Important: The Calvinist Chain of Responsibility
[Updated slightly for clarity on 9/24/26.]
One thing that's really important to understand about Calvinism (to uncover the deception they use) is their "Chain of Responsibility," for lack of a better term. It's not a term they use or an official Calvinist idea, but it's just my way of describing why they adamantly deny that Calvinism teaches that God causes/forces us to sin.
Whenever a non-Calvinist says "Calvinists say that God causes sin," they respond something like this: "No, we don't say that. God doesn't cause anyone to sin. People make the choices they want to make. That's why God can hold us responsible for our sins." This then confuses us because we understand that the Calvinist idea of God's "sovereignty" is that He actively preplans/controls all things, even sin, evil, and our belief/unbelief in Him. So how can God control all things, even our thoughts and choices and actions, but not be the cause of the sins we commit?
This is where the Calvinist Chain of Responsibility comes in. And it goes something like this:
1) Before time began, God predetermined which nature we would all get: the sinful/unregenerated one that the non-Calv-elect get or the regenerated one that the Calv-elect get. We have no control over or influence over which nature we get. It's predetermined for us by God, and we can't change it. And so if you were predestined to be non-Calv-elect, you will always be non-Calv-elect, with no chance of ever being regenerated so that you can believe in Jesus and be saved.
2) Each nature comes with its own set of built-in desires. The regenerated nature (of the Calv-elect) contains the desires to seek God, believe in God, obey God, do good, etc. But the sinful nature (of the non-Calv-elect) contains only the desires to sin, reject God, do evil, etc. And just like we don't get to choose which nature God gave us, we don't get to choose the desires that are inherent in our nature. God chooses both our nature and the desires of our nature for us, giving us the ones He wants us to have.
3) The built-in desires of our natures determine what we "want" to do. And since those are the only desires we are able to have (and we cannot change or resist them), those are the only things we can want to do, which means they are the only things we can choose to do, and so we end up doing exactly what God predetermined us to do, even if it's sin, evil, and unbelief.
So the lucky people whom God predestined to heaven will get the regenerated nature that contains the desires to seek God, believe in God, obey God, do good, etc., and they will inevitably follow those desires.
But the unlucky people whom God predestined for hell have to keep the unregenerated nature God created them with (He will not give them the regenerated nature that would make them want to believe and be saved), which contains only the desires to sin, reject God, do evil, etc. And so because these are the only desires they are allowed by God to have (predetermined by Him so that they cannot believe), these are the only things they can "want" to do, which means they are the only things they can "choose" to do, just as God predetermined.
[Note: A textbook definition of "choice" is that we are able to make a decision between two or more options. But in Calvinism, we can only "choose" to do whatever Calvi-god predestined us to do, with no ability or option to choose anything else. That's not a real "choice." It's simply doing the one thing we were preprogrammed to do.]
4) So we make our "choices" based on what we "want" to do, which was determined by the built-in desires of the natures/wills that God gave each of us - which was all predetermined by God from the very beginning, ensuring that those whom He prepicked for heaven would believe, but those whom He didn't prepick wouldn't believe.
And so the unregenerated person "chooses" to sin and reject God because that's what they "wanted" to do... even though that's the only thing they were able to want to do and choose to do, by God's decree.
But then Calvinists will claim that the non-Calv-elect are truly responsible for their sin and unbelief and that God can justly punish them for it because they "chose" to do what they "wanted" to do.
They'll say "See? God doesn't force anyone to sin or reject Him. We freely choose to do what we want to do, according to our desires/nature/wills, and so God can hold us responsible for our sins. We deserve the punishment for our sins because we 'wanted' to sin."
Note: When talking about our decisions and sins and unbelief, Calvinists always add the caveat "according to our desires/nature/will." This makes it sound like we have a real choice about the decisions we make, the things we do, the desires we have/follow - as if we freely decided what we want to do. But all it really means is that we will inevitably and irresistibly choose to follow the desires of the nature/will that God gave us, and we couldn't choose anything else.
And so when Calvinists use terms like "free-will" and "freely choosing," all they mean is that God didn't have to physically force us to carry out the sins, evil, and unbelief He predestined for us... because we "freely chose" to do it on our own, "willingly" following the desires of our nature (even though it's the only thing we were able to will to do, want to do, choose to do, according to Calvi-god's decree).
Essentially, the nature we get, with its built-in desires, is little more than a magic potion that causes us to "want" to do certain things, and only those things, and so we must inevitably do those things. But God (and the Calvinist) then holds us responsible for doing it because we "wanted" to do it, because we "followed our sinful desires."
"God causes people to have the unregenerated nature ... and the unregenerated nature gives them the desire to sin ... and so then they will 'want' to sin (and will only be able to want to sin) ... and so then they will irresistibly and inevitably 'choose' to sin and reject Him, just like they 'wanted' (just as Calvi-god predetermined)."
And they truly think that focusing on our "desires/choice to sin" - adding in a degree or two of separation between our sins and God's preplanning/causation of them - absolves God of the responsibility for ours sins, for giving us no other choice but to do the sins He predetermined us to do.
"There! Problem solved!," says the Calvinist. "God doesn't 'force' us to sin. [He just forces us to have the sin-nature, that forces us to have only the desire to sin, that forces us to choose to sin. Just like He predestined.]"
But I say "Hogwash!" This is just a convoluted, round-about way of saying that our sins were predestined by God, that we had no real control over our decisions, that we had no choice or ability to do anything differently, and that God preplanned and caused and is ultimately responsible for our sins. It's really just trying to hold the robot responsible for doing what the programmer programmed it to do.
But since they know they can't come right out and say that God causes sin, they add extra layers in to make it less clear, in an effort to trick others and themselves into thinking that they aren't saying what they really are: That Calvinism's god is the only true cause of all sin, evil, and unbelief in the world (but he holds people responsible for it, punishes them for it).
So remember all this - the extra steps they add to make it seem like they aren't saying what they are - whenever you hear a Calvinist say ...
... "We freely choose what we want to do." (They mean "according to our Calvi-god-given natures"!)
... "We make choices according to our desires." (But our desires are predetermined for us, and we have to obey them.)
... "God doesn't force people to sin or to reject Him." (Sure, because He doesn't have to "force" us to do it if the magic potion makes us "want" to do it on our own. Well, that is, if you can call it "on our own" when we've been given a magic potion that controls our desires.)
... "Unregenerated people 'freely choose to sin'." (Well, of course, because they are only "free" to "choose" to sin... because they have no other options, no other desires.)
... and "Calvinists don't say that God causes sin." (They're right; they don't say it. They hide it. But their theology absolutely, undeniably teaches it - and you can see that when you remove the extra layers they hide it under and obscure it with.)
Do you want to know what the Calvinist's brilliant answer is for "How can God sovereignly control everything, even sin, but hold us accountable for it?"
It usually comes down to some form of this (similar to what my Calvinist pastor has said over the years):
"I don't know. But I don't have to know how it all works out. I humbly accept both those ideas as truth because the Bible teaches them both without any tension, that God is sovereign over all and that He holds man accountable for his sins. [Yes, the Bible does. But it's the Calvinist definition of "sovereign" that's wrong and that causes all the problems. And just because a Calvinist calls something "biblical truth" doesn't mean it is, at least not the way they define it.]
Who are we to think we can talk back to God anyway? Who are we to question His Word? Who are we to think we can peer into the deep mysteries of God that He reserves for Himself? His thought and ways are so far above our thoughts and ways. And there are some things He doesn't explain to us, and we just have to humbly accept them as true, even if we can't fully understand it. [Yes, there are some "mysteries" we have to accept without fully understanding them, such as how the Trinity works, how God can be eternal, the supernatural world, what heaven looks like, how Jesus can be both God and man, etc.... but NOT the false idea that God sovereignly controls sin (as Calvinists define it: preplanning/causing sin) but then He holds us responsible for it! That flies in the face of Scripture and it makes God the author/cause of sin, despite Calvinist attempts to deny/disguise it. God can be "in control" over sin - choosing what to allow, what to not allow, what consequences to allow for our sins, and how to work our self-chosen sins into His plans ... but He cannot preplan, predestine, actively control our sins, forcing us to sin without giving us any option to do anything differently, and yet hold us responsible for our sins, acting as if we had a choice about them. That - Calvinism - destroys the gospel, God's Word, and His character: His justice, trustworthiness, holiness, righteousness, etc. And this is why we must not "humbly accept" the garbage they're teaching. It's one thing to accept true biblical mysteries that God hasn't revealed to us - but it's a completely different thing to accept the convoluted, contradicting "mysteries" that Calvinism has created by taking Scripture out of context, redefining words and verses, and altering the clear teachings of Scripture.]
God can be trusted, even if we don't understand how it all works out. Humble people have no problem accepting God's sovereignty. It's only those who are proud and self-sufficient, who like to be in control, who don't like having anyone in authority over them, that have a problem with it. There are only three possible responses to this 'biblical truth': ignore it, get angry about it, or humbly accept it. [No disagreement allowed.]" [Manipulation after manipulation after manipulation!]
How in the world is that an acceptable, reasonable answer for a huge theological question that completely affects God's character and the gospel?
An answer like that won't hold up when it comes time to stand before God in the end and give an explanation for their theology, when He asks them, "What in the world were you teaching others about Me, and why?"
