Customer Reviews

The Five Points of Calvinism

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I found this book incredibly simple to comprehend, yet insightful and convincing. This is a manageable, well-balanced read for anyone interested in a critique of Calvinism. Without name-calling (as some so-called "Christian" reviewers do on these webpages and thus give a very poor image of a Chrisian church in America), George Bryson presents a structured, Bible-based presentation of Calvinism's inconsistencies. Of course, anyone who believes in the Calvinist dogma might argue that Bryson's Biblical passages are taken out of context, but the same arguement can be levied against Calvinist writings. We shouldn't forget that everyone's understanding of the Bible is unique, and hence there is no need to call those who disagree with you "heretics", as, most regretfully, did J.W. Majors. "Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgement, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you." - Romans 12:3

I bought this book from Amazon last year, and I was greatly impressed with it. One of the most important points it stresses is that the Calvinism-Arminianism debate is actually improper, because there exists a THIRD (more biblical) alternative that is neither Calvinist nor Arminian. Alas, that point is forever lost on critics from the Reformed camp especially, who have been brainwashed by their elders into believing that all non-Calvinists like Bryson are "Arminians".

And predictably, some reviewers are upset because Bryson dares to insinuate that their sacrosanct Reformed tradition departs from scripture on the salvation issue -- which it surely does. Dave Hunt explains the details of all that in his 600-page book, but George Bryson does a very admirable job in pointing out the basic scriptural weaknesses of Calvinism in this relatively brief volume. And, in spite of reviewer accusations to the contrary, I believe Bro. Bryson does so with a gracious spirit.

Way to go, George! :-)

Imagine, the Arminians love it and the Calvinists loathe it. Perhaps we have too eagerly divided ourselves into these two categories; "Calvinist" vs "Arminian". Perhaps God is more sovereign than the Arminian would feel comfortable believing and more gracious than the Calvinist would ever be willing to accept (and, yes, I know Calvinists have a special explanation for grace: evidently God's grace picks some and not others)

My question is, why is this debate important? Will a thorough understanding of either theological position lead one sinner to salvation? No. This stuff trips people up, creates fear and undermines faith.

This book is just bad. It's a very poor and lacking representation and critique of Calvinism.

In one place, he admits that Calvin himself was an Augustinian, yet still makes his book out to be anti-Calvinism. I'm curious how he argues against the Biblical truths as believed and taught for the last 1700 years, and the church growth associated with the teaching, if-

A. It wasn't from God alone
B. It weren't Biblical truths.

Many straw men are introduced, saying the Westminster Confession of Faith equates Total Depravity with Utter Depravity is a complete misrepresentation. He doesn't do an honest evaluation of the doctrine, and in doing so creates a spurious argument.

More nonsense would include the following quote-

"Incidentally, if you are among the elect you may be wondering about
your children. How can you know if they will or will not be saved? If
only the elect can be regenerated and only the regenerated can be
saved, is there anyway of knowing if our own children will be elect?
According to Calvin (but I am not sure about Calvinism itself), it would
appear that God does have (at least in one sense) spiritual grandchildren
after all. That is, according to Calvin:
Our children, before they are born, God declares He adopts for His
own when He promises He will be a God to us, and to our seed after
us. In this promise their salvation is included.[37]
If this is true, we need not concern ourselves with our children or our
children's children, etc., etc., etc. Why? Because if we are elect, our
children are also elect, and so on until our lineage comes to an end.
While a Calvinist may find comfort in this view, he needs to flip this
coin over to see what is on the other side. If it follows that your
children are elect and will be saved if you are one of the elect, would it
not also follow, that if your child never believes in Jesus Christ, he
proves he was not elect. If he proves not to be elect, he proves you
are not elect. If you prove not to be elect, your father could not have
been elect either. This election domino must logically fall in both
directions."

I don't know a single Calvinist who believes all their children are saved. This makes no sense what so ever. There are even Biblical accounts where this is easily refuted, with people coming to Christ, who's parents weren't saved... etc. It's as if Bryson is completely lying to fill pages with ilk. Also, given this logic would put all of Israel faithful from Abraham on.

He sets a little bait with the following comment-

"While I agree with Calvinists and Arminians that these
two systems of theology are mutually exclusive and therefore cannot both be
true, I emphatically disagree that these are the only Evangelical or Orthodox
options."

But, with the former quote, he completely dodges any examples as to what other "Evangelical or Orthodox options" exist. Would it have been too much? The book coming in at a 4th grade reading level and under 200 pages, wouldn't have suffered from 4 of 5 examples taking up at most 20 or so additional words.

Bryson also gives a limited, unsatisfying, and incorrect interpretation of John 6:44. While being one of the vast array of scriptures that support Calvinism, this is one of the few Bryson actually dedicates some page space towards. He completely seems to miss Romans 9 in discussing the Doctrines of Predestination and Reprobation, he completely seems to miss Ephesians 1, in terms of Predestination with "just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love". That to me is a biggie, but he just seemed to... miss it.

Don't buy this book, go straight to the Manual first and foremost, and then study the doctrines and theology that Scripture is laying out before your very eyes. The Bible itself uses the word "Predestine". What does this mean? Go to true theologians, read Wesley, read Arminius, read Calvin, Augustine, Luther, Warfield, Machen, Hodge, etc. etc. etc. Then, based on scripture, see which theological interpretations of these difficult passages does all of the following-

1. Most glorifies God.
2. Most humbly and lowly represents man.
3. Coincides with Scripture.
4. Coincides with Reality.

God bless, and may you "walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God".

Soli Deo Gloria

Hats off to George Bryson for the best concise guide on the Five Points of Calvinism that I have read to date. In all fairness to Calvinists of all stripes Bryson devotes the first half of this small format 120 page book to letting the Calvinists describe their own system--from the donkey's mouth so to speak. Since there are so many flavors of Calvinism, he graciously presents their "soft" and "hard" takes on the T.U.L.I.P. The second half is his rebuttal to each of the five points using Scripture.

Bryson rightly points out, as I have in other reviews, "that there is no Calvinism without [all] the Five Points. I agree with Bryson and mainstream Calvinists that there is no such beast as a "moderate" or "3, 4-point Calvinist". The five points stand or fall as a unit. However, being a "non-Calvinist" doesn't mean you are an Arminian either. A moderate or mediate view disagrees with both of the extremes. Biblicists, whether they realize it or not, actually disagree with all five points and not just Limited Atonement. Bryson correctly says "As long as Christians think the Calvinist doctrine of Total Depravity is simply that all have sinned; or that the Calvinist distinctive of unconditional election is that salvation is unmerited; or even that the Calvinistic view of perseverance can be equated with the doctrine of "once saved always saved," they will continue to incorrectly think of themselves as Calvinists."

I wish some of our leading biblical/dispensational theologians and teachers would wake up to this fact and stop confusing other believers by calling themselves a "something or other Calvinist"! For more on this important distinction see also Samuel Fisk's excellent work Calvinistic Paths Retraced.

Other insights include, "The problem with the Calvinistic view of perseverance is similar to the problem of the Arminian view of perseverance. That is, in Calvinism and Arminianism, justification and sanctification are hardly (if at all) distinguishable.", and "Calvinism denies the believer assurance whereas Arminianism denies the believer security."

Finally, Bryson couldn't have summed up Calvinism any better "A person will either be saved or damned FOR all eternity because they were saved or damned FROM all eternity". To paraphrase the Calvinist professor James Daane; all roads in Calvinism lead to reprobation. Too long to quote here, but please be sure to check out the quote on page 118 from Calvinist theologian John S. Feinberg...very candid and telling remarks about his own system!! This little book is highly recommended. I also look forward to reading Bryson's in-depth book entitled The Dark Side of Calvinism: The Calvinist Caste System.

This is a good book for a new believer or anyone who needs an introductory explanation of Calvinism. The author is neither Calvinistic nor Arminian. He believes salvation cannot be lost. Rather than getting bogged down in philosophical speculation, he relies on Scripture for his refutations. He does not display an uncharitable attitude, though his opinion on Calvinism is clear. His reasons for his opinion are also clear. A non-Calvinist can recommend this book without shame or reservation. A definite plus to any library.

The cover illustration claims that George Bryson found the doctrines of Calvinism "wanting". This little book, however, is so short (only 113 pages) that one has to take the claim as boastful, to the point of being impossible to believe.

For instance, there is:

No study of Romans chapter 9;
No study of Ephesians chapter 1;
No study of the second half of John chapter 6;
No discussions of Acts 13:46, 2 Thessalonians 2:13, or Romans 8:28-30.

There's nothing here. George Bryson doesn't exegete anything.

If Calvinism is untrue, one should demonstrate to the reader that there are better interpretations of "5 point" passages of Scripture. The thousands of Calvinistic theologians and preachers over the centuries, from Augustine to Luther and Calvin to Spurgeon to Jonathan Edwards to John MacArthur, Al Mohler, and R.C. Sproul, weren't uneducated people. They didn't just make up some zany theory out of their sheer imaginations. If you're going to call John Piper or Douglas Moo wrong, that's fine; they can be wrong. they might indeed be wrong. But you need to prove it.

There are much better non-Calvinist books, better in the sense that the writers do the work of thorough theologians. Picirelli wrote a good one. Leroy Forlines is worth a look. Don't bother with this fluff book. The only people who will be convinced are baby Christians who don't know their Bibles and Calvary Chapel preachers who don't want to be kicked out of their denomination.

There are four or five major Christian cults (those which use the name of Christ and somewhat rely on the Bible as the basis for their beliefs), but Bryson introduces Calvinism as an additional system of theology to beware of. Unfortunately, Calvinism has been developed, systematized, and reduplicated in most Christian commentaries, theology books, and even institutes of higher eductation. It is not recognized by most as a man-made system of thought that significantly departs from the teachings of the Bible. Whereas the Bible teaches that 1) man can and does respond to the truth of the gospel, that 2) the believer (on the basis of his position in Christ) is selected for service and ultimate glorification (in accord with the foreknowledge of God), that 3) the Lord Jesus died for and redeemed the whole world of men without exception, that 4) man is indeed able to refuse the gospel message and is not irresistibly forced to believe it by the Holy Spirit, and that 5) the believer can utterly fail in his Christian life (and therefore lose blessings in this life and rewards in the life to come, but can't lose or forfeit the non-revocable eternal life promised by God), it is abundantly clear that Calvinism, as a system, is an unfortunate aberation of true biblical doctrine. Bryson, in this work, makes the faults of the Calvinistic system abundantly clear.
Bryson Bryson does a brilliant job of summarizing the teachings of reformed theology in the area of salvation. For my consideration of the five points of TULIP, see:
[...]

This is an awesome little book for those who are just starting to look into this perennial issue.
Fully persuaded calvi's will not find anything new or stimulating to sharpen their swords on here.
No letter-by-letter exegesis, no smarting accusations.
Just a very simple review of the scriptures which, on-surface, read as-is, along with the classic Caliv interpretation which reads them otherwise.
The standard replacements of "All", "World", "Men" with the word "Elect", within select verses necessary to support the theology.
And the numerous other verses which make one scratch the head looking for the possible logic, when likewise changed.


- Man is held responsible for that which he is not response-able.

- A review of the proposition that God gives commands to men which He refuses to allow them to obey, and then condemns them for their disobedience.

- A review of the proposition that God created the vast majority of human souls throughout time, for the express purpose of watching them twist in torments within an eternal lake of fire, simply for good entertainment.
(a view not adhered to by all Calvi's)

- A review of the proposition that since God finds human sufferings entertaining, such entertainment is also acceptable for His elect to impose on the non-elect today.
(a view not adhered to by all Calvi's)

- A review of the proposition that God plants the seed (of salvation) within the soil (human soul) involuntarily.....symbolic of rape.
Based upon the reasoning: If the woman (human soul) actually voluntarily gave herself to the seed planting process (salvation) this would be considered work, and therefore the seed planting process could not be considered a free gift, therefore exemplified as rape. (a view not adhered to by all Calvi's)

- A review of the proposition that God proposes marriage (evangelism of the unsaved) to those whom He has no intention of marrying.
That is to say, God offers salvation to those whom He has no intention of giving it to. Therefore His offer is made without integrity.

My own personal observations, external to the content of this book:
If one carefully and quietly examines the observable fruits before stepping into the spider-web of exegesis, it is suggested that one will recognize the following:

Observable demographics from inception to today.
- A belief system exclusively for to the white Anglo-Saxon male with a bent for intellectualism, philosophy, an over-sized ego, and a need to belong to an advanced guild.
- A body posture which predominates chest puffed out, nose up high.
- A full allowance made for all historical acts of torture, mutilation and murder on those outside the guild.
- On aggregate, a persona of grandiose self-perception. A strong manifestation of Christian narcissism.

So, if your just looking, this little book is a great read.
And while your examining the fruit, see if you don't also recognize the observables listed. I think you'll find it entertaining. :^D

This little book provides an excellent basic summary of what has been commonly referred to as the "doctrines of grace" as well as some basic biblical refutation. Contrary to what many Calvinists believe, the author contends that the issue is not as clear cut as they might have you think and a viable, biblical alternative does exist. This book provides an overview of what the author sees as some of the holes and inconsistencies honest Bible believing Christian should find in this philosophically driven, rather than Biblically derived, doctrine of salvation.