Why I Am A Five Point Calvinist

By Dr John McElhaney

This book is written to clarify the teaching of Sovereign grace, there are a lot of people who do not understand this teaching simply because someone has told them something that is not true about this teaching, This is the teaching of Paul and the Apostles, Saint Augustine, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon, Martin Lloyd Jones, R.C Sproul, John MacArthur and all other preachers of the past and present that teach the true gospel. Look inside let the scriptures speak for themselves, make sure you have a proper view of God. There are things we cannot understand about God because he is infinite, and we are finite, but whether we understand God or not we are to believe him and his word. The teaching of Sovereign grace is the easiest thing in the world to believe if you will just let God’s word say what it means. Once you see and accept this doctrine you will never be the same. You will see so clearly the teaching of Sovereign grace and will understand that the only way you can properly interpret the sacred scriptures is to view them considering God’s sovereign grace or what some people call Calvinism.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dr John McElhaney
• Release date: Aug 11, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463416983

Dr John McElhaney

Dr John McElhaney Graduated sums cum laude with a Th.D. He has pastored churches in Tennessee and Florida for almost fifty years. He has been Married to Margaret Leffew for forty seven years and they have three children, eight grandchildren and two great grandchildren. His passion is writing, preaching and teaching the sacred scriptures. He is available for speaking engagements by appointment. You may contact him by E-mail at [e-mail] , by phone at 423-836-7231 his mailing address is 1104 Christianburg Lane Sweetwater, TN. 37874

Book preview

Why I Am A Five Point Calvinist

The five points of Sovereign Grace

Also, commentary on Jonah and Abraham

By: Dr. John McElhaney

Copyright © 2018 by John McElhaney

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof

may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever

without the express written permission of the publisher

except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Printed in the United States of America

First Printing, 2018

All scripture references are from the KJV

ISBN-13:

978-1725513112

ISBN-10:

1725513110

This book is dedicated to my eight Grand Children who have brought me so much joy. I look forward to what God will do through them in the years ahead. Jon Anthony, Monica, Amber, Holly, Isaac, Isaiah, Elis and Gabriel

INTRODUCTION

When the word Calvinism is mentioned many people atomically turn their listening ears off. They have been programed by some pastor or church leader not to listen to anyone who preaches this doctrine. They themselves don’t know anything about the teaching of Calvinism because they have never heard it taught. The preachers who warned them not to listen to the teaching themselves know nothing about it. They have grabbed a few statements from others they have heard talking about it, but they have never really looked at it from the scriptures.

I tell people to always know why you believe what you believe, if you don’t know why, then you have nothing to stand on as to what you claim to believe. We must know what the scripture says, not what we have heard someone else say it says, we must search the scriptures to prove what we believe is scriptural. Also, don’t look at one scripture and build a doctrine from that. Every scripture must be tested with all scripture to find the true meaning. Always read the context to see how the verse fits within the context, then consider it with the book, then consider it with the teaching of the whole bible. If there are any contradictions, then the interpretation is not correct that you are trying to prove.

I have heard many of these preachers who speak out openly against Calvinism, but when they preach they preach Calvinism. These are some of the people who have heard that Calvinism is not a true teaching, but they know nothing about it themselves. Also, when most people hear Calvinism preached they will accept it because it is exactly what they themselves believe but don’t know it.

I would ask you to read this book with an open mind, look at all the scriptures and let the scriptures speak for themselves. Open your mind to who God is, not who you have created him to be in your mind. Open your mind to who man is look at him biblically and allow God to teach you through his word.

When I first begin studying the bible many years ago, I wanted to know everything I could about the sacred scriptures. I wanted to know for myself, not what I had heard someone else teach, not just what I had been taught by others all my life, but what does the scriptures say themselves. I want to be able to give an answer to anyone who would ask me about my faith.

By me doing that, I discovered things that showed me that Calvinism is not some strange doctrine that John Calvin came up with, but what people call Calvinism today is nothing but true bible teaching. People put Calvin’s name on it because they want to say it is of man and not God. John Calvin would never want his name to be put on this doctrine he would say this is bible doctrine, and he would be right.

This is the same teaching Paul taught, St. Augustine taught, St. Thomas Aquinas taught, Jonathan Edwards, Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox, Martin Lloyd Jones, R.C. Sproul, and all the true ministers today teach this same doctrine. You cannot get the bible to come together completely perfect without teaching it this way, using what someone named Calvinism.

I never had a problem with this teaching, it was what I have been teaching all through my ministry. I don’t have a problem fitting the scriptures together viewing them this way. I will show you as we go through this book the problem verses that many people miss interpret. Also, we will see what the one point of the five is that hold all the others together. We will see from the scriptures that by holding any other doctrine you are exalting man above God and making man sovereign over his salvation instead of God.

The teaching of Arminianism, which is the opposite view of Calvinism is so far outside the teaching of scriptures that we could never consider any of that teaching. This teaching is not a new doctrine that came with Joseph Arminius, just like Calvinism is the true teaching of scriptures all the way back to the days of the written text. The doctrine of Arminianism started in the early church as an apostate doctrine of a man called, Pelagian, he brought a doctrine that the church rejected, then later came back with his doctrine reworked and called it semi Pelagianism, the church also rejected it. Then later Joseph Arminius came out with the semi Pelagianism and his name became associated with it.

What you see is the false doctrine of Pelagianism and semi Pelagianism trying to corrupt the early church comes back again in the form of Arminianism and is still here today teaching false doctrine opposing the true teaching of what man has called Calvinism. Open your eyes and allow God to teach you about the true doctrine of Calvinism. Allow the scriptures to be your authority and allow scripture to interpret scripture so you can get a true Picture of Who God is, who man is, and the true teaching of salvation. I have been in the ministry almost fifty years and the word gets more amazing every day. There is nothing like studying the scriptures and resting in him.

CHAPTER ONE: BECAUSE OF WHAT THE SCRIPTURES TEACH ABOUT GOD.

The scriptures are the authority, not some theologian, pastor, or bible teacher. When we let the scriptures give us our view of God, it will probably be different from what we have been thinking. God is either Totally and completely sovereign, or he is not God at all. When you view God, what is he like, how do we relate to him, how does he communicate to us?

We are finite, God is Infinite, and the finite cannot grasp the infinite. So, the first thing we need to come to terms with is the fact that man will never be infinite, or able to understand God completely, even after we get to heaven. When God speaks to us he uses our language to communicate with us not his. He describes himself in terms that we understand, but do not reveal the full picture of God. God is spirit, but when the scriptures describe him it talks about his hands, feet, arms, etc. This is to give us a description we can relate too. When it talks about God owning the cattle of a thousand hills, it doesn’t mean God is a cattle rancher, it is just showing us in our terms that everything is his and under his control. When he talks to us it is like a parent talking to a baby, with sounds, trying to get the baby to relate. Not only is God infinite, but God is immutable, which means he is unchanging, or can’t change. We change, but not God.

Also, there are positive things that we use to describe God. These are words with the prefix omni, added to them. This word omni means, all, so we use the word Omnipotence, which says that God is all powerful. This is not the same as using the word powerful with man. The meaning is totally different. There is power that falls in the category of the finite and there is power that falls in the category of the infinite. To have infinite power is something we cannot understand.

Then there is the word omniscience, this is the word for all knowing but not as man finitely but as God infinitely. All infinite knowledge is in him. We can’t remotely understand this kind of being. Then there is the word omnipresent, which means all present, or everywhere present always. We cannot possibly understand the infinite presence of God. He transcends all tense of time and space. There is never a time past, present, or future that he is not present in always. There is no past or future with God, everything exists with him presently. That is mind boggling, but that is God.

There are other words we associate with God and they are Holy; this word is not conceivable to us in its fullness as when speaking of God. God uses the words Thrice holy, by using the word three times is using it to mean the ultimate that holy could represent. In the Book of Isaiah, the prophet speaks of God as so holy that even the heavenly beings when in his presence, cover their faces and feet. His holiness is so great that the train of his robe fills the temple. The foundation of the temple shakes when he speaks. We can’t possibly comprehend this God.

There is the word one. This means that God is God alone, there is no other, there is no secondary god, there is one. He is one and three in person. God is self-existent, God does not exist like man, God needs nothing apart from himself to exist, everything else need God to exist and could not exist without him. God needs nothing to make him happy, nothing to keep him from being lonely, needs nothing to give him fulfillment, or joy, God is completely inclusive of everything, everything exists in him.

Then there is the word sovereign, this is a very important word because this word means that God controls everything, and if he does not control everything, then whatever is not controlled by him would be greater than him. You can’t have it two ways. If God is God then he is totally sovereign over all creation, and everything that exist on the earth and throughout the universe. I know many people’s god, that they believe in is limited in his control, but you are not serving the God of the bible. Psalm 115:3

But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.

Let us look at God that spoke the world into existence. He spoke, and the earth formed, he spoke, and the waters formed, he spoke, and plants formed, he spoke, and birds were formed, he spoke, and