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  • Author: George Bryson
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Download Bryson, George - The Dark Side of Calvinism

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Theology Apologetics / Evangelism Calvinism Copyrighted
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Author:
George Bryson

e-Sword Version:
9.x - 10.x

The Dark Side of Calvinism
A biblically based examination, and refutation of the Reformed Doctrine of Redemption and Reprobation.


In The Dark Side of Calvinism, George Bryson has shined the light of Scripture and scripturally based reasoning upon some very important and disturbing problems with the distinctive doctrines of Reformed Theology. As George documents, John Calvin asserts:

By predestination we mean the eternal decree of God, by which he determined with himself whatever he wished to happen with regard to every man. All are not created on equal terms, but some are preordained to eternal life, others to eternal damnation; and, ac­cordingly, as each has been created for one or other of those ends, we say that he has been predestined to life or death.

Despite the unscriptural and radical nature of such a position, George demonstrates that this is the position promoted by the leading proponents of Calvinism today. While Calvinists are prone to accent the less negative fea­tures of Calvinism, even the best of what Calvin taught about salvation logi­cally leads to the worst of what Calvinism teaches. While Calvinists prefer to talk about election, they know that the other side of unconditional election is a very troubling and unscriptural doctrine of unconditional reprobation.

The doctrinal distinctive of Reformed Theology cannot be reconciled with what we know about God from His holy Word. Scripture has taught me to believe that God is loving and absolutely just. Could and would such a God allow a man to be born who has no possibility to be saved? Would the God of love and Scripture have me tantalize unsavable men with the offer of salvation? Would the God of all hope punish a man for all eternity for rejecting the offer of salvation, if that man was decreed by God to reject that salvation in the first place?

According to Calvinism, it is futile to try to convert the lost who are not predestined to be saved. Perhaps this explains why so many Calvinists are spending so much time and energy trying to win the already saved to Calvinism. What this means is that Calvinists want other Christians to be­lieve in their convoluted theology, which if fully understood, destroys the gospel to every creature.

No matter what your position on the subject of Reformed Theology, George is going to force you to think it through. This is a must-read for all who have wrestled with Calvinism.

Copyright
The Dark Side of Calvinism The Calvinist Caste System

Copyright © 2004 by George Bryson

Published by Calvary Chapel Publishing (CCP) a resource ministry of Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa 3800 South Fairview Rd. Santa Ana, CA 92704

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided by USA copyright law.

First printing 2004

All Scripture quotations in this book, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NASU are taken from the New American Standard Bible © Copyright © The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971,

1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible® Copyright © The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972,

1975, 1977. Used by permission.
Scripture quotations marked NRSV are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

1-931667-88-8

Printed in the United States of America.

Reviews
By Sid Salcido

I must admit upfront that as soon as I read the title, "The Dark Side of Calvinism: The Calvinist Caste System," I had immediately began to worry that this book was going to simply be a full-blown attack on Calvinist thought, somewhat like what I got from "The Other Side of Calvinism" by Laurence Vance. But as I began reading it, to see what he states since I am doing some research on the subject, I found out that Bryson has written a very informative and fair book on the issue, primarily, of the doctrine of reprobation and it being the "dark side" of Calvinism. Bryson states early on "Everyone seriously considering a theological move in the direction of Reformed Theology deserves to know about Calvinism's dark side before they make a commitment to Calvinism" (p. 22). This book goes into great lengths to highlight this problem in Calvinism.

What Bryson does best in this book, and also what can be seen as a liability, is he has an exhaustive conversation between Calvinists, quoting dozens of them throughout his long chapters (I believe he is more fair in this than Vance, for Vance seems to only deal with the negative material, while Bryson points out from time to time where a Calvinist got it right). I say that this can also be a liability because he is constantly belaboring point after point in order for the Calvinists to have this conversation. So it is a two edged sword: in one sense the reader should appreciate the vast resource of view points from Calvinist and Reformed writers that Bryson utilizes (which also comes out in his many citations: I first was surprised he simply kept the quotations going from 1 to 618, not separating them by chapter, which made me think he was doing that for the sake of showing off; but once I began reading the book, I found it very easy to go to the back and look up the quote because you didn't have to be lost in trying to first find the chapter--you just simply go to the quote); in the other sense, as you read you get a little frustrated that he says the same thing almost fifteen to twenty times in the chapter, which would have made the book an easier read if he were a little more concise; yet, it was understandable why he did it: he simply wanted to demonstrate that the view he was presenting was coming from the mouth of the Calvinists, not from his own opinion of them. So, though it made sense why he does belabor his points, it made it also a little redundant to read at times.

That being said, Bryson demonstrates a few important things in this book: one, he shows the problematic nature for some Calvinists to defend their position, especially when it comes to reprobation. These Calvinists he calls "Hypo-Calvinists," coming from the word, "hypo" meaning "less than normal," while another group of Calvinists he calls "Hyper-Calvinists" from the word "hyper" which means "more than normal" (see his explanation on pp. 55-56). The Hypo-Calvinists usually softens the "dark" views of Calvinism, or brushes over certain areas of it, even though he or she teaches the bright side of it without shame (the "predestination to salvation" part), while Hyper-Calvinists simply let the doctrine take them to the logical conclusions (that God foreordains both salvation and reprobation). Examples he uses of Hypo-Calvinists are Charles Spurgeon, R.C. Sproul, James White, John MacArthur, Jr., John Feinburg, John Piper, Jay Adams and others, while examples of Hyper-Calvinists are John Calvin, John Gill, Charles Hodge, Herman Hoeksema, Herman Hanko, Douglas Wilson, Edwin Palmer, and others. Bryson brilliantly goes from author to author in the Calvinist literature and shows the inconsistent defense made among them in trying to explain either the logical conclusion of Sovereign Election taught by Calvinism (in the form of double predestination) or in trying to explain non-Calvinist passages of Scripture (those passages which obviously contradict Calvinist assumptions).

The book is primarily laid out by one chapter presenting and explaining the Calvinist's position and another chapter to refute the particular position Biblically. Here, though, part of the redundancy comes out because it seems he carries over sometimes the same arguments from the "explanation" side to the "refuted" side as if he didn't feel he was finished explaining the things he over-explained in the previous chapters. But it is amazing to see how Calvinists attempt to explain away many obvious contradictions to their own position, debating back and forth on what the answer should be and showing that there is confusion in the particular thinking there. The Scriptures state that God is "not the author of confusion" (1 Cor. 14:33) and so such disconcertment in answering contradictions should bare red flags for any student of the Bible.

So, on the whole, this book is a valuable critique of Calvinism, more so than I was expecting. I like reasonable books which give critiques on Calvinism in fair and enlightening ways (such as "Why I am Not a Calvinist" by Walls and Dongell or "Arminian Theology" by Roger Olson), so I was skeptical of this book (I think he would do good to change the title a bit). But Bryson instead made a fair assessment of the dilemmas and utilized very clearly the Reformed, Calvinist position by his dialogue between their many authors.

One final critique, which is a small one, but I believe Bryson must remove: in chapter one he added a quote from the rabid false teacher Fred Phelps (pp. 52-53), because Phelps is also a Calvinist. The good thing is, he only mentioned him once, but I believe that he should simply remove this quote out of his book due to the fact that Phelps is a bad example of those who believe in Calvinism, which most are very fine and reasonable theologians. This quote really does nothing to add to the debate (it is another one to belabor the point) so it is worthless to down-grade this good work with the possible critique by Calvinists due to that one quote. I hope he takes heed to this when he updates this book.

(See more reviews)


Thanks for making this module James!

the foreword by chuck smith is super and well written

Thanks!

James,

This is one book I am going to read, because its something that really needs to be discussed.  Once read, I'll write a comprehensive review on this book, on my blog page here at Bible Support.

 

Anyway, bro, thanks for this book, and its much appreciated.

 

Blessings,

Autograph.png

"According to Calvinism, it is futile to try to convert the lost who are not predestined to be saved. Perhaps this explains why so many Calvinists are spending so much time and energy trying to win the already saved to Calvinism. What this means is that Calvinists want other Christians to believe in their convoluted theology, which if fully understood, destroys the gospel to every creature"... extract of the foreword by Ps. Chuck Smith.

 

This is a lop-sided comment. May he should be specific if he is referring to hyper-Calvinists but apparently this is a false generalization. May be Chuck should do more reading and travelling... I am a Calvinist and that never stop me from bringing the gospel to the depths of the jungles of my country.. reaching out to pagan natives.. I also found Calvinists who are more zealous in reaching out to adherents of other religions than so-called Arminians... so dear Chuck... please do some thinking before talking!

Photo
preacher4truth
Jun 24 2013 04:20 AM

"According to Calvinism, it is futile to try to convert the lost who are not predestined to be saved. Perhaps this explains why so many Calvinists are spending so much time and energy trying to win the already saved to Calvinism. What this means is that Calvinists want other Christians to believe in their convoluted theology, which if fully understood, destroys the gospel to every creature"... extract of the foreword by Ps. Chuck Smith.

 

This is a lop-sided comment. May he should be specific if he is referring to hyper-Calvinists but apparently this is a false generalization. May be Chuck should do more reading and travelling... I am a Calvinist and that never stop me from bringing the gospel to the depths of the jungles of my country.. reaching out to pagan natives.. I also found Calvinists who are more zealous in reaching out to adherents of other religions than so-called Arminians... so dear Chuck... please do some thinking before talking!

 

 

Thanks to whomever made this module. I've read a bit of it. Unfortunately the writer begins with out of context quotes of Spurgeon and Piper. After this he moves on to a logical fallacy that since persons didn't know about Calvinism at conversion, then it is invalid. Well, most knew nothing at all about the Omni's, Sovereignty, Soteriology, the names of every Bible book &c at salvation. Does that make them invalid as well since they are learned post-conversion? Why then are we to grow in knowledge and grace, 2 Peter 3:18?

 

As Byron moves along he ends up making the point that Calvinism is a false Gospel by quoting Galatians 1:9. Not a very objective beginning and there are so many straw man arguments and caricatures drawn right off the bat that I cannot take this thing too seriously. 

 

Now, as to the quote above, you make a good point and show the book again uses another straw man argument and draws up another caricature. 

 

2 Timothy 2:8-10 and a careful reading of it will show that Paul preached for the sake of the elect so that they would be saved. In other words God uses men to reach men. He obeyed. So do I as a Reformed Baptist. 

 

- Blessings 

I think Calvin took most of what he wrote from Augistine. but i will take the words of The Lord Jesus over anyone any day. and preach the Gospel to whosoever.... this is the problem the church has had for years, God's mind is revealed in the scriptures, but no one can claim to know God's mind. i would hope that as believers we would remember the words of the Apostle 1Co 1:11  For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers.
1Co 1:12  What I mean is that each one of you says, "I follow Paul," or "I follow Apollos," or "I follow Cephas," or "I follow Christ."
1Co 1:13  Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
 

lets be  Follower's of the Lamb not followe'rs of men who error and are full of sin and pride.

Photo
preacher4truth
Jun 30 2013 03:26 PM

I think Calvin took most of what he wrote from Augistine. but i will take the words of The Lord Jesus over anyone any day. and preach the Gospel to whosoever.... this is the problem the church has had for years, God's mind is revealed in the scriptures, but no one can claim to know God's mind. i would hope that as believers we would remember the words of the Apostle 1Co 1:11  For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers.
1Co 1:12  What I mean is that each one of you says, "I follow Paul," or "I follow Apollos," or "I follow Cephas," or "I follow Christ."
1Co 1:13  Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
 

lets be  Follower's of the Lamb not followe'rs of men who error and are full of sin and pride.

 

 

Agreed. Do you care to answer the fallacies, straw man arguments and caricatures within Bryson's comments? 

 

Let's not follow Bryson either. Right?

 

He is clearly in error. 

 

I await for his errors and bias to be addressed. 

Photo
gracechurch
Mar 21 2014 05:39 PM

I think Calvin took most of what he wrote from Augistine. but i will take the words of The Lord Jesus over anyone any day. and preach the Gospel to whosoever.... this is the problem the church has had for years, God's mind is revealed in the scriptures, but no one can claim to know God's mind. i would hope that as believers we would remember the words of the Apostle 1Co 1:11  For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers.
1Co 1:12  What I mean is that each one of you says, "I follow Paul," or "I follow Apollos," or "I follow Cephas," or "I follow Christ."
1Co 1:13  Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
 

lets be  Follower's of the Lamb not followe'rs of men who error and are full of sin and pride.

 

Nice profile pic of the reformed (Calvinist) picture of John Bunyan. What a man of God. 

Photo
gracechurch
Mar 21 2014 05:44 PM

Thanks to whomever made this module. I've read a bit of it. Unfortunately the writer begins with out of context quotes of Spurgeon and Piper. After this he moves on to a logical fallacy that since persons didn't know about Calvinism at conversion, then it is invalid. Well, most knew nothing at all about the Omni's, Sovereignty, Soteriology, the names of every Bible book &c at salvation. Does that make them invalid as well since they are learned post-conversion? Why then are we to grow in knowledge and grace, 2 Peter 3:18?

 

As Byron moves along he ends up making the point that Calvinism is a false Gospel by quoting Galatians 1:9. Not a very objective beginning and there are so many straw man arguments and caricatures drawn right off the bat that I cannot take this thing too seriously. 

 

Now, as to the quote above, you make a good point and show the book again uses another straw man argument and draws up another caricature. 

 

2 Timothy 2:8-10 and a careful reading of it will show that Paul preached for the sake of the elect so that they would be saved. In other words God uses men to reach men. He obeyed. So do I as a Reformed Baptist. 

 

- Blessings 

 

Excellent. Not one person has offered a rebuttal, merely subjective 'I think' reasoning and false accusations. The title of the module itself is enough to dismiss its biased slant, and it is not well thought out. 


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