Calvinism vs. Anti-Calvinism: My Reply to an Email I Received

I got an email not too long ago from someone who wanted to challenge me on my anti-Calvinist stance.  To sum up what she said:  

In a polite, gentle way, she essentially said that we find more peace resting in God's sovereign hand than in our own (My note: The Calvinist view of sovereignty is "God preplans, causes, controls everything that happens, including sin and evil," though they won't admit it this way.)...

that Calvinism is more humbling because it’s admitting that we did nothing to save ourselves because God did it all (My note: Well, if God did it all to save some people then He also did it all to damn the rest.)...

that Calvinism becomes beautiful as you see God's amazing love (My note: Amazing love for whom, I wonder?  For the non-elect whom He predestined for hell, whom He causes to sin and to reject Him but then He punishes them eternally for it, all for His glory?  Yep, really beautiful!  If that's "amazing love," then that's horrifying.)... 

and that Calvinism is more glorifying to God.  (My note: Calvinism: A theology where God is glorified by evil and sin and unbelief, where He preplans and causes evil and sin and unbelief for His glory, and where He predestines people to eternal hell for the evil and sin and unbelief that He preplanned and caused!  Horrifying!  And I wonder, how then is Calvinism's god any different from Satan?  And if Calvinism is "more glorifying" to God … and if Calvi-god is all about getting more glory for himself … then why does he cause most people to be anti-Calvinists, thereby robbing himself of glory?  And if I may also ask: If God is really a God who preplans, causes, and controls all sin and evil - if that's what it means to have a "sovereign" God - then how can anyone really find peace in resting in that kind of a hand?  Who could you go to for true help, comfort, healing, security, or justice if God Himself is the one who preplanned and caused the evils done to you by other people, if He was "glorified" by that kind of wickedness?  It's sick that a Calvinist would find "peace" in that kind of "sovereignty," that kind of god.  But, thankfully, Calvi-god is NOT the God of the Bible!)

Anyway, here is my reply to her, just because I want to share it:

Thank you, ***, for your email.  You sound like you have a really good heart, a real desire to glorify God, like some of my favorite Calvinist friends, some of the nicest people I know (which made it hard to tell them we disagree with them).  Don’t get me wrong: I, too, rest in God’s sovereign hand for salvation.  I believe He made it all possible: He created the idea of salvation, paid the price for our salvation, calls to our hearts to make us aware of our need for salvation, etc.  I trust that if I do what He said I need to do (repent and believe) then He will do what He said He would do (give me eternal life).

The difference, though, between my view and the Calvinist's view is that I believe salvation is available for all people, that the Holy Spirit calls to all people, that all people have the chance to believe and be saved.  God made salvation possible for all of us, and all we have to do is accept it.  (Accepting a free gift someone offers us is in no way working for it or earning it.)  But Calvinists think that God only truly calls a few people (the elect), that salvation is only for those few people, and that the Holy Spirit only helps those few people believe, repent, and be saved.  And everyone else is out of luck, hopelessly and helplessly on their way to hell.  Because in Calvinism, Jesus never died for the non-elect anyway.

Personally, knowing that God offers salvation to all people (even to those who would reject the offer) humbles me even more before Him, knowing that the Creator of the universe loves all of us so much that He would sacrifice Himself for us even though He knew many people would reject Him.  That is some amazing love!  And it makes me more in awe of Him and more trusting of Him … much more so than thinking (as Calvinists do) that God only really loves a few people while saying in His Word that He loves the world, that Jesus only died to save those few people while saying in His Word that Jesus died for all sins of all people, and that God deliberately created everyone else for hell because it brings Him glory somehow while saying in His Word that He wants no one to perish and that “whoever” wants to can come to Him and be saved.  (Not to mention that, in Calvinism, God is ultimately responsible for men’s sins and unbelief, but then He punishes us for it.)

What’s at stake here is not really how much glory God gets for our salvation, but what’s at stake is His character, the Gospel, the blood of Jesus.  Calvinists add a second layer to everything the Bible says about salvation, and this second layer actually contradicts the plain, clear reading of Scripture, what God said [*see note at bottom].  Can God be taken at His Word?  Does He mean what He says and say what He means?  Or is there a secret layer (Calvinism) that we have to discover, which contradicts what He plainly said?  If I have to choose between believing that God meant what He said the way He said it or believing that Calvinists have found a secret “higher” way of understanding what God said (which changes and contradicts what God actually said), then I’m going with the first.  It’s the only way to keep God’s character and the truth of the Gospel intact.

[And anti-Calvinists like myself believe in God’s sovereignty too, but we define it differently.  Calvinists think that being sovereign – all-powerful – means God has to use His power all the time to control everything, or else He can’t be God.  They basically tell God how He has to act in order to be God.  But sovereignty is about the position of power someone holds, not about how they have to use their power.  I believe God is sovereign over all, which means He gets to decide how to use His power and control in any situation.  And in His sovereignty, God has chosen to give people the choice to accept or reject Him.  And to correct something you said (that I am basically claiming that I have the ability to see my need for redemption but others don’t, which means I am claiming to be humbler or wiser than others - a classic Calvinist tactic): Everyone has the ability because God made it so, but if someone chooses to not accept the offer of salvation it’s because they didn’t want it, didn’t respond to God’s call on their hearts.  Calvinists wrongly assume that if someone doesn’t believe, it’s because they couldn’t believe, that God made it impossible for them to believe because He predestined them to hell.]

Thank you again for your very polite email.  I hope I have come across equally polite, even in trying to explain my problems with Calvinism.  God bless!  

- Heather

[Not in my reply to her: I just realized something I said that could totally be agreed with - but twisted - by Calvinists.  I said that "all people have the chance to believe and be saved."  And this is the kind of thing Calvinists would agree with.  But if they did, what they would really mean is "All people do not have the ability to believe and be saved, but ... All people have the chance to have their names picked in the 'salvation lottery,' the chance to be chosen by God to be one of the elect whom He will cause to believe and be saved."  

Can you see it?  In Calvinism, it's "All people have the chance ... to believe and be saved."  But this is far different than the commonsense way we understand "All people have the chance to believe and be saved."    

Always remember that with Calvinists, it's not what they say that's the problem; it's what they don't say, what they hide, what they leave out or cover up.  It's the "..." that changes it all.  There is always a deeper, hidden meaning to what they say, one that they don't want you to know about for as long as possible.  They want you to think they are saying one thing, when they are really saying something else which contradicts what they said and the commonsense meaning of what they said.     

Another phrase they will use is "Anyone can believe and be saved."  But, once again, they don't mean that all people have the ability to believe and be saved or that it's possible for all people to believe and be saved.  They just mean that God can pick anyone He wants to to become one of the elect, that anyone could have had their name chosen.  "Anyone can believe and be saved, if God wants them to be and elects them."  But once the names are chosen - and in Calvinism, God decided who gets heaven and who doesn't before time began - then only the lucky "elected" ones have the ability to believe and be saved, but the unlucky "non-elect" ones can never believe or be saved because God made it impossible for them to believe and be saved.

They'll agree that "the Holy Spirit calls to all people and salvation is offered to all people," but they don't mean that it's possible for all people to respond to the call or to accept salvation.  They just mean that even though the Spirit calls to all and salvation is offered to all, only the elect can/will respond to the call and accept the offer of salvation, but the non-elect can never do it because they are predestined to reject the call and the offer.  And yet Calvinists still call that "a real call, a real offer," even though the non-elect have no ability to accept it.

"For God so loved the world ..." doesn't mean, in Calvinism, that God loves all individual people.  Just that God loves mankind, people - the elect people - from all over the world.  (And if they agree that He does love the non-elect, they just mean that He cares about them enough to give them food and sunshine while they are alive, before sending them to eternal hell, just like He predestined for them.  Sick, sick, sick!  If that's love, then what's hate look like?)   

And so if a Calvinist ever says anything like "Anyone can believe.  All people have the chance to be saved.  God calls to all and offers salvation to all," they don't mean that it's possible for every individual to believe and be saved, just that God could have picked anyone to be one of the elected ones (we can't tell and don't know who's elect and who's not) and that only the elect ones can/will believe and be saved.  (It's funny and strange how adamant they are that they are not deceptive with their wording!  Or is it demonic?)]  

*Note: Here’s an example from the comment section of a post at Lighthouse Trails Research about how Calvinism’s twisting of verses (to fit their Calvinism) contradicts what God plainly said in His Word:

One guy (Matt) said that the idea of “God chose me, I did not choose Him” (Calvinism) is in the Bible.  And he quoted John 3:8 to “prove” it: “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so [it] is [with] everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

I replied: “You really have to read into John 3:8 to make it say that we don’t choose God but He chooses us.  Because it doesn’t say that.  It just talks about the Spirit working in unseen, invisible ways.  Because He is Spirit, not a physical body.  [John 3:6 even shows that it is contrasting physical birth to spiritual birth.  It’s about the difference between physical vs. spiritual, not about God choosing who gets saved and causing them to be believe.]  You are demonstrating Calvinism’s error from the beginning: they read what they want into verses to make it fit their theological views, even when it contradicts what the Bible plainly, clearly says: “Choose this day whom you will serve…” (Joshua 24:15)