Brief Review of "A Cultuish Side of Calvinism"

I recently finished reading A Cultish Side of Calvinism by Micah Coate. The research in this book is amazingly superficial. An honestly and responsibly written critique gives the other side fair representation from its own sources. In this case, Coate should present Calvinist theology from Calvinist sources in order to ensure that he presents it accurately and then follow this with sources supporting his critique, but he primarily makes heavy use of four authors opposed to Calvinism and very spotty use of Calvinist authors. He also consistently misrepresents Calvinism. One would get the impression from reading this book that Calvinists are evil secret agents who are deceptively infiltrating churches and who have little or no concern for the lost, but nothing could be further from the truth.

He does not provide serious exegesis of biblical texts. Usually he just quotes them, assumes his interpretation, and moves on with no meaningful critique of Calvinist interpretations and no counter-exegesis. The closest he comes to seriously engaging the biblical text is his chapter on Romans 9 which is disjointed, inconsistent, and seriously eisegetical.

His comparisons with cults are forced and artificial. His review of John Calvin uses very poor research based on secondary sources. His accusations against Calvinists are straw men. Many accusations are hypocritical, and many are truly libelous.

Listen to James White's rebuttal for a helpful and thorough commentary on this book:

1. 8/18/11 #1
2. 8/18/11 #2
3. 8/19/11
4. 8/21/11
5. 8/23/11
6. 8/26/11

This is a preliminary review. I hope to follow this post with more in depth critiques.