Confronting Calvinism's Deceptive Nonsense

There is a post over at Soteriology 101 that I think is worth reading.  It's titled "Condemned For Factors Beyond The Agent's Control?"   It's a post that confronts the Calvinist idea that God ultimately condemns people for things He caused them to do, things that they had no control over.  

According to Calvinism, God is ultimately the sole cause of everything that happens.  Therefore, if we sin or don't believe in Him, it's because He made us do it.  But then, Calvi-god turns around and punishes mankind for their sin and unbelief.  Even though He caused it.  But Calvinists will continue to insist that Calvi-god is fair and just, and that we deserve what we get because we still "chose."     

Calvinists will try to explain away the obvious contradiction by using words like "primary cause" and "secondary cause."  (They go by other names too.)  They'll say that God is the "primary cause" (that He ultimately wills that something will happen, such as a sin we commit), but that we are the "secondary cause" here on earth because we "willingly" carry out the sin.  Basically that God works His Will through man's wills, by causing us to willingly want to do what God commands we do.  And therefore, they say, it's still our choice.  (Is it!?!  Is it really!?!  If someone puts a gun in your hand, forces you to hold onto it, and forcibly moves your finger to pull the trigger and shoot someone, are they "not responsible" because the gun was in your hand and it was your finger that pulled the trigger!?!)  

This is their desperate, illogical attempt to somehow make us (instead of God) responsible for our sins even though God is the one that ultimately "ordained" them, according to them.  They are trying to incorporate "free will" into a theology that doesn't allow for free-will, because they know that us having no free-will makes God responsible for our sins.  

In an effort to absolve God of any responsibility for our sin, they will say that even though God micromanages (my word, their belief) everything that happens, we are still accountable for our actions because we "willingly make free choices, according to our natures."    

But the part they won't usually say is that they believe God alone determines which nature we get - the "repentant/saved" one or the "unrepentant sinner" one.  And if you weren't elected by God for salvation, then Jesus didn't really die for your sins, and so you get the "unrepentant sinner" nature where all you can ever do is sin and reject God.  

So God gives us the nature He predestined for us?  And we supposedly make real "free will" choices according to our nature because God causes us to desire the choices He ordained us to make?  But if we get the "sinner" nature then we can only always sin?  

And they call that "having free-will" and "willingly making choices"!?!  

And just how does this make God "not responsible" for our sins!?!  

It's nonsense.

Deceptive nonsense!


I highly suggest reading this post from Sot 101 and the comments in the comment section.  Seeing Calvinism is action from the Calvinist commenters is eye-opening.  (You'll be able to identify them).  And there are lots of great comments from the non-Calvinists and anti-Calvinists, addressing the problems with and contradictions of Calvinism and its view of God and His "sovereignty."

I particularly liked this comment from TS00 (reposted with permission) because I think it hits the nail on the head, addressing Calvinism's view of God and the deception they employ to hide it.  And here it is:

"Calvinism declares that God alone is the sovereign determining force in whatsoever comes to pass in his creation.  All of the deflections to ‘desires’ or secondary means are simply attempts to avoid confronting the legitimate charge of the injustice of the Calvinist scheme.  It is this indisputable injustice that always dooms Calvinism in the court of public opinion, hence the dissimulation, hedging, and not quite forthright explanations one encounters when interacting with Calvinists.

Calvin well knew what the response would be to his theory of predestination, which inevitably entails a horrible decree of reprobation.  There is no escape from this horrible decree; in more ways than one.  Let us hear it from the horse’s mouth, as found in Calvin’s Institutes:

“If such a barren invention is accepted [that Adam sinned because he had free choice], where will the omnipotence of God be whereby he regulates all things according to his secret plan, which depends solely upon itself?  Yet predestination, whether they [the objectors] will [admit it] or not, manifests itself in Adam’s posterity.  For it did not take place by reason of nature that, by the guilt of one parent, all were cut off from salvation . . . . Scripture proclaims that all mortals were bound over to eternal death in the person of one man [Adam] (cf. Rom. 5:12 ff.).  Since this cannot be ascribed to nature, it is perfectly clear that it has come forth from the wonderful plan of God . . . . Again I ask: whence does it happen that Adam’s fall irremediably involved so many peoples, together with their infant offspring, in eternal death unless because it so pleased God? . . . The decree is horrible indeed, I confess.  Yet no one can deny that God foreknew what end man was to have before he created him, and consequently foreknew because he so ordained by his decree . . . . And it ought not to seem absurd for me to say that God not only foresaw the fall of the first man, and in him the ruin of his descendants, but also meted it out in accordance with his own decision.  For it pertains to his wisdom to foreknow everything that is to happen, so it pertains to his might to rule and control everything by his hand.”

If you call yourself a Calvinist, read these words again and again until you grasp their meaning.  There is little leeway in understanding Calvin, nor is it possible to excise any of his more unpalatable teachings; all are essential for the system of Divine Determinism to stand.  If God unconditionally chooses who will be saved, based on nothing to do with the individuals themselves, then it is unavoidably true that he also unconditionally chooses who will be damned, based on nothing to do with the individuals themselves.

Let me state this very clearly: Calvinism states that God, and God alone, is responsible for anyone ever being condemned or facing destruction, just as God, and God alone, is responsible for anyone being saved from destruction.  Reprobation is not an option for Calvinists.

Much as Calvinists try to sneak it in, one simply cannot blame a man’s damnation upon his own choices.  God has chosen who he will save and who he will not, and so it will unchangeably be.  All intervening events, all desires, choices or sins are secondary means determined by God to bring forth his ordained end.  No man, woman or child ever can or will do anything apart from the predetermining decree of God.  There is no avoiding this conclusion.  And yet, when confronted with these facts, Calvinists dance around the truth, desperately afraid to admit what cannot be denied.

One can engage in disputable debates over minute details all day long, but it does not change the most pertinent facts.  Once again, under Calvinism, God, and God alone, has determined, in eternity past, who shall be saved; period.  There is nothing anyone can do or not do to effect or change these predeterminations.  It is pure foolishness to pretend that there is any good news gospel for those who God has not chosen to save.  Calvinism does not allow for Jesus providing atonement for all men, as Calvinistic predestination demands that all whom Jesus died for will unfailingly be saved, and all others unfailingly damned.  Note that, according to Calvinism, no one is damned due to sin, but they sin due to being damned.

You want to believe such things?  It is your choice to do so, but do not kid yourself that Calvinism means anything less than what is here stated.  Nothing has ever shaken me to the core like realizing that spiritual leaders I once trusted had played me for a fool, keeping these indisputable truths hidden.

Instead of laying out and discussing the clear meaning of Calvinistic predestination, word games were employed and salient truth denied.  The only point of creating a theory called ‘compatibilism’ is to hide the hideous truth, and to appear to align with the thousands of scriptures that portray God’s love for all, his offer of grace to all, and his stated desire that none perish.  None of these earnest calls to repent can have genuine meaning under Divine Determinism, but dissimulation and deflection work to refocus attention elsewhere.

Choose you this day, dear believer, which God you will serve.  The God of Calvinism controls all things, determines the fate of all before they come into being, then pretends that his predetermined reprobation is ‘punishment’ for the very sin he irrevocably cursed men with.  You may try and line this cruel, sadistic God up with the loving gracious God of scripture, but, in my view, there is no similarity.

Calvinist teachers will tell you, as they told me, that you can have it both ways.  You can, they will tell you, believe that God alone predetermines and brings into being whatsoever comes to pass, and at the same time place the blame for sin and death on the individual.  This is, however, as illogical and absurd as it first sounds.  If God alone deserves the glory for whatsoever is good, God alone deserves the blame for whatsoever is bad.

And when you are told, in response to your misgivings, that you MUST believe these horrible things about God because scripture asserts them, I say to you, you have the right to answer back, ‘Actually sir, that is simply one interpretation of a very few verses, often ignoring context.  There are many other verses which I choose to look at for myself.’  This is the key to not being bullied into buying a package of goods you do not really like or need.

The good news, my friend, is that the revelation of God to man really is good news.  He truly loves you, and all men, in exactly the same way – unfailingly.  His offer of forgiveness, grace and eternal life is genuine, and freely available to whosoever will believe it.  All that he has done, from the very start, is for our good, that we might have life and have it more abundantly.

Wouldn’t it be truly good news to know that the promised blessings of God are not limited to a select few?  Wouldn’t it be truly good news to be able to tell everyone you meet that God loves them and desires to bestow upon them immeasurable gifts of love?  Wouldn’t it be truly good news to never again have to securely lock away all thoughts of the cruelty of a God who creates men without even a chance to be free from sin and death?

There is one thing one must give up in rejecting Calvinism, and that is the freedom to sin without accountability.  Some will scoff, but that is the sole distinguishing benefit of Calvinism and the only reason to cling to such a hideous theology.  It falsely assures men that - because they are one of the "elect" - their sins will not come into play, that their future is set, and that nothing they ever do or don’t do can threaten their eternal security.

So there is that.  You will have to put your trust in the goodness, mercy and faithfulness of God, rather than in some secret, irreversible decree, some Judaistic covenant that cannot be challenged.  But I am here to tell you that he is more than worthy of your trust.  He is love and goodness and truth and beauty and all that is worth living for.  He is a God you can delight in without reservation, who truly desires and seeks your good.  He is glorious because he is good, rather than a narcissist in perpetual need of receiving involuntary ‘glory’."

End of comment

------------------

The writers (like Leighton Flowers) and the commenters (like TS00) at Soteriology 101 are trying to call out Calvinism's errors, contradictions, and deceptive practices.  They are warning people to be very careful with Calvinists ... because it's not just what Calvinists say that's the problem; it's what they don't say that's even more of a problem and that completely negates or contradicts what they do say.  

[And yet Calvinists will claim that there is no contradiction.  And then they will proceed to give you a long, round-about, convoluted argument for why it "makes sense" and "is biblical," relying on Bible verses taken out of context.  And in the end, in order to "humble" you into not questioning them, Calvinists will always fall back on, "We don't have to understand it, we just have to accept it.  Because it's what the Bible says.  And the Bible doesn't have a problem with it, so neither should we.  We just have to accept in faith the things we can't understand, even if it doesn't make sense to us.  God's ways are higher than our ways, and His understanding is higher than our understanding.  Who are we to think we can fully understand or question God anyway?  We need to be humble and to accept this in faith."  (And how many cults and false religions do the same thing!?!)]


Here's an example of "what they say vs. what they don't say":

One Calvinist in the comment section said:

"God predetermined you to choose that which you desired to choose.  That which you did choose in the course of time was based on your desires at that time and was made without any prompting from God.  So, you were free to choose.  That God knew the choice you would make before you made that choice did not affect the freedom of your choice ..."

(And I say: "Huh!?!")


But now let's see what a Calvinist should say if they are truly honest and not trying to disguise what they believe to make it sound more "free will" than it is:

"God predetermined you to choose that which you desired to choose.  (So God gave you the desires you have.)  That which you did choose in the course of time was based on your desires at that time (which are really not "your" desires because God fore-ordained everything about you - including your desires, choices, and eternal destiny - from before you were born) and was made without any prompting from God (which is a total lie because I just said that God "PRE-DETERMINED" what you would desire.  According to Calvinism, God creates our every impulse and thought so that we can think nothing that God hasn't put in our heads.  But I have to say "God doesn't prompt us" or else it will sound like I'm saying God prompts us to sin.  And so I'll just spin it to say that "God doesn't prompt us in the moment we sin, but He has predestined our desire to sin and what we will choose from before we were born."  God doesn't "cause" us to sin; He just causes us to have the "unrepentant sinner" nature and our desires to choose sin.).  So, you were free to choose (only that which God predestined you to desire to choose).  That God knew (I'll say "knew," even though I really mean "predetermined and caused," but if I said "predetermined and caused" then it would make God accountable for our evil choices) the choice you would make before you made that choice did not affect the freedom of your choice (even though you are only free to make the choices God predetermined you to make, according to the nature that God determined you would have)..."

Do you see how sneaky Calvinists can be, trying to say that God controls all that we do but that we - not He - are responsible for our choices?

You have to be so careful when listening to dogmatic Calvinists ... because they will always only give you half of half the picture, the part that we can all agree on.  And if you don't press them and challenge what they're saying, you'll be left thinking that their theology sounds pretty accurate and biblically-based.  (They are like pathological liars who only tell you the part of the story they want you to know so that you come to the conclusions they want you to have.  Do you know that old joke "How do you know a politician is lying?  His lips are moving."  Yeah, it's like that.  But the scary part is, they don't think they're lying.  They truly believe what they're saying.  They can so easily deceive others because they're so thoroughly deceived themselves.)

1.  Calvinists will say, "Of course God loves all people."  But what they believe but don't say is "But God loves the elect and the non-elect differently.  He shows love to the elect by saving them, and He shows love to the non-elect by caring for them while they are on earth."

2.  They'll say "Of course God calls all people to Him."  But what they believe but don't say is "God gives a general call to everyone that the non-elect can never respond to because God didn't give them the ability to respond to it, and He gave a special call to the elect that they are predestined to respond to."

3.  They'll say "Of course Jesus died for all and salvation is available to all."  But what they believe but don't say is "ALL of the elect, that is.  From ALL kinds of people groups.  Not ALL individual people everywhere."

4.  They'll say "Of course God wants all men to be saved and wills that no one perishes."  But what they believe but don't say is "But God has two wills, you see.  A revealed one where He said He wills that all men would be saved and that no one would perish.  But He also has a secondary 'secret' will (known by us Calvinists) where He has predestined that most men will be unsaved, for His glory and plans and pleasure."  (So God wills one thing but then actively causes the opposite!?!  Yep, makes perfect sense!)

5.  They'll say "Of course God commands everyone to repent" and "Of course God offers salvation to anyone who wants it."  But what they believe but don't say is "But only the elect will/can want salvation and repentance.  The non-elect will/can never want salvation or repentance.”

6.  They'll say "Of course I believe in evangelizing."  (However, some Calvinists don't, due to the fact that they believe God's already chosen who will believe, and there's nothing anyone can do to change it).  But what they believe but don't say is "I don't evangelize to tell others Jesus loves them enough to die for them (because Calvinists say He only died for the elect, and they don't know who the elect are) and I don't believe in challenging them to 'accept Jesus into their hearts' (because that would make it sound like we can 'choose' Jesus, and Calvinists don't believe we can do that).  But I do believe in evangelizing because God told us to, plain and simple.  And I believe God's greatest goal is to be famous among the people, and so I evangelize to spread His fame, not His love for people or His desire for a relationship with people or to call people to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior."

7.  They'll say "Of course our choices to sin are real, not forced by God, so we can be held accountable for them."  But what they believe but don't say is "But we will only desire what God predestined us to desire.  And those who get the 'sinner nature' can only want to sin."

8.  They'll say "If people reject God, it's because they wanted to reject Him."  But what they believe but don't say is "But God determines the thoughts and desires a person has."

9.  They might even say "Of course God doesn't predestine people to hell."  But what they believe but don't say is "He just picks who goes to heaven, and so everyone else goes to hell by default."

It's convoluted, illogical, deceptive nonsense.  And it turns God into a wicked God - the cause of all our sins and then the unjust punisher of those He caused to sin.

One last example ... in the comment section, I had said, "If we choose God, it's because He made it possible.  If we don't, it's because He allows us to reject Him."

The Calvinist commenter said that that's what the Calvinist would say too.  (He likes to say that Calvinists say the same things the non-Calvinist does.  But ... as you can see above ... it's what they DON'T say that makes all the difference.)

And TS00 accurately responded this way:

"Perhaps the Calvinist might say this, but it is not so according to his official theology. 

Note the distinctions:

Non-Calvinism:

If we choose Him, it’s because He made it possible, sending His Son to manifest and make known His love and mercy to lost sinners [my note: meaning all lost sinners, that it's possible for all lost sinners to come to God, not just the "elect"]. If we don’t, it’s because He allows us to reject Him and His genuine offer of pardon and eternal life.

Calvinism:

If we choose Him, it’s because He made it possible, by the mystical, unsought work of the Holy Spirit who regenerates the elect sinner making him newly able to desire and choose to believe in God’s salvation, which was effectively, and only, worked for those chosen by God to irresistibly receive it. If we don’t, it’s because we are reprobates, rejected by God and slated for eternal damnation in eternity past, cursed for the sin of our father, before we were ever born or able to do right or wrong, and made permanently unable to believe in or choose God.

You might notice a slight, ahem, difference, even if Calvinists deceptively use the wording of non-Calvinists in order to mislead unwary believers."

Perceptive and well-said, TS00!

(And I particularly like your willingness, in other comments you've made, to call Calvinism what it is: Evil!  Which is the way I see it also!  Evil, demonically-inspired, and incredibly destructive to God's character, Jesus's sacrifice, and people's faith and hope of salvation and their relationship with God!  When you really understand what Calvinism is and what it does to God and His Word and people's faith, you can't help but call it "evil.") 


An interesting article, showing how Calvinists think and why it might be hard to talk with them: How to Speak to Your Calvinist Friend

And a look at some of the rhetoric that Calvinists use, how they word things to hide what they mean or define the meanings of words to support their theology (click on it and follow the links):  Calvinist Rhetoric Series