Calvinism is a very popular theology within Christendom, but is it biblical?  That is, is it consistent with Scripture?  Now I'll freely admit that anyone can quote a verse that at least 'appears' to contradict a biblical view.  I'm fairly certain that this can be done with any belief, be it christian or other.  The issue then isn't whether or not I can show you some verses that at least appear to contradict Calvinism, because any well trained Calvinist could very easily come here & refute any such verses by claiming that I'm taking them out of context or that it's a mis-translation, or what have you.  This is true of any belief system. 

The issue then, is whether or not any 'belief' can stand up to biblical scrutiny.  If Calvinism is true, then it has to be able to withstand any & all attacks against it.  Take the doctrine of the Trinity, for example.  If there is just one verse that clearly teaches that God is not a trinity, then the doctrine should be discarded, unless it can be shown that the verse is clearly being taken out of context or if it clearly is a mis-translation.

The problem with Calvinism is this.  There's tons of verses which clearly refute it.  So much so, that it's absolutely astounding to me that anyone still holds to this 'made up' belief system.  Yes, I know.  That's very bold of me to say, but there's not room enough here to post every scripture which refutes Calvinism.  I'll list some to make my point.  Then I'll show through reason & logic why Calvinism makes no sense, as well.  I will be assuming that one already has a basic grasp of what the bible teaches about the condition of man (fallen) & his need for a savior (Jesus), etc.  Man is dead in his sins & can't be reconciled to God through anything that he can do.  He can only 'be saved' through the finished work of Jesus on the Cross of Calvary.  I'll leave it at that for now.  With that, let's address Calvinism.

First, we need to establish what Calvinism teaches.  This can easily be shown through their 5 points, which they like to call 'tulip'.  The meaning of each point is addressed.

Total Depravity.  In this state, man can 'only' sin.  He is incapable of not sinning.  Man is incapable of obeying God & keeping God's law.  The very last part, I agree with.

Unconditional Election.  God chose to save some & this choice wasn't based on anything inherent within ourselves.  It's simply God's Sovereign right to have mercy on some & save them.  It has nothing to do with them.  The Elect are no different then the non-Elect.  Just extremely lucky, you could say - literally

Limited Atonement.  Christ only died for the Elect.  He did not die for the sins of the whole world, despite the fact that there are verses which say that He did.  Calvinists believe they've easily overcome this dilemma

Irresistible Grace.  Those whom God has chosen to save, will be saved.  They cannot resist God's will.  Therefore, it can be stated that the Elect will be saved 'against their will' since the elect are no different from the non-elect, in that they do not want salvation & would never repent & believe in Jesus, unless God first 'changes' them.  Calvinism teaches that it is impossible to resist the will of God in anything

Perseverance of the Saints.  God will see to it that His elect will endure to the end.  They won't fall away & turn back to their old way of life.  Many a Calvinist obeys God out of fear.  Fear that if they fall away, it means that they aren't one of His elect & will instead be cast into hell to be burned alive forever & ever.  This doctrine is the fear that motivates many christians to behave.

It should already be clear to anyone who's read through or studied the bible that Calvinism can't be correct.  I know I'm showing my bias, so let me be very clear by quoting verses & commenting on each one, showing how (in my opinion) Calvinism is anything but biblical.

Total Depravity:  If man can only sin, then there can't be any verses in the bible showing man not sinning, let alone actually obeying God, unless it can be shown that said individual is clearly one of God's elect & that God has already started the process of drawing him (John 6:44).  Without this action that God has to start (according to Calvinism), man will only sin & wants nothing to do with God.  Man is desperately wicked & every thought & inclination of his heart is only evil, all the time (Genesis 6:5).  Let's see if scripture totally agrees with this belief.

So what does scripture say.  2 Kings 15:3  'And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord'.  If Calvinism is true, then this verse can't be in the bible.  Calvinism teaches that we can only sin & that we aren't capable of obeying God, yet this verse clearly proves that we can & therefore Calvinism is already proven wrong, but since I'm guessing you're still not convinced, I'll continue.  The bible is filled with Kings who ruled over people.  Some of them did evil in the sight of the lord & some of them did good.  The bible is repleat with examples of this throughout.  How can this be if we all suffer from Total Depravity?  It can't.  The bible is clear that we aren't totally depraved.  Just depraved.  We all sin.  None of us can never sin.  Romans 3:23  'All have sinned & fall short of the glory of God'.  This verse is used by Calvinists, but if it said that all 'only' sin, then maybe they'd have a point, but it's clear that total depravity is not in view here.  Rather, our fallen nature & the need for a savior is what's in view.  Calvinism takes this biblical truth & runs it to a logical fallacy.  In other words, they take it too far.

Unconditional Election:  If this is true then there could never be an instance where the bible says why someone got saved.  It can't be because of anything they said or did because then election immediately becomes conditional.  Yet, in fact, every single instance of conversion is a result of an action that the person took or there was a reason why they were 'chosen'.  Believe on the Lord Jesus 'and you shall' be saved (Acts 16:30-31).  Here, the commandment to 'believe' is preached with the response of said action resulting in salvation as a guarantee.  The very essence of the gospel makes election conditional.  Namely, it is conditional on us believing the gospel.  Now 'some' of Paul's words could easily be interpreted as unconditional election, but some of his words also don't agree with that conclusion in any way.  Jesus said to preach the gospel & that all who repent & are baptized will be saved (Mark 16:15-16).  Again, conditional.  Paul said if we will confess with our mouth (Romans 10:9).  Again, conditional.  Peter, when asked by the masses 'what shall we do' said to 'repent & be baptized' (Acts 2:38).  Again, conditional.

The gospel, in it's most basic aspect, teaches that faith in Jesus as the Christ is how we get saved, but the Calvinist has some interesting ways of getting around this.  First they teach that no one can believe unless God first draws them (John 6:44).  This one verse is the Calvinists 'ace of spades' for it states that we are helpless (we are) unless God first intervenes & draws us to Him (He has, He is, He will).  Then, and only then, can we 'come to Jesus' (we can, thanks to God).  The simple mistake that Calvinists have made here is to interpret this verse to mean something & then to make the rest of scripture conform to this teaching, instead of looking at scripture as a whole & seeing the obvious flaw in their theology, since scripture after scripture is contrary with this interpretation.  When there is 'one' verse that stands out from the norm & seems to imply something different than what the majority of verses are teaching, it becomes necessary to interpret this one verse in the light of the rest of scripture.  Not the other way around, which is what Calvinists do.  They also have Romans 9, which is the strongest case for Calvinism, but even there, when we examine Paul's words in light of the rest of scripture we see that Paul is not contradicting scripture, but rather is adding more information.  He's building on the total aspect of what the gospel is, and indeed, 'part' of Calvinism is very biblical, but most of it is at odds with scripture, which I'm trying to clearly show you.  How am I doing?  : )

Next.  Let's look at the conversion of Cornelius.  The first gentile convert to Christianity and see whether this passage supports Calvinism or clearly refutes it.  Acts 10.  Notice v2  'a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms generously to the people, and prayed to God always'.  Already Calvinism is refuted once again, but for some reason, Calvinists can't see it.  This man is doing what sinners aren't supposed to be capable of doing, according to Calvinism.  Cornelius is not yet saved.  God has not yet drawn him, yet God is now going to draw him & save him.  Why?  Calvinists say that it can't have anything to do with the kind of man that Cornelius is.  Election is unconditional, yet the scriptures clearly say that it has 'everything' to do with the kind of man that Cornelius was.  v4  ...'Your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God.'  Peter is sent to Cornelius & when Cornelius explains to Peter what happened, look at Peter's response.  v34  'then Peter opened his mouth and said:  "In truth I perceive that God shows 'no partiality'.  But in every nation 'whoever fears Him' and 'works righteousness' 'is accepted' by Him.  So much for 'unconditional' election.

Sure sounds like 'salvation by works' doesn't it?  It's not, but that's another topic, which can easily be reconciled with scripture.  Hint:  'faith without works is dead'  (James 2:20)

Limited Atonement:  Again, there are 'tons' of verses which clearly refute this doctrine, but for some reason, Calvinists are blind to it.  Apparently, shattering ones worldview is too devastating for some to handle & it's far easier to keep justifying your beliefs, even though it means you have to keep jumping through hoops to explain all these verses that refute them.  I'll now list just 3 verses that clearly refute this doctrine. 

John 1:29b  'behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world'. 

Hebrews 2:9  'But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for 'everyone'. 

Romans 5:18  'Therefore, as through one man's offense judgment came to 'all' men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man's righteous act the free gift came to 'all' men. resulting in justification of life'.

Sometimes, Calvinists like to claim that the use of the word 'all' or 'everyone' is 'only' referring to the 'elect', but with Romans 5:18, they're stuck, unless they want to say that the word 'all' changed meaning in mid-sentence.  If Christ only died for the Elect, then the masses are literally 'eternally screwed'.  They have no hope.  Their ultimate destiny is to be burned alive in a literal lake of fire, which is the most evil belief system that ever entered the mind of man, but that too is a different topic.  How is the gospel of Calvinism 'good news' in any sense?  What's good about it?  We are all doomed to hell, but God in His mercy chose to save some of us.  That's it.  There's nothing else, if Calvinism is true.  God 'will' save the tiny few that He chose to save & the hell with the rest of us - literally.  If anybody reading this thinks that's good news, then I really don't know what else to say to you.

Irresistible Grace:  If this is true then there can't be any verses which show that we can resist God in some way.  Matthew 23:37  'O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her!  How often I 'wanted' to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, BUT YOU WERE NOT WILLING!'  Here God is clearly showing us something that He wanted to do, but that they were not willing.  How much clearer can it get that we can resist God's will.

Perseverance of the Saints:  This one doesn't even matter.  Yes there's verses that can show it to be in error, but it's the least important of the 5.  Instead let's look at this using logic & reason & show how Calvinism can't be true, let alone biblical.

If Calvinism is true then verses like 'repent & believe the gospel' are meaningless, for I can't do what this verse is commanding me to do 'unless' God first gives me the ability to do it, which is sort of redundant, is it not?  So what we've got then is God commanding us to do something that we can't do because He's chosen to not give us the ability to do it.  So why then is God commanding us to do this?  Is God an idiot, schizophrenic, or just a big jerk?  Seriously, are there any other options?  Let me know.  Calvinists say that He's commanding it so that His Elect will 'hear the call' and then God will change them & then they 'will' repent & believe.  So here what we've got then.  God commands us to repent & believe & then gives His Elect the ability to repent & believe, so they repent & believe & then He saves them because they repented & believed.  Wow!  So for the 'rest of us', it just doesn't apply, right?  (in the dictionary under the word 'redundancy', it says 'see Calvinism')

If Calvinism is true, then why would you have any children?  You know that the vast majority of humanity is doomed to hell and you know that there's no guarantee that your child will be one of God's elect.  In fact, the odds are against it.  But even if the odds were 50/50, would you still have a kid?  How about 75/25 in your favor?  How about 90/10?  How about 99/1?  In every case, I wouldn't.  If you would, let me ask you something.  What kind of a sick ass bastard are you?  Look, if I came to you & said 'if you have a child, that child will be raped & tortured at the age of 13 & finally killed', you wouldn't still have that child would you?  You'd be a total jerk if you did and if that child was me and I could stop you from having me, I most definitely would, yet you're willing to 'roll dice' on your child's ETERNAL FUTURE of possibly being BURNED ALIVE IN A LITERAL LAKE OF FIRE FOR ALL FREAKING ETERNITY.  Let me ask it again, because with you Calvinists, it's hard to get through to you.

WHAT KIND OF A SICK ASS BASTARD ARE YOU?  If you don't like my language, I really don't care.  Compared to burning someone alive in a lake of fire, my language is child's play and the fact that you're offended by such, yet not offended by the 'belief' that the unsaved will be burned alive in fire, is mind boggling to me.

Finally.  Calvinism is the following.  Fatalism, Bad News, Eliteism, Foolishness, Pointless, Hopeless, Meaningless, and Cruel.  I defy you to show me that it's not