Beware of Calvin's "Tulip Sniffers"

In a recent sermon on YouTube, Pastor John Ricci warns us to watch out for the modern-day Pharisees who preach the philosophy of John Calvin instead of the simple gospel of grace. Pastor Ricci says:

“Is this a free grace gospel? ‘Follow Christ and be saved!’ Is that a free grace gospel? You better say no after all the preaching I've done....Salvation is free! We’ve lost the simplicity of the gospel! These people are being told that they don’t know [the truth], the promise is not enough, you got to live a life that what? Lines up. That’s MacArthur, that’s Piper, that’s Washer. That’s hyper-Calvinism. The problem is they sniff too many tulips! You know that TULIP theology? They’re a bunch of TULIP sniffers! They’re so stuck in TULIP, they can’t understand the what? Bible! When you get your nose stuck in some man’s philosophy of religion like Calvin, God closes what? The Book! So go around sniffin’ Calvin’s tulips, you won’t know what the Bible says. And that’s why they’re all messed up. We’ve lost the simplicity of the gospel today.”[1] 

The apostle Paul gives a similar warning in the Bible when he says, “Don’t let others spoil your faith and joy with their philosophies, their wrong and shallow answers built on men’s thoughts and ideas, instead of on what Christ has said” (Col. 2:8, The Living Bible).

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[1] Pastor John Ricci, “Assurance of Salvation: False Gospels” (November 1, 2013), Grace Christian Fellowship, YouTube video, https://youtu.be/KxDnhYJh1Uc (time stamp: 37:50 minutes - 50:57 minutes). Editor's note: The link to the YouTube video has been updated since the time when I first wrote this article. The link that I had originally used was from a video posted on Onorato Diamante's Good Hope channel, the video was titled: "Free Grace Preacher vs. Modern Day Pharisees" (June 14, 2022). This is why I said at the beginning of the article: "In a recent sermon on YouTube". I was referring to the video posted on the Good Hope channel from June 14, 2022.