God—the great Creator of all things—upholds, directs, disposes, and governs all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least.
Westminster Confession of Faith 5.1
Let’s put ellipses in to get to my point:
God…directs…all actions…
This is my BIG problem with Calvinism. The statement makes God the source of sin and evil if God directs everything. We are no more than puppets as part of a Game that God has already ordained.
Biblical Christianity says mankind has free will to make his own choices in life, but Calvinism says that all our actions have been pre-ordained—directed—by God. Which is why to a Calvinist man cannot choose to obey God, cannot choose to accept faith in Christ’s work atoning for sin, rather God has to regenerate the man first with the Holy Spirit for him to choose to follow Christ. This is backwards from Scripture which says the Holy Spirit regenerates the person AFTER he puts his faith in Christ.
If God directs all actions, then it is unjust to hold man accountable for the sin God directs him to commit.
10 comments:
Sheryl,
Since you included links to false teachings (i.e. TULIP Calvinism) in your comment I will not post it. However you are wrong to say the Westminster statement agrees with the doctrines of Scripture, as I have demonstrated in this current post and also in a previous post here: https://watchmansbagpipes.blogspot.com/2013/02/i-am-not-calvinist.html
Your problem, and that of all Calvinists, is that you have a weak fickle and unjust God. You think God giving man free will takes away from God's sovereignty, but God in His sovereignty gave man free will. IF God see the need he can override man's decisions by leading him differently. To say our lives are preprogrammed, totally directed by God, then you are saying what I am writing at this moment was directed by God and I had no choice in the matter.
Your God creates people specifically to go to hell and other specifically to be saved. That is unjust. The Biblical God allows man to seek God and choose to follow God. To create mankind with no ability to seek God (contrary to Scripture) and then blame that man for not seeking God is about as unjust as it gets.
It is YOU and all Calvinists who are misleading people. A Calvinist can never be sure he is one of the elect. I can be sure because I accepted the gift offered to me. And accepting the gift is not saving myself.
My article about the innocence of children used Scripture to prove my thesis.
https://watchmansbagpipes.blogspot.com/2011/04/what-about-babies-and-salvation.html
Nowhere in Scripture will you find baptismal regeneration. Period. And no, what I taught in that article did not originate from papism, rather the Bible is my only reference. "original sin" is a papist doctrine.
Calvinists always resort to the old canard of "hard doctrines," but the discerning person finds no hard doctrines in the Bible, rather they are found in Papism and "Reformed" teachings.
It is the Calvinist such as yourself who needs to have God open his eyes.
I seem to lose a lot of readers who would rather follow doctrines of man and cults rather than have their Bible be their guide.
ottom line is, the logical end of Arminianism is open theism. There's no getting around it. It doesn't matter how much lipstick they put on that pig, it's still a damnable heresy.
For some reason, just letting God be God isn't good enough for them. For my part, once I started doing exactly that, it was very liberating. I find the fullest extent of freedom in recognizing that I, a creature, am not totally free. I have limitations, and I embrace them as a child does when he loves his father. I see my limitations as an act of love.
Anonymous,
You left "B" off your first word.
You and your ilk resort to calling every non-Calvinist an "Arminian." This just demonstrates your ignorance. Biblical teachings have nothing to do with Calvinism. Calvin took his teachings from Augustine, you really you are "Augustinians." Prior to him the ante-Nicene fathers taught exactly what I teach.
As I noted in the comment above, your God is the one who decreed sin, decreed every single thing I am doing, including this rebuttal of your comment which is full of ignorance. You follow a man, and not the Scriptures. You have no freedom at all if God decreed everything you say and do -- you are just a pre-programmed robot.
It seems to me that God's sovereignty is not and cannot be threatened by him granting a level of free choice to mankind. One of my favourites on this the end of 1 Cor 7:
A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. If the husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord.
God's sovereignty is in his definition of marriage - life long - and that a widow must only marry in the Lord. Other than that she has freedom of choice, whoever she wishes. I think God allows such freedom in other areas as well - your job or where you live.
God calling us and we saving ourselves from this crooked generation is another example.
My own problem with Calvinism is not so much human freewill, but rather that if God foreordains everything that comes to pass, how can he hold human beings responsible? Most Christians believe it is right to pray for people to be saved, but the logic of Calvinism means you should pray for the reprobate to be lost.
I've found it interesting how many people try to embrace Calvinism, but eventually the tide goes out on it, and although I see some truth in it, it does not reflect all of what the NT writers have to say on man, God and salvation.
Ken B
Glenn,
Usually I stay out of these discussions. Mostly because of the infighting in the church this topic (Calvinism) causes all around. But I read your article on babies and salvation. That's how we've always understood Scriptures on that issue as well. I had read your other article previously.
God is rich in mercy. His heart is to save, not condemn. That the Lord would bring to heaven a baby that dies, even though it is born with a sin nature, and can neither repent nor believe in Christ (and can't consciously sin, either), is consistent with His character of mercy. Scripture seems to implicate this, as you said.
That's all I will say, I guess.
-Carolyn
Thank you, Carolyn.
It's always good to know someone with common sense.
Glenn,
What can I say, we just try to take Scripture as straightforwardly as possible.
Salvation is an act of mercy. None of us deserve it. Justice is what everyone deserves, because we all sin, and God is holy and must punish sin. Justice for sin means everlasting hell.
But God... right?!?!? :)
-Carolyn
Carolyn,
I agree, but nowhere in Scripture does it say God creates some for salvation and some for hell, which is what Calvinism teaches.
i) I think there's extensive, compelling evidence for a God who is active in human affairs. But the pattern of God's activity is perplexing.
ii) Suppose, for the sake of argument, that the God of Arminian theism is nicer than the God of Reformed theism. Problem is, having a nice God on paper doesn't make real life any nicer.
You can say all the warm and winsome things about God that Arminians are wont to say. You can contrast that with the "stern" God of Calvinism. But as this erstwhile Arminian blogger discovered from painful personal experience, the loving, fatherly "relational" God of Arminian theology is a paper God. A God that only exists in the mind of the Arminian. A verbal construct. You can say the Calvinist God is harsh or "morally monstrous." You can contrast the Calvinist God with what you deem to be the superior character of the Arminian God. But switching from Calvinism to Arminianism doesn't make the world any different. Believing in a nicer God doesn't make the world a kinder gentler place than believing in a "harsh" God. Does nothing to sand off the jagged edges.
In the Arminian lodge, you have hot chocolate and chestnuts roasting on an open fire. But when you have to get up and go outside, the dark arctic bast slaps you in the face. The world you must live in everyday is just the same whether you're Arminian or Calvinist. Believing in a softhearted God does nothing to soften the world. It changes nothing. The toasty, climate-controlled environment of Arminian theology doesn't survive exposure to the elements. It fosters expectations that are dashed by brutal experience. The glib, fact-free bromides of a Jerry Walls didn't prepare him for his ordeal. Reality is unforgiving.
Anonymous,
I don't know any Christian who denies that God is active in human affairs. The difference between Calvinists and non-Calvinist biblical Christians is that Calvinist say that God had ordained everything so that we have no choices as to what is happening around us or even what we do or say -- it's all pre-programmed.
I am not an Arminian, regardless of how Calvinist call all non-Calvinists that. I am a Bible believing Christian don't follow the teaching of any man. So if you want to discuss Calvinism vs Arminianism, I say they are both in error.
Post a Comment