IS THE GOSPEL REALLY "GOOD NEWS?"

 If you were to go back to yesteryear, a yesteryear a long time ago, back to the ancient Greeks, they didn't use the word "gospel" in the technical sense we do today to mean the good news about salvation. No, they used it in reference to the good news of a military victory for example. Only with the coming of Christianity and subsequent centuries did the word take on the meaning of good news about the coming of Christ. 

Spurgeon claimed, "Calvinism is the gospel, and nothing else."  Another wrote, "Calvinism is the Gospel and to teach Calvinism is in fact to preach the gospel." And there's someone else who wrote, "Calvinism is the Gospel. Its outstanding doctrines are simply he truths that make up the gospel." 

The question is, is the gospel of Calvinism "good news" since the very word means exactly that?

To examine this, let's look at a statement by John Calvin: "We call predestination God's eternal decree, by which He compacted with Himself what He willed to become of each man. For all are not created in equal condition; rather, eternal life is foreordained for some, eternal damnation for others. Therefore, as any man has been created to one or the other of these ends, we speak of him as predestined to life or death." 

This "compact with Himself" occurred way back in eternity past before the creation of man. Therefore, your destiny, everyone's future state, heaven or hell, was set in stone before anyone was born. Neither you nor anyone else have zero to say about going to heaven or hell. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. 

So, what's the answer to the question at hand:  

"The biblical gospel is the good news about what Jesus Christ has done on the cross respecting our sins. The gospel of Calvinism is likewise good news--but only if you are one of the 'elect' . . . to the non-elect, Calvinism is not good news at all--it is an eternal death sentence." (Lawrence M. Vance)

Is it any wonder that there is now a large number who are abandoning Calvinism and leaving Christianity altogether; that Calvinism is causing some to ask, "What kind of love is that?" others are brought to tears over such a God, more are saying, "I can't worship a God like that," and some to  become flat-out atheists?