Exposing The Truth

Hoppers Crossing Christian Church is a small home based church in the Western Suburbs of Melbourne. Over the past two to three years since inception, we have become concerned about the state of the Christian Church in western society and have therefore embarked on a mission to spread the truth about what we are seeing.

Please visit our blogg and weekly sermon pages to view some hard hitting truth about what Christianity is and what the Bible says about living as a Christian.

100% Bible Based Teaching

100% Bible Based Teaching

Provides in Depth teaching from the Word of God

Latest Sermons

Latest Blog

So who are the cowards?

So who are the cowards?

In recent days this website has been hacked fairly consistently now, so far without any success. Every attacking IP that I’ve checked was listed as abusive, with just about all being serious repeat offenders. This means that our website has attracted a significant amount of attention from those who think it’s acceptable to be violently aggressive against anyone that offends them in any way. Such people do not consider it a problem to hit out at their opponents, in much the same way that we have road rage, house invasions and gang bullying. They will generally only attack if they feel they have superior numbers and greater fire power than those they pick on; that is, they do not believe in fighting fairly but consider that the most important requirement is to hurt the other person without risking getting hurt themselves. Such people never attack if they think they themselves might get hurt; they are chickens in every sense of the word. They also run and hide before they can be discovered; this demonstrates their fear of retaliation. Like cowards they fight from cover because they fear the consequences if they become known to their opposition.

There’s nothing of any real value on our website, unless you consider biblical teaching to be a saleable commodity. But they still consider it necessary to hit out. So why? (Of course, I did put a post online – “Calvinisms” – that spelled out the basic heresies of calvinism just a week or so before this occurred. It is likely to have caused some wrath among that self-declared righteous mob, so logically it could strongly suggest irate calvinists behind this.) Like road rage low-life, they hit out because they have been personally offended somehow. No-one has actually done anything to them except perhaps hurt their feelings, yet this can be a huge issue for those with low self-esteem. And like bullies who hit out to boost their own self-esteem, these people find strength in their ability to hurt others. The more that others get hurt, the more these people feel “empowered” by their bullying. (All dictators are imbued with similar personalities.) Such people are generally incapable of standing their ground intellectually, so in their incompetence they hit out physically. As the saying goes, violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.

It may not be those who are offended who are actually doing the attacking, but if you have enough money or influence (or both), you can always find mercenaries who will do the dirty work for you. In that way such people somehow believe they are “keeping their hands clean”. They may be able to convince others (and perhaps even themselves) that they are not responsible for such cowardly activities, yet effectively their hands are covered in blood guilt. When they come to worship God, he will not hear, for they are covered with the guilt of their sin. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. (Isaiah 1:15)

But what people would feel so threatened by our website, yet feel so incapable of debating the issue up front and out in the open? What people would think it necessary to destroy the work of anyone opposing them? Just recently I was asked (via a comment to this website) – Did you express your concerns personally to the preachers that you are labeling as heretics prior to making public online statements about them? But I would rephrase that question to ask the cowards who are trying to destroy this website – Did you express your concerns personally to the person whose opinions you find offensive before just attempting to do a hit and run on the website?

You only have to look at who is challenged by our website statements, for the only logical answer here is that those attacking the website are people who (a) feel threatened by our information and (b) believe they are incapable of defending themselves using sola scriptura (the Bible alone). (Or else these people are irrational, incapable of rational thinking, people that we would term “insane”; many road rage attacks are seemingly by such people!)

Now who could these people be, I wonder? Who have we opposed that might have found it too difficult to defend their views rationally and objectively using the Bible alone? Because whoever has been attacking our website will be associated in some way with such people. Could it, perhaps, be calvinists who don’t approve of what we say about their beloved beliefs? But calvinists are such nice, easy to get along with people, aren’t they? So biblical, too; one would expect them to get into their Bibles to study and demonstrate my faults, wouldn’t they? And, of course, they are the epitome of graciousness, for their God is the God of grace, isn’t he? Calvinists are so loving, so caring, so kind, so biblical that they would feel ashamed to be seen as trouble-makers, wouldn’t they? Or would they?

Calvinists, especially those of the new calvinist variety, are often seen (even by their own) as aggressive, arrogant, abrasive, know-it-all, sneering, etc. Within the SBC of USA, the battle lines are being drawn over calvinism’s aggression.
However, there is now a “New Calvinism” movement, “committed to advancing in the churches an exclusively Calvinistic understanding of salvation, characterized by an aggressive insistence on the ‘Doctrines of Grace’ (‘TULIP’), and to the goal of making Calvinism the central Southern Baptist position on God’s plan of salvation.”
https://www.christiantoday.com/article/whats-wrong-with-tulip-southern-baptists-resist-aggressive-advance-of-new-calvinism/102839.htm

Even SBC calvinists see the new calvinist aggression as excessive.
Every generation of Southern Baptists has the duty to articulate the truths of its faith with particular attention to the issues that are impacting contemporary mission and ministry. The precipitating issue for this statement is the rise of a movement called “New Calvinism” among Southern Baptists. This movement is committed to advancing in the churches an exclusively Calvinistic understanding of salvation, characterized by an aggressive insistence on the “Doctrines of Grace” (“TULIP”), and to the goal of making Calvinism the central Southern Baptist position on God’s plan of salvation.
I, yes even as a Calvinist, firmly stand with these men in opposing this “New Calvinism”. …. I am especially opposed to those that “are characterized by an aggressive insistence on the ‘Doctrines of Grace’ (TULIP).  I’m opposed to that because aggressive insistence goes against “teaching with gentleness and respect”.  Furthermore, I do not support an aggressive insistence that others be Calvinists because it denies the very sovereignty and power of God that it claims to uphold.
https://sbcvoices.com/why-im-opposed-to-new-calvinism/

Another comment in a forum: Calvinists I have met …. seem to be very pushy, arrogant and aggressive about what they believe and can’t seem to let it go until people believe them. They try really hard to convince people. It was worse in bible college, but that’s another story. They just don’t come off as people at ease or at peace with God, like something is bugging them or something like that. I just don’t understand why anyone would want to believe in something that causes you to have to defend that point of view so aggressively.
https://www.christianforums.com/threads/five-misconceptions-about-calvinism.8018475/page-2
And from a calvinist soon after on that same forum: As a Calvinist, I couldn’t agree more. Unfortunately, there are many Calvinists that do exactly what you are describing.

Or from Derek Rishmawy, a new calvinist writing here for The Gospel Coalition (a new calvinist group)
Let’s be honest and say a lot of Calvinists won’t admit this difficulty, and it comes out in the condescending, aggressive, abrasive, and unhelpful way they approach theological engagement with people who disagree. You know the kind. You can find them in Bible studies, blog comment sections, insular Reformed churches that nobody visits; the archetypical newbie who presents masterfully botched iterations of Reformed doctrines, as if they were the most obvious truths of God that only a perversely obstinate fool could miss; the crusty expert who adds in just enough condescension and sneering to belie all his talk of grace.
This was my final reason for being put off from Calvinism: really arrogant, thickheaded, (often young) know-it-all, sneering Calvinists. Who wants to be planted in soil that yields such fruit? In the long run that isn’t the best reason to reject a doctrine, as it’s just another version of the common atheist objection: “But if Christianity were true, then Christians should be great, but all the Christians I know are jerks so it must be false” (see C. S. Lewis in Mere Christianity). Still, there’s something to it given Christ’s own declaration that people are known by their fruits.
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/sneering-calvinists/

It is fairly safe to assume that calvinists (especially of the new calvinist breed) are condescending, abrasive, unhelpful, aggressive, arrogant, thickheaded, know-it-all sneering calvinists. After all, it’s a new calvinist who states this clearly on a new calvinist website. So, even they admit this. What happens, then, when they get into a situation where they cannot freely hammer their arguments down their opponents’ throats because they are not able to do this without losing credibility? Do they then try to destroy their opponents merely because they cannot defeat them any other way? Would these people crash a website simply because it was the only way to shut it up? You may be the judge here, although if I were the jury, I would probably bring in a verdict of guilty, that the calvinists are guilty as charged.

I’ll finish with what I wrote on my previous post assuring all that we are confident of victory in Christ because of God’s great and precious promises. We who are Christians may be assured that we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us (Romans 8:37), and that all things that sovereign God permits into our lives will work together for good (Romans 8:28). Our response to these great promises (through our faith in the One who promises) is to give thanks always for all things to God in the name of Christ our Saviour (Ephesians 5:20), and, like Jesus’ disciples, rejoicing that we are called by our sovereign God to a ministry that the enemy persecutes. And they (the disciples) departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. (Acts 5:41) It is truly a blessing to be called to such a ministry. We praise God for His faithfulness and we pray for those who, greatly misled, consider it necessary to spiritually oppose us. May God bless them with an understanding of His love that sent Christ to die on the cross for all mankind (1 John 2:2) that those who choose to call upon the name of the Lord to be saved will truly  be saved (Romans 10:13).
Romans 5:8But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

If you have any questions or comments about this information, please feel free to say it or give advice, by using the Contact page. Genuine comments will be recorded on the Comments page.

List of all my posts on this site.

If you wish to read other documents on the heresies of calvinism, please use this link.

Sermons and Messages

Please feel free to comment  Comments and contact page
Comments and replies are recorded on the Comments page.

Just another day at the office!

Just another day at the office!

So this website seems to be attracting some attention from people who do not wish it to say such nice things about their beliefs? I say some lovely home-truths about calvinism and they want to hack my site? Well, it does confirm one thing: that some people just do not appreciate my writings. You know, if they really wanted to defend their doctrines, they’d get out their Bibles (yes, that’s right, sola scriptura – the Bible alone – as the calvinists so love to boast about) and they’d find all those teachings that consistently demonstrate the truth of their doctrines, wouldn’t they! (Or would they find that the Bible could even deny their “truths”? Possibly calvinists do not want to look too carefully at the Bible as it might just prove them wrong and that’s something they couldn’t face at all. It is said that the calvinist is always right, and you can always tell a calvinist – but not much!) It’s only those who cannot debate rationally that have to resort to bullying tactics. As the saying goes, violence is the last resort (or refuge) of the incompetent. But, hey, what better way could you have to increase awareness of this website!

Before we continue, here’s the real truth, the real issue of any conflict regarding this website. We who are Christians may be assured that we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us (Romans 8:37), and that all things that sovereign God permits into our lives will work together for good (Romans 8:28). Our response to these great promises (through our faith in the One who promises) is to give thanks always for all things to God in the name of Christ our Saviour (Ephesians 5:20), and, like Jesus’ disciples, rejoicing that we are called by our sovereign God to a ministry that the enemy persecutes. And they (the disciples) departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. (Acts 5:41) It is truly a blessing to be called to such a ministry. We praise God for His faithfulness and we pray for those who, greatly misled, consider it necessary to spiritually oppose us. May God bless them with an understanding of His love that sent Christ to die on the cross for all mankind (1 John 2:2) that those who call upon the name of the Lord can truly  be saved (Romans 10:13).
Romans 5:8
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Over the past few days we have had a large number of IP addresses trying to hack into our website. Why would it be so important to do this, you might wonder. After all, we mainly discuss the problems of calvinist doctrines and that surely cannot be matter of great concern to the average person in the street. How many people would you have to talk to on the street before you got one who could actually converse intelligently on the topic of calvinism? This website really largely exists to inform those who might be considering calvinism as a belief system, to assist them to make a biblical decision concerning the claims made by calvinists. And because our website offers nothing of value other than advice on certain biblical issues, it is clear that only those offended by such biblical issues should have any logical reason to seriously oppose our website. After all, who else other than those interested in the calvinist debate are likely to have any interest in hacking our site?

Of course, I don’t expect the perpetrators to confess openly about their attacks on my website. That would be too much to expect of those who hide behind anonymity, those who are too afraid to come out in the open and face issues honestly. I would be ultra-surprised if someone were to actually admit to this activity, for in general such people tend to prefer to wear white feathers than to be openly truthful with those they attack. There are just too many chickens in this world! So unless someone confesses to this otherwise cowardly activity, then I’ll just have to assume that it was someone who has a gripe about the views of this website. And that logically suggests that calvinists are the most likely to be involved somewhere here.

But why would calvinists choose to do this now? Well, just over a week ago I put another post online – “Calvinisms” – after which the number of visitors and visits to the website increased significantly. Many of those are likely to have been calvinists who would, no doubt, have got hot under the collar at some of the home truths I mentioned concerning their incompatibility with biblical doctrines. I did expect some calvinists to attempt to assist me to see the error of my ways through good sound biblical exegesis. Or, at the very least, some irate comments depicting me as the lowest of low people, someone who cannot believe in calvinism because I cannot understand it (or so they say!).

But no, their silence was deafening indeed. I did say in that document that silence would be taken as a sign of agreement with my statements, and that if any disagreed, they should then demonstrate the error of my ways through sound teaching from the Bible alone (sola scriptura). However, calvinists cannot be told that they are wrong in any way. If they do teach something that is demonstrated to be totally illogical according to biblical truth, then they immediately claim that it is a mystery hid within the secret counsels of sovereign God. In other words, anything they cannot explain becomes a mystery that we are not to probe; calvinists certainly do come up with a lot of mysteries!

So I was not totally surprised when our website began to be hacked by a large number of outside sources, all of them being acknowledged (listed) as abuse sites, and most of them serious repeat offenders in the abuse and hacking of websites. (Something similar happened in January, although then it wasn’t quite as obvious who might have been behind it all.) Someone is organising the hacking attempts, because otherwise why would there be so many white feathers flying around just by coincidence? So no wonder I start pointing the finger at those who have so totally failed to defend themselves against my statements that they appear to have resorted to cowardly aggression! But, all things work together for good (Romans 8:28) so I just praise God for His victory and keep on with the ministry He has called me into.

No-one hacks like that for legitimate reasons – after all, if they were legitimate, then they’d knock on the front door. But these are more like the low-life house invasions of today,  often in gangs so they can ensure they have the numbers; such people are not brave enough to take people on one-on-one! Therefore the only logical assumption here is that some people do not like what I am saying. Like road rage, these people just try to see if they can cause some damage to those who oppose them. My website has no intrinsic value, nothing to steal that would encourage anyone to crash for logical reasons or financial gain. No-one can gain anything of value except, like a bully, to regain some measure of lost self-esteem. This is more of a statement that if I say something they don’t like, they’ll hurt my site so that I cannot say it. It is an effort to remove freedom of speech from those who speak against them. It is a statement from those who demand freedom of speech only as long as it agrees with them.

And, because they do not have any way of opposing what I say from the Bible (for if they did, then logically they’d do so), they must resort to violent and aggressive behaviour. The only thing I am doing that could possibly seriously offend anyone is to demonstrate the lies and deceitfulness of the teachings of calvinists. Thus, it is safe to assume that this hacking was done by people who do not like what I say, and therefore the only people who are likely to feel offended by my writings are those calvinists who cannot be told that they are wrong, yet can only hit back with aggression and violence.

Other websites have been hacked and crashed in the past and no doubt there’ll be more hacks and crashes in the future. Those who have enough money and/or influence will sometimes use their “power” to “squash” the little guy. There will always be Goliaths who want to put down their Davids. I also don’t blame calvinists in general for this aggressive behaviour, as hopefully most of them would respect my freedom of speech as I respect their freedom of speech. I have no intention of crashing another site just because I cannot believe their views, and I am sure this is also generally applicable to those who oppose me. But someone caused this hacking and for some reason perhaps only known to them. (Or else such people are irrational, not in full control of their senses, commonly described as insane.)

But, by the grace of our sovereign God we’re still online. While we are here we’ll continue to teach the truth of the Bible, and that it cannot support the false teaching called calvinism (or reformed, or doctrines of grace, or whatever they like to call it, it’s still the same heresy). (See “Calvinisms” for a summary of their false teachings.) It’s likely that these same aggressive people would vigorously defend their own right to freedom of speech, yet they cannot understand why they should also defend the right of others to that same freedom of speech. Perhaps it’s because they are unable to effectively argue for their calvinist beliefs using the Bible alone, but whatever the reason, calvinists do appear to believe that they are the only ones who have the truth and therefore the only ones who may have the freedom to share this with others. (Maybe I should have said to impose their dogma upon others.)

Are calvinists so insecure concerning their beliefs that they have to put down everyone else for merely opposing them? Do they realise that such behaviour is usually the consequence of low self-esteem, an effort to feel more “empowered” against those who threaten that self-esteem? They claim that they believe in the doctrines of grace, yet show little or none of that alleged grace to others around them who might disagree with them.

Therefore such activities only serve to give me evidence of the spiritual battle we are in and that there can be no victory without a battle and no battle without a cost! If God is in this ministry, then victory will not only result despite the cost but because of the cost.

So here’s the challenge! If you are a calvinist and you disagree with what I have written, then try writing back with your point of view, including support from the Bible (sola scriptura) to demonstrate your arguments. I will always respect those who try to properly debate, even when they oppose me. And, finally, I praise God for His promises that all things work together for good and that in Christ we are more than conquerors.

And on that line here’s the real message of today! We who are Christians may be assured that we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us (Romans 8:37), and that all things that sovereign God permits into our lives will work together for good (Romans 8:28). Our response to these great promises (through our faith in the One who promises) is to give thanks always for all things to God in the name of Christ our Saviour (Ephesians 5:20), and, like Jesus’ disciples, rejoicing that we are called by our sovereign God to a ministry that the enemy persecutes. And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. (Acts 5:41) It is truly a blessing to be called to such a ministry. We praise God for His faithfulness and we pray for those who, greatly misled, consider it necessary to spiritually oppose us. May God bless them with an understanding of His love that sent Christ to die on the cross for all mankind (1 John 2:2) that those who call upon the name of the Lord can truly  be saved (Romans 10:13).

Thus, I am emboldened to pursue even more vigorously the heresy of calvinism. It will only be by God’s permission if they mange to crash this site, and therefore the victory will be God’s victory and His alone. His truth will triumph, not in spite of the attacks, but because of the attacks.

If you have any questions or comments about this information, please feel free to say it or give advice, by using the Contact page. Genuine comments will be recorded on the Comments page.

List of all my posts on this site.

If you wish to read other documents on the heresies of calvinism, please use this link.

Sermons and Messages

Please feel free to comment  Comments and contact page
Comments and replies are recorded on the Comments page.

© Copyright - Hopper's Crossing Christian Church