Alana L. 5k ("sovereign" part 2/misunderstood)
This series is based on this 14-minute video from Alana L.: 5 Signs Your Loved One is Becoming a Calvinist
Misunderstood "sovereignty"
You see, the thing is (and what most people fail to realize is) that Calvinists incorrectly make sovereignty about how God must use His authority and power, believing that He must always be using His all-powerful authority all the time to preplan, cause, control everything, even sin and evil and unbelief, "or else He's not a sovereign, omnipotent, in-control God."
As John MacArthur says: "... [God] makes every decision that’s ever been made, essentially, about everything.... He is the decider and determiner of every person’s destiny, and the controller of every detail of every individual’s life. Which is only another way of saying God is God." (Doctrine of Election, part 1)
And John Piper ("Has God Predetermined Every Tiny Detail in the Universe, Including Sin?"): “Has God predetermined every tiny detail in the universe, such as dust particles in the air and all of our besetting sins? Yes… So the macro-world and micro-world are all managed by God. Which means, Yes, every horrible thing and every sinful thing is ultimately governed by God…a sovereign God who governs the dust motes, the waves (including tsunamis)... He controls everything, and he does it for his glory and our good.”
My ex-pastor's adult Calvinist son preached (Feb. 2019): "The whole testimony of Scripture is that human sin, angelic sin, disease, disaster, tragedy, plague... are all under the control of God, all ordained by God, and all accomplished by the sovereign Lord."
And my ex-pastor (Sept. 2016) rhetorically asks: “The question is ‘Do we really believe our theology, that God is sovereign, that He controls every detail of the universe, that He knows the good from the bad, that He has ordained it in our lives.'”
It is inherent in their view of God.
Calvinism is a great big bag of logical fallacies, bad assumptions and presuppositions, misunderstood concepts, incorrect definitions, philosophical contemplation, out-of-context verses reinterpreted to fit Calvinism, etc. And yet it all appears to be solid and rational because all their points uphold the others. But it's not grounded in a proper interpretation of the Bible or understanding of God's character.
Calvinists wrongly assume that for God to be "in control," it means He must control everything. They wrongly assume that if He "governs" all things and accomplishes His plans, it must mean He preplans, causes, orchestrates, directs everything to happen exactly as it does. They incorrectly assume that if He plans anything, it must mean He plans everything. They incorrectly assume that "God's Will" is everything that happens, exactly the way it happens, good or bad, and that if He does things "according to His Will," it must mean He wills everything. They incorrectly think that if "God causes everything to work together for good," it must mean "God causes everything for good" ... and that the only reason He foreknows/allows sin and evil is because He first planned it and then causes it... and that if He uses someone's sin in His plans, it must mean that He preplanned/causes their sin and that they had no ability to not sin, no choice to do anything different... and that He has to fully control evil or else it would control Him... and that in order to be sovereign, He must preplan, decree, cause, control all things that happen, including sin and evil, because He couldn't possibly still be God if He allowed people to make their own truly-free decisions.
John MacArthur ("Why does God allow so much suffering?"): "He controls everything... He's content to leave the responsibility for evil's existence and even its action, with Himself... God wills evil to exist... Let God be God and worship Him for the sovereign that he is... This is our God... You either believe in the God who is in complete control of evil, or you believe evil is in control of God, and He's reacting to it the best He can." [False dichotomy: "Either you agree that God controls evil like we Calvinists say He does... or you believe that evil controls God," as if those are your only two choices: Calvinism or "evil controls God".😕 It's a trap, as all their false dichotomies are, that suckers many people into Calvinism.]
John MacArthur ("Answering Big Questions About the Sovereignty of God"): “There is no difference between what God knows, what God allows and what God determines..." [In Calvinism, God foreknows/allows what happens only because He first predetermined it to happen. A deceptive, incorrect use of "foreknows" and "allows."]
John Piper ("Does God control all things all the time?"): "God works all things according to his will... I think that means he always controls everything. [That's a mighty big leap there!]... God governs all human plans and acts...everything that human beings do is, in the end, the will of God. [Another big leap.]... behind human acts, the biblical writers assume God [as the cause]."
John MacArthur (Divine Providence: The Supreme Comfort of a Sovereign God): "Well of course; He controls everything. He’s in complete control of evil. The devil is God’s devil; he’s totally controlled by God. [See! In Calvinism, "in control" is "controls." Another big, bad leap!] The world is controlled by God. Every single movement, as R.C. said, of every molecule is controlled by God, and a whole lot of it is evil. But if He didn’t control that, then it wouldn’t do any good to control only the good part because you’d be overwhelmed by the evil." [So if God didn't control evil - not just be "in control over it," but actually control it (plan, decree, cause, orchestrate, direct it, etc.) - then it would be too powerful for Him!?!😕 What kind of a wimpy God do they think He is? A God who is weaker than His free-will creations?]
J.I. Packer (Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God): “[God] orders and controls all things, human actions among them…He holds every man responsible for the choices he makes and the courses of action he pursues… Man is a responsible moral agent, though he is also divinely controlled.”
But contrary to Calvinism and its logical fallacies, false inferences, bad definitions, etc., true biblical "sovereignty" is not about how He uses His authority and power. It's about the position of authority God is in, how He reigns over all (sovereign) and has supreme power over all, even if He chooses not to actively use it all the time in every situation.
A king is still sovereign over his kingdom (the highest authority there is, reigning over the land, in charge over all) even if he doesn't preplan/control/cause everything his subjects do... except in Calvi-land, where the Calvi-king must preplan/cause/control every fart, burp, sin, evil, affair, betrayal, disaster, tragedy, illness, and rebellion, or else he's not really the king and doesn't have any power.
You see, if Calvi-god doesn't use his power and authority all the time, it means he has no power or authority. If he doesn't control everything, it means he can't control anything, that he has no control at all. If he doesn't control evil and Satan, then evil and Satan would control him and be too strong for him. If he plans/wills/causes/controls one thing, then it must mean he plans/wills/causes/controls it all. If he doesn't preplan/cause everything, it means he plans nothing, that he has no clue what's gonna happen, and that he can't work any of his plans out or work anything together for good. He must predetermine sin and cause people to be evil and do evil because he wouldn't know how to use people's self-chosen sins/evil or how to work it into his plans. If he allows people to make truly free-will decisions all on their own that he didn't preplan/cause/want/will/force - then it means that he's absolutely powerless, that humans are totally in control and way stronger than him, and that he'll never be able to accomplish what he planned.
Because apparently, if we were allowed to make truly free-will choices, it would thwart Calvi-god's plans and override his sovereignty and he'd cease to be god.
[So then, I wonder, how powerful and sovereign is Calvi-god really, if his power and sovereignty is dependent on our inability to make free decisions, if we mere humans could thwart him and remove his "God-ness" with one free-will decision?😕 And yet Calvinists accuse non-Calvinists of limiting God and His sovereignty! Ha!😖]
It's absurd nonsense!
It'd be like saying that if a parent allowed their child to freely choose what's for dinner, even one night in their whole lifetime - if the parent didn't cause the child to always choose exactly what the parent wanted/preplanned them to choose - then clearly the parent has absolutely no control or authority or power at all over their child ever, clearly the child has more power than the parent, and clearly the parent is totally helpless, totally at the mercy of the child, and totally unable to have plans or make any of their plans work out.
Totally irrational thinking!
Non-Calvinism's "sovereign, all-powerful, and in-control" is very different from Calvinism's version of it, which is "God must use His authority and power all the time to preplan, cause, and control everything, or else He's not a sovereign God."
One describes who God is (adjectives); the other describes what He does (verbs).
One lets God decide how He wants to act; the other tells God how He must act in order to be God.
In one, God can still be God even if He doesn't preplan/cause/control all things; but in the other, He can't.
In one, He's still wise enough to work His out plans even if people have the ability to make truly free-will decisions; but in the other, He's not.
In one, God gets glory in spite of sin; but in the other, he gets glory because of sin, by causing sin.
In one, God is still good and trustworthy even though He allows people to make their own sinful decisions, because He Himself did not plan/cause/force them to choose to sin; but in the other, he's not, because he did.
One is biblical; the other is not.
Calvinists don't realize it, but they're essentially telling God how He must act in order to be God. They're boxing Him into their ideas of Him, judging His "God-ness" based on whether or not He behaves according to their definitions and ideas of how a sovereign, omnipotent God must behave. (So who's really sovereign now, setting themselves up over God!?!)
And in the process, they actually destroy His character, His goodness, His righteousness/holiness, His trustworthiness, and they reduce Him, His complexity, and His power/wisdom, turning Him into a flat, two-dimensional god who can only operate in one way (by preplanning, causing, controlling everything) and who can only work out his plans if he himself preplans/causes/controls all factors, even sin, evil, and unbelief.
Because if there was even one speck of dust that Calvi-god didn't actively control, he wouldn't be god.
R.C. Sproul (Does God Control Everything?): “If God is not sovereign, God is not God. If there is even one maverick molecule in the universe – one molecule running loose outside the scope of God’s sovereign ordination – we cannot have the slightest confidence that any promise God has ever made about the future will come to pass.”
It'd be one thing to say "if there was a speck of dust He couldn't control then He wouldn't be God" (which I could agree with). But Calvinists mean "if there was even one speck of dust God didn't control then He's not God" (which is totally different and something I cannot agree with).
But a god who could be dethroned by one rogue speck of dust is really no god at all!
[And I ask: How can Calvinists trust Calvi-god to fulfill his promises when he's a god who says one thing but means another... who says he wants one thing while he causes the opposite... who decrees one thing but then decrees that people break those decrees... who commands us to do things he prevents people from doing (repent/believe/obey)... who commands us to not sin but predestined/causes us to sin anyway and then punishes us for it... and who gives some non-elect people evanescent grace to trick them into feeling truly saved when they're not? If you think a god like that is trustworthy and will keep his promises, I think you're in for a shock.]
God can be and is (except in Calvinism) sovereign, in control, and all-powerful over all things, even with giving true free-will to people, even with letting humans and demonic beings make bad decisions and cause trouble, even with letting dust and wind and waves move along according to the natural laws He set at the beginning, even without Him preplanning, controlling, causing everything that happens.
He's just that big of a God, a God who can handle everything, even things we do that He doesn't want, plan, or cause. He's still God, no matter what!
Because sovereignty is not about how He must act, but it's about who He is, His position over all. And as the highest authority there is, God gets to decide how to use His authority and power.
And I doubt He'd take very kindly to His creation telling Him what kind of God He must be and how He must behave in order to be God! [But if Calvinists can find even one verse that clearly and undeniably says how God must act in order to be "sovereign," that defines "sovereign/omnipotence" as how God must preplan, cause, control all things, including sin and evil and Satan and all our thoughts and decisions... or that says if there was anything He didn't actively preplan and control but simply allowed to happen then He wouldn't be sovereign or omnipotent... then I'll start to believe them a little more.]
God gets to decide how He uses His power and authority. And clearly, in the Bible, He has chosen to voluntarily restrain His ability/power to control everything in order to give us the free-will to make our own choices. And it's not because He's not all-powerful or not sovereign or is at the mercy of humans (a false accusation Calvinists make against us if we say that we have free-will), but it's simply because He wanted it that way.
He has the ability/power to preplan, cause, control all things, but He chooses not to because He wanted to give mankind free-will... because He wanted to spend eternity with people who voluntarily choose to love Him and obey Him (which necessitates giving people the option to reject/disobey Him)... because He didn't want to spend eternity with robots forced to love Him (where's the joy and glory in that!?!), but with people who truly, voluntarily want to be with Him too.
"Forced love" is no love at all. And since God is love, it makes sense He would love us with a non-forcing love and would want real, non-forced love in return.
(Would we be happy with forced love? No? Then why do Calvinists think God would be, expecting Him to settle for something we wouldn't settle for.)
In comparison to the Calvinist comments above about God's sovereignty and Him controlling/causing everything, even sin, evil, and Satan:
Here's how Dr. Tony Evans (whose theological views I trust far more than any Calvinist's views) defines sovereignty and providence - read carefully! - in The Tony Evans Bible Commentary (pg 22): "The sovereignty of God means that he exercises his prerogative to do whatever he pleases with his creation. His providence is the outworking of God's eternal plan for mankind and all of his creation. Providence is the invisible and mysterious hand of God at work in the details of history to bring to pass his sovereign will. God's providence includes every part of creation, from the inanimate world to individuals to entire nations. In his righteous, wise, and loving providence, God is bringing to pass his eternal purposes for his glory and our eternity."
He's saying that God has the right to do what He wants, when He wants. But he's not saying (as Calvinism says) that God always uses His right to do whatever He wants, by controlling everything, or that everything, even sin and evil, happens because God was pleased to do it.
He's saying that God has eternal plans (end goals, things He wants/wills to happen) and that He can work anything and everything together (people's choices, angelic choices, natural activities, all parts of His creation over history) in a way that will ultimately lead to and accomplish His overarching plans and end goals. But he's not saying (as Calvinism says) that God willed, planned, and causes everything that happens along the way to reach that end.
Contrarily, Wayne Grudem says this as part of his definition of "God's providence" (Systematic Theology, chapter 16): "... [God] cooperates with created things in every action, directing their distinctive properties to cause them to act as they do... The divine cause of each event works as an invisible, behind-the-scenes, directing cause...that plans and initiates everything that happens... All our actions are under God's providential care... The individual steps we take each day are directed by the Lord... God does indeed cause, through his providential activity, everything that comes about..." Which would include sin and evil and every tragedy.
This is very different from God merely working things He doesn't plan/cause together, to accomplish overarching end goals. In Calvinism, God doesn't just plan/cause all things to work together, He plans/causes all things. Very different!
But contrary to Calvinism, God doesn't have to preplan, cause, control sin and evil in order to use it for good. And because He doesn't preplan, cause, control sin and evil - but simply allows it and uses it - He can still be trusted (unlike Calvi-god).
God can be in control without controlling everything. He can bring His plans to pass without planning everything. He can find ways to incorporate and use even the things He didn't plan, want, decree, cause (sins, evil, various tragedies), mixing it all together in a way that leads to an end He does want - whereas the Calvinist god must preplan/control/cause it all or else it all falls apart and he's no longer god.
The God of the Bible is like a brilliant Master Chef (humor me here) who can take whatever ingredients we bring to the table (the good, the bad, the opposite of what He wanted or told us to bring, natural disasters, illness, everything, whatever it is) and work it together to create an amazing meal by adjusting the steps as needed to incorporate what we bring, ultimately accomplishing His over-all end goals.
But the Calvinist god must preplan every ingredient, every step, every detail and control every factor and cause it all to happen exactly the way he planned it - even every sin, rebellion, accident, tragedy, etc. - because if even one tiny ingredient, step, detail, mistake, or piece of dust happened that he himself didn't preplan, cause, or control, then the meal would be a complete disaster and his plans would be forever foiled. One rogue, unplanned, uncontrolled piece of salt would undo everything, and he'd cease to be a chef.
Which God do you think is bigger, wiser, more omnipotent, and more sovereign?
Is it the One who is truly in authority over all things, even things He doesn't plan/want/cause, and who can still work His plans out regardless of what happens... or is it the one who falls apart and ceases to be god if even one piece of uncontrolled dust roamed freely?
Verses Calvinists Can't Explain
True free-will - a God who voluntarily restrains His ability to preplan/control all things, in order to allow people the ability to make their own real decisions among real options that are truly available to them - is the only way to explain verses like these (as I already shared in point #3H):
Hosea 8:4: "They set up kings without my consent; they choose princes without my approval."
Jeremiah 19:5: "They have built the high places to Baal to burn their sons in the fire as offerings to Baal - something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind."
Isaiah 30:1: "Woe to the obstinate children," declares the Lord, "to those who carry out plans that are not mine..."
Acts 14:16: "In the past, he [God] let nations go their own way."
Kings 20:42: "He said to the king, 'This is what the Lord says: 'You have set free a man I had determined should die.''"
Exodus 13:17: "When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country. For God said 'If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt."
And why would Calvi-god say that he would destroy Ninevah in 40 days if he really never intended to destroy them because he knew all along that he was going to make them repent?
And if Calvi-god really did want Adam and Eve to eat the fruit like he predestined/caused, why tell them at first that he didn't want them to eat the fruit? (Can anyone ever really trust any command from Calvi-god if he's the kind of god who really wants us to do the opposite of what he commands us to do?)
And if Calvi-god himself is the one who determines/causes/controls everything Satan does, why would he give Satan limits on how much he could attack Job (in Job 1)?
And if Calvi-god controls/causes every single molecule, every movement of each wave and gust of wind... then why would Jesus rebuke the wind and the waves in Mark 4:39 (So Calvi-Jesus rebuked Calvi-god? Opposed Calvi-god? Undid what Calvi-god did?)... and why would Calvi-god need to set boundaries for the seas (Job 38:8-11, Ps. 104:9, Prov. 8:29, Jer. 5:22)?
Limits and boundaries are only needed if there is freedom to move within those boundaries. Limits and boundaries are not needed if God Himself preplans/controls/causes every molecule, every person, every angel/demon. Because in that case, it would only mean that God is giving Himself those boundaries and limits, tying His own hands, limiting what He can do. I mean, think about it, really.
The only answer Calvinists have for verses like those is their ridiculous and unbiblical "God has two wills" one, where God wills/decrees one thing but then He also wills/decrees that people disobey what He willed/decreed, which is essentially: "God says one thing but means another. God commands one thing but causes the opposite."
But once again, what does Scripture say about double-mindedness like that?
James 1:8: "A double-minded man [is] unstable in all he does."
Matthew 12:25: "Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand."
And yet this is the Calvinist god, a god of confusion and deception, a god who says one thing but means another, a god who commands one thing but causes the opposite, a god who works against himself and his own commands but blames people for it.
And so how can a god like this stand or be trusted!?!
Answer: He can't!
And if we don't have a trustworthy God, we've got nothing, and no reason to believe anything in His Word or trust that we're really saved.
(In that case, we should be pitied above all men, mocked and laughed at, not honored or admired for our faith.)
[The posts in this series will be added to the "Alana L." label as they get published.]
