# How did you become a Calvinist?



## Caroline

And please don't say, "God predestined it." Tell us the means that God used in his sovereign plan in which he predestined your Calvinism.

Were you born into a Calvy family? Get disillusioned with Arminian theology? Calvin and Warfield appeared to you in a dream? (If so, you really should stop eating burritos and reading theology so late at night.)

Follow-up question: For those of you that, like myself, became Reformed as adults, what's the dumbest thing you ever asked the people in a Reformed church?

My story (very, very brief version): I became Calvinist without really knowing it because it seemed self-evident in Scripture, even though I did not know anyone else who held those views (which caused me to doubt my sanity from time to time). I had a brief brush with Calvinism at a church that I attended for a few weeks at one point, but not enough to really grasp it. I was relieved to find like-minded individuals when I joined a support group for former Charismatics and former Pentecostals who had become Presbyterian, and they were instrumental in introducing me to Reformed theology. They suggested that I try an Orthodox Presbyterian church, which I did, after nearly running down a large tree on the church lawn with my car because noticed the sign at the last moment as I was driving by and I was so excited that I actually found one of those churches that I swerved inexplicably toward the building. Fortunately, I avoided the tree and thus was able to introduce myself on the phone instead of via an accident on the front lawn. 

Dumbest thing I ever asked: "Who is Westminster? And why do we keep talking about what he confessed?"


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## au5t1n

I had been introduced to Calvinism 6 or 7 years prior and had fought it ever since. Gradually over the previous few months I had come to see predestination as a non-negotiable in Scripture, but I didn't really let that sink in; it just kind of hung there. One night I was in prayer (one of those extra special prayer times) and it just occurred to me...God is completely in control. Nothing has ever happened outside of his control. He is God. He is Sovereign. And then I realized the Bible had always said that...I had just ignored it. This prayer time was followed by a feeling of enormous peace and comfort in God. God brought me to Calvinism in prayer.

I looked up all my dumbest questions on the Internet.


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## Backwoods Presbyterian

Funny thing happened on the way to the forum...

But seriously. 

I was researching a 20-page paper for a church history class at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, my topic was "Reformed Worship in the United States 1789-1865" and so I started reading primary source documents which included R.L. Dabney's review of John Girardeau's book on the non-use of Instruments in worship (which everyone on this board should read, look here). Well being a supporter of the South and already being aware of Dabney through his book on the defense of Virginia and his relationship with T.J. Jackson began reading some more Dabney which led to his defense of Calvinism (find here) and the rest is history.


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## AThornquist

I heard about predestination at one point, particularly through Ergun Caner. He hates the Calvinist position vociferously and during that young stage of my walk with Christ I was ready to believe what Ergun taught, although it bothered me that he did not use Scripture to argue against James White in email exchanges regarding this doctrine. About this same time I cut ties with a local church for several disturbing reasons and I moved to another county where I joined a church that was solid - the first of my life. It was here that the doctrines of grace were preached faithfully, and I soaked it up. Likewise, I listened to many sermons by Art Azurdia, John Piper, and others, which helped me see the logic and Scriptural defense of the doctrines of grace. The Lord has blessed me indeed, for His glory.

Edit - I forgot to mention that it was during all of this that the Puritan Board found me  and, since I am a baptist, I assumed I held to the LBCF. Now I actually _do_ subscribe to it, but at first I had no idea what I was talking about and merely observed and read a lot of this board, which really was a major influence on my doctrine.


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## SolaGratia

The only way to become a Calvinist is to read Calvin and to say Amen!

I first read _A Reformation Debate Calvin against Cardinal Sadoleto_.


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## DMcFadden

My theological education was pretty much broad evangelical (mildly anti-Calvinist, mainly snide jokes during college classes about simple-minded determinists and those odd ethnic denominations in the upper midwest). The one Calvinist I had (Moises Silva) was a newly minted PhD in his first teaching post and was pretty low key about his Calvinism back then. We appreciated his not assigning homework over the weekend but thought his sabbatarianism was a little quaint. Seminary exposed me to Calvin, Ames, et. al. (courtesy of Geoffrey Bromiley). That left me a 4 pt coward, but leaning Calvinist. Some years later a re-examination of the 5 pts (general reading and listening to R.C. Sproul lectures) left me wondering how I could have thought otherwise.

Now the question is whether my study of covenant theology, the Westminster Assemby, Calvin, etc. will lead me fully into the Reformed camp.


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## C. M. Sheffield

I was brought by divine grace to confess Christ as Lord through the ministry of a Southern Baptist Church. Their stalwart affirmation of Scripture's absolute inerrancy and authority laid the groundwork of Reformed thought in my life. 

I began preaching at sixteen, and like all good Baptists, I read and quoted C. H. Spurgeon. Which was fine until I realized he was a five-point Calvinist. It was then that I was faced with problem of reconciling Spurgeon's Calvinism with his obvious commitment to Scripture's authority. This led me to conclude that I should conduct an honest and objective study of the Doctrines of Grace. 

I studied many Arminianist and Calvinist pastors and theologians. However, none were as convincing as the Bible itself! One Calvinist website simply compiled a host of Scripture passages supporting the claims of Calvinism. It was as plain as the nose on my face! Only a woefully blind sinner (i.e. me) could miss it! I wept. I was a convinced Calvinist! For the first time in my life, God's grace was truly Amazing!

I emailed Dr. C. Matthew McMahon and shared with him the change God had wrought in my heart. He in turn encouraged me to read Boettner's _Reformed Doctrine of Predestination_. I bought it, read it, and was confirmed in my convictions. 

But the five-points are only the beginning. They are the foundation, but only the beginning. I began to see every area of theology differently. My entire worldview had changed. and especially the doctrine of the Church and its application to the ministry. 

I came to love and appreciate John Calvin through his writings. This led me to conclude that I should conduct an honest and objective study of the doctrine of Baptism within the framework of Reformed Covenant Theology. It was truly rewarding. However, after reading everything I could get my hands on in defense of paedobaptism (including _The Case for Covenantal Infant Baptism,_ which I believe to be the best book on the topic), I remained unconvinced. 

However, my love for my Reformed/Presbyterian brethren runs deep, may their tribe increase!


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## ewenlin

Heard some of Washer's sermons. Went out and bought Sproul's _What is Reformed Theology _, which consolidated it for me.


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## JBaldwin

I grew up under the ministry of Wayne Van Gelderen, Sr. who was well-known in fundamentalist circles though his background was Dutch Reformed. Though he was obviously arminian/Dispensational in theology, he held to all of the Scriptures. He openly struggled with predestination, election and the foreknowledge of God. From the pulpit he would say, "I don't understand election and predestination, but it's in the Word of God. I'm sure that planted seeds in me. 

It was really during my first and only term as a foreign missionary in France that I began to understand the love and grace of God. This led me finally to the reformed faith. When I returned from France, I resigned from the mission and ended up at a reformed Baptist church. Before a year was up, I had become convinced (through personal Bible study) in paedo Baptism. I moved to a PCA church and embraced the reformed faith.


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## buggy

I professed faith in Christ in my youth and attended a Methodist church when young. Then I discovered fundamentalism and crossed over to an Independent Fundamental Baptist church. The church is anti-Calvinist but appreciates some Calvinistic preachers like Paul Washer and various reformed fundamentalists.

I got across Calvinism through various sources - from New Calvinists (e.g. John Piper), dispensational Calvinists (e.g. MacArthur) and reformed fundamentalists (Bible Presbyterian). That is why I respect all of them even though I do not agree with everything they hold on to. 

Once I found out my church is certainly not receptive to the Doctrines of Grace, I packed up and left for a Reformed Baptist church. My one year there with the RBs has made me turn from Calvinistic to Reformed.  Membership there will come up very soon!


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## Willem van Oranje

The doctrine of unconditional election struck me one day as I listened to the book of Romans on audio CD in one sitting. It threw a monkey wrench in my system of doctrine. Ineeded some help putting the pieces back together. I remembered learning in history class about this Reformer named John Calvin who I heard had taught this doctrine, so I went to my school library and checked out the Institutes of the Christian Religion by Calvin. I found his insights very helpful on many biblical doctrines, including soteriology but also eventually the law, baptism, the extraordinary offices, civil government, etc. Eventually I coudn't stand the charismatic megachurch I was attending, anymore, (our pastor was Ted Haggard.) I began attending a Reformed church, and remember the joy I felt when suddenly for the first time in my life I was in a church where it was cool that I like history. I had always been looked at kind of askance for my interest in church history when I had been an charismatic.


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## TheDow

I was saved at an Arminian church, where Calvinism was never put forth as something a sane person believed in. Never questioned it.

Met a friend whose intellect I had a great deal of respect for. One day, he indicated at a Bible study that he'd been studying church history, and had discovered that historic reformers in church history actually believed in Calvinism. From that point, I began seeing Calvinism (and election specifically) all over the Word of God. Didn't take too long to decide I wanted to understand Calvinism.

Came to the Modesto OPC not too long after it was made clear that our "new" views were not really welcome in the church. That friend of mine had started a Bible Study concerning the role of women in the church according to the Word of God. We were essentially disfellowshipped, though most of us weren't even members.


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## dudley

Through Gods grace I was made one of the elect and by his saving grace alone I am now a Presbyterian and a Calvinist. A series of circumstances led me to become a Presbyterian. It was through study and contemplation and prayer I became a Calvinist Protestant. I was Roman Catholic. I left the rcc as my biography states in 2006 and through friends began to attend and soon join the Episcopal church.

I knew by becoming an Episcopalian I had become a Protestant but I really did not understand Protestantism nor the different denominations in Protestantism and how and what were their beliefs and even differences.

At first I became an Episcopalian because I felt at home with its sacramental structure, its governmental system and its liturgy, which is done at an altar and like the roman mass. However as I began to study Protestantism and the Protestant Reformation and the Reformers. I also began to read the KJV of the bible my Episcopalian friends gave me when I officially joined the Episcopal church. I began to discover in the process that I was in heart and soul a Protestant. What started as a study on the Protestant Reformation and the reading of scripture led to a conversion to Reformed Protestantism, Presbyterian and Calvinist. 

I began doing an extensive study of the Protestant Reformation from the perspective of Protestant writers and Theologians. I continued to study the Protestant Reformation with fervor and I became convinced and a believer in the doctrines of the Protestant Reformation. When I accepted the authority of the Bible alone in all matters of faith and realized that salvation is by grace alone could no longer say I was a Roman Catholic or an Episcopalian. I renounced also the ecclesiastical authorities of both churches. I renounced the authority of the Bishop of Rome as Christ’s head of his church on earth. I fully understood that only Christ heads his church. When I renounced the Ecclesiastical structure, I searched and found Calvin, Knox and the Presbyterian denomination. I knew I was a Protestant but not yet a Presbyterian. I wanted to find a Protestant denomination that I believed had the purest form of the Gospel.

I centered a lot on the reformers Luther, Calvin and Knox. I studied Luther's Doctrine of Justification by Faith Alone and I began concentrating on the Reformed Theology of Calvin and Knox and Zwigli. I then read the Westminster Confession of Faith and the short and long catechisms of the Presbyterian Church. I started to attend services a 3 different Presbyterian churches and then joined an inquirers class shortly after.

It was in that search I became a Presbyterian in faith and also a Calvinist Protestant.

As a roman catholic I needed to belong to the Roman Church to be saved. I had to do good works and work with much effort and much guilt to save myself. I know now as a Protestant that none of this could save my soul. Salvation was bestowed because of God’s mercy. Salvation by Faith alone...the Protestant doctrine of Justification. I now understand the scripture when it says
In Titus Ch. 2 v. 11, I read: “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men.” 
These words make it very clear that Salvation is by Grace. It is God reaching down to the helpless sinner, revealing to him that He loves him so much that He sent His Son to the cross. There, He took the sinner’s place by becoming his substitute. He paid the penalty for sin that the sinner should have paid. 

The following also attests to the Protestant doctrine of Justification. It also attests to me why the Church of Rome is wrong in condemning the Protestant doctrine and distorting the truth. It is why I am now a Presbyterian Calvinist Protestant and why I renounced the RC church.

In Titus Ch. 3 v. 4 - 5, I read: “But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us...”.

The words of Romans Ch. 3 v. 24, summed it all up. They read: “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” I could now see that God gave Salvation FREELY to sinful man. The sinner was not required to work for it.

I decided to become a Presbyterian because I asked myself "Either my former Roman Catholic faith was very right, OR if it’s not, it’s very wrong?" I knew it was wrong and a false teacher of the true Gospel of Christ and there can no in-between on this issue. I always knew that Transubstantiation denied the sovereignty of God. The reformed theology I discovered is the only Protestant theology that praises the sovereignty of God and the governmental structure is biblically sound. I believe the Presbyterian Fold is the pure and true Christian church. I believe that calvins 5 points of TULIP particulary the depravity of man is correct and only by Gods Amazing garce and placing our faith in Christ alone can one be saved. That is very important for all Presbyterians and all Protestants to understand. As a former Roman Catholic who searched hard for that truth I cherish it! I am so happy that I have found the truth of salvation. It is why I left the Roman Catholic Church and its distorted teaching of tradition along with the Bible. I renounced the Roman church and its view of the Bishop of Rome as the final authority and head of the church. As a Protestant I believe the Bible is the final Authority. As a Protestant and a Calvinist I believe Christ alone is head of his church. As a Presbyterian we are all members of the Priesthood of Christ. It is why I am now an evangelizing Protestant who looks forward every day to professing my faith publicly as a Presbyterian and a Calvinist and a Protestant.


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## Christoffer

I came into contact with calvinism through my interest in apologetics. I wondered what kind of christianity this was, why were they so mean to the unbelievers?  I was mainly reading triablogue and listening to Gene Cooks "The Narrow Mind".

At that time I was an arminian and was involved in pentecostalism. I wasn't really excited about it all, it seemed kind of silly and there weren't any real answers to the questions I had. 

Calvinism appealed to me instantly because it gave clear answers and for the first time I understood what it meant to be saved. I believe the first book I bought was "Redemption accomplished and applied". This was 3 years ago, and I have been calling myself a calvinist now for maybe two years.

As for the other question, I have never set foot in a reformed church, so I haven't had opportunity to ask anything stupid yet!


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## student ad x

> How did you become a Calvinist?
> And please don't say, "God predestined it." Tell us the means that God used in his sovereign plan in which he predestined your Calvinism.



I really don't have an answer for how I am Calvinistic other than God gave me a burning desire to read and study Scripture along with the faith that HE would provide what was needed. (I posted the short version of my testimony to my blog.) We live in an unprecedented time where resources are available online for all those seeking God's truths. Over the past 18 months or so, I've been blessed with free materials from Keach & Spurgeon to Piper and even MacArthur; from Calvin, Newton, Henry, Owen to Hodge, Sproul & Packer. God has also blessed me with online folk like AMR, the Rushes, Presbyterian Deacon, the PB (and others not on the PB) to be a source to draw from ...... their experiences, fellowship & solid friendship (even though I'm a Particular Baptist




) 

I think my biggest deterrent to the doctrines of grace was purging the error of libertarian free will (along with a faulty view of the depravity of all men) that I'd presupposed. Once these fell ........  






> Calvin and Warfield appeared to you in a dream?






.......... no, but I did have a dream where I saw Romans 8:28-35 on a page while it was being read to me. Does that count







> Follow-up question: For those of you that, like myself, became Reformed as adults, what's the dumbest thing you ever asked the people in a Reformed church?



Although this wasn't a question but rather a more emphatic statement; I spoke in ignorance that I wasn't a Calvinist or an Arminian. I'm sure I have said or raised questions ignorantly as well, but that one I remember right off the bat. 

God bless!


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## ChariotsofFire

I grew up a PCA church sitting under the preaching of Dr. Pipa. I guess I became a Calvinist then.


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## Caroline

Amen. As we used to say in Pentecostal churches, "Testify, Brothers and Sisters!"

I probably should have added in my testifyin' that C.S. Lewis was quite helpful in getting me started on the right path, although I don't think he would have considered himself a Calvinist. It's interesting how God uses various things to start change hearts. (C.S. Lewis is still one of my favorite Christian authors, although now I prefer Calvin for deeper theology).

I'm surprised that more people don't have 'dumb question' stories. Maybe it was just me. It seemed like the whole first two years were a long series of stupid questions. I'm sure it felt that way to my pastor also, who really should be canonized just for not shooting me over some of those questions. _"Where do you keep the anointing oil? Is the baptistry outside? How close do I have to be standing for the benediction to work? If I'm in the nursery does it not work? Is it still a benediction if you hear a recorded sermon in which someone gives a benediction? Why does the catechism say that it's man's chief end to glorify God? Is it because women aren't made in the image of God? What's a 'bulwark'? You know ... 'a bulwark never failing'. Is that Latin?_ etc."


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## Andres

I grew up Roman Catholic, but never really considered myself one. Basically my mom just made us go to church. When I was 18 I was saved in a Pentecostal church. When I went off to college in Florida I took a beginner class on hermeneutics. I learned there was a proper way to read/understand the bible and my old pentecostal understanding was incorrect. I learned about using scripture to interpret scripture understanding verses in light of their context. When I moved back home, I began reading some of John MacArthur and at some point I found John Piper. I fell in love with his preaching - the passion, the emphasis on God's glory, and Piper's love for the word. I would go for walks and listen to a sermon every night. Somewhere along the way I also came across the White Horse Inn and began listening too. It was the year they were doing their Romans Revolution theme, so I was pretty much ruined right there! I found the only reformed church in my city and I had no idea what Presbyterian, Reformed, or OPC meant. I began attending sporadically and the liturgy took a while to get used to, but I loved it. I would say Piper introduced me to Calvinism, WhiteHorse Inn brought me along quite a bit more, but it wasn't until I started lurking and reading at the PB that I really became interested in "Confessionally Reformed" thought. Then my pastor helped out a lot because he has a gi-normous library so he gave me bunches of books to read and study. I remember the first he gave me was "Chosen by God". 

I would say my dumbest question was I was really uncomfortable with this part of the Apostles Creed when we would confess it during worship:



> I believe in the Holy Ghost;
> the holy catholic church;
> the communion of saints;
> the forgiveness of sins;
> the resurrection of the body;
> and the life everlasting.



I wouldn't say the line of "the holy catholic church" because I thought it had to do with RC! It wasn't until my fiancee (now wife) googled it and told me it just meant "universal". 

---------- Post added at 01:47 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:44 AM ----------




Caroline said:


> What's a 'bulwark'? You know ... 'a bulwark never failing'. Is that Latin? etc."


 
  Bwaahaha! this killed me!


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## Theoretical

I grew up a 4th generation member of a huge Methodist church in Dallas. We always attended church but religion was never much a conversation. It was more moralistic than anything. When I was thirteen, shortly after the death of my grandmother, God shook me out of a deism I'd held since I was 10, actively believing God was not really active in the world after creating it. Shortly after this time my homeschooling curricula switched from a mostly secular curriculum to a mostly Bob Jones University one. Ironically, it was in an American history textbook by BJU where I first learned of Machen, the OPC, and _Christianity and Liberalism_.

By my mid-teens, I'd become rather fundamentalist in doctrine and attitudes of right conduct (often to my parents' chagrin and my sorrow now--as attitudes go at least). In an ironic and rather rare experience, I was the conservative and the teachers were liberal at my church. I first came across TULIPy thought by the Apologetics work of Matt Slick over at CARM. This theology seemed far more coherent and sound than I was used to, and not as wretched as parents and others had alleged. I then read the book of Romans in its entirely and didn't find much to disagree with, even a God predestining some to hell. Reading _Christianity and Liberalism_ in my late teens played an absolutely vital role in establishing and grounding my orthodoxy on the essentials of the faith.

By undergrad I was a conviced TULIP but still continued at my church in part due to dependence on my parents and my own fear of leaving the only church I'd known. It took some good friends finally telling me that I had to get out of that church simply because I shouldn't be getting fed both good and heresy in the same teaching to finally lead me to do it. I started going with my best friend to a Missouri Synod Lutheran congregation in 2005 but after study I found myself no longer agreeing with the Lutheran view on the Lord's supper, so I began declining Communion (since one has to agree with their view of communion to be a member or partake). At this point I knew I wanted to become a confessionalist but needed to determine where and what I should seek, so I printed copies of the westminster, three forms of unity, london baptist confession, and 39 articles, for me to read over several spare moments. While I had many more confessional exceptions at the time I decided I agreed with paedobaptism, presbyterian church government and the overall theology of Westminster. Eventually I found a PCA nearby and asked my friend to drive me there one Lord's Day and I found a few people I already knew who attended there. The assistant pastor at the time took me under his wing to an extraordinary degree and really helped explain the basics of Reformed Christianity and to develop my spiritual foundations from the amalgamation. I've since become strongly confessional and embracing of a lot more than TULIP.


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## christiana

For years I thought myself to be a christian and yet felt there was a piece missing of the puzzle that I'd not yet found! There was a small book on my bookshelf by A.W. Pink about reading scripture and I wondered what else he had written. I found and read reviews of The Sovereignty of God and ordered it and it was just the greatest 'wow' moment of my life! Eureka! The missing piece is 'sovereignty' and understanding it and its implications! I read Boettner's Reformed Doctrine of Predestination next as well as Machen's Christianity and Liberalism and began to pray for a 'real' church. I was in a 'moderate' SBC church at the time. A friend invited me to visit her church and said her pastor really preached scripture. My big question to him at our first interview was 'what is 'reformed', what does that mean'. That was in 2002 and I have studied with the greatest hunger since then and have loved my church and am so thankful for a pastor who is a godly expositor of the word, no compromise. How thankful I am for His providence in guiding me into the doctrines of grace! The day I retired I had determined the rest of life would be filled with coming to a greater knowledge of Him and His word! He is faithful! Soli deo gloria!!
Some very helpful authors along the way to the doctrines of grace were Spurgeon, Pink, Chantry,Boice,Puritan Paperbacks, J.C. Ryle, Lloyd-Jones,MacArthur and so many others, mostly the long ago theologians.


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## Steve Curtis

I was raised in a Southern Baptist home and in a church that was fundamental and dispensational. Say what you will about such folks, but they will fight to the death in the defense of the doctrines of Scripture. Their hermeneutic may be faulty but their commitment is absolute. So as I grew up and confessed faith in Christ, it was in the context of a firm belief in the Word of God. Later, in my early 20s, I embarked on an ambitious path to read the Bible - cover to cover - during a one month "sabbatical." The God that emerged from the pages was so much bigger than the God I had known! He was all that I had believed He was, but so much more glorious in every respect. Above all, His sovereignty was unquestionably apparent. This caused me to slow down, really meditate on what I was reading, and reevaluate what I had been taught concerning such things as election and the efficacy of the atonement.
My "dumbest question" was one I guess i asked myself at this point. Though I had heard of "Calvinism," I really didn't know what that meant. Consequently, I began to wonder if I was seeing something radically new and different! I was more than a bit concerned that my mind had snapped and that I was formulating a whole system of theology that would somehow prove to be heretical and lead to a public lynching (or a recurring appearance on TBN).What a satisfying relief to finally learn that I was merely walking down the "ancient paths." I began to devour standard texts by the Reformers, the Princeton theologians, the Puritans, and some Dutch luminaries as well. It didn't take long for the rest of the journey - the framework of the covenants, paedobaptism, and confessional subscription.
That's the long answer. The short answer (though you forbade it): God predestined it!


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## Whitefield

It began when I started reading _Foundations of the Christian Faith_ by James Montgomery Boice.


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## SemperEruditio

Became a Calvinist when I stumbled upon monergism.com. Read just about every article back then. Didn't speak to another Calvinist for ~2 years. Actually the internet has been the medium God has used for me. I met my first Presbyterians after earning a scholarship to attend the Miami Pastor's Conference which was initially called the African-American Pastors Conference. While I'm not AA my then pastor recommended I go. I went and met and heard some of the most wonderful things. It was amazing how the Bible was presented because I realized this was the first time I had ever heard the Gospel preached. My wife and I were both in awe. The other amazing thing was that the majority of people were actually from the MD-DC-VA area. I met a brother there who lives in Maryland, we kept in contact, and he would invite me to the monthly meetings of fellow Reformed men in the area. Less than a year after meeting this man he became my pastor and my wife and I became Reformed.


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## jayce475

One fine day a brother from my charismatic church started chatting with me on MSN and told me about Calvinism. Unable to understand anything he was saying, my pride got the better of me and I was eager to prove that I knew my theology. So I started with Wikipedia and chanced upon Paul Washer's "infamous" video. That video was the very means of grace that God used to genuinely save me as far as I can tell, as before that church was more a way for me to cope with my loneliness in a foreign land. God opened my eyes and my heart, and I came into contact with heaps of videos and sermons from the T4G people like John MacArthur and John Piper. It just made so much sense. This started me on the journey of my Reformed faith and God led me out of the errors of charismatism and into a Presbyterian church. In my current church, I'm slowly learning more about covenant theology and other tenets of Reformed theology.

Dumbest question: Who is this King James who translated the bible?


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## A.J.

I first read about Calvinism from Roman Catholic sources which were written for the very purpose of refuting the claims of the Protestant Reformation. Many of the authors of these books claim that they used to be Protestants before becoming Roman Catholic (e.g., Robert Sungenis). This happened about three years ago. I was a 3rd year college student then. 

My curiosity about the historical roots of the Protestant Reformation in general and Reformed Theology in particular led me to do more reading on the subject. Reformed websites like monergism.com and the-highway.com have been extremely useful in my study. The writings and sermons of John MacArthur, John Piper, and James White (among others) as well helped me to see and believe in the sovereignty of God.

I later learned about the importance of the Reformed confessions, the Three Forms of Unity and the Westminster Standards, and have come to believe and confess the other important teachings of historic Reformed Theology.


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## Jack K

I was raised in the Christian Reformed Church, so I was taught Calvinist doctrine from the start. I've never had good reason to question it. Anything less would detract from the soveriegnty and gracious love of God.


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## yoyoceramic

My mother explained it to me in the car when I was 13, and I had a superb Children's Sunday school teacher who taught the TULIP like a champion.


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## Sarah

I was in a (secular) college class, and we were doing an exercise to get us to think about our beliefs where we would go to one corner of the room if we agreed and another corner if we disagreed. The professor made the statement "Humans are basically good." I went to the "disagree" corner with only one other classmate. The prof then clarified that I believed we were born sinful and then said, "so you're a Calvinist." I almost argued because I had a vague impression that Calvinism was some cult-like denomination that wasn't Christian even though I had never heard what Calvinism really is. Since I didn't know what a Calvinist was I decided not to argue. I went back to my dorm room and looked up Calvinism on wikipedia. I didn't agree with all of it, but it sparked a lot of interest. Over the next few years I came to believe that it actually was true.


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## SemperEruditio

So you guys/gals are saying that you can become a Calvinist from reading the Bible?


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## tcalbrecht

I was raised Roman Catholic and converted in college through a campus ministry. In God’s providence, my dorm was on the west end of campus, and the closest gospel church was Reformed Presbyterian. (The students on the east end had a American Baptist church close by.) I attended on a somewhat irregular basis. When my wife and I married during my senior year, we decided to make that our church home. We took the membership classes and had our first real exposure to Reformed theology. (My wife was raised in a mixed Methodist/Pentecostal home.) Some of our friends in the church worked hard to convince us of the truth in Calvinism. We also benefitted greatly from being in close proximity to Puritan-Reformed Books in Delaware (aka Great Christian Books). There we were able to load up on great material to help us in the faith.


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## N. Eshelman

I became a Calvinist when I got saved. I was 17 (15 years ago) at the time and was not looking for Christ, for what he had to offer, or salvation. When I came to understand my sin and my need for the Gospel- Calvinism was a no-brainer. 

This was underscored with the fact that the woman who led me to Christ had me reading good books and the Scriptures right away. The first book that I read as a new believer was Thomas Watson's Heaven Taken By Storm.


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## Tripel

I think I was in the 6th grade. I had been in a reformed church (PCA) all my life and had heard of the word "calvinist", but I didn't know what it meant until I was 12. I was in a Sunday School class and somehow predestination came up and my teacher explained how God only saves certain people, and not everybody has the ability to choose God. I was shocked and little peeved. I argued with my teacher...to no avail. I then complained to my parents and older brothers on the way home from church about the crazy talk I had heard in SS, and they explained that my teacher was right. 
I think it was 7th grade when I first heard the 5 Points fully explained.


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## Peairtach

I was born into a family in the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, which is a Reformed denomination, in which my father was a minister.

I have never had any problem with the idea that God is completely sovereign - since the concept of predestination dawned on me at about aged 10 - although like everyone here I don't profess to fully comprehend it.

He would be a strange kind of "god" if He wasn't completely sovereign.


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## Laura

You're funny Caroline. I'm glad you didn't wreck your car at the OPC either.

I grew up in moderate Baptist churches. It seemed part of the whole southern culture to be involved in church as a social thing and as a way to do one's part in the community. I unceremoniously recited the sinner's prayer at the back of my Teen Study Bible and was baptized at 13, almost wholly because even though the pastor talked with you beforehand about baptism (don't remember what he said), you still had to walk down the aisle at the end of a service and shake his hand and have him announce your profession of faith, which sounded agonizing to my shy self and I just wanted to get it over with before I was so old it would be even more embarrassing. If that makes sense. I didn't think much of Christ and never read the Bible except when I had some sort of social crisis and then I liked to read the little advice columns splashed throughout the pages of the aforementioned Teen Study Bible. Awful.

I had an anti-calvinist youth minister who I grew to like, and we started studying some of the classic "Calvinist" passages like Romans 9. In the meantime I had received a guitar for Christmas and found lots of my favorite CCM music to play on Christianguitar.org. There were also forums, and after I finally cooled off about an incident in the theology forums where I busted in declaring my opinion on something or other only to be told they were looking for actual arguments from Scripture (my feelings were so hurt, poor me), I went back in and started asking and reading about Calvinism. There were some future and present RUF interns there, as well as a PCA minister and some others who were glad to help me sort through my youth minister's arguments. That went on for some time; I started having daily devotions during which I read the whole Bible. I didn't understand SO much of it but I was glad I did. Then I read RC Sproul's _Chosen By God_ and could no longer think of any objections, so I declared myself a Calvinist. I'm not really sure when clarifying the gospel shifted from a sort of intellectual hobby into something I needed to know and believe for myself, as a matter of life or death. I do remember beginning to be convicted of sin and really start to value the gospel, in contrast to my previous apathy. God is good.

Oh, and I never asked any stupid questions.  I just can't remember any now.


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## JonathanHunt

I was born a calvinist!! First 25 years of my life at Spurgeon's Tabernacle, based on 1689 confession. No mistake.


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## 21st Century Calvinist

The only churches I have ever known are Reformed ones.


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## Caroline

I'm always rather fascinated with people who have been Calvinist all their lives. I wonder what that's like. I don't think I even heard of Calvinism when I was a child. In fact, some Reformed people ask me what Pentecostals think about Reformed churches and I have to say, "I dunno. They don't. I don't think they know that you exist." It must be quite extraordinary to grow up Reformed. 

And thanks, Laura, I'm glad I didn't hit the tree also. I don't think it would have made a difference in regard to my going to the church, but I was relieved not to have to be introduced as the woman that took out the fir tree on the corner and then said, "Hey, are you guys really Calvinists? Can I go to church here? After I get my car out of your tree, I mean." But then, I don't really know if I would have had the nerve to ask. Even without running down their tree, I never thought they'd let me go to their church. Sometimes I'm still a little surprised.


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## Andres

Caroline said:


> I'm always rather fascinated with people who have been Calvinist all their lives. I wonder what that's like. I don't think I even heard of Calvinism when I was a child. In fact, some Reformed people ask me what Pentecostals think about Reformed churches and I have to say, "I dunno. They don't. I don't think they know that you exist." It must be quite extraordinary to grow up Reformed.


 
 This was my experience as a plenty-lost-al (pentecostal) as well.


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## 21st Century Calvinist

Caroline, I should expand my earlier post a little bit. We went to a Reformed Church, but I did not grow up in a Christian home. Though there were undoubtedly many Christians whom God placed in my life. I would hear/see the Word Reformed or hear about Calvin. I was familiar with the catechism but I really could not have told you what Reformed meant. It was many years after I became a Christian that I began to get interested. In fact, I used to lurk on the Christian guitar forum that Laura referenced earlier. It was there that I was astonished to see folks my age or younger discussing and debating such things as Reformed Theology and the confessions. I felt convicted and started attending theology lectures at the denominational seminary. There I got more of a grasp of what I believed and why I believed it. Who knew that I believed in covenant theology or election or predestination or adoption or preservation of the saints! The White Horse Inn was (and is) a great blessing to me. 
In my teens whenever I heard the WCF quoted I would yawn, or I would call Hodge stodge, BB King seemed more relevant than BB Warfield. I struggled with infant baptism and was seriously thinking about joining a Baptist church. But God led me to a different Presbyterian denomination- the Free Church of Scotland. It was like a breath of fresh air. So familiar, yet so different. After a while I came to affirm infant baptism. These days I am Presbyterian by conviction. I love the WCF and appreciate the old dead guys- as well as some of the still living!
In some ways I don't understand dispensationalism or Pentecostalism. In fact some of the more extreme manifestations of it scare me a little. It helps me to see the beauty of confessionalism! 
I don't know if growing up in a Reformed Church has made me more chilled about being Reformed (or if it's just because I am laid back anyway!) I am a Christian, an Evangelical, a Confessionalist. Sometimes I weary of the endless debating of minutiae or when I meet a person who is more concerned about being reformed than they are about living their lives to the glory of God and holding forth the Word of Life in their families, amongst their co-workers, friends and neighbors. May we all be Reformed according to the Word of God and bring Him Glory by being so. Let's use these glorious doctrines that God has revealed in his Word to shine as stars in the universe!


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## earl40

In the fourth grade a priest and a teacher (Mr. Furlong) came in one day and discussed the Trinity and how God was everywhere and was all there everywhere. I knew that day He was "bigger" and more mighty than I could ever imagine. Boy was I right on that one. Thank you Lord Jesus for coming in the flesh for us!!!!!


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## SarahM

I learned about Calvinism in my mid-twenties when I watched the video, "Amazing Grace: The History and Theology of Calvinism." I remember thinking, "Why haven't I heard this before?" Recently, at my pastor's suggestion, I started reading Loraine Boettner's book on the five points. I really like it, as well.


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## Rich Koster

I was not raised or saved in a R Church. When I heard several different factions fighting it out, it led me to lock myself away, sort of, and read the scriptures for myself. I got tired of one preacher saying this and another that. Finally, it was a study of the book of Ephesians (not Romans....surprised????) that finally pushed me over into the R camp.


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## Scott1

I leaned toward the "doctrines of grace" but had never had them clearly explained, especially systematically- how they all fit together and relate to and are dependent on one another. It was especially powerful to learn that, in reformed theology, all other doctrines relate in some way to the doctrine of God.

I was appalled at some of the man-centered teaching I heard and sensed was assumed and some of the behavior that generated- seeing something of it even myself. While there was some biblical remnant in the Methodist and nondenominational churches I journeyed through, I sensed something was missing big time.

After hearing the doctrines of grace taught and getting a first glimpse of the Westminster Standards for the first time, I quickly, almost immediately accepted that there was more Scripture than not that pointed to "Calvinism."

After about two years of study, questions, and meditating on the Scriptures and reading the doctrinal standard of the Westminster Standards, I came to accept there was a "clear and convincing" case for "Calvinism." That meant there were many more Scriptures that seemed to support it than Arminianism. But there were still a few Scriptures that seemed to support the other side, perhaps something like 70/30%.

A few years ago, while reading John 3, something suddenly made sense regarding the limited atonement- "the world" was not every single person in the world but all sorts of people in the world, Jew and Gentile that Christ died for.

And 2 Peter 3:9, the "not willing that any should perish" was in context, any of us, the redeemed.

Now it clicked.

The Bible was consistent in all five points of Calvinism from start to finish. While there are a few Scriptures that are unclear, I can now say the clear message of Scripture, beyond reasonable doubt is that God redeems sinners- and He does so according to the sovereign good pleasure of His will.

So as surely as one had nothing to do with their salvation, because of God's choice to redeem an unworthy sinner for reasons known only to Himself and give him something he does not deserve, mercy- one can never lose it, either.
Not even possible.

All praise, honor and glory to our God for that!


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## MLCOPE2

Ever since I was saved I held to the 5 points fairly easily (struggled with L for awhile). However I became fully reformed while studying reformation theology and history while serving as an intern at a Dispensational church. Consequently I was asked to step down from all teaching positions and eventually was "forced" into finding a confessionally reformed church. Now I am cheerfully serving at an RPCNA church and couldn't be happier!


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## dudley

Tom, I am happy to see that you too were rescued from the bondage of popery. There are many ex roman catholics on the PB who are now like you and also me Calvinist Reformed Protestants, Praise God!


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## Bern

A few years ago an Arminian friend discovered the "shocking youth message" given by Paul Washer. I watched the video and realised there was something different about this guy... he had an understanding of God's glory and the way things really are that I just didn't have. I ended up watching more of his videos and began to understand what he believed about salvation. 

This led me to read the bible more than I ever had before, and I started to see what it really means to be a sinner. That was the turning point for me... once I realised that there truly was nothing good in me whatsoever, and no amount of trying harder would ever get me anywhere, I knew there must be more to this Christian life than muddling through the bible not understanding most of it. Parts of the bible I had never understood before were clicking into place with every passing day, and I got to the point where I couldn't make sense of the bible outside of a calvinistic view. 

I had said the "sinners prayer" and been baptised about 8 years before that, but even now I have to wonder if I was actually saved when I had this revelation a few years ago, not when I first prayed as I first thought. Embracing Calvinism felt like being born again..... AGAIN!


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## JumpingUpandDown

What a great thread! I love reading all these!

I said the prayer at 5 and was baptized at the 1611 IFB church my parents took me to. My pastor was extreme anti-calvinist, and I thought there was something wrong with me. He'd say God was Sovereign but in the same breath deny it. While I was in high school he did a whole series against each point of TULIP and I sat there with my NIV refuting each point he made. But I didn't know it made me a Calvinist. I went on to BJU and then nearly left Christianity out of despair. The past 15 years bounced around seeker and emergent churches, trying to get away from the legalism I knew Christianity to be, not realizing I was just trading one type of legalism for another.

After my marriage nearly ended 2 years ago, I decided to figure out what I believed and why, and started listening to any podcast I could. From Rob Bell and Brian McLaren to Dave Hunt. When I heard something I couldn't agree with, I'd delete the podcast and find something new. I was soon left with nothing but more despair, and reluctantly started listening to John Piper. The first thing I heard from Piper was him reciting Romans 8 and 9. It changed my life. And I'd finally found the reformation. I was soon listening and reading Beeke, White Horse Inn, Gene Cook, Scott Clark, etc... 


thankfully I didn't ask these to anybody but google:
I didn't know Presbyterians were Calvinists, or I think I would have risked expulsion at BJU to attend a PCA church!
I thought confessional meant that you would have to confess in little booths to the pastor!
I thought Reformed meant "a changed life".
I didn't know there was a single christian anywhere in the world that didn't believe in a secret rapture, or a future millennium, or two separate judgments... I knew I didn't understand the Dispensational position, I just thought there was something wrong with me.


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## Puritan Sailor

I grew up AOG but stumbled across two books in the discount rack at a Christian bookstore in Orlando; RC Sproul's, The Holiness of God and Foxe's Book of Martyrs. That got me thinking and studying very hard, though I wasn't a Calvinist yet. I just knew my faith was shallow compared to the saints of the past and I needed something more solid. About a year later I read Sproul's Chosen by God and that helped me understand biblical grace, and so a Calvinist I became. Shortly after that I moved home and met up with my best friend growing up (who also became a calvinist a year earlier, though we never talked about it) and that led to hours and hours of study together, discovering the riches of the Puritans and Reformed church history. Then a couple years later I found a Reformed church. It has been almost 14 years now since I discovered the doctrines of grace.


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## CNJ

Becoming a Calvinist isn’t like winning a theological debate or reciting and explaining the Five Solas, TULIP and the WC. It is orthodoxy and it is orthopraxy. I think that Mike Horton says that Calvinism is just biblical Christianity. 

I became a believer at the age of seven and was conceptually introduced to Calvinism in my early 20s, although the denomination I was in didn’t emphasize Calvinism. In 2000 when I married Mr. Johnson and joined his church, the RPCGA, I learned a lot more about Calvinism and the WC. 

I think 21st Century Calvinist has it right when he wrote about the importance of living to the glory of God, not just “endless debating of minutiae”. Because of the doctrines of grace I am free from worry about how things will work out and free to bring God the glory as I ask for His guidance and obey His Word. I am growing in faith, responding to the grace I have been given, but not becoming a Calvinist as one might become a member of the Rotary Club. Others may call me a Calvinist by my associations, but I hope they see Christ in me.


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## Skyler

Caroline said:


> And please don't say, "God predestined it." Tell us the means that God used in his sovereign plan in which he predestined your Calvinism.
> 
> Were you born into a Calvy family? Get disillusioned with Arminian theology? Calvin and Warfield appeared to you in a dream? (If so, you really should stop eating burritos and reading theology so late at night.)



Nope. I started working on a thesis versus Calvinism, and it all went downhill from there.



> Follow-up question: For those of you that, like myself, became Reformed as adults, what's the dumbest thing you ever asked the people in a Reformed church?



Technically I've never been to a Reformed church, so I'll have to bow out of this question. 

edit: What happened was, a friend of mine started talking to someone else about Calvinism and free will in the back of church one Wednesday evening. I was listening, as I usually do, and finally decided to jump in. The other person, glad to be rescued from the subject, quickly vanished and started another conversation, leaving me to defend myself. Having never heard of Calvinism or anything like that, I quickly went in over my head and accepted his offer of lending me some mp3s on the subject.

About 75 hours of listening later, I finished Dr. Curt Daniel's infamous series on the History and Theology of Calvinism and several debates by James White. Gene Cook's "Narrow Mind" pretty much clinched the deal, and by the time I got _Chosen but Free_ and _The Potter's Freedom_ I had all but settled it.

Then I entered the famous Cage Calvinist stage, for a brief period of a month or two. After that I rebounded into the opposite ditch and hardly dared to open my mouth to say anything about theology to anyone. Now I'm slowly creeping back out of that ditch, but still hugging that side of the road. =)


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## MrMerlin777

I was brought up in the SBC and taught the Scriptures by my grandmother (now with the Lord). I knew just enough Scripture to remember Ephesians 2:8 otherwise my experience was the "walk this aisle say this prayer" form of evangelicalism. I started seeing problems with the works oriented method presented as grace. "If it is by grace we are saved", I thought, "then what about all these works they're pushing?" I started studying Scripture closely. About the same time I was married to my wife who grew up under the preaching of a Calvinist SBC pastor. Much of what I was dealing with was being put into perespective by him. Also my wife gave me some sermon tapes from a Welsh Baptist preacher named Gordon Bayliss He was raised in Wales but resided in Birmingham UK. His preaching got to me it addressed the deep feelings and confusion I was having about the "walk this aisle say this prayer crowd".

After moving to Sasebo Japan for a tour of duty in the Navy I was introduced to Dr Ed Whealton who was very knowledgeable in Scripture as well as a Calvinist and charter member of Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Norfolk VA. At the time he and his family were attending Beracha Bible Church in Sasebo it was a Calvinistic Baptist Congregation, Pastored by Phares Huggins (now with the Lord). About this time I began struggling with the Scriptures even more regarding the doctrines of God's sovereignty in salvation. My wife was in much prayer for me at this time as, quite frankly, since she grew up under the teachings of God's sovereign grace she couldn't really relate to the hard time I was having. I would pace the floor in the evenings with the Bible in one hand and a glass of iced tea in the other. I'd read out loud, talk to myself out loud, and talk to God out loud, all while pacing back and forth in the living room. One evening I threw the Bible down on the coffee table, threw my hands in the air and cried out to God, "Lord I believe it! I cannot fight your word anymore. Forgive me my doubt of you." That was nearly 20 years ago. I've grown in grace since but not nearly as much as I should have.


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## Curt

L'Abri.


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## JM

I read Romans 9. Honest.


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## Cato

God's Sovereign. The bible teaches this so I'm in agreement with Calvin's stressing it.... But I'm a Christian 1st & foremost.

Steve D.


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## C. M. Sheffield

Cato The Elder said:


> God's Sovereign. The bible teaches this so I'm in agreement with Calvin's stressing it.... But I'm a Christian 1st & foremost.
> 
> Steve D.


 
Calvin didn't stress it. He simply taught it alongside the every other biblical doctrine. But for many today, to teach it at all is "stressing" the doctrine and going too far! For those against the Doctrines of Grace, if you _ever_ mention them in theological discussions then you're accused of being able to discuss _nothing but_ predestination and only having Romans 9 in your Bible!


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## Cato

Rev.....I have God in my bible....top to bottom. I really dont care if anyone labels me Calvinist, Reformed, Baptist whatever.....to me they all point to what I really am which is a believer in Jesus Christ as my lord & savior. I will go to my death with that in my heart.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

Steve D


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## Brian Withnell

Without reading through everything here (I'm sure someone else may have said this) I never became a "Calvinist" I became a Biblical Christian. 

The mechanism was going to an RPCES church Bible study for young people ... and several people there just handing me a list of scriptures that flew in the face of my unbiblical thinking (what I had been taught). What amazed me is that I had held onto false teaching for so long. My shame is that I had not wanted to believe what the Bible taught. I wanted the truth to be different, yet John 6, Romans (nearly the whole book, but particularly Paul's argument in 9) plus about 20 other passages argued the sovereignty of God ... which is what my sticking point was (I wanted man to have some level of autonomy, not realizing that if man was autonomous in salvation, he would never be saved).

The gentle leading of the Spirit though the reading of the word is what changed my mind (and heart). I only pray that God would just as gently remove the other areas of sin in my life. (May I ever praise him!)


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## Parsifal23

I became a Calvinist out of sheer happenstance actually at the time prior to god saving me and bringing me to a knowledge of the Five Points of The Tulip. I had been through the "spiritual wringer" so to speak by the age of 18 I had been involved in everything from Islam to Arastu and everything in between. by 19 I had joined The LDS church and remained a member for two years until one day I came across a book by Charles Spurgeon on The Blood of Christ. I ended up typing in the word Spurgeon into Google and came up with the name of my now current Church on Google. My first thought when I found out they where "Calvinists" was "Calvinists I thought they died out with the Puritans." So I started attending services and when I heard of The Five Points I had no real intellectual reservations against the Five points they all made sense and seemed Biblical. The one I accepted the most at first was Total Depravity (it appealed to my innate Pessimism about the human condition). Mostly because in my readings in High School especially Heart of Darkness by Joesph Conrad Lord of The Flies by William Golding and the novels of Dostoevsky convinced me of man's inherently "evil" nature. All though at that time I wouldn't have used terms like "fallen" or "sinful". So I became a Calvinist in mind first I had much intellectual knowledge of doctrine but no heart knowledge. It is when this is relatively recent change form one who had an intellectual grasp of The Tulip to a real heart knowledge of The Tulip. Is when I could say I really "became" a Calvinist where as when I was saved I only had a intellectual grasp of Calvinist Doctrine. I was in short looking at it now Calvinist in name only. Oh sure I said I believed in things like Limited Atonement or Irresistible Grace but in reality they where just so much words with nothing behind them except pride and Ego. So I can now look at my self and say I actually became a Calvinist _after_ my conversion because I came to not only believe in The Tulip I began to actually love The Tulip and what it's doctrines entailed. I allowed it to change my life where as previously even for a long period of time after I was saved I used Calvinist Doctrine as nothing more then an Intellectual parlor game to show how "bright" and "smart" I was. Now I really am a Calvinist in my heart and not just my mind so that's how I really became a Calvinist.


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## dangela421

As a child, I attended both a Lutheran church (Hope in North Minneapolis on Sundays) AND a weird Dispensational/charismatic church (Jesus People Church in downtown Minneapolis on Wednesdays). After high school I decided to practice Idolatry for 20 years and finally became convicted enough to turn to prayer for a few months. I started listening to my old pastor on his radio show (Tom Brock from Hope Lutheran) and he had a guest named Kary Oberbrunner on for a book review. I followed Kary to his website where I listened to an episode where he was interviewed by the Whitehorse Inn. It was all over for me right there. Grace, grace, grace and more grace abounded in my life as the sovereignty of God became clear -- all this by the grace of Him who saves. I now find myself immersed in my ESV, the PB (quietly reading, not commenting) and prayers of gratitude. Now with podcasts from WHI, 9marks, Covenant Radio, Piper, Sproul and everything WTS (both East and West coast), my iPod runneth over.

When I write this down and read it, it all seems pretty strange, in a glorious kinda' way.

Danny


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## BenjaminBurton

I was raised in a typical, Arminian Baptist home and church. I had only ever heard of Calvinism from my youth pastor early on in high school and thought it was the most ridiculous thing I'd ever heard. He explained that Calvinists only believed 5 specific things and that was it. 

When I got to Bible college, my first weekend was filled with some ignorant but well meaning students asking me if I was a 3, 4, or 5 pointer and I had no idea what it meant. I was confronted in so many classes with the Doctrines of Grace and had pretty much sworn the whole thing off. It seemed like a huge cult. It wasn't until I was meeting weekly with the my major's department head that I was able to discuss it in-depth and put all my concerns on the table. He was gracious and wise in his explanations and I benefited greatly from our discussions. He pointed me to a lot different passages in Scripture and talked with me about all of it. Through much prayer and study, one day it just kind of clicked. The Holy Spirit broke me of my pride and allowed me to understand the Doctrines of Grace. I have since sought to understand more and more. I have joined a local body of believers that faithfully preach the gospel of Christ. It has been such an interesting experience but I praise God for his allowing me to begin to understand more of him


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## au5t1n

Benjamin. You know, there's a whole bunch of people on this board from Louisville. I'm beginning to get creeped out, to tell you the truth. 

Louisville? Can there anything good come out of Louisville?


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## MarieP

I was saved when I was 14, and I actually was fairly Calvinistic until I went to a solid albeit non-Reformed Christian high-school. I somehow equated Calvinism with liberalism (having been raised PCUSA), and I was your typical evangelical- though even then I knew that I wanted a church that taught God's Word without all the entertainment so prevalent today. During college, I was introduced to the free-will debate in my Milton class. I knew that I believed in free-will (thinking somehow Calvinists didn't) but I also knew God is sovereign and does whatever He pleases. I was inconsistent on this and maintained that natural man could choose God without God's special, electing grace. I even called myself Arminian for a time, not realizing I wasn't really because I believed in "once saved, always saved" (which I know is a inadequate way to describe the Biblical doctrine of perseverance). I even remember going into a Christian chat-channel that was discussing Calvinism and saying that I stands for Infant-Baptism  and I was amening this guy nicknamed Wesley-Arminus. The poor Calvinist was getting beat up on. I now want to know who that was so I can apologize 

My college was a liberal Baptist college, and the primary focus in terms of spiritual growth was coming to a strong view of the inerrancy and sufficiency of Scripture. This was something I believed in, but I knew I had to get a firmer conviction of it because so many, including my family, doubted it.

Skipping over the details to get to the main topic of the thread, my first semester of grad school, a tragedy happened in my family. My cousin shot and killed my aunt and uncle. For the couple weeks following, my family stayed at the house of a dear Christian couple. It was during that time, I thought long and hard about God's Word and God's provision in every circumstance. I knew that I had been a faithful witness to my aunt and uncle and cousins, and that I had done my part, and I knew it was God who gives and takes away.

My cousin's older brother came and lived with my family for the next couple years. This drove me to the Word even more, as he was quite antagonistic to the Word, and much of it was due to an unusually rebellious spirit and cynicism (even the liberal Christianity of my parents was too much for him). He's actually married to a Muslim woman now. It;'s hard to know what he's thinking. But he's not beyond God's reach....!

Anyway, this drove me to the Word. Meanwhile, I had begun working at the Southern Baptist Seminary library. This was a wonderful help through my years at my liberal Baptist college. Particularly helpful were the sermons I listened to by Dr. Mohler. I loved the Biblical nature of the sermons and the God-centeredness of it all. Then, I found out that he was a ....Calvinist!!!! "But, but, he's CONSERVATIVE and BAPTIST!"

Several months after the tragedy, there was a huge icestorm, and I was stuck in my grad-school apartment for a full week (especially since I'd sprained my ankle just a week earlier and was recovering from that). So I decided to use the time for Bible-study and prayer, and I was reading Ephesians 1 one morning and ran across the word predestination. I thought, wait a minute....predestinated...hmmm....maybe God really does choose us for salvation! And so I started a word study of predestinate and election. Romans 9 was the big chapter for me. I honestly don't remember ever reading it before then. And so I looked up Calvinism on the internet and ran across The Highway. In God's providence, I had run across this site in my Milton class and had sent my professor a chart comparing Calvinism and Arminianism that proved helpful to the whole class. The two items that helped me most were Al Martin's The Practical Implications of Calvinism and J. I. Packer's Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God


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## Grillsy

I set out to disprove Calvinism using the Bible...long story short, here I am.


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## InSlaveryToChrist

I think my calling was a rather unique thing. I was raised up in a typical free willer family and obviously I was greatly influenced by my parent's teaching. It was at the age of 15, when I first started really doubting my faith in Christ (which is never a bad thing) and I felt this heavy conviction of my conscience, which was always so unbearable I had to escape it to my fantasies. Then I started having these weird, terrifying dreams and I often woke up in the middle of the night. I tried living with all these things and my parents would simply say, "If you're doubting your faith, then it's just the Devil bothering you." But graciously the night came, when God made me taste of his irresistible grace. God gave me this dream which I couldn't distinguish from reality and shortly put God made me fall from a very high iceberg. Now I didn't see Warfield, I didn't see Calvin, but what I saw was DEATH and I was ABSOLUTELY HORRIFIED. God actually made me face death itself and the moment I saw my doomed end coming, I woke up from the dream and I also woke up from my false faith in Christ. 

"You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you." -C.S Lewis

What I came to understand through this experience was that without understanding, I cannot possibly have faith in anything (Matt. 13:18-23). I had to understand the Gospel. And Paul Washer was the one to show me the glory in the Gospel of Christ. Soon it began evident to me that the reason I couldn't believe in God was that I couldn't appreciate His love towards me because I never saw how evil my deeds were and how great a punishment Christ had to suffer on my behalf, and therefore as a result I HATED God. This was, let's say, my first step to Calvinism. I didn't embrace all the five points of Calvinism at first, but the dream God gave me totally refuted the free will doctrine and so as God's sovereignty in man's salvation began a reality in my life, it eventually led me to all the other four points of Calvinism, as well.


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## KaphLamedh

More I read Bible more I learned about God and His salvation in Jesus Christ. After Jesus saved me I was member in Free Church of Finland, which is almost same with theology with pentecostal. I started to find out that I didn´t agree all I was teached there. I knew Calvin only by name, but didn´t know anything about his theology. I met some calvinists and they gave me Amazing Grace-dvd and later I got John Piper´s TULIP DVD and found out that it was almost same way I understood Scriptures as those DVDs teach.



SarahM said:


> I learned about Calvinism in my mid-twenties when I watched the video, "Amazing Grace: The History and Theology of Calvinism." I remember thinking, "Why haven't I heard this before?" Recently, at my pastor's suggestion, I started reading Loraine Boettner's book on the five points. I really like it, as well.


 
I didn´t notice your message. Yes Amazing Grace by Eric Holmberg is really good one to learn about calvinism.

How many people are calvinist without knowing that they are calvinists or have found Doctrine of Grace only by reading the Bible?


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## Cato

I was a lapsed Catholic when I married this Presbyterian/Dutch Reformed raised girl who gave me entry into another kind of worship. I have Wesleyan people in the family & went there to worship a few times but wasn't convinced, Since there was some remnants of Calvinists on Dads side I began to research & found the old TULIP model. But what impressed me the most was my old Aunt Rachel who displayed Calvinism in her life, joy filled but controlled with all her ducks in a row.


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## Scottish Lass

Grew up in the PC(USA), where my pastor told me during a class for membership that "we don't really believe in that election stuff anymore". I accepted it as fact (since I was ~12 and it matched my history books), and repeated it to Tim while we were dating and he was writing a sermon that touched on the topic--he promptly began to set me straight. Through Bible studies and preaching at the church he attended (pre-seminary), I came to see how the Reformed position is the biblical position.


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## Cato

PC USA....and they call themselves a church! Ridiculous.


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## Andres

Scottish Lass said:


> Grew up in the PC(USA), where my pastor told me during a class for membership that "we don't really believe in that election stuff anymore". I accepted it as fact (since I was ~12 and it matched my history books), and repeated it to Tim while we were dating and he was writing a sermon that touched on the topic--he promptly began to set me straight.


 
Don't worry. We won't let Tim know that he set you straight. He might get a big head or something.


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## JennyG

C S Lewis was the beginning of it for me. A friend had been enthusiastically pushing Bultmann and the joys of "demythologising" - somehow, without knowing anything, I knew deep down that if THAT was Christianity, I might just as well have some consistency and be an atheist. It was thrilling to discover from Lewis's books that a hard-core version existed which actually believed in the supernatural...I didn't guess it was just the start.

Later it became very important to me to know if Roman Catholicism was all it claimed to be, since if that was THE Church I knew I would have to join it, so I set out to study that question.
By God's mercy someone lent me some old audio tapes, "Irreconcilable Differences - Evangelicals, Catholics, and the new quest for unity" with some guys called R C Sproul, D James Kennedy and John Macarthur (none of whom I'd ever heard of before).
I listened to those tapes in my car, on and on, round and round till I just about knew them by heart. they settled that question, plus a whole lot more!
I think I'd been a Calvinist for a while before I realised it was called that. As some other people have said - I just thought I was a Biblical Christian...

One thing I was wondering - I was brought up a mainstream pew-sitter, and most of the testimonies seem to start with some kind of church background. Has anyone been converted from out and out atheism?


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## Ivan

Asked all the wrong questions when first becoming a Christian in 1968 and kept asking them. In 1975, when in college, we studied Packer's _Knowing God. _That solidified it for me. Been growing ever since, but will not arrive in this life.

BTW, we will start studying Packer's classic at Maranatha Baptist Church prior to morning worship starting June 21st.


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## NB3K

I was raised in a charismatic soup pot of churches. Whether they be Semi-Pelagian or Arminian, I don't know, but I do know they all were penticostal of some sort. I remember growing up and being told that God has given me a freewill and it was my responsability to use it to choose him. That God would not make me choose Him, I had to make the first step of faith. I did this over and over at the altar calls every Sunday. I was tought about the rapture and the end times with Israel. So I figured, if I kept an eye on Israel, I would choose God before the rapture. I basically planed out my salvation according to my lustful desires. Besides all I had to do was choose him, and he would save me. It was not until I turned 18 and left the church and went into the world. I fullfilled every desire that was born from my lusts. I went right through head on. When I was 27, I had two DUI charges, and I was addicted to all kinds of painkillers. God sent me someone who hated me. His name was Joe. Joe directed me to a Reformed Church. The pastor at the church has been teaching me on a one-on-one basis. The first thing he described to me was my absolute spiritual condition. It was totally dead. Because of sin, I was never able to choose God. IT was Him seeking me. This is where I was introduced to the bondage of the will. I never knew that there was something different from what I was taught was as child in the churches I grew up in.


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## ReformedChristian

I became Reformed just recently as a matter of fact. what drew me to Reformed theology was the reading of scripture especially John 6:44. I learned that salvation is not done on the part of man as espoused by Arminian theology but by God alone. If salvation can be lost what is the point of it? die and go to hell? then that would make Christ death null and void. I learned Arminian theology is based on human works, but scripture teaches us our works are like rags, that none of us are good and all have fallen Romans tell us and the wicked condition of the heart Jeremiah 17:9. that is what drew me to reformed theology, God's grace and the wisdom to understand my sinful nature.


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## William Price

I became a Calvinist originally from hearing men like Washer and reading Spurgeon. I tried to bring some parts of Calvinism to the pentecostal churches I was once a minister at, but that was to no avail. So, i decided to just be who I am. I also ventured deeper into Calvinism through studying it on my own. I may now be a pariah to the pentecostals, but I know what I believe to be right.


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## boldforchrist

For me it was during a 8 month stint attending a "Bible Baptist" church nearby, the reason I was there to begin with was that after being a member of the United Methodist Church for so many years I was disenchanted with the lack of Bible based preaching coming from the pulpit, so I wondered into a Baptist church where everyone brought a Bible and the pastor preached from Scripture, this I thought was what I was looking for, no more dead religion, Word of God preaching was what I desired but after a few months of witnessing alter calls and people accepting Christ into their hearts I began to get frustrated once again, where was the doctrines I was reading about in Scripture, where was grace and the sovereignty of God? One night I was searching for something edifying to read, some meat for my stomach and I came across Charles Spurgeon's "Lectures to my Students" and began to read it with much delight, it was Spurgeon's writings on Calvin that lead me to learn more about Calvin and I began to read everything I could find by J.C. Was not long there after that I found the doctrines of grace explained to me, the very doctrines that jumped out at me in Scripture, I was at a point prior to this exposure to Calvin and later James M. Boice, and many others that I believed there must be something wrong with me, maybe I was not truly regenerate because everyone else believed so strongly on free will, and open theism, maybe I was just way out there in my interpretation, turns out I was simply looking in the wrong place all alone. God brings His elect around in His time, not ours, so I am just thankful He did not choose to wait any longer for me in revealing His wonderful truths to me. One more point and I am sure you all have encountered this as well, but my free will friends now avoid me like a man stricken with a terrible case of demon possession. Oh, well.


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## reformed trucker

JBaldwin said:


> I grew up under the ministry of Wayne Van Gelderen, Sr. who was well-known in fundamentalist circles though his background was Dutch Reformed.


 
Wow. I did a double-take when I heard that name. I listened to Wayne Van Geldered Jr. (Falls Baptist Church) all the time on a local radio station up here. Small world.

I was raised RC, but stopped going around '78(8th grade). Around 2000, God drew me unto Him. I attended an SBC (arminian/purpose driven) church for about 4 years; during the last year I was also involved in the men's ministry at a mini-mega down the road from my house (in a quest to go deeper). I thought it foolish to be involved with two churches, so I started going to the mini-mega non-denom (for about 4 years). A deeper study of Scripture got me searching... I started buying books and searching the web (praise God for Monergism and PB). After much study (went it alone) whipping more that a few books across the room while being foolish enough to level a charge against God for being "unfair" (Dr. Sproul's "Willing to Believe" and Dr. White's "Potter's Freedom" iced it for me) while I built up a library of 500 books and about $1,000.00 of Dr. Bahnsen cd's... here I am. God predestined it. 

Many, many, MANY thanks to my brothers and sisters here on the PB!


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## PuritanCovenanter

nleshelman said:


> I became a Calvinist when I got saved. I was 17 (15 years ago) at the time and was not looking for Christ, for what he had to offer, or salvation. When I came to understand my sin and my need for the Gospel- Calvinism was a no-brainer.
> 
> This was underscored with the fact that the woman who led me to Christ had me reading good books and the Scriptures right away. The first book that I read as a new believer was Thomas Watson's Heaven Taken By Storm.


 
Me too Nate. I became a Christian reading the scriptures in a United States Navy Barracks. I read the gospels and when I got to John 15:16 I knew what happened. I didn't know I was a Cavlinist for a while after that though. I had never heard of Calvinism. LOL I just believed the Bible till that point.


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## JBaldwin

> Originally Posted by JBaldwin
> I grew up under the ministry of Wayne Van Gelderen, Sr. who was well-known in fundamentalist circles though his background was Dutch Reformed.
> Wow. I did a double-take when I heard that name. I listened to Wayne Van Geldered Jr. (Falls Baptist Church) all the time on a local radio station up here. Small world.



The Van Gelderens have an interesting legacy. All three of the boys, Wayne, Jim and John preach, though I think Wayne is the only one who has a church. I recently read online some of John and Jim's suermons and was interested to note they had formed an entirely new theology when it comes to election and predestination. Their uncle, a man who sat in a wheelchair (paralyzed since his youth) was an amazing picture of the grace of God. He loved the Lord and was one of the few godly men that left his mark on my life.


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## ericfromcowtown

I became a Christian at 30. It just so happened that the friend who invited me to attend church with him happened to be going to a URCNA church.


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## waynedawg

Grillsy said:


> I set out to disprove Calvinism using the Bible...long story short, here I am.



About the same here. 

A local pastor railed against Calvinism several times in as many months. As I studied the claims made by the pastor (Calvinists are heretics, the Doctrines of Grace are a lie from Hell, etc) I set out to see if his claims were true. They were not. The more I studied the more God revealed to me the truth.


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## christiana

I really love reading all this examples of His grace and thinking of how very blessed each of you are!


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## TomVols

It sounds trite, but I really am one of those "I didn't become one...I just found out I already was" to a certain extent.

Believe it or not (some question this), Millard T Erickson's Green Monster got me started in Bible college. Then the works of Boyce. A paper on Luther's Reformation theology kept the ball rolling in college. Then Spurgeon's sermons and devotional writings, then Lloyd-Jones while at SBTS. Alistair Begg drove the final nail into the coffin and I was hooked. I have some lesser known Reformed brothers along the way who aided me. Grudem has been a help, as has Reymond. The Founders ministries have been critical also. My ministry as an expositor also helped because I was forced to wrestle with texts that I wouldn't ordinarily have had to if I were the hunt and peck style preacher


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## Willem van Oranje

Listened to the epistle to the Romans on audio once in one sitting. It was clear to me at that moment that the Bible taught unconditional election. It threw a monkey wrench into my system. I wasn't sure at that time how to reconcile this doctrine with everything else the Bible teaches about salvation in Christ, so I consulted this guy I had heard of in public school history class named John Calvin. I remembered learning that he had taught this doctrine of "predestination", and so I found a copy of his Institutes at the USAFA cadet library. Needless to say I found him very helpful in piecing my theology back together.


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## Manuel

I was in a charismatic church that, like most charismatic churches, denied vehemently the concept of election, predestination, etc. One day I was reading Ephesians 1(I had been 6 years in that church) and I said to myself: "why is it that we deny what is said so clearly here?"; I was thinking about it for some days and the next Sunday a friend of mine showed up at my house carrying the book "The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination" by Loraine Boettner, which sparked an argument with my brother and my brother in law who were at home with us that day, they was opposed to the doctrine of predestination while my friend, my wife and me where in favor (none of us knew anything about the doctrine and we didn't even open the book, the cover started the argument).

After they all left I knew for some reason that I had to find a red book that was buried in a box somewhere in a closet were I had a lot of things that we didn't use but we didn't want to throw away, so I opened the closet and got all the boxes out and went through all of them until I found the book, something was telling me that I had to read it. The book's title: The Sovereignty of God by Arthur Pink. I read it and that's how my journey out of Arminianism, and charismaticism started.


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