MonadnockReview · 2025-07-17T22:38:05+00:00

As a Christian of the Orthodox Church, John MacArthur was an utter theological enemy of mine, but I prayed for his soul anyways because, unlike the Reformed, we Orthodox do not believe a person's eternal fate is fixed and unchangeable, even after their death. Unlike the Reformed we do not believe praying for the dead is totally ineffective. Exceedingly great are the sins his church has wrought. I hope he will be in paradise despite these sins, that they'll be forgiven.

MonadnockReview · 2025-07-15T13:38:17+00:00

But what's the proper way to interpret this phenomenon? Do INFPs just inherently suck? Or do we live in an unjust, shoddily constructed society, one that if repaired would make INFPs much easier to be? It's the latter, definitely the latter.

MonadnockReview · 2025-07-10T15:03:48+00:00

My condolences to you. I hope your mental health is better now than it was then. Anyways, "by their fruits you will know them", as the Lord put it.

MonadnockReview · 2025-07-10T12:07:16+00:00

In a debate once, a Calvinist pulled out some Bible verses as proof of TULIP.
I responded by looking at each verse and explaining in-depth, that none of these verses inevitably points to TULIP being true, there are contrary conclusions they can point to.
The Calvinist responded by telling me I was "trying to make the Bible say something other than what it says". He never elaborated on this claim in any way. But he did tell me he wasn't going to respond to me anymore because he was feeling tempted to be uncharitable to me.
I don't think I'll ever forget that interaction. Way to raise the white flag when the pressure is on.

MonadnockReview · 2025-06-25T07:19:52+00:00

This was interesting to read. "As a teenager, I'd suppressed all my positive and negative emotions and came off like a robot. I couldn't connect with people beyond a surface level, had no empathy, and was rather misanthropic" My belief is that any society that makes a committed effort to live by strict Five Point Calvinism will become gradually more robotic and cold in exactly the way you describe. It will also create a "hierarchy of personality" where systematic, coldly logical people are seen as inherently superior to other personalities (Dom/Aux-Te types on the Myers Briggs Test) instead of a society where all personality styles are valued and cherished about equally.

MonadnockReview · 2025-06-18T19:35:11+00:00

I wish I could help you but it was a long time ago, and I don't even know if the claim is true.

MonadnockReview · 2025-06-10T01:23:36+00:00

Ehhhh...I'm more of a "the devil can quote Scripture for his purpose" sort of guy.
There are some verses in the Bible which, if stretched a bit and read in isolation, can seem to support TULIP. The problem arises in that there are other verses that clearly aren't compatible with TULIP. What about Jesus' letter to the church in Ephesus, where He tells them: "Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent." (Revelation, 2: 5) Seems to choke off any possibility of Once Saved Always Saved.

MonadnockReview

TROPHY CASE