Why I'm not a Calvinist...

"No LIP!"  That's my son Al's answer to the Lutheran position on the Five Points of Calvinism.  
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I first heard Calvinist teaching in my mid-30s.  I'd read the Bible many times, but, up to that point, my Christian faith was greatly influenced by popular books and Christian radio. 

Popular Christian teaching is "all over the place" with way too many ideas and concepts to grasp and bring together.

So, in 1999, after watching a Calvinist series on Predestination and Election, I was hooked.   

The Five Points of Calvinism, using the acrostic TULIP, explain salvation in a reasonable fashion that is also intellectually satisfying.  "Finally," I thought, "I understand God and salvation.  I have answers that make sense."  

And, icing on the cake, Reformed teachers said that Luther was in agreement with them.

Life was good...

The crack came when my oldest son Jake, 17 at the time, started worrying about his own salvation.  You can read his journey at:              OCD and the Lutheran Confessions.

Jake's question was, "What if, at some point, I'm going to leave my faith?  According to Calvinism, leaving my faith would mean that I never really believed.  So, how do I know that I really believe now?"  

Jake was looking for assurance.  In researching his question, I found that many other Calvinists, some with OCD, but many not, also had the same question, which boiled down to, "How do I know I'm saved?  Where's my assurance?"  

My journey away from Calvinism took a long time.  But, it came down to two points.

First, I recognized that Calvinism requires a lot of "mental gymnastics" to explain Bible verses that are inconsistent with the Five Points.  For instance, the Bible says that God...

...desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 1 Timothy 2:4 

The Calvinist explains this by taking "all people" to mean all people groups, or people from various nations.  Calvinism does the same type of "explaining" with many other problematic verses.

In not following Calvinism, I'm now free to let God's Word speak for itself.  My faith doesn't depend on man's logic; I'm free from trying to "figure it all out."

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9

Second, Calvinism satisfies the intellect, but misses the human heart.  

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26

When we're honest with ourselves, we know the hardness and darkness of our hearts.  

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? Jeremiah 17:9 

God's Word affects and works on our hearts.   At some point, not sure how or when, my faith moved from my head and pierced my heart.  

Read the Psalms and then read them again.  God made us into emotional and passionate beings.  The Five Points of Calvinism don't address and don't comfort the human heart.
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My son Al is right.  We don't need any "LIP" (pun intended) to understand our faith.  It's really rather simple, and all of God's Word testifies to it:

I sin.  Jesus died for my sins, and He rose again.  I'm baptized.