Jim Rohn and Other Motivators Vs. John Piper and Other Calvinists

By Andrew Bushard

This Prosperity Gospel vs. Reformed Theology Book will enlighten you with religious faith, stimulate you with critical thinking, and save you with Godly wisdom. Cover illustration by Kenya Pineda.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Andrew Bushard
• Release date: Mar 11, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311057440

Andrew Bushard

Find empowerment through the First Amendment here:We leverage freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion, and freedom to petition the government for a redress of grievances (the First Amendment) to empower youWe leverage creativity and inspiration to empower youWe leverage presentations, talks, mp3s, and videos to empower youWe leverage movies, DVDs, internet videos, and video games to empower youWe leverage integrity, understanding, diligence, and maverickism to empower you

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Introduction

Man, how I want to put motivational speakers and Calvinists (or other staunchly conservative Christians) in the same room. Since motivational speakers and Calvinists represent such radically different worldviews, I, at least, would find their interaction entertaining and enlightening.

Since that’s not feasible at the moment, I have created this book to bring an internal dialogue I have been having between motivational speakers and Calvinists to life. I believe the worldview of motivational speakers clashes with the worldview of Calvinists. Often when I visit conservative Christian churches, the pastors say things that unequivocally contradict motivational ideology. Also usually when I listen to motivational speeches, the motivators contradict conservative Christianity, especially Calvinism.

When these two groups differ, who is right and who is wrong? I endeavor to answer that.

Personally, I love to get different perspectives and bounce perspectives off each other. Hopefully, if we examine Calvinism and motivational speaking, we can resolve these conflicts and create a synthesis.

I know this much: I go crazy debating the Calvinist perspective vs. the motivational perspective, so I need to create this book. I will not have peace until I publish this book, so let’s begin the Calvinists vs. the motivational speakers party!

One:

View of Human Nature

Calvinists and motivational speakers differ drastically (like night and day) in how they perceive human nature. Since motivational speakers love positivity so much, they tend to view humans positively, whereas Calvinists, like others have noted, tend to view humans bleakly.

Motivational speakers either imply or overtly suggest people are innately good. Motivational speakers like Michael Hyatt love to say things like Always assume the best in others. Naturally, this makes motivational rhetoric sound too naïve. Motivators love to express all the good things about humanity, but we must remember not all positive statements are true statements.

I consider myself an optimist, but you don’t have to believe everyone is Mother Teresa to be an optimist. So I object to notions such as Always assume the best in others.

Calvinists and other conservative Christians tend to go to the opposite extreme, asserting their core belief of the total depravity of the human race. The operative word is total. Note, it’s not partial or predominant depravity, but total depravity.

Calvinist pastor Trevor Hammack of Victory Baptist Church (Ovalo, TX) ends all his sermonaudio.com talks with the reminder we are totally depraved. The Calvinist pastor of Mars Hills Baptist Church, Mark Driscoll, stated it even more bluntly, You suck! Calvinists see sinfulness everywhere and you can’t get bleaker than that.

Even other conservative Christians speak in much the same way. The pastor of High Praise