After [teachers] Baraki and Caldeira angered parents by using an “anti-bullying” presentation to teach kids what it means to be gay or lesbian, they explained to conference attendees that “Next year, we’re going to do just a little mind-trick on our sixth graders.”

Members of California’s biggest teachers union plotted how to push LGBT politics on children and undermine concerns about their tactics from parents, principals, and communities, reveals leaked audio from an October conference of the California Teachers Association (CTA).
“Speakers went so far as to tout their surveillance of students’ Google searches, internet activity, and hallway conversations in order to target sixth graders for personal invitations to LGBTQ clubs, while actively concealing these clubs’ membership rolls from participants’ parents,” Abigail Shrier reported on Thursday.

Three people from the “2021 LGBTQ+ Issues Conference” in Palm Springs, Calif., titled “Beyond the Binary: Identity & Imagining Possibilities,” sent recordings to Shrier revealing the radical content of some of the workshops.

Multiple seminars at the conference encouraged hosting LGBT clubs for middle schoolers. An audio clip reveals teacher Lori Caldeira explaining why such clubs keep no rosters, noting, “Sometimes we don’t really want to keep records because if parents get upset that their kids are coming? We’re like, ‘Yeah, I don’t know. Maybe they came?’ You know, we would never want a kid to get in trouble for attending if their parents are upset.”
Caldeira has noted in a separate podcast appearance that, in the club she runs that includes other people’s prepubescent minors, “What happens in this room, stays in this room.”
At the CTA conference, Caldeira and another teacher, Kelly Baraki, led an additional seminar about “How we run a ‘GSA’ [Gay-Straight Alliance club] in Conservative Communities,” and discussed their strategies for how to “get the bodies in the door” and ensure kids keep coming back when “we saw our membership numbers start to decline.”
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All in all, the five points of Calvinism like the Five Solas recognize that God is the one who works salvation so only God deserves glory for every aspect of it.  God is the one who predestined all of the elect before time began apart from any merit of our own.  Jesus Christ’s atoning work purchased salvation for all of the elect.  The Holy Spirit works in the elect so that they desire to repent and believe such that God’s grace is irresistible.  And God will cause all of the elect to persevere to the end.

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us….For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
-Romans 8:28-34,38-39, ESV
Last time, we began to discuss the distinctives of Reformed theology with the Five Solas that represent the core reasons Protestants had to break away from Roman Catholicism.  John Calvin expanded on this, so this time will focus on the distinctive of most Calvinists, the five points of Calvinism: total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints.
Calvin and Arminius
As the Reformation spread, various positions began to form on the finer points of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.  One of the foremost second-generation Reformers was John Calvin, who articulated a complete theology in one of the great works of church history: Institutes of the Christian Religion.  His work was is foundational to what we now call Reformed theology, but he is best known for how his followers responded to a strong opponent regarding salvation.  Jacobus Arminius disagreed with Calvin’s view of predestination—that God determines who will receive salvation.[1]  His followers believed in the total depravity of man, but they also believed in conditional election based on faith in Christ, unlimited atonement (Christ died for all people not just the elect), that God’s grace was resistible (people can reject it), and conditional perseverance of the saints (a person had to remain in Christ in order to be truly saved).[2]  In response to these five articles, Calvinists laid out what we now know as the Five Points of Calvinism.  John Piper explains them in his book Five Points.
Total Depravity
The first point of Calvinism is one with which true Arminians would largely agree: that all people are totally depraved.  This does not mean that every person acts in as depraved a manner as possible but that our natural condition is depraved.  John Piper describes it this way: “The totality of that depravity is clearly not that man does as much evil as he could do. There is no doubt that man could perform more evil acts toward his fellow man than he does. But if he is restrained from performing more evil acts by motives that are not owing to his glad submission to God, then even his “virtue” is evil in the sight of God”.[3]  Arminians and Calvinists can agree on this because it is so clear throughout Scripture.  All have sinned (Romans 3:23) so there is no such thing as a righteous person who seeks after God (Romans 3:10-11 cf. Psalm 14:1-3, 53:1-3).  Even our “good” is so polluted by sin that it is unacceptable (Isaiah 64:6).  Plus, sin includes anything not done in faith (Romans 14:23), any good we fail to do (James 4:17), and any impure thoughts or motives, so we sin incessantly.  We are dead in sin apart from Christ, unable to do anything to save ourselves (Ephesians 2:1-3).
Despite the clarity and prevalence of human depravity in Scripture, our society largely denies it.  Most Western churchgoers today would say that people are basically good and any evil is largely due to circumstances.  Critical theory, socialism, cultural Marxism, and the like are built on this error.  Any church that ascribes to these has therefore followed Rome into the error of glorifying human teaching over Scripture.  But even it we officially agree with total depravity, we still significantly downplay our sin and cannot fathom that we deserve hell along with everyone else.  But when we honestly consider our vast sin in thought, word, deed, motive, action, and inaction, we should be cured of that error.  We are far worse than we think we are, so we should all say with Paul: “wretched man that I am, who will delivery me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24).
Unconditional Election
Where Arminians and Calvinists begin to differ is on how God elects those He saves.  Scripture is clear that God chose those He saves in eternity past (Ephesians 1:4, 2 Timothy 1:9), but what does that mean?  Arminians would say that God foreknew all who would trust in Christ and elected to save those people, so election is conditional.  But those God foreknew are the ones who receive salvation: “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 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 8:29-30).  This passage is the most complete form of the ordo salutis (order of salvation) in Scripture, explicitly listing God’s foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification, and glorification while alluding to adoption and sanctification.  This only happens for believers, so foreknowledge can only refer to those God has chosen for salvation.  Predestination then is not God knowing who would choose Him and then choosing them but God choosing who He would save before even creating them (Ephesians 1:5,11).  This election is completely independent of anything we do.  Total depravity means we cannot choose God unless He first chooses us.  God made His choice before time began, and any choice we make is a result of that choice:
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At its heart, Pride Month is a month of deception. LGBT activists are deceiving people into believing pride is a virtue, that sexuality determines identity, and that LGBT activities are family friendly. There is nothing further from the truth. Only Jesus can give identity, direction, and purpose to a world of sexual confusion. 

We’re approaching the final week of ‘Pride Month’ — a growing shibboleth of our secular age. Corporate firms are one-upping each another to virtue signal how woke and inclusive they are. Retail stores are parading the rainbow flag to boost sales.
From a Biblical perspective, there are remarkable parallels between Pride Month and idol worship under King Nebuchadnezzar II. Just as the Babylonians were mandated to worship the golden image, LGBT activists demand that we pledge allegiance to the rainbow flag. While the stakes aren’t as high as they were under Nebuchadnezzar, there are real risks involved in refusing to bow the knee.
If my suspicion is correct, most Australians are not particularly concerned about Pride Month. In fact, many are beginning to feel uncomfortable with how politicised and intolerant the LGBT movement has become. In response, many people have flocked to culture warriors like Jordan Peterson for answers.
While figures like Peterson are insightful and worth listening to, their answers are ultimately psychological rather than spiritual. They don’t acknowledge that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the only truth that sets people free. It is only the grace of God in the person and work of Jesus that gives answers and hope to a world lost in sexual confusion.
What follows are three of the lies paraded during Pride Month, along with the gospel answers Jesus provides.

Sexuality = Identity

Pride Month declares that you can find your identity by looking inward. It is proclaimed that you can discover your identity by exploring your sexuality. The modern self is defined by sexuality. This explains the insistence within the LGBT movement of identifying people as ‘gay,’ ‘trans,’ ‘lesbian,’ and so on.
The great tragedy in such thinking is its reductionism. It shrinks a person from being an intelligently designed, unique, and beautiful image-bearer of God to the mere product of sexual instincts (cf. Gen. 2:17). Is there anything more animalistic than reducing a person to the sum of their sexual desires?
Contrary to Pride Month, our identity is not self-generated; it is given to us by our Maker. The Bible makes clear that humans were created to magnify the glory, beauty, and majesty of our Creator. Indeed, there is no other creation in the universe that was made imago dei. Furthermore, the good news of the gospel liberates us to find our identity in Jesus Christ.
Furthermore, as the Westminster Confession of Faith 15.5 states, Biblical repentance is for specific sins. In an age when national repentance is used as a smokescreen for our own guilt, we must face the reality of our rebellion against the Creator. We must name our sins, yet not be named by them. This is especially relevant in a time when identifying some believers as ‘gay Christians’ has become commonplace.
There is nothing more enslaving to a child of God than to identify them by their sin. Any adjective placed before ‘Christian’ — whether it be ‘same-sex attracted,’ ‘anxious,’ or ‘adulterous’ — enslaves a believer and legitimises their sin. It denies their identity as a child of God, freed from the bondage of passions.
There is nothing more liberating than for a Christian to know their sin has been dealt with fully and completely. To be a Christian is to have one’s life hidden with Christ in God, and to be defined not by our sin, but by His perfection and glory (Col. 3:3).

Pride = Virtue

Arguably the chief lie of Pride Month is that pride is something to be celebrated. According to God, pride is a vice to be restrained. Pride is not something to be paraded; it’s the parent of all other sins. It’s the cesspool from which all other wickedness flows (Gen. 3:6). Pride not only destroys a person’s relationship with God; it ultimately consumes the person themselves (Prov. 16:18).
In Mere Christianity, CS Lewis wrote this of pride:
“It was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the completely anti-God state of mind” (Book III, 8.)
Puritan Jonathan Edwards spoke of pride in these terms:
“Pride is a person having too high an opinion of himself. Pride is the first sin that ever entered into the universe, and the last sin that is rooted out.”
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