Customer Reviews

The Other Side of Calvinism

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

I have pretty close to every book on this subject.
And this work by Dr. Vance tops them all.
It is sweet reading!!

I've known for years how Plato's doctrine of divine immutability was embraced into the church and the theological repercussions of it.
But I also know from personal experience that to catch a calvi in his labyrinth of 5-point-gesis is like catching a greased pig.

In MHO Dr. Vance catches the pig good!
If you've looked over the myriad of spider-web arguments used to twist scripture into this man-made, man-glorifying theology which morphs the character of God and satan together, you'll love this book.

This book is a must for any student of Scripture whose theological leanings do not include the tenets of Calvinism. In an exhaustive fashion, Vance's 788 page magnum opus, "The Other Side of Calvinism" not only demonstrates Calvinism's flaws from a scriptural standpoint but also uses Calvinistic primary sources and refutes those philosophically-based arguments.

Laurence M. Vance has gone to considerable lengths to present a historically accurate, well documented account of the sustainers and retractors of Calvinism, the events that led up to its being accepted as the 'standard' it has become over the centuries, and his own understanding as to how this all plays out in the light of Scripture. Unlike most other works of its kind, in 'The Other Side of Calvinism' Dr. Vance quotes a vast number of supporters of Calvinism - including John Calvin himself - and utilizes their own words to bolster and enforce his counter-points. To this end Dr. Vance also succeeds in conveying to the reader that there exists much confusion among the Calvinist rank and file. As noted within the book, this fact is not without its import.

A down-to-earth writing style, exhaustive endnotes, Scriptural references, and large appendices do much to secure the reader and encourages one to recognize that this is a work that expects personal conclusions to be based upon a process of reasoning and Biblical validation, not general presumption. Dr. Vance takes nothing for granted in presenting the comparison of his views to those of Calvinism and its supporters.

Whether one upholds the system or not, 'The Other Side of Calvinism' will undoubtedly leave the majority of its readers challenged and well informed.

Laurence M. Vance has gone to considerable lengths to present a historically accurate, well documented account of the sustainers and retractors of Calvinism, the events that led up to its being accepted as the 'standard' it has become over the centuries, and his own understanding as to how this all plays out in the light of Scripture. Unlike most other works of its kind, in 'The Other Side of Calvinism' Dr. Vance quotes a vast number of supporters of Calvinism - including John Calvin himself - and utilizes their own words to bolster and enforce his counter-points. To this end Dr. Vance also succeeds in conveying to the reader that there exists much confusion among the Calvinist rank and file. As noted within the book, this fact is not without its import.

A down-to-earth writing style, exhaustive endnotes, Scriptural references, and large appendices do much to secure the reader and encourages one to recognize that this is a work that expects personal conclusions to be based upon a process of reasoning and Biblical validation, not general presumption. Dr. Vance takes nothing for granted in presenting the comparison of his views to those of Calvinism and its supporters.

Whether one upholds the system or not, 'The Other Side of Calvinism' will undoubtedly leave the majority of its readers challenged and well informed.

This is the most thorough and exacting work on Calvinism I have ever read. It is complete with the Historical origin of Calvinism, modern views and teachings of Calvinism, and examines the scriptures used to prove and disprove this belief. It is a must for any Library.

I had some questions about predestination and got some books by RC Sproul from our church library. After reading them, I was fairly convinced of the rightness of Reformed theology when a Baptist friend loaned me this book by Dr. Vance.

There is simply no way I can express my thanks to Dr. Vance. I know now for certain that Calvinism is a man made doctrine. Dr. Vance not only analyzes Calvinism from a Biblical perspective, but also from a historic perspective. It comes up short in both areas.

Another reviewer said that Dr. Vance doesn't know theology. I don't know about that, but he sure knows the Bible! This book is saturated with Biblical references. Every argument is supported by scripture upon scripture. I often thought Sproul took some leaps in logic when he discussed scripture such as "whosoever will" and the like. Dr. Vance, on the other hand, seems content to "let God be true, and every man a liar."

I have a Ph.D. in history and I was pleased to find Dr. Vance so careful and meticulous in his references. I only wish he could have taken the time to provide an annotated bibliography rather than just a cursory list of references which goes on for page after page.

For several years now, I've grown increasingly discontent with Calvinist theology and have been looking for a good treatise to systematically present the alternative viewpoint. I was excited to hear about this book that is now in its second edition.

The book certainly is comprehensive and covers all the important material. Early on the book seems to put too much emphasis on criticizing Calvin's life (especially his involvement in Servetus' death), but at least he does set everything in a historical context. Vance nicely traces the roots of the Calvin-Arminius debate to Augustine and Pelagius. The book does a fine job of quoting both sides of the debate. In fact, to his credit, I think Vance quotes more from Calvinists than Arminians in trying to disprove Calvinism!

While much of the book is informative, particularly the numerous citations of Calvinist beliefs, I am disappointed with much of it. My main criticisms would be the following:

1. Be prepared for a book by a "KJV only" person. Vance quotes from the bible often, even when the KJV translation is clearly inferior. For example in talking about Total Depravity, Psalm 39:5 is cited in the KJV, which reads, "verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity." This reads like a pro-Calvinistic verse, but every other translation shows that this verse should read differently. For example the ESV reads, "Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath." Vance could have remarked on this to help his case, but shows zero interest in looking at any other translation. In some instances, anti-Calvinist verses are cited that are actually not so. For example to show that all people are made not as elect/reprobate, Vance quotes Psalm 33:15 which reads, "He fashioneth their hearts alike." But again, modern translations based on better Hebrew scholarship show that this is not the best translation of this verse. The NASB renders the same verse, "He who fashions the hearts of them all." A totally different meaning! So I found myself constantly having to check other translations to make sure that the KJV was an accurate translation. Besides these examples, sometimes I found myself just confused at some KJV translations that he lists. Acts 17:30, "And the times of this ignorance God winked at." Winked at?! Again, the author's KJV only stance forced me to look up almost every important verse to get another perspective.

2. Probably because of the author's KJV-only beliefs, he seems to care much more about it than the underlying Greek or Hebrew. He constantly asks questions about how often a word is used, a word like depravity, elect, predestined, etc. There is almost no care for the Hebrew or Greek underlying it, just how the KJV reads, even if it translates different Greek or Hebrew words with the same English word, or if the same English word had multiple Hebrew/Greek equivalents. This was extremely frustrating and really diminished the scholarship of the book.

3. The author often attacks Calvinistic interpretations, but often does not provide an alternative one. This was very frustrating. Many times he would do a good job showing how Calvinists read their own interpretation into verses, but does little to construct an alternative interpretation. Sometimes the attacks he makes are based on downright flimsy argumentation. Sometimes however, Vance is brilliant in his arguments.

4. Sometimes the book is too caustic or just outright bizzare. Talking about the famous TULIP acronymn, the books reads, "The five points of Calvinism are commmonly given under the acronym TULIP. To those in the medical profession, TULIP is a reference to a form of laser surgery for prostate problems (Transurethral Ultrasound-guided Laser-Induced Prostatectomy). To the average man, however, a TULIP is just a flower." (p. 145) What!?! I couldn't tell if this was supposed to be funny or not, but there are strange things like this throughout the book.

There are some definite strengths of the book. He points out that Calvinists often artificially dichotomize everything, and Vance provides insight into the real significance of their buzzwords. For example, he correctly points out that the most important aspect of Total Depravity is "Total inability."

On the whole, there were some good things in the book, but the presentation was just not good enough for me to recommend. I'm still searching for a good, comprehensive anti-Calvinist treatise. I actually think this book has the potential to be it, so I'm hoping that Vance makes a third revision of this book. It certainly has the potential to be an amazing book.

May 10, 2003
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Addenum to original review
April 6, 2004

Now nearly a year after I wrote the above review (amazon lets you edit old reviews that you wrote), I wanted to add that I did finally find the book that I can recommend on contesting Calvinistic claims. The book is: "Grace, Faith, and Free Will" by Robert Picirilli (also available on amazon.com). It's much more scholarly than Vance's book, and I felt more decisive in its arguments. It's also cheaper and more concise. I would strongly recommend taking a look at that book before buying Vance's book. Picirilli is a professor of Greek, and writes in a cool, level-headed fashion that also demonstrates superb exegesis. Picirilli's book, in my mind, sets the new standard in this field.

Dr. Vance gets 5 stars for this important work.

I was once an ardent Calvinist -- supralapsarian, no air, die-hard John Gill-style predestinarian. I heard the logic of the 5 points over and over again and was ready for any objection from the irrational fool who would dare challenge the system. Eventually I saw some cracks in the system not only when held up to the light of Scripture but also as I observed that members of the 5-point community displayed some of the most intolerant and rancorous behavior one could imagine as they attacked one another in various media - especially the Internet.

I frequently participated in food fights among the Calvinistic "brethren" over the web which included charges of "antinomian," "heretic," "apostate," "romanist," as reconstructionists, covenantors, various reformed groups, sovereign gracers, Amyraldians(the real heretics) lashed out to defend the purity of their own calvinistic stances. Almost all arguments boiled down to "my interpretation of the Doctrines of Grace is better than yours,"...believe it, the level of ego casualty in the 5-point clique is beyond measure.

Later, I came across this book titled "The Other Side of Calvinism" and decided to investigate it so I could blast the heretic who would dare challenge the citadel of Calvinism. The book is sourced from thousands of statements by Calvinists as the author examines the validity of the teachers and tenents of this philosophical system. In a thorough and convincing manner, this book shows the the conclusion is a resounding "unbiblical" and it has the Calvinist community hopping mad. I see lots of "poison the well" comments and name calling in the book reviews from my old fraternity but they cannot escape the facts.

As Dr. Vance puts it "Calvinists have one thing in common: God, by a sovereign, eternal decree, has determined before the foundation of the world who shall be saved and who shall be lost. To obscure the real issue, a vocabulary has been invented to confuse and confound the Christian. The arguments about supralapsarianism and infralapsarianism, total depravity and total inability reprobation and peterition, synergism and monergism, free will and free agency, common grace and special grace, general calling and effectual calling.....are all immaterial. The stumbling block for the Calvinist is the SIMPLICITY OF SALVATION (emphasis mine), so upon rejecting this, a SYSTEM (emphasis mine) has to be constructed whereby salvation is made a mysterious, arcane, incomprehensible decree of God. Thus, the basic error of Calvinism is confounding election and predestination with salvation, which they never are in the Bible but only in the philosophical speculations....of calvinism."

I guess my problem with Calvinism today is the fact that one has to be TAUGHT it as a system. Its main tenets do not readily appear from a plain reading of Scripture. Calvinistic soteriology of the extreme variety where intensive interpretation of the 5 points is hammered into a system takes lots of INFERENCE from different passages collected together and presented as a product of inductive reasoning -- this is what the Bible teaches about: SALVATION.

Unfortunately the problem with inductive reasoning is that unless you complete the induction and collect ALL that the Bible says about a topic, you are likely to arrive at a false conclusion. Calvinists do this very thing for they select their favorite verses and repeat them over and over (Acts 13:48, John 6:37,44) and throw them together out of context and IGNORE the verses that teach against their system like 1 Tim 2:4, 2 Pet 3:9 and others. They also enter theories into their system that are not taught in the Bible. As A.W. Tozer once said, "the essence of idolatry is to imagine things about God and then preach them as truth" and Calvinism is guilty of this very charge.

Therefore, Calvinists spin out abstruse and academic theories like Covenant of Redemption, the Covenant of Grace, Supra-infra-sub-lapsarianism, -- theories that are typically not arrived at by the typical believing student of the Bible. No, it takes theological eggheads the like late Augustine, John Gill, or Beza to develop and teach theories like these and teach them as biblical soteriology. The result is a loss of Biblical truth for some vain and extreme traditions of men.

The author is no Arminian either. He holds to holds to assurance but disputes the intensive interpretations of Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Irresistible Grace, or Limited Atonement. His Biblical conclusions are then railed out by the theological elites of Calvinism to be arminian and heretical.

I find it interesting that these 5-pointers are constantly lamenting that their system is misunderstood -- let alone the fact we are flooded with materials about how the system works. It is much more likely that more and more people are seeing that it is impossible to live consistently within the strict and extreme framework of 5-point Calvinism for it would be impossible to communicate the Gospel to anyone and God would be misrepresented as a grotesque, sadistic, and capricious monster -- all just and no love. The attributes of God, however, cannot be logically separated so the system of extreme calvinism skews God's justice over His omnibenevolence and thus misrepresents God in the worst way.

Everyone Christian should read this book -- especially Baptists. Buy it, study and highlight it, and then go share the Gospel with "whosoever will." I also recommend "Chosen But Free" by Norman Geisler.

Vance has written the best book on Calvinism to date by a Baptist author. He explores every argument of the Calvinist and leaves no stone unturned. Vance shows clearly from the Bible that Jesus died for every single person in the world, and each person has the free will to accept or reject God's offer of salvation. Vance defends eternal security and yet shows how the Calvinists misapply the doctrine to fit into their TULIP system. With the onslaught of Calvinism into Southern Baptist ranks, every SBC member should get this book!

Vance's book is a thorough refutation of the doctrinal system called Calvinism. If your authority is Scripture, not some one's man-made system, this book will show you without a doubt that the doctrines of limited atonement, irresistible grace, and total inability are simply incompatible with the Bible and turn Jesus Christ into a disingenuous speaker of Clintonian proportions.

The protestations by Calvinists that Vance and other authors "misrepresent Calvinism" are simply laughable. One of the reasons that Vance's book is such a massive tome is because he spends so much paper letting the Calvinists speak for themselves.

That we have enough different Calvinist apologetics books to create a new continent in the Pacific is evidence enough that something seriously lacks in the "logic box" of John Calvin's mind. Vance does an admirable job distilling Calvinist positions down to a readable quantity without distorting their positions. And I should know -- I was once a hard-line Calvinist.

Complaints that all refutations of Calvinism inherently distort Calvinism ring just as hollow as the same exact arguments by evolutionists who complain that anyone denying evolution doesn't understand it.

Don't let the negative reviews persuade you to ignore this book. Read it.