Dear friend, if you struggle with resting in the finished work of Jesus Christ and the security of your salvation then this post is for you. It’s also for you if you know someone who is plagued with fear and doubt about their standing in Christ. Men teach that we can’t know if we are saved. But that’s not what the Bible tells us. It tells us we can know and rest in that knowledge. 

I am very thankful I grew up knowing the simplicity of the Gospel. I’ve heard the Good News of Jesus Christ as long as I can remember and was saved at an early age. I am thankful for the protection those truths gave me over many adult years as David and I struggled to find a theological and church home. 

We spent several years in Calvinist churches (Christian Reformed Church) including being members of two. As I mentioned in Identifying and Working Out My Theological Framework, I have been working to purge the destructive residue that remains from those years. 

While a part of me wishes I could have those years back, I am thankful for them. I know firsthand the destructive nature of these teachings. They aren’t an abstract idea for me. I’ve watched what happens to Christians when they become ensnared by ideas and theologies that strip them of their rest and peace in the work of Jesus Christ. This happens in so many different theological settings. It isn’t unique to Calvinism, but that is my focus here because it is the great burden on my heart as I watch this destructive teaching destroy individuals, families, and churches.

Dr. Thomas Cucuzza of Northland Bible Baptist Church has been a tremendous blessing to me since I found the church’s YouTube channel in the past few years. He put into words what I was struggling to weed out when it came to issues of salvation. I’m sharing several of his videos below. 

As always, the sharing of a resource is not a blanket endorsement. For example, Dr. Cucuzza and I have different views of the last things (eschatology). But he is so solid on the Gospel that it is a joy to share these videos with whoever chooses to watch them. 

I wish everyone reading this would watch or listen to every one of these sermons. I truly do. Even if you have not been impacted by the teachings of Calvinism, it is highly probable someone you know has. In fact, the teachings of Calvinism have become so pervasive in conservative Christianity that you might have absorbed them or even heard them at church and not realized it. 

Here is a story someone shared in the comments of one of the videos. I’ve read and heard many such stories in recent months. This is the reality of Calvinism. 

Every honest Calvinist sleeps with one eye open. Interesting but very sad story. In June of 2001, during his message at a Ligonier’s Conference in Orlando, Fla., the late Dr. R. C. Sproul indicated that Dr. James Boice, a scheduled speaker at the conference, was dying that very night. Then at the end of the message he asked all 5,000 present to pray that Jim “dies in faith”. Dr. Boyce was considered a great pastor, theologian, teacher, and author, yet Sproul was not sure that he was regenerate. Dr. Boyce did die that night. They all hoped he persevered … but they cannot know if that was God’s “gift” to him or not. The real irony lies in their ‘prayer’ that Dr. Boyce would truly be saved. According to “U”conditional Election… God either loved him ‘salvifically’ or he hated him. just like Esau, and literally nothing could ever be done to change his eternal decree. And, if God hated him, why would they run the risk of ‘loving’ him?… They just don’t know, and believe they cannot know, but most won’t admit it, even to themselves.

It is said that Dr. Sproul even wondered out loud near is own death if he had done ‘enough’. Calvinists can have no real personal assurance, they’re only hoping for the best, because they believe they’re either ‘picked’ or they’ll bust Hell wide open without a prayer…. literally. Desperate for ‘evidence’ of salvation, they cling to their ‘works’ as pieces of a broken shipwreck at sea, it’s all they have.

Dear friend, you can know and be confident of your standing before our Heavenly Father. The Bible tells us how. It is simple enough for a child to understand. I hope these video messages are a great blessing to you and set you free from the fear that grips you.