IN TYLER VELA’S OWN WORDS

Yes, Tyler Vela continues to maintain (even very recently) that Calvinism had nothing to do with his apostasy. And my stance is, okay sure, I take people for their word until clearly proven otherwise.

But from 42:40 to 47:45, listen and decide for yourself whether assuming Calvinism had absolutely no contribution at all to Tyler Vela’s (and Derek MythVision’s) deconversion.

It sounds EXACTLY like the Calvinistic interpretation of the text and view of God’s character that drove Edwin Curley and Megan Phelps to reject all of Christianity. Vela flatly rejects any other views in his long monologue sections. If the only God that the Bible describes is the Calvinistic idea of God, then what they have rejected is the Calvinistic idea of God.

See also: THEY LEFT CALVINISM

Transcript of text follows, with Vela nodding along to most of what MythVision says.

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MythVision: I so relate to you Tyler right now this was my issue as well. There’s, I had a problem. I read Romans 9 and Paul’s hypothetical debate partner when he says – after he explains before any of them had done either good or bad, I hate and I love – and then he explains, for the purpose of election. This is why systematically I’m with you. At least Pauline, if we take Paul – Paul and his perception – and make that the whole systematic view of the Bible. Yes, I think that we’re dealing with the kind of what we call Reformed or Calvinistic type of thinking…

Vela: He’s a predestinian.

MythVision: He’s some kind of, yeah and I don’t know all the nuts and bolts, but at the end of the day he’s like “Well how can He, I mean like, how can God find fault?”. And he, pretty much his answer is “Shut up you mortal clay! God the maker can do whatever He wants, He’s Justified to do it.”

MythVision: And I now imagine, in that world, that kind of makes me wonder like, how were parents at this time? Like you’re calling Him Heavenly Father, so like like, you’re describing here. I’m a father of three sons. I-I’ve been married half, over half my life almost. I mean like for a long time, 16 years. And I’m sitting here thinking, I love people that may be reprobates. We love to throw that term around in the Calvinist circles, and does that mean that I love people more than God loves some people?

Vela: Yeah.

MythVision: Which was an issue for me. I was a five-pointer and beyond, not the four pointer Universalist, ‘God’s struggling with his two wills’.

Vela: Right.

MythVision: I thought that was schizophrenic or at least two personalities, like God had a disorder, His His prescriptive will which is what’s known, a ‘Thou shall not’ – but really what happens is what He really wants.

Vela: Yeah.

MythVision: So I-I did not know how to reconcile this issue and I thought Calvinists were crazy trying to do both, because to me it was like: His will is what happens and what gets done. He tells you things but He purposely works you against. He causes you to do things against this person prescriptive. If He, if He hardens your heart – which I saw that as a proactive thing not a ‘He negates His spirit and therefore you start to fall into sin – God actively hardened people’s hearts. I stopped beating around the bush and called the Bible for what it says.

Vela: Yeah. That’s exactly right.

MythVision: I’m getting excited.

Vela: But you see you’re, you’re exactly right and I make… This is why when I did my, when I gave, you know, did part one of my deconversion… I said, you know, well look, because people were like “Oh, well you could just become another type of Christian.” And I’m like, I mean the only other type of Christian I think I could become is maybe a Progressive, but then at that point I don’t know why I even care about the Bible anymore because it’s just a wax nose for Progressives at that point.

Vela: Like if I want to take the Bible seriously right, I think that Reformed Theology and Calvinism is the one that does it as though – the most consistent with with what the text actually says. Because what happens is, you know, you get all these – and this is where I-I, you know, when I was a Calvinist and I was debating non-Calvinists right? I did a lot of those types of debates. Um, but you know, they would, you know, the the Free Will Theodicy and and, well you know, God doesn’t… God allows evil but it doesn’t cause evil.

Vela: And I’m like, I mean that’s that’s garbage, that’s BS. Like here are like, all these passages in the Bible where God – whatever you want to make of it, however you want to try to gymnastic out of it – like God takes causal credit for it. Whatever you think the metaphysics of how He does it or allows it or whatever, He is taking credit for the outcome and the outcome is someone sinning, someone being deluded, someone having a false belief, someone be what whatever it is.

Vela: So like, I like – and I have tons of examples of them – and I would use this as a Calvinist and I would say when, you know, in debating, non-Calvs you’re like, “Oh well, God just, God just allows the Free Will decision, blah blah blah blah blah.” All right, and I’d be like okay, well like first of all your Biblical texts that directly contradict that because He takes causal credit, report it’s by His hand that Pilate and the Jews and Herod crucified Jesus, right but it literally says by His hand it’s by His, by His perizo, by by His His foreordination. By His hand, in the next verse His hand is the thing that heals, His hand is always causally active in any Scripture passage that is used. Right. Uh you know, He deludes people in, in second, in second Thessalonians.

MythVision: He’s not the author of confusion Tyler.

Vela: Yeah and and in second Thessalonians 2 where it says that He sends a deluding spirit, it’s – you follow the causal chain – it’s so that they’ll believe what’s false. Why? So that He can judge them, right. So so he literally says that God make, God intentionally deludes them so that He can judge them. Now again, Calvinists will will bite that bullet, they’ll go hardline, it’s fine, it takes the text seriously right. So so I look at these other these other views, the Open Theist views and other ones that I’m like – I just, if I’m gonna take the Bible seriously, that’s just not an op, that’s just not a live option for me.

MythVision: And and mind you, when you’re saying this for the people who are just tuning in, when he says “Take the Bible seriously” this is some – if we’re systematically trying to rectify and make it a unity, meaning the whole Biblical corpus, then overall that position makes most sense.

MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE ENCOUNTERING A SPIRITUAL FORCE

This is my testimony of the strongest encounter with a spiritual force I have ever experienced.

I had been away from home due to attending university, and just got back during semester break. In the weeks before getting home, I had gotten updates from my family that there had been spiritual disturbances at night, usually sometime past midnight. Disturbing dreams, seeing unusual shadows in an already dark room late, etc.

The running theory was that this new nightly pattern of disturbance had to do with the next door neighbors moving out recently – and taking their Chinese altar with them. Possibly, the spirit that was associated with that altar was now left behind in the house – unattended, abandoned, restless and vindictive. Hence it was taking out its frustrations on my family.

Having got home, at night I returned to my roots – late night online gaming, awwww yeaaaaah! I finished a match around after midnight and the thought occurred to me, with the recent disturbances I should check out whether everything was fine upstairs. So I headed up to the room where my parents and youngest brother were asleep.

The moment I stepped through the open door to the room, it was like a rush of thick, high pressure atmosphere enveloped me. My vision went black as if something pressed against my eyeballs (you might know what that’s like, the blood being pushed away from your eyes make you lose vision momentarily) and my head swam with dizziness. It took a few moments to return to normal, like when you stand up too fast and the blood rushes away from your head.

My skin was tingling with sudden goosebumps. I say the air was thick because it also felt harder to breathe.

I’ll use two anime depictions that I find to be the closest analogy to what I experienced.

The first is from One Piece, where Luffy uses ‘Conquerors Haki’, which is said to be sheer force of will and internal energy (qi) and causes those affected to lose consciousness – they wake up in a cold sweat afterwards. The anime depicts this like a powerful rush of wind, fitting for qi which is a form of ‘breath’ energy.

The second is from Rurouni Kenshin, where Udo Jin-e uses the technique ‘Shin no Ippo’ (one side of the soul) – channeling his qi through a victim’s eyes to paralyze them through his sheer force of will. It can even cause the target to be unable to breath – here Kaoru has to struggle to even draw breaths.

This is the best I can compare that spiritual presence that felt like a suffocating, oppressive atmosphere.

Having experienced such a spiritual force firsthand, I have a better appreciation for why the Bible uses the same word to mean ‘spirit’ as well as ‘breath’ and ‘wind’ (Hebrew ruach, Greek pneuma). An atmospheric phenomenon really is the closest physical description I can compare what the spirit felt like.

(A Christian minister I know recounted an experience with an evil spirit that also similarly involves wind – after using his car to clear out a religious item for a family that had converted to Christianity, when he reached home and exited the car a strong rush of wind seemed to blow past him and to his house’s door – odd, since the surrounding plants didn’t seem to be affected by any wind. Later, he heard rattling and shaking in the house as if a strong wind was vibrating it.)

In response to encountering the spirit, I immediately fought back with prayer in Jesus’ name and imagining a mental picture of myself attacking the spirit – with my source of might being the infinite power of the Holy Spirit. I can liken it to these scenes from X-Men where psychics send their astral forms out to fight each other’s mental presence:

Or Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure where Stands are a projection of mind and willpower:

In this case it’s not so much comics or anime describing what I experienced, but more of my own mental imagery being influenced by them. Who says cartoons & anime don’t have any use?

After a few minutes of this, I felt the spirit’s presence fade. So I left the room and went back to my PC, my family still asleep and unaware of what just transpired. I didn’t say anything about the encounter to them, but from that night onward they didn’t have any more of those regular nightly disturbances.

Personally I’m naturally skeptical, and not prone to ‘mystical’ experiences. But this was the most real spiritual encounter I’ve felt, while fully awake and alert.

Leighton Flowers the Pro-grammer

Y’all been fooled by Leighton Flowers backwoods yokel accent, when clearly he is actually a master tier programmer with access to state-of-the-art AI algorithms he uses to create indistinguishable Deep Fake facsimiles of real people.

This is surely the only possible way he can play video and audio clips allegedly showing well known Calvinists explaining their beliefs in their own words. It’s all a charade see, a facade, a fake – no Calvinist actually believes the ridiculous made-up things these artificially generated parodies spout!

IF YOU SAY PEOPLE HAVE TO ACCEPT THE GOSPEL BY FAITH / CONTINUE ON IN FAITH / DO ANYTHING AT ALL, YOU ARE NOT GIVING ALL GLORY TO GOD ALONE!

So the standard response is to argue that nonCalvinists do, in fact, give all glory to God. He gets all the credit for offering the free gift, just because the recipient accepts it does not mean the giver suddenly doesn’t have full credit for the gift.

But what if there’s another track to take? Because this is what the Bible says about believers and glory:

The glory that you have given me I have given to them – John 17:22

to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life – Romans 2:7

but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good – Romans 2:10

we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. – Romans 8:17

the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. – Romans 8:21

And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. – Romans 8:30

They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. – Romans 9:4

vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory – Romans 9:23

But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. – 1 Corinthians 2:7

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. – 2 Corinthians 3:18

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison – 2 Corinthians 4:17

So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory. – Ephesians 3:13

When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. – Colossians 3:4

To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. – 2 Thessalonians 2:14

Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. – 2 Timothy 2:10

For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory – Hebrews 2:10

so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. – 1 Peter 1:7

So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed – 1 Peter 5:1

And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. – 1 Peter 5:4

JOHN 1:13 IS NOT ABOUT GOD DETERMINING WHO WILL BELIEVE

12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. – John 1:12-13

The contrast is not between ‘Man chooses to believe in Christ’ vs ‘God chooses which man will believe in Christ’. If that were the intent, then “not of blood” would be superfluous – blood does not have agency or will.

Rather, the bloods (plural, indicating genetic lineage) / will of flesh / will of man are how children join a family in the everyday earthly manner – by being conceived in the family or by being adopted. This is contrasted against how people join God’s family – by the plan set in place by God, imputing sonship unto “all who did receive him, who believed in his name”.

Just look up even the Wikipedia article on John 1:13 which lists commentary by several early church fathers – including Augustine. This is how they divide and contrast the passage.

Modern Woke Media Remake/Reboot Logic

Follow the modern remake/reboot logic here:

1) Recast noble protagonists as women/diversity, because “Audiences can’t identify with positive role models who don’t look like them”.

2) No noble protagonists who are male, especially white male, and reimagine them out from remakes/reboots where possible.

Now take the ‘because’ of 1 and apply it to the intended result for 2. Do you see the unspoken intention yet?

CHARITY & ‘FOREKNOWLEDGE’

I’ve heard it said that we shouldn’t give cash to certain beggars because they’ll take it and buy booze.

If I know a certain beggar has a predilection towards alcoholism and give him some cash with the request that he uses it to buy food and not liquor, am I therefore responsible for how he actually uses that money?

On the one hand I basically knew what he would do with it; on the other hand he has his own agency.

Of course this relates to God’s foreknowledge of the choices we will make with the free will He gives us.

Ephesians – Us vs You

Ephesians 1 ‘us in Him’ is Paul & the apostles, not all believers in general, using other examples in Paul’s letters differentiating ‘us/we’ and ‘you’:

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him – Eph 1:11-13