Calvinism recognizes these great truths.
1. All are lost.
2. Not all will be saved.
3. It is God who saves.
When God created the world, He knew at that time that all mankind would be lost through Adam’s sin. God knew those whom he would save and those whom He would not save. God had already decided – even before Adam sinned – to send Christ to the cross and thereby provide the means by which He would save people. It is God who determined – choose – those whom he would save, those whom He would impart His wisdom, those whom He would build as His church. God did not choose to save all and people thereby complain that God is a bigot and prejudiced. Yet, God is sovereign – we can all testify with Nebuchadnezzar, "I praised the Most High; I honoured and glorified him who lives for ever. His dominion is an eternal dominion; his kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No-one can hold back his hand or say to him: ‘What have you done?’"
Most of the misunderstandings of Scripture come from a lack of discernment about the nature of fallen man and the freedom of a sovereign God.
What do the Scriptures tell us?
1. God created the world.
2. Satan could not enter the garden unless God stood aside and let him enter.
3. God decreed that Satan tempt Adam/Eve and had already planned that Christ die for the sin that Adam/Eve would commit.
4. God is, and must be, intimately involved with sinners giving them the ability to accept His salvation.
5. Not all will be saved.
6. God knew all of history from the moment of creation to the judgment and He knew it when He created the world and history is playing out according to God’s omniscience.
There has never been a time when God did not know who would be saved and who would be lost – no one ever denies this (except for the Open Theists), and no one says that the Calvinists are wrong when they come to this conclusion.
How can it be that "God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4) and is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9)" when God has always known that all people would not be be saved and He created the world knowing that many would perish and He knew each one by name? Are the Calvinists wrong to conclude that many have misunderstood these verses in light of God’s omniscience?
It seems you have just made "foreknowledge" and "predestination" synonymous. That is something that divides the Calvinist from those of us who reject Calvinism.
That which God predestines (or decides) then becomes part of His knowledge (His omniscience). Paul says that "God predestined us (His elect) to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ,…" As God made this decision before He created the world, we say that God foreknew that which He would bring about in the course of time. That you think I have made "foreknowledge" and "predestination" synonymous likely reflects personal bias on your part – they cannot be synonymous as they are two unique concepts.
The Calvinist does not worry about who is elect and who is not – "the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the hea
rt." Calvinists let the Scriptures sort out one from the other.
This is shockingly ignorant; so Spurgeon didn’t care about the lost? Spurgeon didn’t preach the gospel? William Carey didn’t care about missions? How can you explain that it took a Calvinist (D James Kennedy) to create the most effective evangelism method of the 20th Century–which was completely plagiarized by the SBC’s Continuous Witness Training? How can you explain the humility of John Newton? This article is not simply shocking in its error – it is slanderous and assaults the heart of sound theology on multiple points. What a travesty.
Don't be so condescension it is off putting.
Calvinism is a perspective of soteriology that answers questions from specific presuppositions that other views fall short.
Calvinism’s gospel is that expressed by Paul, "Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve." When Spurgeon said that Calvinism is the gospel, he meant that Calvinism accurately expresses that which the Scriptures tell us. If it did not, it could not be described as the gospel.
We all share the same technical definition of the gospel.
"Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,…"
In context, Paul says "Christ died for our sins," as 1 John 2, "Christ is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world." Paul does not say that Christ died for "us" meaning each and every person, In Romans, Paul, writing to God’s elect in Rome says, "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us [His elect]." John 3:16 says, God so loved the world that He gave His son that those believing [those God knew from the foundation of the world] would have eternal life. God did not give His son for those not believing – for the reprobate [also known form the foundation of the world].
Would you be offended if I were to say that Calvinism was a deficient doctrine?
The extreme deterministic view of Calvinism is evident from the following quotes:
"Even sin – the fall of the devil from heaven, the fall of Adam, and every evil thought, word, and deed in all of history, including the worst sin of all, Judas’ betrayal of Christ – is included in the eternal decree of our holy God." – Edwin H. Palmer, The Five Points of Calvinism
"Even the fall of Adam, and through him the fall of the race, was not by chance or accident, but was so ordained in the secret counsels of God." "And unless the fall was in the plan of God, what becomes of our redemption through Christ? Was that only a makeshift arrangement which God resorted to in order to offset the rebellion of man?" – Loraine Boettner, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination
Hinduism believes in the compatibility of both free-will and determinism; similarly, does Islam believe in a kind of fatalism and personal responsibility. However, the Bible strictly talks of human responsibility. Nowhere is the sin of Adam or the sin of any human regarded as being predetermined by God.
Why do you call it "extreme"? Let’s take the case of "the fall of Adam."
Does not God protect Adam even as He protected Job so that Satan cannot enter the garden except God decree that he should and then stand out of the way? Is not God present, watching every detail, as Satan tempts Eve and then gives fruit to Adam to eat? Could not God have stepped in at any point and prevented Adam from eating the fruit? That God did not do so tells us that God had decided that Satan should tempt Eve and that Adam freely decide whether to join Eve in eating the fruit. God decided all this before He created the world having perfect knowledge of all that would come to pass. That which God decided was His decree – thereby God decreed the fall of Adam. There is nothing extreme in this; God is sovereign and necessarily decrees all things and did so decree all things before He created the world.
