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Review of GraceWest Bible Church, Albion
GraceWest declares itself to be a reformed church
GraceWest Bible Church of Albion, Australia declares itself to be a reformed church. This means that its doctrines rest upon those taught by Calvin when he attempted to reform the catholic church in the 16th century, hence the name “the Reformation”. Calvin never left nor denied the catholic church but merely desired to reform it.
Calvin believed in the teachings of that same Augustine who is declared the “Doctor of Grace” by the catholic church. Augustine based his doctrines largely upon his Manichean beliefs (a strict Gnostic sect) and taught that all things are predestinated without any freedom of will for mankind to alter his direction in life.
They teach that all mankind is foreordained for either heaven or hell
GraceWest doctrine rests upon a belief that God has foreordained all things according to his will, including the salvation or condemnation of all people. In particular, where you go when you die is predetermined from the beginning by their allegedly sovereign God who, according to Calvin, predestinated all mankind to either life or death.
Reformed doctrine has conflicting teachings
Now this reformed doctrine has certain conflicting teachings built into it. If you attend this church or one with similar beliefs, or are considering doing so, then please think very carefully for yourself about the following. Your eternal future (heaven or hell) will depend upon how you deal with these issues. Don’t just believe something because a person with alleged learning says so! Read (particularly the Bible – sola scriptura) and research for yourself to determine what you will believe. When you stand before God as Judge, these “experts” will not be able to take your side, nor can they be your advocate. You will either stand alone or you will stand with the Lord Jesus as your Advocate. It is what you do with the Son of God that will determine your eternal destiny!
Reformed doctrine says you will go where their God tells you to go
Because reformed or calvinist churches teach that man has no free will to have any say in his eternal destiny (heaven or hell), then they will teach that God alone will decide this for every person without exception. They teach that God has determined your eternal future from the beginning, and that this decision cannot ever be altered. For example, in their doctrinal statement, GraceWest states that “sovereign election will result in what God determines.” Therefore, reformed churches must believe that only those who are chosen to be saved may in fact be saved. If you weren’t chosen by their God, then you can never be saved. For example, GraceWest states that “All whom the Father calls to Himself will come in faith, and all who come in faith the Father will receive (John 6:37-40, 44; Acts 13:48; James 4:8)” That is, only those on that list of the elect (the chosen ones) can ever be saved; no-one else at all!
(Their supporting verses do not support this doctrine anyway)
Note that those supporting verses added here do not actually teach what they say they do.
For example, John 6:44 does not say that all who are called must come, but that all who come must have been called. Think carefully on this!
Acts 13:48 mentions that the Gentiles received the eternal life that the Jews themselves rejected 2 verses before in Acts 13:46. The Gentiles merely accepted what the Jews had just previously rejected of their own free will.
James 4:8 does not appear to be particularly relevant here.
John 6:37-40 actually discusses two separate groups: all mankind who will be present at the resurrection to either life or death (see John 5:28-29), and those who choose to follow Jesus as His disciples.
Reformed belief teaches that man is unable to want to seek God
Reformed churches must believe that man can do nothing at all to seek God, and that God must make the first move by giving man new life through the Holy Spirit in a process called “regeneration” (= being born again). MacArthur (who teaches a similar doctrine to that of GraceWest) teaches that the gospel is the outward ineffectual call of God and that it is the inward call of the Spirit that is effectual in saving man. (“The Doctrine of God’s Effectual Call”) That is, MacArthur teaches that the gospel is unable to save anyone until after they are born again. But, how can you be born again yet not saved??
(Note that GraceWest currently (July 2022) offers classes based on Fundamentals of the Faith by MacArthur.)
Reformed belief teaches that all people start off as spiritual corpses
Reformed churches teach that all people are like spiritual corpses, dead to God, unable to respond to God in any way, and that they must be born again by the Spirit before they are able to respond to the gospel and be saved. Thus, in reformed doctrine, man cannot respond to the gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ until after he has been born again (regenerated) by the Spirit. In reformed doctrine, the gospel is only effectual to save after a person is regenerated (born again).
In reformed belief, spiritual corpses cannot respond to the gospel
Some reformed churches teach that the gospel is what God uses to draw man to himself. But, how can any man respond before he is regenerated? Claiming the use of the gospel to draw man to God would then assume that man can respond to God before he is regenerated by the Spirit. Evangelising using the gospel is in conflict with their teaching that man is a spiritual corpse until God makes him alive again first.
Reformed church evangelism of the lost is an oxymoron
So why does GraceWest also claim that “According to Matt. 28:18-20, our ultimate task is to reproduce ourselves by proclaiming Christ to every man and to bring him to the knowledge of the Saviour. This involves a compassion for the lost condition of those around us, a clear communication of the gospel to them, and a persuading and pleading with all to embrace Christ.” (https://gracewest.org.au/what-we-believe/)
Especially noting that most people are not on their God’s list of the elect (chosen ones), and therefore unable to be saved, ever, no matter how much the gospel is preached to them, according to their reformed teachings! And all the elect chosen ones will be saved in spite of whether or not the gospel is preached to them.
Reformed church preaching to the lost is like reviving bodies in a cemetery
Please consider this carefully. If the gospel is ineffectual for the non-regenerated, then it is only effectual for those who are already born again and therefore already saved. And therefore, what purpose does the gospel fulfill then? Can a person enter heaven after being born again yet before he hears the gospel, believes in Christ and is saved? Is their Jesus really the only way to the Father according to John 14:6? Reformed church evangelism is like preaching to the already converted!
The reformed gospel is based upon random selection by their God
The reformed church teaches that their God has chosen (elected) his people from the beginning. And, as Calvin taught, this means he has also chosen from the beginning those people whom he will send to hell, also without any say from those people. They declare this election to be unconditional. The definition of “unconditional” means “without any conditions applied” or, in other words, “random”.
Unconditional election is really random selection
Thus the unconditional election is actually random selection where their God selects by chance (via his celestial lottery) whom he will permit to go to heaven. Those of the elect have won the lottery and will be paid their prize of eternal life. The rest have lost and will therefore be sent to hell for losing.
Just one single condition at all would prevent it from being unconditional. The reformed gospel has no conditions applied at all, other than perhaps the number chosen for heaven (that is, the size of the sample group).
If you don’t understand reformed doctrine, then don’t accept it
If you cannot refute these statements without declaring it to be a mystery hid in the secret counsels of sovereign God (this is the calvinist’s favourite response), or if you are able to observe serious inconsistencies in reformed doctrine, then please check it out. Test all things; hold fast to that which is true (1 Thessalonians 5:21). Do not ever assume that any church or spiritual teacher is correct without checking him or her out. It is your spiritual future that may well rest upon who you listen to and what teachings you accept.
Don’t wait until the judgment to find out if you are right or wrong
It is too late to do this when you stand before God in the judgment, so be absolutely certain of what you believe! Only the foolish would believe everything they are told without checking it out first!
The only assurance of calvinist salvation is to persevere to the end
Calvinists can never be assured of their salvation until they have persevered until the end, so how can they assure you of your salvation if they cannot even be assured of their own? All they can say is see if your works persevere to the end. Calvin taught that if you fell away before the end, then God had given you a temporary faith which he termed an inferior operation of the Spirit. And, that the only way to discern between a real faith and a temporary faith was whether or not you persevered to the end. Calvinists can believe as much as they like, but they cannot have assurance of eternal life until they persevere to the end.
Whatever you believe of any of this should be the consequence of your personal research into it all (Acts 17:11). Don’t take my word for it, either, but test what I have written, check me out, and believe what you personally will believe. After all, it is God who will judge all things, no-one else.
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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 may be recorded on the Comments page. However, I may choose to reply to reasonable comments via email.
List of all my posts on this site.
If you wish to read other documents on the heresies of calvinism, please use this link.
Please feel free to comment on the Comments and contact page
Reasonable comments and replies may be recorded on the Comments page.
However, due to the lack of logical comments, most comments will not be recorded.
Calvinism teaches that good is evil, and evil is good!
According to Calvin’s hero and “mentor”, Augustine, evil is good and what is good is always evil. Therefore, Calvinists must believe that “bad” is simply “an evil good”, that evil is good and good is evil! In simple terms, this is Gnostic theology, where it is the obtaining of total knowledge (both good and evil) that saves you.
“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil” Isaiah 5:20
Calvinists have to accept Augustine’s teachings or reject Calvin
Calvin placed Augustine on a pedestal above all other sources of teaching, writing that “all ancient theologians, with the exception of Augustine, are so confused, vacillating, and contradictory ….., that no certainty can be obtained from their writings.” (Institutes Bk 2; Ch.2; Section 4) To reject Augustine’s teachings would then to be reject Calvin’s teachings also.
Therefore Calvinists must accept Augustine’s Gnostic heresy
Therefore calvinists must believe, like Augustine, that evil and good are equivalent terms, that a balance must be always achieved between the two, must also believe in the Gnostic teaching: that salvation (transcendence) is to be found through perfect knowledge, both good and evil. To deny this would be to deny Augustine’s Gnostic teachings as heresy (and thus, by logical progression, to deny Calvin’s teachings also as heresy).
Gnosticism teaches that good cannot exist without evil
That is, one must know all things to become transcendent, all good and all evil; that it is impossible to know all good without also knowing all evil; that good cannot exist without a counter-balance of evil, and evil cannot exist independently of good. This is also the meaning behind the yin and yang teaching: that good and evil must exist in a balance between the two; and that some evil must exist in all good and some good must exist in all evil.
“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil” Isaiah 5:20
Augustine taught that evil is good and good is evil
Augustine, whose teachings are the basis for Calvin’s teachings, said (in his “Enchiridion”) “that since every being, in so far as it is a being, is good, if we then say that a defective thing is bad, it would seem to mean that we are saying that what is evil is good, that only what is good is ever evil and that there is no evil apart from something good. ….. Now, if a man is something good because he is an entity, what then, is a bad man except an evil good? ….. if there were no good in what is evil, then the evil simply could not be, since it can have no mode in which to exist ….”
Can any calvinist please explain what Augustine is talking about? How is it biblical? Is Augustine rational? And if Augustine is irrational, then so is Calvin.
“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil” (Isaiah 5:20)
If Augustine teaches false doctrine, then calvinism is likewise false doctrine
This dualism of good and evil appears to be based on Augustine’s Manichean Gnostic roots where salvation depended upon man obtaining ultimate knowledge, both good and evil. It relates to occult yin and yang beliefs which teach that a necessary balance must exist between good and evil. Can any calvinists give any support for Augustine’s irrational thinking here (sola scriptura!)? Doesn’t it simply prove that in a calvinist world, evil has to be seen as good or else evil cannot exist??
Just note Calvin’s support for this Gnostic good-evil teaching in his “The Eternal Predestination of God” where he tries to explain that what God wills for good, when a man does what God wills, it is then evil. For example, if God ordains that man should commit murder, then God’s will is good, but when man does it, man’s will is evil, even if he does what God ordained that he should do. He writes: “I have shown that He wills the same as the criminal and the wicked, but in a different way.“
He goes on to say: “Augustine has a useful admonition, that, for all their agreement here, there is a great difference between God and man. For God wills for good what men will for evil; and He does not will for good what men do not will for evil. So too, in their disagreement, men and God are not quite incongruous. For men will for good what God does not will for good; and they do not will for good what God does will for good.“
According to yin and yang, gnosticism is an eastern religious view of Christianity
yinyanghouse.com says that “Without generalizing too much, the gnostic views provide an almost eastern edge, so to speak, to our judeo-christian western philosophy. ….. First and foremost is that, as a primarily Christian sect, Gnosticism can provide westerners an arguably more eastern view of their own traditions. …..”
According to Gnosticism, salvation comes from a knowledge of good and evil
yinyanghouse.com (quoting from The Gnostic Religion” by Hans Jonas) that salvation is found in the dualistic knowledge such as good and evil, life and death.
“…all of these currents have in some way to do with salvation… all of them exhibit an exceedingly transcendent conception of God and in connection with it an equally transcendent and other-worldly goal of salvation… they maintain a radial dualism of realms of being – God and the world, spirit and matter, soul and body, light and darkness, good and evil, life and death…”
It was the sin of Gnosticism that caused all mankind to be condemned
Gnosticism is the knowledge of good and evil, and as such is clearly defined as a sin against God. Adam was told that if he ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (= gnosticism) then he would die. This defines Gnosticism as the sin that would condemn Adam (and all his descendants) to eternal death.
Genesis 2:17 – But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
When Eve saw that the tree was to be desired to make her wise (with the knowledge of good and evil), she ate it. She also gave some to Adam who also ate it.
Genesis 3:6 – And when the woman saw that the tree [was] good for food, and that it [was] pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make [one] wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
Adam and Eve could have lived forever without sin, but they chose to know good and evil, and therefore were now forbidden to eat any more of the tree of life.
Genesis 3:22 – And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
It was Gnosticism that required Christ to die for the sins of all mankind
For all have sinned according to Adam’s sin, and that same “All” have been justified freely” by Christ.
Romans 3:23-24 – 23For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
All may be justified by faith in Christ:
Romans 3:25-26 – 25Whom God hath set forth [to be] a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26To declare, [I say], at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
All, that is, who call by faith upon that name of the Lord to be saved
For whosoever (that is, everyone without exception) who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved (Romans 10:13).
All you calvinist and reformed believers, think very carefully indeed!
If calvinism is dependent upon Augustine’s teachings which were the Gnostic sin that condemned mankind through Adam’s sin, then calvinism is also that very same sin. Offload Augustine and his knowledge of good and evil, and your calvinism dies. Call upon the name of the Lord to be saved and you will live. Keep Augustine and you are condemned (as was Adam) for your sin of the knowledge of good and evil. When you stand before God in the judgment, will your knowledge of good and evil save you? No! Will Augustine or Calvin be your advocate to defend you before God? No! Will your religious leaders and teachers be able to save you from God’s wrath? No! You alone will stand before God and it is what you alone (not Augustine, Calvin or your church teachers) have done that will determine your eternal destiny. That is, have you called upon the name of the Lord to be saved, or have you been told that such a prayer opposes your God’s sovereignty? Check all things out for yourself; read the Bible for yourself; test all things; hold fast to that which is good (1 Thessalonians 5:21). And “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil” Isaiah 5:20
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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 may be recorded on the Comments page. However, I may choose to reply to reasonable comments via email.
List of all my posts on this site.
If you wish to read other documents on the heresies of calvinism, please use this link.
Please feel free to comment on the Comments and contact page
Reasonable comments and replies may be recorded on the Comments page.
However, due to the lack of logical comments, most comments will not be recorded.