The Berean Call Podcast · Dave Hunt & T.A. McMahon

Calvinism vs. Catholicism? (Part 1)

October 4, 2025·25 min·2 clips

Tom McMahon and Jim McCarthy begin a two-part series examining Calvinism's 500-year impact on Christianity.

Calvinism gets a careful, unsettled hearing. Tom opens with a theology that has about 500 years behind it, starting with John Calvin and the writings tied to his name. Jim McCarthy is there as the guide, and his Roman Catholic background is part of why the conversation has some weight. Tom has that background too, including extended family ties to priests and nuns. They begin with biography and books. Tom praises Jim's work on Catholicism from a biblical perspective, then shifts to Calvinism as a system that needs to be defined before anyone critiques it. TULIP gives them the frame. The excerpt moves into God's call, the inability to resist grace, and the perseverance expected of the elect. Tom asks plain questions. Jim answers in doctrinal chunks, and Tom keeps stopping to restate the point for listeners who know the terms only loosely. The part that bites is assurance. Perseverance of the saints can sound like eternal security at first, but in this discussion it works differently because final confidence is tied to persevering to the end of life. That does not sit well with Tom. He says he has Calvinist friends and family members who are intelligent, sincere, and apparently devoted to the Lord, so the objection is not personal. He just cannot make the system fit. Scripture stays as the measuring line. Tom points listeners to books with competing perspectives, including work involving Dave and Calvinist apologist James White, but he keeps steering the episode away from a simple contest of sides. The close lands on simplicity: Tom thinks Calvinism makes the gospel harder to recognize than the one he says he knows from Scripture.

As heard by us

A careful first pass at Calvinism that keeps the focus on doctrine, Scripture, and the limits of certainty.

Tom McMahon opens a two part discussion of Calvinism with Jim McCarthy, and the personal edge comes through because both men speak from Roman Catholic backgrounds.

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Why you'd press play

You want a calm Calvinism primer that still presses the hard doctrinal questions.

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