THEY LEFT CALVINISM

A short list just to show that no matter how hardcore, those who affirm TULIP can change their minds by using their God-given libertarian free will.

Ooooooor maybe Calvinism is true, so they were never Elect or God causally determined them not to remain Calvinist.

Leighton Flowers – 10 years a Calvinist, actually studying the alternatives (instead of just hearing the strawman versions portrayed by Reformed writers) made him become a Provisionist now. https://soteriology101.com/2014/12/08/the-5-points-that-lead-me-out-of-calvinism/

Michael Brown – Five years espousing Calvinism (1:33:30 onwards) and now Arminian, with some of the reasons he left it being that the consistent message of the whole Bible is asking people to choose and none of the disciples of the Disciples teaching TULIP until Augustine 400 years later (1:44:10 onwards). Note too that he is James White’s good friend despite remaining unpersuaded about White’s Calvinism – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ucr7kLgw71s&t=10233s

Tim Stratton – As a very hardcore Calvinist (https://scottthong.wordpress.com/2020/08/19/tim-stratton-as-a-calvinist-not-praying-for-the-unsaved/) who even handwaved away his bad behaviour as God’s causal determinism (https://freethinkingministries.com/molinism-saves-marriages/), spent a year trying to refute Molinism (17:50 of https://youtu.be/3Bv0U3m0g3k). Now affirms Molinism, 1:58:30 onwards of here: https://youtu.be/oSMJRTghRtM

Tim Stratton’s pastor – As mentioned from 30:00 to 30:30 of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y8P_JRENsI he was the one who got Tim to become a hardcore Calvinist, when Tim left he tried to debate Tim back into Calvinism, but is now a Molinist and contributor to Tim’s Free Thinking Ministries!

Francis Chan – “Instead of like I dropped a few points on my TULIP… I’m sixty percent on all five… And the limited atonement may be a little less” 28:18 of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=867iv-1l-8c&t=1698s

Bobby Conway – Host of One Minute Apologist channel, as he describes briefly at 24:50 of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y8P_JRENsI, across 4 minutes in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY2beSGlqN8 and longer in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4fcJSyjpRo

Austin Fischer – A former Calvinist who went on to write the book ‘Young, Restless, No Longer Reformed’ because he finally saw the lack of truth and beauty in it: “The heart of the book, then, was a challenge to the aesthetic of the New Calvinism. The New Calvinists attempt to paint a ravishing picture of the manifold excellencies of the self-glorifying, all-determining God of Calvinism, expressed primarily through the doctrines of grace. I say that picture is a false veneer that only works when you ignore the reprobate. I say that picture cannot contain, as its central image, a crucified God who would rather die for sinners than give them what they deserve. Using the Bible as my measure of beauty, I say Calvinism isn’t beautiful.” – http://purpletheology.com/young-restless-no-longer-reformed-a-year-later-calvinism-still-isnt-beautiful/
Debate with James White: https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLYJYhAg5ur0p8CXjBnJOQK6QZuLQKuKi5&v=4Yxod_YbXJQ

Ronnie Rogers – 30+ years a Calvinist, this pastor left and wrote books about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU2uCSm_7to … He was 20 years Calvinist, another 13 years gradually questioning Calvinism because the Calvinist authors he read to find answers to hard questions kept dodging the issue and just giving platitudes instead: https://youtu.be/U2ZCTRCVV60

Dane Cramer – Staunch Calvinist for 15 years, until listening to Steve Gregg from the TheNarrowPath.com made he rethink many Calvinist prooftexts: https://www.featheredprop.com/why-i-am-no-longer-a-calvinist/ & https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeZI1QwFER4

Greg Boyd – Now affirms Open Theism: https://youtu.be/SyZQySJeg4g

Paul Cooper – After a debate with Braxton Hunter on Calvinism (https://youtu.be/3MJd4zEl8zA), he gradually began to doubt and question the system, admitting to no longer affirming some of its tenets towards the end of this interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdk38BlOSuI&t=1144s

Jordan B Cooper – Now affirms Lutheranism, and mentions here that many others left Calvinism and became Catholic, Orthodox or others: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-Yw29JviQw&t=1011s

Kevin Thompson – Calvinist for a year until he realized that Ephesians 1 doesn’t say what Calvinism claims it does (5 min onwards of here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWQjU1p1jl4&t=1163s ) and now has many videos refuting it: https://www.youtube.com/user/KevinThompson1611/videos

Brad Saab – Former Calvinistic pastor who subsequently apologized to his congregation for misleading them. Ephesians 1 in a Calvinistic understanding brought him into Calvinism (17:10 onwards of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWQjU1p1jl4 ), and a video by Kevin Thompson on Ephesian 1 started his journey out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5d3f61EmHw

Sam Shamoun – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPLfKK_UqC4 23:50 how he got into Calvinism, 25:38 how he left it because of too many holes in the system, and notes that thousands are leaving it.

Older, in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7XxCCrChhA&t=4811s at 29:10 “He was quick to say a former Calvie who’s left the faith” and 64:20 “You’re not the only one, I’m sorry i bought into it too”, and https://bloggingtheology.net/2017/11/13/sam-shamoun-abandons-calvinism-is-he-now-a-heretic/

Jerod Long – Years as a Calvinist, eventually the preponderence of passages against Limited Atonement and the restrictions in preaching the Gospel with all the careful theological wording started him on his journey out – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JvWxanJgVM&t=2489s

A Calvinistic Baptist of 16 years who finally realized his views were wrong after giving Leighton Flowers a fair hearing – https://soteriology101.com/2017/06/07/what-to-do-after-recanting-calvinism/

Steven L Hitchcock – Calvinist for at least 16 years, but recanted due to it clashing with the Bible – https://traditionalbaptistchurch.com/former-calvinist/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hVfRKSUqZo

A Pentecostal who found more intellectual rigour in Calvinism – as well as its infamous cage stage arrogance. Like Leighton Flowers, actually examining the reasoning and arguments of other views instead of absorbing Reformed Only, All The Time material led him to leave Calvinism: https://www.mirrordimlyblog.com/my-journey-out-of-calvinism.html & https://www.mirrordimlyblog.com/my-journey-out-of-calvinism-part-2.html

Warren McGrew – Calvinist for 30+ years, until while reading about the Pharisees who were blinded by their own tradition, God prompted him to start over – so he read from Genesis and found that several passages he thought prooftexted Total Depravity did not actually state it. From there he went through all the usual prooftexts and realized they didn’t teach it either. – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXg3nnRGZCU&pp=ygUXd2FycmVuIG1jZ3JldyB0ZXN0aW1vbnk%3D

Cole Morganti – Became a Calvinist through the influence of speakers like Paul Washer. Limited Atonement for the first petal to fall off due to the lack of Scriptural support, and the Freethinking Argument helped the process along. – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yCWANXPtLM

Alana L – 19 years Calvinist along with her husband. Reading Romans 1, she came across ‘their hearts became dark’ and realized this doesn’t gel with Total Depravity where they should have always had dark hearts from birth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQJW70tsJws&pp=ygUTZ3JlYXQgbGlnaHQgc3R1ZGlvcw%3D%3D also at https://www.youtube.com/watch?fbclid=IwAR3NspgiLc-aTZ7_YxbO81yzI7A81YzzttBYe4RNORSBjtKrUW1fk9G5mWU&v=ohb6eBjhlKY&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQug2gtKkZM

Joel Korytko, Septuagint scholar. From 1:41:20 he became Calvinist because his friend told him to read Romans 9. He left Calvinism when he read Romans 9 in Greek, and checked back Paul’s references to the Old Testament:

Herman Melville (possibly) – Author of Moby Dick, which contains his struggles with some tenets of Calvinism: https://www.grin.com/document/176967

Tyler Fowler – Left Calvinism after five years of interviewing guests and wrestling over theological determinism, until Joshua Davidson and Tim Stratton convinced him out of it because of ‘glaring inconsistencies on the Calvinist side’ and the illogic of God determining what we do yet holding us responsible for it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FGIqagapJ8

Joshua Davidon with Tyler Fowler – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ejBHX10jxk & https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVFTcIMR808

Grace Mercy Wrath – Left Calvinism due to Romans 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rr_83HZ-XPE

And these former Calvinists whose beliefs about God directly caused or aided their apostasy into atheism should serve as a warning:

Derek Webb – Singer and songwriter for Caedmon’s Call, which released many songs with a Calvinistic bent (example: https://songmeanings.com/songs/view/107788/). https://soteriology101.com/2018/10/25/derek-webb-a-reformed-atheist/

Matt W Cook – Turned to Calvinism, and then turned to unbelief: https://mwcook.com/my-journey/ (He chats with Derek Webb at https://mwcook.com/2018/09/10/conversation-with-derek-webb/ which is clipped from 1:49:30 onwards of https://youtu.be/eZ-Rtt4KCUI )

Megan Phelps – Was a member of Westboro Baptist (stringently Five Pointers: https://www.godhatesfags.com/wbcinfo/aboutwbc.html – their TULIP explainer page states: Anyone preaching otherwise is a Hell-bound false prophet and a messenger of Satan, to whom we say, “Anathema Maranatha!” Let him be accursed of God!) until their interpretation of Romans 9 made her not only leave them, but become atheist too. She’s still a determinist apparently, from her words to Joe Rogan – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62sKs7HXocM&t=735s

Edwin Curley – Raised in a tradition that he mistakenly assumed all Christians, including William Lane Craig, believe in – https://www.reasonablefaith.org/media/debates/the-existence-of-the-christian-god-the-craig-curley-debate/

Abraham Piper – John Piper’s son: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXfLPN5Xtds

Paul Maxwell – Formerly a writer for John Piper’s Desiring God. https://www.christianpost.com/news/author-paul-maxwell-announces-he-is-no-longer-a-christian.html and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPDbNwo1IuE  with full details at https://protestia.com/2021/11/24/former-desiring-god-and-tgc-author-paul-maxwell-describes-in-vivid-detail-how-he-came-to-lose-his-faith/ … This is the book he wrote, wonder if that has anything to do with it? https://www.amazon.com/Trauma-Doctrine-Calvinism-Religious-Experience/dp/1978704232 (Paul Maxwell examines the effect that the Calvinist belief can have upon the traumatized Christian who negatively internalizes its superlative doctrines of divine control and human moral corruption, and charts a way toward meaningful spiritual recovery)

Tyler Vela and Derek MythVision – Listen to them yourself at https://scottthong.wordpress.com/2023/05/25/in-tyler-velas-own-words/

PRexBYTERIAN – Concluded that Calvinism is the only view defensible scripturally, left Christiniaty (which to him is Calvinism): https://youtu.be/XJOXHqIMsZM

Kristi Burke – Left the faith as in her view only Calvinism correctly interprets Romans 9, yet she couldn’t accept a God like that: https://youtu.be/2qXcJyg7kNI