Christians get into endless debates about free will, predestination, and once-saved-always-saved, get lost in the complexity of it all, and don’t even see the 800 pound gorilla sitting in the room.
I feel a need to expose one of the most insidious heresies to ever infect the Christian church. Though I have strong words to write about this doctrine I have nothing but love for my Baptist, Presbyterian and other brothers in Christ in the churches of the Reformed tradition. In fact, I may be teaming up with some to oversee a local body of believers in my own town. I don’t bring this burden to divide the body of Christ, but to provide a bulwark against yet another wind of doctrine that has blown through the Christian church and has stuck in some quarters, this quarter being about 80 million strong, about 10% of those who consider themselves to be Christian.
One reason this doctrine has flourished in some parts is because it’s complicated. With complicated doctrines many adherents on both sides of the debate get sidetracked and never really deal with what needs to be dealt with. Christians get into endless debates about free will, predestination, and once-saved-always-saved, get lost in the complexity of it all, and don’t even see the 800 pound gorilla sitting in the room. Calvinists spend their time trying to figure out if they are 5 point or 4 point Calvinists, as if there is any real difference, and don’t even consider the kind of God they have created.
Right here before we get past the first page I want to lay it out as clearly, succinctly, and simply as possible:
What Do Calvinists Believe?
Calvinism teaches that before any humans were born, God picked out which of us would spend eternity with Him and which ones would end up in eternal conscious torment.
That’s about as clear as I can make it. Calvinists will word it like this (taken from the Acts 29 Network doctrinal statement):
God chose us (to be saved) not on the basis of foreseen faith but unconditionally, according to his sovereign good pleasure and will.
If you’re up on this topic you can see some of TULIP in that statement and recognize this is the conclusion to the doctrine.
In other words, if anyone ends up suffering for eternity it is because God chose him for that. This is what Calvinists mean by “predestination.” If a person accepts the Gospel and gets saved it’s because that was God’s eternal purpose for him and divinely enabled him to accept the Gospel and get saved. Without that divine intervention in his heart he would never have had faith in Christ. If he doesn’t hear the Gospel, or if he does hear it and rejects it, that’s because that was God’s eternal purpose for him. He was created for God’s good pleasure and his good pleasure is to have him or her suffer for ever and ever and ever, with no end. Ever.
To sum things up, and this is the point that gets lost in all the debating about free will and losing one’s salvation:
This is Why Calvinism is Wrong: It Makes God Out to be an Evil, Sadistic Monster
We could stop right here because this is all the information we need to reject this doctrine. Any doctrine that makes God out to be something that he isn’t, in fact makes God out to be the opposite of what he actually is, can be and should be rejected on that basis alone. End of debate. We can all call it a day and be done with this. Nothing more needs to be said.
But of course more we shall say.
It doesn’t matter if you believe in free will or not. It doesn’t matter if you believe in predestination or not. It doesn’t even really matter if you think you have scriptures to support what you believe or don’t.
My dear Calvinist friends please consider: If the result of your doctrine is that God is an evil, sadistic monster, then there is something wrong with your doctrine.
You may think you have scriptures to support Calvinism but it should be apparent that your interpretations of said scriptures are wrong, terribly wrong, and you shouldn’t be working so hard at defending your doctrine. What you should be working hard at is finding a way to interpret those scriptures in such a way that is consistent with the idea that God is a God of love, justice, and yes even wrath, not someone who creates people for his good pleasure and his good pleasure is to see them tormented for ever and ever and ever with no end and no mercy, as if that is somehow what a God of justice and wrath would actually do.
If you are not willing to consider that your interpretation of scripture is wrong, you have no business teaching the Word of God to anyone else. If you are a pastor you should step down from your ministry.
The End of the Debate for Some Calvinists: You Can’t Question God
If you are not a Calvinist you may wonder why this doctrine has gained such wide spread popularity. Like I said before, it gets complicated, and according to them I can’t even raise the issue and question their doctrine. They quote the verses in Romans 9 about how God created some for glory and others for destruction:
But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?'” Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use? What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath– prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory–even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?
This verse does indeed imply God has created some for destruction, but what does Paul mean by that? Who is he talking about and what kind of destruction is he talking about? We need to understand what Paul meant by that and not take it out of context to use it to support an insidious doctrine that makes God out to be a cruel, sadistic monster, something Paul would never have done. Paul was talking about God bringing the plagues on the Egyptians and hardening Pharaoh’s heart so he would chase the Israelites out of Egypt. That was a seminal moment in Israel’s history and if you follow Paul’s line of thinking (not always an easy chore), you will see that he is saying to the Jews that just as the Egyptians had no “right” to complain to God for being a part of God’s plan by being the ones to receive the plagues, the Jews have no right to complain that God’s blessings are now going to the Christians and has left the nation of Israel, who, by the way, were about to be destroyed by the Roman army in 70 AD.
First it was the Egyptians who would have been asking, “Why have you made me like this?” and then it was Israel’s turn. The destruction spoken of was physical and temporal, not spiritual and eternal.
Calvinists will judge me, and you if you agree with me, as ones whose carnal minds God has not illuminated to be able to embrace the glories of their “gospel”. To them I am one of those whom God has hardened, or at least left in my natural state and I have no business even asking questions like this, branding me as the same clay that cries out to the potter, “Why have you made me like this?”
To a Calvinist, this is the end of the debate. No one has the right to question God. Nothing more needs to be said. Call it a day and go home. Some will even go so far as to say that since I do not believe their “gospel,” as they define it, i.e., I am not a Calvinist, I am not of the elect and my end will be eternal hellfire. And if you, like most of the Christian church, are not a Calvinist, you will end up there too.
Not all Calvinists are that legalistic to think that only Calvinists are saved but it’s not hard to see why some do since it’s easy to see how one can confuse the Gospel with a person’s doctrine about the Gospel. They errantly reason that if you don’t believe a person gets saved the way they believe a person gets saved then you don’t believe the Gospel and thus can’t possibly be saved. We’ve also seen this with Catholics who don’t believe Protestants are saved because we don’t include works as necessary for salvation. Conversely we see this type of legalism with some Protestants who don’t believe a Catholic can be saved if that Catholic believes works must be added to faith in order to be saved. We see it again here with some Calvinists who won’t accept faith in Christ as sufficient for salvation. As you might suspect there are non-Calvinists who don’t believe some Calvinist can be saved because some Calvinists add to faith in Christ a particular doctrine about salvation that must be understood and believed in order to be saved. Thus in their minds the Calvinist has a false gospel and how can anyone get saved through a false gospel, they might argue.
Sometimes I think the Catholics are right: Protestants left unsupervised just create a mess and don’t clean up after themselves.
I agree that Calvinists have a false gospel but right in the middle of their message is a message of faith in Christ which does exactly that, leads to a faith in Christ. I think God is good with that. Amen anybody?
Let’s get back to the problem raised by Romans 9. We are not the clay questioning God, we are mature men and women of integrity questioning the Calvinist’s doctrine about God. Can you see the distinction? Many Calvinists can’t and that’s why they are still Calvinists.
Other Calvinists are able to see the distinction between questioning God and questioning their doctrine of God but have been led to believe the tenants of Calvinism are biblical so have no option but to accept the conclusion that God created millions to suffer in hell forever, no matter how unsettling a proposition that may be.
Dear Calvinist, if your understanding of theology leads you to a conclusion that doesn’t sit well with you, have you considered this is the Holy Spirit gently speaking to you? Is your heart soft enough to act accordingly? There is another option, and millions of your brethren have found it. This other option is fully consistent with the idea that God is good, that he is a Father, that he is love, and that he is just, holy and a God of wrath. It does not do violence to what Jesus and his apostles taught us about God and what we as Christians know of God, as does the doctrine of Calvinism.
This leads to a second reason Calvinists are trapped in Calvinism:
The End of the Debate for Some Other Calvinists: Spiritual People Accept Hard Doctrines
If you think I’m implying there’s a bit of spiritual pride involved you would be correct. The line of reasoning goes like this: God says some things that are hard to swallow, but the spiritual swallow them nevertheless. If you don’t accept God’s hard sayings, you are like the multitude that left Jesus after he told them they must eat his flesh and drink his blood. A spiritual person, one who loves God with all of his heart and all of his mind, one who loves truth and is willing to have his human understanding enlightened by the Holy Spirit, will accept biblical teaching, no matter how hard it is to accept.
To that I agree. The problem is, we must first determine what is biblical. I submit that a doctrine that makes God out to be an evil, sadistic monster is not a biblical doctrine to begin with. How could it be? Instead of feeling spiritual for accepting a doctrine that is, to put it mildly, uncomfortable, we should actually be spiritual and examine it closely and critically. To do any less does not show a genuine love for God and truth, in my not-so-humble opinion.
If you can’t see what the big deal is and can’t see why a Christian would be unsettled with the proposition that God created for his “good pleasure” people to suffer for eternity then there is a problem. All I can say to you is don’t be afraid to think about it. God honors honest questioning. Spiritual people don’t take difficult issues and sweep them under the rug.
Making God a Moral Monster – An Unnecessary Stumbling Stone
Calvinism is a spiritually damaging doctrine because it causes people to lose faith in Christ because at some point they think, “If that’s the Christian God, I don’t want to have anything to do with it.”
This won’t concern many Calvinists, and this is part of the problem, since they believe a person who loses his faith in Christ never really had it to begin with and if his end is eternal suffering that was God’s choice and it doesn’t really matter how he got there. A Calvinist can teach the Word of God any way he wants with impunity. Or so he thinks.
All this of course assumes Calvinism is true to begin with. To a Calvinist, he’s just preaching the hard truth. Those whom God has not included in the elect and has not softened their sinful hearts to receive the truth won’t receive the truth. That’s just the way it is. Que sera, sera.
If that’s you have you ever stopped for one moment and wondered if maybe you got your interpretation of scripture right? That would be hard to do because if the answer is no then you might be implicated for causing someone to stumble and lose faith after portraying God as something other than what he really is.
Who has enough integrity to even allow their minds to wander down that path and squarely deal with the implications of being wrong and causing others to stumble and end up in hell forever?
How about you? Are you willing to seriously question your own beloved doctrine? Or is your doctrine always going to be a Sacred Cow wandering the streets of Calcutta that must not be touched, much less slaughtered to help feed the starving Indians?
The False Rest and Comfort of Election
Many people who entertain the idea that a person’s salvation depends on God’s election and not on one’s own response to the Gospel find comfort in thinking they are saved and thus can never lose their salvation. That’s all well and good if they don’t think about it much beyond that. What about all the people who thought they were Christians but end up at some point in their lives rejecting the Christian faith? There are only two possibilities for them in the Calvinistic scheme of things: either they never were part of the elect but just thought they were or if they were part of the elect they never really lost their faith no matter how negative toward Christ they may have gotten. Either way we don’t really know who is elect and who isn’t. When a Calvinist, or someone entertaining the idea of election per the Calvinistic understanding, thinks about this a little deeper he will inevitably conclude that he doesn’t know if he’s of the elect any better than the millions who also thought they were of the elect but ended up in Hell forever. He will then have to face the reality that there is no real comfort in being a Calvinist trying to rest on God’s saving grace because he can never really know if he has it to begin with. If he has any humility he will realize he’s just as susceptible to being wrong about his state of salvation as the next guy who was a strong Christian but ended up denying Christ later in life. There really is no rest for a Calvinist and those holding out a false hope need to think about what they are saying before leading another soul down that path.
As for me, I rest in God. I’ve never worried about my salvation or ever had a need for reassurance. I know the admonitions to stay faithful to the end have real meaning and aren’t hard because God is on my side. Nothing will come along and pluck me out of God’s hand. I’m secure, eternally. Yet I can reject God and his Savior at any time I want to. And suffer the consequences. It really is my choice, not God’s. I am not predestined to salvation, I am predestined to what comes after my salvation. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son. That’s a verbatim quote of Romans 8:29. That image of his Son is the goal of our Christian life, according to 2 Corinthians 3:18: “We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” That’s our destination, determined beforehand at the foundation of the world.
Once we are saved, God has a choice as to what to do with us. His choices were: A) conform us to the image of Christ, or B) conform us to the image of something else, or C) not conform us to anything. His choice was A, conform us to the image of Christ, according to Romans 8:29. That is to what we are predestined, not salvation. The Gospel is not about who was predestined, but to what we are predestined. Those who are predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ are the New Covenant elect of God.
The Doctrine of Total Depravity Requires Total Scrutiny
For the sake of brevity I’m not going to go into a full-blown disputation of TULIP but for those who aren’t familiar with it I’ll briefly go into it. TULIP is a popularly used and useful acronym to describe the Calvinist’s doctrine of predestination. TULIP stands for:
T – Total Depravity
U – Unconditional Election
L – Limited Atonement
I – Irresistible Grace
P – Perseverance of the Saints
John Piper makes it even easier to understand by putting this in the order we experience it and thus the acronym becomes TILUP:
1. We experience first our (Total) Depravity and need of salvation.
2. Then we experience the Irresistible Grace of God leading us toward faith.
3. Then we trust the sufficiency of the atoning death of Christ for our sins (Limited to only those whom God chose to be saved).
4. Then we discover that behind the work of God to atone for our sins and bring us to faith was the Unconditional Election of God.
5. And finally we rest in his electing grace to give us the strength and will to Persevere to the end in faith.
In either scenario the first step is the same and from this understanding everything else in the Calvinistic system follows. The doctrine of Total Depravity says that due to the sin nature that we are born with man is incapable of hearing the Gospel and responding to it in a positive manner, i.e., respond in faith and trust God for our salvation through his Son Christ Jesus. Without God first making us able to have faith in Christ, after having chosen us to such a grace (and conversely, not choosing the others), we would never have faith in Christ.
If you believe in Total Depravity there is only one logical conclusion: if you are saved God chose you to be saved because without that predestination, election, and then at some point in your life reformation of your heart, you will reject God every time you hear the Gospel.
If this sounds to you that in the final analysis human free will is eliminated you would be correct since God must control the will to get you saved and without such control you will not get saved.
But again that’s a side issue and to a Calvinist it doesn’t matter anyway. Discussions about it never get resolved. Though they might consider it a great song by Rush, Free Will is to them your issue and your problem, not theirs.
So how do we get past Total Depravity so we don’t end up making God a monster?
The vast majority of false doctrines can be boiled down to the same problem with logic that a skilled debater will do his best to expose: the argument is a Non Sequitur, that is, it does not follow. In other words, the doctrine doesn’t follow from the scriptures used to teach the doctrine. To put it even more simply, the bible doesn’t teach what they say it teaches.
That sounds simple and if it were actually that simple this doctrine wouldn’t be so popular but as usual the devil is in the details. Look at any list of scriptures used to “prove” Total Depravity and ask yourself if those scriptures are really saying man is incapable of having faith in Christ apart from God picking him out ahead of time and giving him the ability to believe the Gospel. They may say something close to that, but close is only good enough for horseshoes and hand grenades. It isn’t good enough if we want to prove a doctrine which ends up making God out to be a monster. When the stakes are this high we should demand scriptures that say exactly what the doctrine says is says. Nothing less will do. We should walk carefully, very carefully.
The Church’s Achilles Heel: Pride of Literalism
Catholics take pride in taking Jesus literally when he said to the disciples they must eat his flesh and drink his blood. Evangelicals take pride in taking the Genesis account of the seven days of creation literally no matter how convincing the evidence for an old earth. Before about 1500 AD almost everybody thought the sun went around the earth due to a literal interpretation of scriptures and took great pride in believing so when challenged by astronomers. A God-said-it-I-believe-it-that-settles-it attitude has been pervasive in the church and kept Christians from considering the possibility that they are taking some scriptures too literally, that is, the author never intended them to be taken literally in the first place.
The rather incriminating language in Romans 3:10-18 is often cited to support Total Depravity:
As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
If your mom is unsaved, does this description fit her? Does it fit anyone you know? If this was meant to be taken literally and is literally true about all men who have not been regenerated by the Holy Spirit then the human race should have become extinct long ago since “their feet are swift to shed blood.” If all the rest were meant to be a literal description of mankind I think I would want to be a hermit living as far away from other people as possible. I hear you can homestead in the wilds of Alaska – maybe we should all stake our ground a dozen mountain ranges away from the nearest town. No, wait, you can’t come with me, I’m trying to get away from people like you.
A favorite maxim of literalists is to take scriptures literally when at all possible. This isn’t one of those times. Taking this passage literally leads to ridiculous conclusions.
Paul wasn’t quoting this Old Testament passage to teach Total Depravity. What Paul is saying is that Jews are no better than the Gentiles and quotes these verses to keep the Jews who are still under the Law from being proud and arrogant. The verses immediately before and after these verses (9 & 19) give the context: “What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin . . . Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may become accountable to God.”
Paul is quoting Old Testament hyperbolic statements to illustrate a point, that all men are sinners. The scriptures are full of hyperbole, exaggeration for effect. If we are going to take this passage literally we might as well be consistent and take them all literally, including the one that says we should gouge our eyes out if our eyes cause us to sin.
To use this passage from Romans and others to teach Total Depravity is just plain sloppy exegesis. It’s not even exegesis at all, it’s eisegesis, reading our interpretation into scripture rather than discovering what scripture has to say to us.
Pitting Scripture Against Scripture – Both Sides Are Wrong
Quite often discussions about theological issues boil down to one side pulling out their list of scriptures proving their doctrine and the other side pulling out their list of scriptures proving a contrary doctrine. Whoever has the longest list wins. This approach to theology is faulty to the core. We should not be pitting scripture against scripture but be doing our best to harmonize all of the scriptures that deal with any given topic. If we have a theology that seems to ignore the scriptures used by those who oppose our doctrine then we have not done our job and we are not being honest with the Word. We can’t possibly be “rightly dividing” the Word if we can’t harmonize all of the Word.
If the bible has one author then we can rightly assume it will be self-consistent and not be self-contradictory. Whenever we find ourselves thinking two scriptures seem to contradict each other then that’s a sure sign we aren’t correctly interpreting one or both of them. Isn’t that what we say to the atheists who want to disprove divine authorship by pointing out what they think are contradictions in the bible?
It doesn’t matter if one side appears to have more scriptures or “stronger” scriptures on their side. He hasn’t done his homework and the Holy Spirit hasn’t taught him the truth on the matter.
An Appeal for Unity – God’s Way
This wasn’t meant to be a refutation of Calvinism, though you’ve been given plenty enough reason to flee it like the plague. This was meant to begin the discussion with the point that gets lost in all the debate and complexity of the issue and frankly many people are afraid to even think about it much less discuss it.
Refuting Calvinism would require showing why all the scriptures used to teach it don’t teach it and then introducing the scriptures that refute it. And that’s just for starters. We also need to ask the right questions. I’ve often said 90% of theology is asking the right questions. Here’s a couple: are we predestined to salvation or to a blessing once saved? Since election is defined as “picking ahead of time,” is it God picking who will be saved or what the nature of that salvation and blessing will be? The nation of Israel was called God’s elect and they obviously weren’t saved. What does that tell you?
Though I have strong words regarding this doctrine I don’t believe those who teach it should be branded as heretics, though biblically speaking a heretic is one who causes division and this doctrine has certainly caused a lot of division in the Body of Christ. The older I get and the longer I study theology, which is pushing 40 years with 6 of those years in full-time, intensive bible study, the more grace I have for those who have been caught up in the numerous false doctrines that have blown through the church and have their very intelligent and educated proponents who are just trying to be faithful with what God has provided us to guide us in His ways.
I’ve often said if God really expects us to have doctrinal unity he would have either provided us with a much thinner book or he would have provided an infallible interpreter for the rather thick book that we have. If he has done the latter then we need to determine which of the cults that claims to be God’s channel for infallible truth is actually that. So far in my analysis none have a valid claim though the Mormons, the Watchtower Society, and the Roman Catholic Church sure have convinced a lot of people they are it.
That being said we are adjured by Paul to “speak the same things” which tells me that the Holy Spirit does have doctrinal unity as a goal and we need to be on the path with other Christians to get to that point, but we need to do it God’s way, not man’s way.
Man’s way to produce “unity” is to ostracize anyone who doesn’t agree. That can take a rather overt form such as the Catholic Church burning at the stake anyone who dares to teach anything different than what it teaches or it can take a more subtle form when churches and para-church organizations make you sign a doctrinal statement in order to be a member.
At the other extreme are those who say you can believe what you want, it doesn’t really matter one way or the other. Just love each other and if we do that then that’s all that matters. Never mind the fact that false doctrine leads to bondage and to truly love each other we would want our brethren to be set free by the truth.
God’s way to produce genuine doctrinal unity requires maturity. It requires having enough faith in the working of the Holy Spirit that we allow people of all theological persuasions to be able to express what they feel is the truth. It requires humility to understand that the person on the other side of the theological fence may have something to teach us if we just open our hearts and minds enough to find out what it is. Genuine unity requires a lot of work and is a long process, much more work than the easy methods employed by much of the church. And finally genuine doctrinal unity requires the grace for others that comes from realizing that if it weren’t for the grace of God in our own lives providing us with truth through books, articles, teachers, our own study of the scriptures and the aid of the Holy Spirit, we would be just as blown about by the winds of doctrine as those we are trying to help.
Our God is a God of love and justice. That much we can agree on. What that actually means and how we actually portray God we need to work on, for God’s sake.
Your Brother in Christ,
Kirby Hopper
Kennewick, WA USA
April 4, 2014
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I appreciated your thots here. While I have for many years had friends of the Reformed tradition, I have only recently come to the realization what a bizarre basis this theological framework has. Your article helped solidify further for me what is the main problem with Calvinism and particularly helpful to me was your showing how Total Depravity is the foundation for the entire Calvinist doctrine, and the foundation for how they view God.
God bless!
Thank you Abigail. I agree Total Depravity is a bizarre basis for Calvinism especially when you consider how easy it is to understand their “proof texts” differently than “no man is capable of believing the Gospel without God first making him able.”
earlier, divine eltoeicn is certainly not an easy concept and it is one that has been argued over for centuries. I will not settle the matter here. There are some pretty good non-Calvinist explanations that seem logical and solid to me. One phrase that I’ve heard often is, Elect according to the foreknowledge of God. In other words, using your example above, God elected Joe to be saved in the sense that he knew in advance, from eternity past, that Joe would one day believe the gospel and thereby become saved. In no way do I support the Calvinist notion that God selects certain individuals to go to heaven and others to go to hell, and that there’s nothing that they can say or do about that. That’s not an all-loving God of the Bible. Rather than using the term foreknowledge, I prefer to say Elect according to the omniscience of God, since the latter term does not limit God’s all-knowing nature to future knowing [although foreknowledge is obviously one aspect of omniscience]. Out here in California, as I’m sure that you know, there is the annual Rose Parade on New Year’s Day in Pasadena. Suppose that you purchased a ticket for one of the bleacher seats at the parade. You would be able view each aspect of the parade from start to finish, each participant, one-by-one, for the entire two hours or so that the parade goes on. Picture in your mind, for a moment, however, that there is a Goodyear blimp flying high over the parade. Now, from the vantage point of the blimp’s pilot, he can see the entire parade going on from start to finish, simultaneously. He can see each and every flower-covered float; he sees each decked-out high-school band; he sees each contingent of ornate silver-covered horses with their riders onboard; he can even spot the guys with the shovels following behind the horses. Crude as any comparison to God must necessarily be, nonetheless, this does give to us a bit of a feel of how God resides in the eternal realm in which he can see all of the goings-on on earth, past, present and future, as the eternal NOW. He knows exactly who will reject and who will accept his gracious gift of salvation. In this sense, it can be said that God elects some to be saved. I’ll reprint a brief excerpt from a class that I taught on Ephesians 1 about a year ago: Are any of you troubled by the idea of eltoeicn/predestination? Don’t get hung up over the idea. Stay balanced. Free will is also taught clearly in Scripture by Jesus himself: Matthew 23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often have I longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. 2 Peter 3:9 says, The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance (there is NO double predestination). J. Vernon McGee explained it like this: Picture in your minds the entrance to heaven having above its doorway the phrase, Whosoever will may come.’ Then once you enter into heaven you turn around and read above the inside doorway, Chosen before the foundation of the world.’ With an infinite, omniscient, that is, an all-knowing God in charge of all of creation, there is no contradiction whatsoever.
I think you have a good explanation Megha though it’s not really an issue if we realize election is election to receive a blessing, not election to get saved. Israel was called God’s Elect, but they were not saved, as a whole. We are elect according to the foreknowledge of God, meaning, God chose to bless us – if we equate foreknowledge and predestination – which I think we can do.
“His choice was A, conform us to the image of Christ, according to Romans 8:29. That is to what we are predestined, not salvation.” I love this quote! It speaks about a journey and a process rather than a destination. I was curious about this article/post because I just today finished John Piper’s Bloodlines, which focuses on racism. I am no Calvinist, but I was moved and challenged by Piper’s humility and commitment to restoration/reconciliation regarding race. Theologically, Piper and myself differ greatly, but I think if we were to share a beer and conversation together we would find that we have more in common than not.
I suspect that would be the case Steve. Every church and theologian I have ever known of is a mixed bag of truth and error which is why I try harder to find the hidden pearls in other theologies these days as opposed to trying to find the faults like I tended to do in the past. That said, there are some things that are just too egregious to not deal with. For me, this one really gets my goad. The same for John Calvin. I’ve heard some who take issue with this theology say they’ve found some good stuff in some of his writings.
Kirby,
Thanks for your thoughtful engagement of a very complex issue. As a Calvinist, I can sympathize with the confusion. Unfortunately I think the doctrine of predestination can be oversimplified. Ultimately the issue comes down to the sovereignty of God. And with that you could have also pointed to the tension of why God allows evil to persist when he is in complete control. Wouldn’t that also make him an “Evil, Sadistic Monster” as you proposed? How do we reconcile with that? That’s not a question exclusively for Calvinists. That’s a question for Christians.
Scripture repeatedly reveals that no matter how bad things are, God is in control. He is sovereign. He is not gone. He’s not far off. He is in charge. No matter how chaotic everything is, he says, “I am still in charge!”
But what does that mean? What does it mean for God to be sovereign? Let me present the heart of the sovereignty of God (and, thus, the doctrine of predestination).
On the one hand, it means you can really mess up your life. Your decisions count. You’re responsible for them, and yet God says, “I have a plan, and I’m going to overrule all evil, all bad choices. I’m going to have my purposes for you and for the world fulfilled.”
This is what some theologians have called an antinomy. An antinomy is an apparent contradiction. It just looks like a contradiction.
God says, “I am completely in control. Everything that happens is only according to my will, AND YET every single person who is doing my will is responsible for what they do. Their choices count. They’re not puppets.” I think many people have a tendency to say, “If God is in control of everything, then we’re just puppets. We can’t help what we’re doing.” Or we think, “If my decisions count, then it’s possible for us to kind of mess up history and mess up God’s plan.”
What God is saying is, “You are absolutely free and responsible for your choices. At the same time, there are terrible things that are going to happen. Bad things are going to happen, and YET I’m overruling it all. I am in charge.”
Calvinists aren’t the only ones who have to wrestle with issues like this. Free will anabaptists do too. Predestination is not a type of ‘frozen-chosen’ gospel. It is a promise of God that he is always the first character in the story. As we read in scripture, “While we were STILL SINNERS Christ died for us.” It is only because of the reconciling work of Christ and the Holy Spirit that we have the capacity to receive it.
To me, the sovereignty of God and predestination are a means of hope and incredible grace. It’s a gleam of light in the darkness. He never leaves his throne. He is always there. He is always in control. The impetus is not on you to be perfect. The work of Christ is sufficient. And that should be a source of hope and comfort.
Cheers.
And yet Justin for those who end up suffering in hell forever (as you believe happens) there is no hope. That person never had a chance because God did not give that person a chance. Why is it you Calvinists only acknowledge the hope for the saved but ignore the lack of hope and despair for those who are not predestined for glory? I’m sorry, but that is not honest assessment but rather avoidance of truth. That is not a spiritually healthy approach. As for the sovereignty of God and the free will of man being an antinomy, I don’t think that it has to be. I think God CAN mold the heart of a man and still allow for his free will at the same time. He is very clever. The question is, DID HE? As I said in my article free will is not the problem, and you have demonstrated why it’s not a problem for a Calvinist because you have an explanation – one which I don’t necessarily disagree with. The issue is still the moral character of a God who would make a choice for anyone to suffer in hell forever. It doesn’t really matter if we can make that person culpable or not. What matters is if God is culpable and sovereignty makes him culpable for all that happens. Him allowing for temporal suffering may be a dis-pleasurable reality but it is only temporal, while hell is eternal, according to your way of thinking. If you do the math the difference has an order of magnitude that is – infinite. Think about it.
As someone who has seen truly evil people, some human beings are just empty vases, they will never get a flower. They were born empty and will die empty and that’s just that. Were any of the worst serial killers salvageable? Likely not. Just lumps of clay, that gained life, hurt people and became clay again. Calvinism can be a shock to those who aren’t ready to hear it. By the same token, Calvinism also allows a someone who’s never once heard the word of Christ still have a path to redemption, because God can do whatever he wants, and can even the score any which way. People who don’t like Calvinism just don’t like being in the passenger seat, but God will always be the better driver.
Great answer and better worded than I would have. Trying to equate temporal suffering the way Justin did shows somewhat a lack of understanding of eternal damnation!
Everyone……EVERYONE deserves hell! In God’s Mercy He chose people to salvation. Eph. 1:4
Can’t be any clearer than that. People like to use the case of Jacob and Esau…..and say that verse is talking about national salvation, not individual. The problem with that view is that nations are made up of INDIVIDUALS!
Deut. Chapter 7 and many other places…..God CHOSE Israel….what about all the other nations?
“It wasn’t fair…..” ?
Fair is we all go to hell as soon as we sin! We do NOT want fair…..we want MERCY!
The bible is clear on Election and Predestination……you are blinded by your traditions….as I also was!
Happy New year
DG
Yes, but who created man and caused him to have such an irresistible tendency to sin?
I fear you are back to making God a sadistic monster.
Yes, UCBH (Universal Condemnation Because Human), would be a great argument for Universal Acquittal, if UCBH were true. God is way too just to condemn the whole human race for what no man can avoid (sin). Even you fathers, being evil, do better than that with your children. How much more God?
Great post. I have a serious problem with believing that every human being is a debased murderer, going around killing people. Are your toddlers like that? I don’t think so. Babies are sinless until they sin, and we each have moment to moment opportunities to choose good or evil. To say unsaved people are incapable of choosing good is a flat out lie from the devil. Aborted babies don’t go to hell, either, as Calvinism teaches. We each have TENDENCY to sin, we are not dragging around the guilt of Adam.
The Calvinist will often tell us not to dwell on God’s eternally damning many people. Therefore, they only talk about the saved (elect). .I think deep down inside they know they would struggle with this.
Their God is unfair and plays favorites. If the Calvinist were to examine this closely, he would be
deep disturbed. It’s the same with the cults. They can’t go there, otherwise their whole theology/religion collapses and they see no other alternative.
Yes fear of being wrong paralyzes many. If people understood that it isn’t what we know that saves us but how we act I think people would be much more free to critically examine long-held traditional beliefs.
Kirby,
While I like your assessment of Calvinism, You sure have it wrong on Catholicism.
1. The Catholic Church does not say works are absolutely necessary for salvation. Babies don’t do any works, nor do they make an act of faith. Yet the Church says all Baptized babies go immediately to heaven if they die.
2. The Church is not one of the cults that says all non members go to hell.
3. As for burning at the stake, history shows Catholics were by far the recipients of stake, rack, gallows and drawing and quartering than the dispensers.
1. If you will read carefully, you will see that particular remark was not a criticism of the Catholic Church, but of those legalistic Catholics who believe Protestants are not saved because the Protestants don’t believe works are necessary for salvation. That said, I do believe it is official teaching of the Catholic Church that good deeds are necessary for adults to be saved. If the church makes an exception for babies, great, but how does that mean I “have it wrong on Catholicism”?
2. No, but it is one of the cults that says it is an infallible interpreter of God’s word and has used coercion to generate unity – such as burning heretics at the stake. That is what I said – I said nothing about all non-members going to hell.
3. That may be true (though I doubt it), but even if so it doesn’t some how justify the actions of your church. Why not just own up to what your church has done? Wouldn’t God be more glorified in that than in defending her heinous actions?
Hi, I hope it is not too late to reply to your comment.
1. The necessity of good works can be understood in two ways. If you mean that the Catholic Church teaches that adults must perform a certain number of good works, prayers, or whatever, in order to be saved, this is not the case. What the Church teaches is that one must avoid serious sin in order to be saved, although if one does sin, this can be forgiven in the sacrament of penance (confession) (cf. John 20:23).
2. What do you mean by a cult? The original meaning from the 1970s was applied to groups such as the Children of God, Unification Church (Moonies), etc., that practiced certain forms of psychological manipulation. The Catholic Church does nothing of the sort. It seems that you are redefining the term, but it’s not clear what you mean by it or why.
3. When Catholics physically persecuted other Christians that was common practice of the time. No one, I think, would try to justify it today. But it was unfortunately done by both Catholics and Protestants at the time.
I think we are trying to rationalise out things here that can’t be understood. Ultimately I stand on ultimate picture given of God, that he is sovereign, and his sovereignty is emphasised far more in the bible than free will. God will never be found to be unjust even if he does choose who to save or not save. One very good sermon I heard argued that since all were comdemned and deserved hell, if God wanted to save one and not the other, who can question God for this? Since both were condemned rightfully, none of them were deserving of pardon, but if God chose to pardon one, that is mercy. And mercy on those who are rightfully under comdemnation to hell is God’s right if he wants to do it. This does not make God a monster, for mercy is exempt from any kind of moral questioning. You can choose to have mercy on anyone you want, noone has a right to tell you who. When we come to heaven, we will see that God was completely just. But we will see something greater than justice-mercy. Mercy is unjust. I did not deserve a pardon. If i had gone to hell it would have been just. If someone else does not get a pardon and they go go hell, then that is just. So yes, mercy is unjust, hency we use the word “grace”, undeserved kindness. The ultimate destination of armenianism is in the exaltation of human free will, a precurser to atheism. Also the initial choosing of the person becomes a work of itself. They are saved by the merit of their choosing God and Jesus, rather than saved by the undeserved kindness and gift of God. One could also always boast that they chose God and Jesus. And this would always a cause for self-righteousness. When we go into rational micro-detailing problems will always emerge. But God does not conform to our rational thinking.
Calvinists and Arminianists can at least agree on one thing, that is, the majority of those whom God has created will end up in eternal torment. Calvinists are comfortable with God being responsible for that sad result and Arminianists are not. Arminianism is an attempt at interpreting the Bible in a way that relieves God of that responsibility. The question is, does assigning man “free will” really relieve God of the responsibility. I don’t believe it does. Whatever a free moral agent may do, He is responsible for it who made him a free moral agent. God, in His omniscience, would have known what each free moral agent would choose when He created them and that the majority would not choose Him, yet, He still chose to bring them into existence. From the beginning He knew the ending. God is the Creator of all things and the Architect of all things as they exist. If man really is a free moral agent then God’s choice to make man with a “free will” is the reason why billions of lives end in eternal torment. If, and I say if, the majority of God’s creation end up in eternal torment then maybe your god is a bad architect. The heresy you claim belongs to Calvinism belongs to Arminianism as well and that heresy is the belief in eternal torment. One is a god who eternally tortures those who can’t choose Him and the other tortures those who don’t choose Him. Either way the result is the same. Instead of debating the issue of “free will” I would encourage you to do a concordant study of eternal torment (hell). Our common versions have done a very poor job at translating words such as Tartarus, Hades, Sheol, Gehenna, eternal, everlasting, forever, forever and ever. May I leave you with a couple verses from the Apostle Paul who was given the responsibility of preaching the good news to the uncircumcision. And the good news is this:
” God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself” 2 Co 5
“The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Col 1:15-20
Redemption by Christ was no after thought but fully contemplated in God’s original plan “before the foundation of the world”. We know that redemption is creation, “for if any man be in Christ Jesus he is a new creation”. And this new creation is the originally contemplated completion of the old, according to God’s order, “first the natural, afterward that which is spiritual”. The new creation is just as much God’s work as the old as no one can recreate himself anymore than he could have created himself in the first place. The redemption of man is the completion of His creation, and depends for it’s final accomplishment on God and not on the individual.
The end for all of God’s creation both in heaven and earth is the reconciliation of all things by His blood shed on the cross.
For me it boils down to what does God want? God wants to dwell with men. That is a consistent theme of scripture. He desires a relationship with those created in his image. He wants the hearts of men like he said about David. He loves us, he desires that none would perish. How then could God realize his desire to dwell with us in a mutually loving relationship?
The answer is we must be made free agents like him. Yes God knew our choices would lead to death and destruction. That is the sad logical outcome when men are given a choice.
God has made his presence known in creation and some exchange this evidence for a lie.
God’s goal to dwell with us can only come about in two ways. He creates us as programmed automatons or as free creatures. The first makes God a monster the second reveals God as making the only decision that could achieve his desire.
God desires that none should perish and provided an escape from the the terrible consequences of choices.
Either he is a monster or a wise and loving God.
Calvinism causes division. I and my family have experienced that first hand. We were in a church for years when the “pastor” pushed calvinism to be the only right doctrine, everything else was heresy. After looking closely at calvinism we felt we had no choice but to leave. Many others came to the same conclusion as we had, at their own time. The saddest thing of all was the sense of condemnation that was heaped on anyone who wouldn’t accept calvinism. The sense of being a heretic of the first order went with you and the people who stayed all believe this since they were taught so often that belief in a free will is a man-centered gospel, etc etc etc. Catholicism was never criticized only “free will” evangelicals. It was like a plague that had entered the church and everyone was warned to stay away from churches and people who have been deceived to believe it. All to the glory of God, of course!
Sure it does…..Weeds out those with another Christ!
I consider Calvinism to be liberating. Everything is in God’s hands. God knows all, sees all, created all, and knows how all will end. As a matter of fact don’t you think God created Satan himself knowing exactly what he would do? God created evil as a useful counterpoint to show exactly what is good. Without counterpoints nothing can be learned. Without darkness, light can never be discerned.
As a Calvinist I can say that even a North Korean, or A Yemeni who hasn’t heard one word from the Gospel has the possibility to be saved through God’s sovereign grace. Is that a monster? Would a monster allow redemption of someone half way across the world simply because he pleases him?
Of course, the most important thing you stated was regarding free will, and how under Calvinism we’re automatons. I know first hand that free will is the free will to DO GOOD. Anyone can do bad, but it is God who blesses us first that we are even capable of doing good. I am in a profession where I am lied to every day. It’s part of my job. When you hear enough lies you realize that the person lying didn’t chose to lie to you. It was in his fallen nature to lie to you. He always would have lied to you. This is why I never get angry when I am lied to. I expect it. And if someone tells me the truth, I thank them. You can’t stop a liar from lying, you can only hope that an event happens in his life, through God, as all things are, makes him a better person to begin with, one who tells the truth.
One more thing. The very concept of free will automatically puts a scoreboard up in heaven that weighs our soul to our moral crimes. Does that not sound monstrous? If I do good works all my life, and in the end bitterly reject God for some life event, under the concept of free will I am damned. Under the concept of Calvinism it’s totally up to God, and his mercy, and he could very well accept me all the same simply because it pleases him. Does that sound monstrous?
The bottom line of Calvinism is that God is Sovereign. He does what he wants. If you don’t like it, or think it’s fair, that’s not God’s problem. See the Parable of the Vineyard. God pays all of our wages. God determines what is right simply because he is God. Once we embrace his true nature and majesty, then we can better concentrate on our earthly duties rather than distractions of the spiritual scoreboard that is free will.
Thank you, for your article Kirby! It’s an amazing thing, to sit in a church that is, of the Calvinist conviction.
They continuously say there are some, in here, that are saved, but a lot of you aren’t. It took a little while to figure things out, because they aren’t, so proudly telling you they are Calvinist. Then, you finally figure it out, it’s their gospel you are not believing in, so they think you are not saved.
Hi Kirby. For most of my Christian life I was a 4 point Arminian. Today I am a 5 point Calvinist. Based upon your arguments, I am guessing that your are a 5 point Arminian. Actually, I don’t like labels but over the history of the Church labels such as Arminian and Calvinist have been applied, so I am stuck with them.
If the strawman arguments and multiple ad hominems in your blog against Calvinist like me were actually true, I would have to agree with your conclusion. Shoot, I if were still a self-worshipping Christian I would have to agree with your conclusion about the God of Calvinist doctrine being a monster. The problem is that your understanding of Calvinist doctrine is unfortunately tainted by your Arminian rose colored glasses.
The reason I left Arminian doctrine for Calvinist doctrine is exegete of scripture. I could not square Arminian doctrine with scripture. Of course, Arminianism is huge on defending the autonomous sovereignty of man called freewill. The problem I had with the sovereign autonomy of man is that it is a direct assault against the sovereignty of God making the sovereign autonomous choice of man superior to the will of God. The second problem is that it soft peddles the depravity of man, which would explain your implication in the first few paragraphs that the Calvinist God is randomly condemning poor innocent people to hell without giving them a chance to accept Christ. Yea, that would certainly be a monster. The problem is that as a Calvinist, I don’t know that human quality or that kind of God. At any rate, I will continue to be a Calvinist until someone can present me with a coherent reason I should cease from being one.
I pray God’s grace upon your life.
I think you missed my point and you are not actually a Calvinist because what you believe is not the Calvinist doctrine. From your statement “I don’t know that kind of human quality or that kind of God” I can tell you will reject Calvinism once you realize what it asserts. God isn’t “randomly condemning poor innocent people to hell”. He’s condemning every person on earth for what they have no possible ability to avoid. The doctrine of Total Depravity doesn’t just assert people are guilty, it asserts no person ever had a chance of not being guilty. Even those who hear the Gospel have no chance of not being guilty because no person has the innate ability to respond to the Gospel in a positive manner. Following from there, in order for anyone to get saved, God must choose who will and who won’t receive that grace of being able to receive the Gospel and respond to it. Who gets it and who doesn’t is a random choice, as far as we can tell, and Calvinist theology does not dispute this. You consider yourself to be a Calvinist because you believe human free will is contrary to the sovereignty of God but you so far have not noticed the 800 pound gorilla in the room or if you have you don’t realize that gorilla is a doctrine you think Calvinism doesn’t teach.
Thank you for this well written piece.
What I’ve noticed, having been a member at Cakvinist churches a few times over the years, is the inevitable legalism and notion of superiority. The fruit of Calvinism is not something I wish to bear.
Some people just can’t swallow that God’s hand is sovereign. Whether it be he predestines people to go to hell or allows it, he is still responsible since he would have the ability to save anyone. He could appear to any man right now and say “see I’m real”. He chooses not to. Are you going to call God a demonic monster because He does as He pleases? Go ahead, watch what happens. Whether you like it or Not He is God. You say “people will say I don’t want this God who predestines” then you don’t have to have Him, you can go to hell.. see?
The point July is not whether God has a right or is right to do whatever our theology tells us he will do, the point is what kind of God our theology makes him out to be. See the difference? I am not going to accept a theology that makes God out to be a monster. Because he isn’t a monster.
Kirby: I read your piece with some appreciation. I am a high school history teacher, currently in the Reformation with my AP students, and encountered your blog from that. I don’t preach, of course, this is a public school, but for myself I appreciated what you wrote. I personally think that, in an effort to be true to the grace of God, Calvin just went too far. We often do this, trying to make scripture fit our human reason perfectly. The Bible says “foreknew” and “predestined,” so we take that to be a black-and-white distinction. The problem is not just that it makes God a monster, after all none of us deserves salvation, and many think that allowing anyone to go to hell makes God a monster. My problem is that total depravity and predestination makes God a liar. If it is right, as 1 Peter says, that God wants “all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth,” and if Hebrews is serious in saying that “Christ died once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God,” then the offer is open to all who will believe (John 3:16). Predestination would mean that the offer really isn’t open to anyone – in fact there is no offer – and the whole preaching of the Gospel, and the Great Commission, is a lie from the start. THAT is what I can’t accept. Whether God is a monster or not is perhaps subjective, but that “God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man that he should change his mind” (Malachi) is objective. Any doctrine that makes God lie has to be wrong.
I think this is why Luther skirted the edge of predestination but never went there. He insisted that we have no free will when it comes to the things of God, we can’t do anything to move us closer to God, but we can accept his offer to lift us over the chasm. “The Law says ‘do this,’ and it is never done. Faith says ‘believe this,’ and everything is already done.” With predestination there is no point in actually believing anything. But with faith being our role, belief is everything.
I found this written piece very refreshing. As a Christian coming out of Calvinism it has been difficult. There were many that I surrounded my life with, that would never dare to question the doctrines of grace as Calvinism claims them to be. I spent the last several years basically reading and regurgitating just about any Calvinistic writer I could find. But it was when I stopped and realized that I was spending more time reading men’s philosophy and paying attention to their crossing of T’s and dotting I’s in that theology; instead of just taking the scriptures for what they are and asking basic questions of the passages I.e who, what, why; that I realized I could be totally wrong about TULIP. For me the nail in the coffin was Calvinism’s understanding of the reprobate. I have yet to find a Calvinist tell me they are okay with a God who sends people to hell for Nothing in them. They would never say that God is responsible for their damnation, but instead would say in the same breath that God is both sovereign and Man is totally responsible. While I would agree to an extent, I don’t see how that follows in Calvinistic thought. On one hand you’re saying God determines all things, and the very same instance you’re saying he isn’t morally culpable? Further more, in regards human reponsibilty, I think Calvinism means something different when it says responsibility. I can see how God is totally sovereign, yet I also see how we really are responsible for our choices. Namely whether or not we accept or reject Jesus’s payment for our sins. It really boils down to that. God really is sovereign, and man really is free. If man were not free in his response to God, he would not be able to be held accountable to God in salvation. But man being free to respond, also does not violate God’s sovereignty over his creation. God has provided the means by which we are saved, and has laid out the foundation for which it stands. It is by grace, through faith. He has not graced us with faith, but rather he has graced his creation with the means by which to be saved, and this further proves how much in control he really is. After all, it was Abraham’s faith that was counted to him as righteousness. Not God’s faith that was given to him so as to achieve that righteousness. Otherwise, if God is determining man’s choices, then he is also sinning because if we are being totally honest men sin all the time and in rapid succession, and have been doing so since the fall. Adam, if he had no free will, would never have chosen to disobey God. But as it stands, he did so, and it is nothing short of utterly ridiculous to think he could have thwarted God’s sovereignty in doing so. So, How can God not be held responsible for man’s sins in a ultimate deterministic worldview like Calvinism? There was a time when I would chug right alongside my Calvinist buddies and shout, God’s glory prevails all things according to His will. But now I see that God’s glory is not in the reprobate, and never could be, but rather is completely in His Son. Always has been, always will be. If Christ is the end of the law for everyone who believes; he really is. It’s not poetry Paul is writing there, but rather his discussion amongst a mixed church of Jews and Gentiles in Rome(ie the letter to the Romans). Romans 9 is quoted time and time agAin by Calvinist’s; yet when you read the entire letter of Romans you don’t see God predetermining elect individuals to salvation! Instead what is really there in plain text, is Paul’s continual argument that God has been doing something all along, namely, hardening some Jews/Isreal for a time, so as to send the Gospel to the Gentiles. Paul’s hyperboles and OT references further prove this from the context. I always got confused by the Calvinist understanding of election from Roman’s 9; but it is blatantly obvious the Jacob and Esau verse is not talking about individual Christians/ but rather Paul is further driving home the argument that God has had a plan in his elect Israel to harden some for his Glory so that the Gospel would be sent to the Gentiles and this salvation that we are (all believers ) predestined to is accomplished by faith in His Son. Acts 17.30-31 says,” The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” While this verse doesn’t refute Calvinism per say, I think it is a great verse to show the reason for the gospel going forth. God has fixed a day in which he will judge the world. The Calvinist says, we preach the gospel to the elect even though we cannot know who they are, and God’s glory surpasses all. The non Calvinist will say, we preach the Gospel to All because it has the power to save anyone who will believe it, and God’s glory surpasses All. I would rather share the Gospel because it has the power to save anyone, rather than share it to only cater to a select chosen, privileged group of people. So long as the Gospel is preached and men are saved, God will be glorified through His son, for all eternity!
Excellent article. I too grew up with Calvinistic theology and, though I rejected it a long time ago, only recently have I begun to ask some of these same questions. The theology just does not seem to reflect Jesus – who is God in the flesh – who is love. And, if a theology doesn’t mirror Christmas then should it even be classified as a Christian theology?
Very well stated James! For some reason the Calvinist does not see that God gets ALL the glory (even more glory) for allowing man free will to respond to the Gospel. Afterall, it is THE GOSPEL that is the power of God unto salvation to ALL who believe!
Kirby, many thanks for writing your article. I agree with you that the God that the doctrine of Calvinism portrays is clearly a monstrous slander against the revealed character and nature of God. Whilst Calvinists point to many scriptures in support of their view they choose to ignore or underplay the obvious contradictions their doctrine creates.
Psalm 145:8-10 says, “ The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.” God is love, and as 1 Cor 13:8 tells us Love never fails and yet the Calvinist doctrine would have us believe that a God who is love and whose love can never fail, and who is compassionate on all his creation is prepared to contradict his own nature by consigning the unelected to eternal damnation thereby allowing his unfailing love to fail the unelected. Who without any religious baggage could convince themselves that the concept of the undeserving elected and undeserving unelected was the act of a loving or merciful or just God? Any ordinary person hearing this for the first time immediately concludes (if only from the imperfect love they have shared and experienced with other imperfect people) that their imperfect human love is still vastly superior to that being shown by the sadistic and capricious God the Calvinist doctrine portrays. This is why Calvinism does the body of Christ such a great dis-service as their doctrine is total poison to many unbelievers who hear it. Understandably after hearing the “good news” and its implications horrified unbelievers decide they don’t want to have anything to do with such a monstrous unloving God.
The Pharisees knew they were required to tithe their herbs but Jesus told them that they neglected justice and love.(Luke 11:42). The Pharisees knew and practiced the scriptures, they were sincere but they were sincerely wrong because they neglected the much greater matters of Gods love, justice and mercy. This should set anybody’s alarm bells ringing that there is something very wrong with any interpretation of scripture no matter how sincerely held that portrays God as unloving, unmerciful and unjust.
God as a sovereign decision gave the earth to man to rule. God as a sovereign decision gave man a free will as without it would have been impossible to make choices about how to exercise the ruler ship he had been granted. God gave Adam just one command, one opportunity to exercise his freewill to sin by breaking a direct commandment. Through Jesus we have today the same ability as Adam had to either accept or reject Gods word. Given that God spared no expense in our redemption if anyone chooses to reject the salvation freely offered in Jesus they are in effect choosing to separate themselves from everything that God is and everything that God has. As the price for all the worlds sin has already been paid by Jesus we will only be judged on what we have done with the salvation offered in Jesus. Exercising our God given freewill can in no way be construed as a work to earn salvation any more than Jeremiah choosing to fasten the rope from his rescuers beneath his armpits and be dragged from the muddy cistern was responsible for his own rescue. The grace and the faith, the hearing of Gods word necessary for salvation are all from the Lord so that no man may boast. Whilst God knew who would accept and reject his salvation before he created the world this does not in any way diminish the real free will choice God has given to each of us. We can freely choose to accept his love and love him or choose not to as the case may be. Presumably God considered the value of having some of his creation come to love him of their own choosing, without compulsion worth the price he would have to pay. Unlike Calvinist doctrine this seems to me to be entirely consistent with scripture and a God of Love, mercy and justice.
There are three main soteriological positions, and these can be assigned to either the monergist or synergist camp. Calvinism and Lutheranism are both monergistic, while Arminianism, Catholicism, and Orthodoxy are in the synergist. The former attributes salvation entirely to God (He chooses to save some and not others, the individual has no say in the matter), while the latter believes that the individual cooperates with God in the process (even if this cooperation only involves accepting Christ as savior).
Arminians, Catholics, and Orthodox essentially agree with one another, the caveat being that Arminius did believe in total depravity, while Catholics and Orthodox do not.
Lutheranism occupies a half-way house between Calvinism and Arminianism, in that Lutherans believe in unconditional election, yet teach that after one has been elected, he or she can later fall away from the faith.
For the Calvinist, God arbitrarily (unconditionally, not based on anything the individual has done, or might do in the future) chooses to save some and pass over or damn (a meaningless distinction) the rest. Those whom God has chosen to save will be saved; they have no choice in the matter. Lutherans agree with this to a point, but allow the elect individual the ability to later fall away. For the Calvinist, if God has chosen to save someone, he or she will be saved; they can’t fall away.
For the Arminian, Catholic, and Orthodox, God offers prevenient (not irresistible) grace to all, and each man or woman can choose to accept or reject the Gospel. Some Arminians would argue “once saved, always saved,” but that is not the classical Arminian position.
What it boils down to is not total depravity, but monergism vs synergism; The monergist believes we have no say in our salvation (in the Lutheran case, at least in the initial stages),while the synergist believes that we do have a say in whether we are saved or lost. We reap what we sow, but the Calvinist believes we have no say in what we sow in the first place.
For the
The point of the article is that Total Depravity leads logically to Monergism. I just didn’t use those terms because it wasn’t necessary to explain the theology. I try to keep things simple for the layman.
Kirby, have you defined free will anywhere?
I do not like the monster created by calvinism. It is causing me a major problem in my faith right now.
Yet, I have a hard time arriving at a definition of free will that makes sense. What is it?
Take a trivial example: my decision to eat a piece of cake.
On the one hand I have influences like the fact that I have not eaten for 6 hours, a strong genetic craving for sugar, pleasant memories from childhood. I also have knowledge that obesity is bad provided by others. Do all of the external influences – conscious and unconscious – combine to create the decision?
If so, that is hardly free will.
Or, does my “Free Will” hover in a clean room above all this to say: “And yet, here is my decision.”
What do you have when you peel off the external influences?
And (W)ho made that Free Will the way it is?
You are trying to solve the problem of a sadistic God by assigning culpability to individuals because of their Free Will. We think we know what that is because we have a personal sensation of Free Will. But some would argue (Spinoza?) that we simply are not conscious of all the external influences.
You might end up back in the same place as the calvinists because it is hard to come up with a concept of free will that will justify eternal torment.
You’ve challenged calvinists to think deeply.
I don’t think we need to come up with a concept of free will that justifies eternal torment because I don’t believe in eternal torment. I think the God of those who believe in eternal torment is less monstrous than the God of those who say nobody has a choice in whether they go there or not, but is still monstrous nevertheless. There are only two verses in the Bible that mention eternal suffering. The one in Revelation says the smoke of their torment rises forever but could be symbolic of temporal hell on earth. The other is the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man which actually a Jewish fable borrowed from the Egyptians and never meant to be a Baedeker’s Guide to the Underworld. It was meant to teach the truth that Israel had been warned but did not heed the warning.
I’m liking your line of thinking…although I feel a “Heretic” brand headed for my forehead.
Will study more on your last.
Thank you for this web page and article. I’ve been in a reformed church for years feeling very alone in my dark thoughts.
That’s a tough row to hoe Jeff. I pray God’s grace for you.
Lazarus and the rich man is not a parable. Never not once in His parables did Jesus ever mention a person by name. Lazarus was a real person.
It wasn’t a parable, it was a Jewish fable. Like many throughout history Jesus used fiction to teach truth.
Jesus used the story, fictional or not, to show that there IS a literal place of torment. Everything Jesus did was intentional. To dismiss that with a wave of the hand is to belittle all His other teaching on Hell.
To which other teaching about Hell are you referring?
What I see in these dicusions about Calvinism is the earthly view of man towards God and not the view of God towards man. Personally, I have never read anything of John Calvin’s works. It was the non-Calvinist who have named me so for what I gathered from the scriptures when I began to study the Word of God. The people who I was fellowshipping with kept saying you have to accept Jesus to be saved. I challenged them, as I will challenge you, where does it say that we need to “accept” Jesus. Find me one scripture in the New Testament where it uses the word “accept.” I will leave it at that so there is no lenghthy discussion that covers too many subjects in one conversation. I look forward to your reply. Your brother in Christ.
Only those who rejected the man standing right in front of them doing good works and speaking the good words from God needed to accept Jesus. For them, and them only, Jesus is the “Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man goes to the Father except through me.” You can’t reject the goodness of God, call his Son a demon, continue in your wicked ways, and expect a good hearing on judgement day. But hearing about him hundreds of years later through writings which we know little about being interpreted by religious people who quite often have a selfish agenda, well that’s a different matter and the scriptures say to whom little is given little is required. For modern man, who have been given little since we are not there watching what happened, what is required is not faith, but good conduct. “Love your neighbor as yourself” will always be what God looks for in us humans. We are saved by being good, and Paul doesn’t negate that idea at all. In fact, that was his message as well.
Ah yes……..Calvinism…….a little bit like Gnosticism don’t you think? Think about it.
Yes, and so is Evangelicalism since your eternal salvation depends on what you know rather than what you do.
And who is Evangelical……certainly not me.
Greetings Kirby Hopper,
I am 50yrs young and have the last few months been attending church for the first time since I was a junior. I was brought up RC but have been Godless these last 40yrs……..the chapel is run by a Calvinist Pastor, who’m I have been debating The Word of God with these last few months……needless to say, I slowly but surely have been coming to the conclusion that ‘something was amiss’ with This Pastors Message……I was being pressured to read The Romans Letters by Paul in Bible Study, not to mention the fact the Pastor did not take to my asking questions re Calvinism too kindly and I now find myself seeking answers as to why……….You, Kirby Hopper, have given me the answers I was desperately seeking (or in other words ‘affirmation to my God given senses’)………I honestly now firmly believe Calvinism as a doctrine is at the very least ‘misleading’ and bordering on ‘Satanic’ in my humble and honest opinion.
My gratitude to you for explaining the grevious shortcomings of Calvinism…….God Bless.
Great article!
This is exactly why I am in conflict with God despite having come from a Protestant family.
I have personally experienced and seen many forms of injustice and unfairness in this world – Many from supposedly fellow “Christians” who are only really concerned with material things (e.g. money, fame, women, etc).
I’m at that point where I really don’t care anymore whether my words will be perceived as blasphemy by others – I just wish for my view of God to be corrected but as things stand, I could only see God as the following:
1. A sadistic monster as you have described
– Sin = Death
– Sin by stealing $10 billion dollars = Death
– Sin by stealing bread to survive just another day = Death
– The sinner who stole $10 billion dollars for personal entertainment, God will save if he “repents” and starts believing that Jesus Christ is his one and only saviour in this world
– The multitude of sinners, who due to their poor conditions (as a result of the one who stole $10 billion dollars) resorted to stealing bread just to survive, will never be saved and will eternally be condemned if they start questioning God (Like I am)
– Belief in Jesus Christ = Salvation
– God shows no concern for the gravity and effect of your individual sin, only if you repent and believe in his son, Jesus Christ will you then be saved
– In the end, life is just all about money (Matthew 13:12 – For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.)
2. A God who made a foolish decision of creating this world full of injustice, pain and suffering. But by virtue of being God, it doesn’t really matter for him – You can’t question him for anything (As 1 Corinthians 1:25 would put it – Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.) – Creating this world was foolishness on God’s part but it is us, creation who get to suffer because of said foolishness.
3. God sending his son Jesus Christ is just a way of giving us yet another hope in this world he has already condemned / forsaken – then again, what about the people during the Intertestimental Period (Silent 400 Years) between the Old and New Testament? How could they have been saved? Were some of them even saved or should I not concern myself with that matter and totally ignore it?
I’ve been struggling with these issues since my childhood.
It’s not that I do not believe in the existence of God or Jesus Christ. It’s just that I’m struggling to have a personal connection with him.
I just can’t see him even attempt to reason out with me as he said so in his own words (Isaiah 1:18 – Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.)
Can God not stop speaking in parables and speak in plain language that I, a simple lowly human can understand? I want to understand but he only speaks in parables and make things all complicated.
Sometimes, I also can’t help but feel that God is just toying with us all: https://youtu.be/__OAU2aCZ4M
Anon it looks to me that either Protestant or Evangelical teaching in general has brought you to this point, and I agree that much of it makes God out to be a sadistic monster as well, and has caused you much consternation – as it should. Have you read my article entitled Salvation by Being Good? I think it will be helpful to you. Please let me know if it is.
Hi Kirby, I would like to be added to your e-mail list.
Many thanks,
Thaddeus
Thanks Dr. Irvine but I don’t have a way to add you. Could you please go any page on my blog and input your email address in the left column? Thanks.
To say you speak strongly against the doctrine of Calvinism, yet do not consider them heretics, even though you say the Bible defines heretical teaching as causing division, just seems odd to me. Why then bother writing such a substantive argument against it? Although I do think it’s an excellent article and I learned about Calvinism which I’d heard of but never quite knew what they believed. Just a side note of interest, I recently watched a video of a Calvinist teaching pastor who had an out of body encounter with Jesus where he was shown heaven and hell. In hell, he encountered pastors who had taught Calvinism. When he returned back from this experience, he no longer taught Calvinism.
Hi Cathy. Thanks for your input. That’s really something about his out of body experience. If that was God’s doing I would think the message would be that those pastors had deceived themselves into thinking they were justified by their faith when their conduct indicated they didn’t actually know God, and that’s the fruit of the doctrine, just like the Pharisees who thought they were justified for their religious observance when their murderous conduct indicated they didn’t really know God. At any rate, it would be interesting to hear his current teaching. Have you heard any of it?
The reason I take a strong stand against this “ism” is because it is such a whack belief system that just makes me want to tear my hair out. Plus, it’s such a poor and damaging testimony to what God is really like. I would think it drives many away from God.
I guess you could say I cause division, and am therefor a heretic myself, if my words cause another person to totally separate from other Christians who are Calvinists, but I would hope people would just leave those churches and try to remain in fellowship with the brethren. More often than not it will be their church causing the division. That’s not on me.
Dear Kirby,
I just wanted to thank you for this article, it really helped me claw my way out of Calvinism when I began questioning and researching it.
It’s been many years and recently, I’ve had an idea pop into my head. Let me backtrack a bit.
After having my eyes opened to this heresy, I began to see things in my church (non-denomination) that I didn’t notice before. People with MacArthur bibles, teaching on supra/sublapsarianism and little things here and there that led me to confront my pastor about whether he was teaching Calvinism.
He gave me the Dave Hunt book and I read it and came back to chat about it when I was done convinced even further that I was on the right track.
My follow up conversation did not go well. I thought he had given me the book because he had a strong position on Calvinism but I was mistaken. He had a neutral position on it but I questioned them why he allowed it to be taught in church and we went over some of the teachings and he said they “didn’t sound that bad” and “he knew lots of Calvinists that were great people and good Christians.”
I was not impressed by his reasoning or arguments and pointed out that Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses are “good Christians”, too. To make a long story short, I had to leave the church; the pastor lied to me. You don’t teach Calvinist principles and then claim a neutral position to people who question it.
About my idea:
What if I were to visit pastors in my vicinity that I know or suspect to be Calvinist and have a conversation with them. Just plant seeds without arguing. Question it with the best possible arguments that I’ve found and just leave it there and let God work. Do you think this could work?
I would love your input because this heresy needs to go.
Juan
Thank you Juan for your kind words. Convincing a Calvinist of anything is a tough row to hoe, particularly with the pastors who actually understand it the way it’s supposed to be understood. Your pastor wasn’t one of those else he wouldn’t have been on the fence. In my experience a well-versed Calvinist will have answers to everything. That said, as a former Calvinist you have an advantage. You aren’t the first Calvinist to have had the questions you had and not been satisfied with the answers you got. I find that people relate better to someone’s story of searching than they do to someone who is directly challenging them. If you begin with, “I was reading [insert chapter and verse] and I got to wondering [XYZ] and then I read Paul or Jesus who said [ABC] which led me to conclude….” and just rehearse your own thinking process as a truth-seeker and then you give them something to grab on to as a fellow truth-seeker rather than something to refute. That will open up the conversation more.
If you do decide to do what you’re thinking I’d love to hear how it went. It would be great if you kept me posted.
God bless your efforts brother.