Five Objections to Calvinism
Sermon notes from Pastor Don Elmore
October 15, 2023
Scripture Reading: Ephesians 1:4-6
I was brought up as an Arminian; that is the belief that a man chooses God. Briefly said, in our church when the children reached the age of twelve or thirteen, they took a few classes and then went to the front of the church and said that they wanted Jesus to come into their hearts. After doing this, the future new church members were candidates for baptism and their first Lord’s Supper.
The American Baptist Church that I went to with my parents never explained what the word “election” meant in the Bible. The word was in the Bible, but the church basically ignored it. They did the same thing with similar words/phrases that are also in the Holy Scriptures: “predestination”, “God chose their seed”, “God elected” and “foreknowledge of God”. The Arminian church that I grew up in never talked about these terms. They just continued to invite people up to the front of the church every Sunday service to make their decision.