A Calvinist pastor's 9-11 sermons (vs. C.S. Lewis)
With the anniversary of 9-11 approaching, I thought I'd once again interrupt the Alana L series, this time to share some quotes from my Calvinist ex-pastor's sermons about 9-11 or around the anniversary of 9-11. (I've shared all these before, so skip them in you want to.)
I'm so sorry to share these. Please don't read them if you were greatly hurt by 9-11, or any other tragedy. [Update: And speaking of tragedy: It's absolutely horrible and heartbreaking that Charlie Kirk was assassinated. It's just so senseless. It's not like he was a powerful political leader who made laws or rules that people didn't like or that affected their families or anything like that. He was just a normal guy who debated views and shared his opinions - opinions that some people didn't like. And for that someone killed him!?! Something isn't right here. May God expose what it is, and bring about justice, and protect and care for his family. My heart goes out to them! Heartbreaking!]
But these sermons are great examples of how hyper-focused Calvinists can be on God's "sovereignty" (hey, so maybe it does kinda fit with the Alana series on "sovereignty"😊), to the point that they can't even hear how heartless and tone-deaf (and unbiblical!) they sound about a horrible tragedy that destroyed many people and families and that greatly wounded our country. They can't even comprehend - or don't care about - the damage they might be doing to someone's faith in God. All they can think about is that they are supposedly glorifying God by singing the praises of His "sovereign control" and encouraging others to do the same, regardless of the tragedy that happened. (And they wonder why Calvinism makes people sick!)
My goal here is not to sling mud or to break people's hearts or shake people's faith, but it's to expose Calvinism for the anti-gospel, anti-truth, anti-God theology that it is. My goal is to wake people up and, yes, to be divisive - to do what I can to cut out a cancer that's invaded the church and is slowly killing it. Calvinism has hijacked our churches for far too long, and it needs to be stopped. But it can't be stopped if we keep ignoring it or politely tolerating it. And so I keep writing and sharing these things. [God, help us! What a mess the Church has become!]
[My comments are in brackets, black, and italics.]
... He exerts not merely a general influence but actually runs the world which He has created. [I have no problem with the idea that God is over all things or that He incorporates evil into His plans. I have a problem with the Calvinist idea that God predestines the evil and causes people to be/do evil, giving them no chance to be any other way.] The Bible teaches that God has what we might call 'complete operational jurisdiction' over His entire creation, over nations, over kings, over emperors, over rulers, and over our lives... Indeed, our God is in heaven and He does whatever pleases Him. [And so now Calvi-god is pleased to cause evil, tragedy, genocide, carnage. Sick! Tell me again, pastor, how Calvi-god is "good." 'Cuz I still don't get it.]
... [The doctrine of God's providence] is a huge source of comfort to the people of God because it is a regular reminder that whatever's going on in our lives, even if it's painful, it is being directed by an all-knowing, good, and loving, and wise heavenly Father, who does everything for His children out of His love.
... If you have any doubt that God is in absolute sovereign control over all things, if you have any doubt that He has complete operational jurisdiction over His universe, just notice how many times God says 'I will do this' or 'I will do that' [in Jeremiah 24:6-10]. [So because God has plans (in Jeremiah) and does certain things means, in Calvinism, that everything happens because He planned it and caused it. So, in Calvinism, if all monkeys are animals, it must mean that all animals are monkeys, right?😕]
... Truth #1 that should bring great comfort [that] whatever has happened to you or is going on right now in your life, a great comfort from Jeremiah 25 is that God is sovereign over nations, He is sovereign over rulers, He is sovereign over your life. Nothing happens in the weather, nothing happens on the political stage, nothing happens in your life, in your marriage, in your family, in your finances, nothing, nothing, nothing that God does not have absolute operational jurisdiction over. And that's a huge comfort to the people of God. [Really!?! Finding comfort in Calvi-god who first deliberately preplanned and caused the evils in your life, for his pleasure?]
... [Truth #2 is this:] The Puritans remind us that God often uses the ungodly, the evil, in order to specifically discipline, refine, chastise His saints, as much of a jolt as that may be to 21st century ears. And if we don't see that...we will miss God's loving hand of providence in our lives, we will focus on the injustice of what happened, and we will end up moving in a direction that is extremely unhealthy spiritually, emotionally, and psychologically. ["So don't think about how unjust it was that someone abused you or hurt you or that your spouse had an affair, but think about how loving Calvi-god was to ordain it in your life in the first place. Comforting!"
(Besides, if we move in that bad direction, isn't it because Calvi-god sovereignly ordained it? And how can we stop what Calvi-god predestined and causes?😕)
But I will agree that God sometimes uses unpleasant things in our lives. But that doesn't always mean that He preplanned/wanted/caused it; it could just be that He allowed it. And even though He might cause, say, a natural disaster, He does not preplan/want/cause evil or disobedience or sin. Natural disasters do not violate commands He gave us, but sin does, and so He cannot predestine/cause sin without destroying His character and trustworthiness.
And when it comes to "allowing" bad things, I think He sometimes allows bad things for a reason, but other times He simply allows them - with no "for a reason" attached, other than that He allows people a lot of freedom to make their own choices, even bad ones that hurt others. (Personally, I think this is how it most often is, that bad things happen simply because He allowed us to make our own decisions or allowed nature to take its natural course, not necessarily because He wanted it to happen for a particular reason.)
I think there's a lot more possibilities of what's behind the things that happen than Calvinism's "God preplanned and caused everything for a reason." Calvinism has a very flat, 2-dimensional god that can only act in one way. I guess he's not so complex, lofty, powerful, and mysterious after all, as Calvinism usually paints him.]
Bottom line is this, how I respond to any mistreatment, how you respond to any mistreatment from anybody, righteous or unrighteous, my response shows my view of who God is... And unless I humble myself and seek Him, I'm going to get bitter [by Calvi-god's decree, as predestined] and perhaps invite further discipline, if I don't understand what He's doing. God sometimes uses unjust people to discipline, refine, and humble His saints in ways that, frankly, leave us baffled, may leave you baffled in your own life or watching a loved one or watching a child or watching a parent or a friend or neighbor or somebody else. It's baffling, and it goes back to who is God and do we trust Him. ["Shame on you for distrusting God by being upset about the evil and abuse He lovingly brought on you! Shame, shame!" And FYI: Calvi-god "uses" only what he first preplanned and causes. That's what "uses" (and "allows") means. First he plans it, then he causes it - allowing what he planned to happen, and only what he planned - and then he uses it. Very deceptive (very Calvinist!), because that's not how most of us think of "use" and "allow." (Remember this anytime you hear a Calvinist use these words.)]
The third truth we learn here, which almost now will seem completely contrary [it seems completely contrary for a very good reason!], is that God will punish those who do the evil to us. God will punish them. The Bible serves us notice that no matter what God's Will might be for the decisions and choices of others and how those choices impact our lives, that in the end, all human beings are accountable for their moral choices and what they do to other people. [Notice that they're "moral" choices - about moral issues - but they're just not "free" choices.]
... This is where this sermon starts getting really, really weird... And by the way, this is a very sanitized presentation of what Nebuchadnezzar did. You gotta think of something like the Nazis, Isis. This is a brutal invasion...slaughter...pillaging, destruction, killing ["flying planes into towers"]...and who did it!?!... God says three times 'He's my servant and he's doing exactly what I ordained him to do.'
...The mysterious providences of God. There are times when after studying a [Bible] passage, you will look up and have a bit of a headache... It is God's Will, in verse 9, for Nebuchadnezzar to attack, pillage, and enslave the people of Judah...but then in verse 12, it is God's Will to punish Nebuchadnezzar for enslaving and attacking His people.
... In other words, there are times when God will seem to will things in one direction...but then it will - and I'm going to use the word in quotes, because I don't understand it - it will 'appear' God wills something in the exact opposite direction simultaneously. Here we come to something that [heretical] theologians throughout history call 'the two wills of God' [unbiblical!]... meaning that when God wills something on one level, He will appear to will its opposite on another level at the same exact time. [So I guess the word "appears" fixes it all, making it all okay and logical and non-contradictory, huh?😕 But this is not that hard to understand, once you understand it correctly: Biblically, God allows people to be evil and then, if He chooses to, He can incorporate their self-chosen evilness into His plans, using it for good or for discipline or justice or whatever. But He does not preplan/cause them to be evil or irresistibly do evil, as Calvinism thinks He does, which creates a huge theological mess and destroys God's righteous character.]
An example of this is the doctrine of predestination. In 1 Timothy, God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. But in Romans 9:18, the apostle Paul writes that God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy and hardens whom He wants to harden, in the context of they don't have salvation. So in one level, it is God's Will for all people to be saved. On another level, we're told at the same time that God chooses to have mercy on some and to pass over others and harden them. [Romans 9 is not about the salvation of individuals! But if you let Calvinists convince you it is, you will become a Calvinist!]
... Do you find it strangely comforting that God's ways are mysterious?" [Gaslighting: "It's good that you can't understand this, isn't it? That you can't figure out why it's still good even though it sounds so terrible? Trust me, it's good, even though it's not."]
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2. His September 12, 2021 sermon (the following year's anniversary sermon) about the devil being "God's devil," almost 20 years to the day of 9-11:
[Regarding a quote from a non-Calvinist pastor who, right after 9-11, said that "9-11 was of the devil, God had nothing to do with it":] "Why should a Christian cringe at that statement? Because God had everything to do with 9-11. If He didn't, then He's not God. Period! That doesn't mean that He's the one who instigated flying airplanes into buildings and all, but God signed the authorization papers!
I was interviewed the morning of 9-11...and asked 'Where was God on 9-11?'... And I said something along the lines of 'Well, I guess He's in the same place He was on 9-10. He's on the throne! Let us never forget that God was not caught by surprise today. He is the one orchestrating world events. He gave life and breath to those 19 men who were murdering thugs. He knew exactly what was going on. He was directing the whole thing.'
[Ugh, he said this publicly the very morning of 9-11! (And they wonder why Calvinists have such a bad name!) And notice how he's saying that if God didn't "orchestrate and direct" an evil like 9-11 then He can't be God, that for God to be God He must be directly behind all evils!?!😕😖 (And they wonder why people have such trouble with Calvinism!)
By saying "orchestrating and directing," he means that God preplanned, caused, controlled the whole thing. And this contradicts his statement of "that doesn't mean that He's the one who instigated flying airplanes into buildings." Calvinists do this all the time. They first make it sound like they mean "God allows our evil choices," but then they slowly and strategically reel you into what they really believe: that God preplanned, caused, controlled, orchestrated, directed all evils. So if a Calvinist sounds like they're teaching "free-will" at some point, just wait. They will qualify, change, or adjust it later until it's not free-will at all, at least not in the way everyone but them defines "free." (Note: Calvinist "Compatibilism" is one of their attempts at this, wrapping "meticulous divine determinism" up in "free-will" language. But don't fall for it. It's not "free" at all.)
FYI: Biblically, God does orchestrate and direct things - but the difference is that He lets us choose first what we will do, whether we will obey or disobey, and then He works what we choose into His plans. We are not forced to do what we do - we could've chosen otherwise - but He can work whatever we choose into His plans and bring good out of it. But in Calvinism, God "orchestrates and directs" not by merely allowing and incorporating our free choices, but by preplanning, causing, controlling everything we choose - whether we obey or disobey, do evil or good - to work everything out exactly as He planned, and we had no option or ability to choose anything else. These are very different Gods! And One is still good and trustworthy and is big-enough and wise-enough to handle whatever we throw at Him, but the other isn't.)]
Satan carried it out. Satan is accountable, those men are accountable... but they didn't do it somehow separate from God's authority or jurisdiction. God signed the authorization papers! Like it or hate it.
God had everything to do with 9-11. He has everything to do with any other tragedy. God never, ever, ever tries to get Himself off the hook when it comes to worldwide tragedies. He takes full credit for Noah's flood or any other major tragedy you see in life. [For God to cause a flood that takes people's lives is far different than for God to, say, cause people to commit murder. God doesn't have commands against floods (and He alone has the right to take life when He wants to), but He does have commands against murder. And so it would be totally contradictory, two-faced, and unjust for Him to cause people to murder (and then to punish people for it), but not to cause a flood. Natural disasters and moral evils are nowhere near the same thing.] Because God wants you to know that He is the one running the show. He is the one who signs the authorization papers for anything that happens on our planet.
... God uses wicked agents, people, to do His deliberate plan. [It's biblical for God to "use" wickedness and to work our bad choices into His plans, but it's not biblical for God to "ordain/preplan/cause" wickedness and wicked desires, to give people no chance to choose anything else, and to then punish people for doing what He preplanned/caused them to do. But that's what happens in Calvinism.]
... We often agonize over things like predestination and human accountability, but the Bible shows no tension whatsoever around predestination and human accountability [Sure, the Bible doesn't have tension with it. The tension comes in when Calvinists misunderstand these things, when they create an unbiblical view of them.]
... How's that fit together? I don't have a clue. But there you have it. God has a sovereign, divine plan that even includes how people respond and yet those people are still fully accountable. [So he can't understand it and has no clue why or how this is true (apparently the Bible doesn't say)... and yet we're supposed to simply believe him and trust him to accurately teach biblical truth!?! Why on earth would we get our biblical information from those who claim they can't even understand it or know why it's true!?!]
... God has purposes for allowing and ordaining satanic and demonic conflict at times [In Calvinism, God "allows" only what He first preplanned and causes.]... And the point is that the devil is God's devil. He exists, he functions, he operates, only under the authorization papers and sovereign hand of an all-powerful God who is using him for His ends and purposes..." [Once again, "using" Satan's actions is one thing, but preplanning, causing, controlling Satan's actions is another. As he said in July 23, 2023: "The devil is God's devil... Everything Satan does is under God's sovereign power... Satan and his angels are exactly on schedule, doing exactly what God intended for them to do."]
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3. His November 10, 2019 sermon about Job, about trusting God when He doesn't make sense in our times of confusion, pain, suffering, and uncertainty (he started this sermon with a true-life story of a young father who died early of cancer): "God is in full control of His universe, including suffering and tragedy... Too often when Bible-believing Christians in the west see tragedy, see calamity or experience it in their own lives, we want to immediately go to blaming Satan or his demons, that anything uncomfortable, anything painful, anything that smacks of suffering, uncertainty, betrayal, pain, misery, automatically comes only from Satan.
... As western evangelicals, our immediate default is to try to get God off the hook. 'God could not have been involved in that tsunami... in the events of 9-11... in my cancer... in the death of that child, and on and on.'... You may not like everything you hear this morning...but I'm not going to try to fix it up... I am supposed to get [it] accurate as the Author intended. [Well, you've failed miserably!]
And Job is very clear that God is in full control of the universe, including suffering and tragedy. And when I want to go to default and get God off the hook for suffering and tragedy, it's interesting that - in the Bible - God always puts Himself right back on the hook... He alone sends and withholds calamity... God is in full control of His universe, including suffering and tragedy. And frankly, He's not interested in trying to get off the hook. [First off, causing a "calamity" like a plague or illness is far different than causing a "calamity" like a moral sin, like murder or abuse. God doesn't have commands against illness, but He does have commands against sin. Secondly, I don't think God "sends" every tragedy, but that He often just allows tragedies that happen because we live in a fallen world with fallen people that do fallen things and we have a fallen creation/nature that's breaking down and going awry. And because He gave us real free-will, it's led to many problems over the course of history and in our lives that God didn't "send," but that we did. He just allowed it. Thirdly, I see no verse in the Bible saying that God alone sends or withholds all calamities, as my ex-pastor seems to say. He's most likely thinking of Isaiah 45:7 (a verse used by many Calvinists) which says "I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster..." However, notice that it doesn't say He alone is responsible for all disasters, just that He brings disaster. And to bring an occasional disaster in no way implies that He brings all disasters or that He causes the sin-disasters or moral tragedies/sufferings in our lives and world, such as genocide, rape, divorce, abortion, drug addictions, etc. Yet this is how Calvinists interpret that verse, that God is behind all natural and moral evils. And fourthly, Strong's Concordance with Vine's Expository Dictionary says exactly what I'm saying, that the word "disaster" ("evil" in the King James) does not imply moral "evil," but it means the opposite of peace, welfare, wellbeing. Basically, it means that God either is involved in our lives and blesses us or that He withdraws from our lives and withholds His blessings, leaving us to ourselves (often as punishment or discipline or to turn us to Him), which leads to "disaster/lack of peace and wellbeing" in our lives. Strong's/Vine's says that this verse is saying that God created a universe ruled by moral order and that man's wickedness leads to disaster and misfortune, and so if God withholds His powerful hand and leaves men to their ungodly selves then He has created a situation where peace and wholesomeness won't exist because ungodly men destroy themselves and their chance for peace when they turn from God. That's what this verse means. Not that God deliberately causes, sends, or promotes moral evils or all tragedies/suffering.]
... God allows and appoints suffering for His own good reasons... What caused all of [Job's] tragic disasters?... God allows-slash-appoints tragic disasters. These are really two sides of one coin. Saying 'God allowed it' is too soft. God clearly is orchestrating what is going on here. [Uh, no. He steps back and lets it happen, gives permission to let it happen, which is not at all the same thing as appointing or orchestrating it, duh!]... and He ordains suffering for His own good reasons.
... Why did all these horrible things happen to Job?... [Some Christians say] Satan alone caused these disasters...that God turned everything [in Job's life] over [to Satan]... But it's clear Satan is certainly behind these events, but he had to ask permission to touch Job, and it's God who signed the authorization papers. That is a very key piece of theology a lot of people miss. [No, it's a key piece that Calvinists get wrong. Only in Calvinism is "allowing/signing the authorization papers" the same thing as "orchestrating, controlling, ordaining, appointing, etc." But biblically, God did turn Job over to Satan, within boundaries. Satan decided which disasters hit Job. Satan caused them. And God let it happen. This is not "orchestrating," unless you're a Calvinist. God can and does "orchestrate" how to incorporate our/Satan's evil into His plans, to bring good out of it, but this doesn't mean He orchestrates that we and Satan do evil or that He orchestrates the evil we do. Simply put, God decides how to use our choices in His plans, but He doesn't decide/plan/force what we choose. He chooses how to use our evil, but He doesn't choose that we do evil or choose the evil we do. Two very different things! "Causing all things to work together for good" does not mean "causing all things." Unless you're a Calvinist.]
... [After 9-11, one pastor said] 'Listen, God had nothing to do with 9-11. Nothing!'... And I sat back and cringed, because what he was really offering theologically was far worse. Why? Because if God had nothing to do with 9-11, then where was He on 9-11? [So Calvinists think it's better if God orchestrates - fully preplans and causes - all tragedies and evils than simply allows people to make evil decisions on their own. Calvinists would rather have a God like that, convinced it somehow makes Him more trustworthy. And notice that, in Calvinism, if God doesn't fully orchestrate/control evil, then it must mean He is totally absent and uninvolved in it, totally out of control. A false dichotomy, presenting those as the only two ways God could possibly operate in the universe.)
... God is running the universe, and He knows what He's doing, even if we're absolutely confused and grieving at the moment... God ultimately allowed and orchestrated these disasters. [In Calvinism, God "allows" only what He first preplans and orchestrates, exactly as it happens, even things He commands us not to do. Calvinists contradict the basic commonsense understanding of "allows," and so it's deceptive whenever they use that word. Remember this.]
... God doesn't want to get off the hook... In the end, the devil is God's devil. Satan is a puny pawn in the hand of an almighty, holy God. And even though he thinks he's waging war, in the end he will find out he did exactly as God sovereignly decreed, under God's sovereign decree. And that God is good and Satan is evil. [And we're supposed to just believe you!?! At least with Satan, we know what we're getting. We expect him to be a liar, deceiver, trickster, an instigator/encourager of evil and abuse and violence and rebellion against God, to be delighted with sin, to want people into hell, etc. We know not to trust him. But with Calvinism's god, we're told that he's good and righteous and just and that we need to trust him, even though he says one thing but means another, has the same desires as Satan (wanting sin/evil/people in hell, being glorified by sin/evil/people in hell, promoting rebellion against God, etc.), and is ultimately no different than Satan on the inside because he's behind everything Satan does.😕😖]
... Now I don't know how to put all that together [because his theology is wrong!] and it gives me a headache [because his theology is wrong!], but I do know that if your theology doesn't give you a headache sometimes, it's probably a product of your own creation." [Gaslighting - trying to trick you into shutting off your alarm bells and accepting something you know sounds wrong. And trying to convince you that if you disagree with him, then you're rejecting the Bible and making up your own stuff. "Shame, shame on you!"]
(trick question)
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Good stuff, huh? Let's keep going...
Here are a few more sermons that aren't on the anniversaries of 9-11 or about 9-11 directly, but that are about God causing all evils/tragedies and controlling all wicked people, causing them to do what they do.
4. His October 27, 2019 sermon on forgiveness: "How you handle and respond to mistreatment - when someone has hurt you, wounded you, lied about you, betrayed you, abused you - or me - how I respond directly reflects what I really believe about God deep down inside. The ability to forgive...requires a proper understanding of who God is and His providence in our lives - it's critical - and of God's authority in your life.... One of the things the Puritans got really, really well was God's providence, God's sovereignty, God's authority... They understood that God sovereignly chooses to use evil people and sinful people in our lives as believers, if we know Christ, ON PURPOSE to humble us and teach us dependence on Him... God is orchestrating events and He's still sovereign over the process... Biblical forgiveness is an affirmation that God is good and that He has A RIGHT to use ANYBODY in our lives for His purpose, His glory, and for our good."
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5. His March 2, 2014 sermon about finding hope in hard times: “God is on the throne! Random evil doesn’t just happen to people. Random loss doesn’t just occur in our lives. God is in control of each aspect of every detail, right down to our salvation, right down to our health, and jobs, and employment, and our spouse and our children and our livelihood.
… God is sovereign over history… Arthur Pink wrote a book called The Sovereignty of God, and he said that the sovereignty of God – His absolute control of every atom of the universe [an unbiblical Calvinist definition of sovereignty] - is designed to inspire hope… Random evil doesn’t just occur. God is sovereign over history.… God is sovereign over our losses… No matter what God has taken away from us, God is sovereign over loss.
... We want to get God off the hook, saying 'God didn’t do this.'...and every time we try to, God puts Himself back on the hook in the Bible and says, 'Yes, I did!'
… God is sovereign over those who seek to harm us. Who of us hasn’t been harmed by somebody?... We’ve had people betray, lie, steal, vilify, slander, and do unspeakable things to us. Some of us have undergone horrific abuse at the hands of parents or aunts or uncles or brothers. God is sovereign over those who seek to harm us.... That means, friends, that there is no such thing as random evil or random acts of tragedy.
By the way, I think that those who get this best are the English Puritans… they understood about God using evil people in our lives...that God does it for a reason, for example, to bring us to faith in Christ, or to refine us, or to help us become holy, or to strip us of pride, or to be able to comfort others who’ve gone through similar circumstances. [I wonder what his reason is for "using" evil in the lives of the non-Calv-elect, since it's not to refine them or bring them to faith or comfort them?😕]
... John Flavel in The Mystery of God’s Providence says '… In all the sad and afflictive providences that befall you, eye God as the author. Set before you the sovereignty of God…' Amen!?!” [No! Not Amen! Not with the way Calvinists define sovereignty. Sicko!]
[He loves the Puritans and repeatedly quotes from them as though they were theological experts we need to emulate. But did you know that essentially every Puritan ended up dying in terror, not knowing for sure if they were truly saved or not? See Andy Woods' sermon Neo-Calvinism vs. The Bible, starting at the 46:00 minute-mark.]
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... Are you trusting God in the midst of your past, present, and future in whatever He has ordained and appointed for you as far as suffering, tragedy, abuse, or trials or difficulties or illness or disease or betrayal? [So in Calvinism, all your tragedies, suffering, trauma, abuse, betrayals - all evils done to you - were God's "Plan A" for you, deliberately and directly appointed specifically for you. God never had any other plans for you but those things. (No wonder many Calvinists are leaving the faith, and no wonder there's so many atheists out there if this is what they're told God is like!)😖]
... Or are you murmuring against Him?... Do you perhaps need to repent of your murmuring...and surrender today and say 'Lord, I don't understand the way You run the universe, and I don't necessarily like it, but You're God and You're good.' It'll make all the difference in your path to healing. All the difference. [So first he tells us that our traumas/abuse were God's Plan A for us, deliberately planned for us by God... and then he shames us for being upset about it, accusing us of criticizing/doubting/dishonoring God if we are upset.😕]
... Some of our hearts this morning are breaking. Find refuge and hope in a good and holy God who says 'I have all things under My control. Everything that's going on in your life, or has gone on in your life, or will, I know about and have ordained for you. And you can find comfort and hope and trust Me.'"
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... #1) God is good* all the time... Our God is a loving God and He is good* to the core of His being, no matter what happens in the world... He is good* and even what He does is good*, even when cancer strikes, even when I'm lied about, even when we lose a child, lose a job, lose a dream, tragedy strikes, we lose somebody we love. God is good*... 'In light of our rebellion, why is God so good* to us?'
... #2) God is all-wise, all-knowing, and all-powerful, and He doesn't owe us any explanations... [God's] providence means He's all-powerful, all-wise, and He governs all things... But providence is more than God just having advanced knowledge... God's providence means His sovereign, wise leading and active directing of all things for His glory, and of all events, everything, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Friends, this is tonic to a weary soul, to know that a good* God is all-wise and all-powerful, that whatever He's doing, no matter how much I'm confused by it, is ultimately being done for my good and His glory, even when the timing of what He's doing results in painful circumstances, in sorrow, in weeping, in heartache, in loss.
... If you're in the midst of deep water right now, pain, suffering, a season of grief and loss, are you trusting God with your pain and suffering? Are you rejoicing or are you murmuring?... The Bible reminds us that God is good*, and fully in control of everything, the good, the bad, and the ugly. What sustains true born-again Christians in the face of horrific natural and moral evils is not explanations but God's promises."
[*Notice in his sermons how many times he calls Calvinism's god "good." The fact that he has to stress this so much tells us that he knows Calvi-god doesn't sound good at all, but that he sounds very evil. And I have a few questions: What does "good" mean when it acts just like evil? Where is the line between good and evil, God and Satan, when they look and act the same? How much more would it take for Calvi-god to become a bad, evil god... or is any level of evil okay simply because he's "God"? And what kind of a god is glorified by causing evils, not just glorified in spite of evil, but by it? And would you trust the promises of a god who deceives, who plans/orchestrates evil, who commands us not to do evil but predestines/causes all evil but then punishes us for it? Should we trust a god like that? Why?]
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8. His Christmas season sermon - Hallelujah, Merry Christmas! - December 8, 2024 ("Merry Christmas to all you people who are hurting because of the evil done to you! May you take comfort in knowing that God planned it and caused it all!"):
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9. And finally, his June 26, 2022 sermon about Joseph and forgiveness: "Today we are going to be talking about one of the hardest things a human being can be called on to do, and that is to forgive someone who's abused them. Some of you have been horrifically abused and treated horribly by somebody... And the question is 'How do you forgive them?'... Some of us are sitting here today and the pain is so very deep about the way we've been treated by somebody... physically abused, verbally abused, emotionally abused, lied about, oppressed, taken advantage of, wrongly blamed... and here's the decision we face: 'Will I become bitter and hold a grudge, or will I choose to forgive and let it go?'
And here's the key: My choice at that point - how I choose to respond to someone who has abused me - shows what I really think about God... All of our bitterness is ultimately traceable to resentment of God. Why? Because it was God who brought these circumstances into our lives in the first place, painful as they may be.
... And if I'm going to say 'I will not forgive this person. I'm going to hold it over their head,' then what I'm saying is 'No matter what You decided, Lord, no matter how You arranged this, You're the one that's guilty. And I am bitter and resentful towards God.'
... [Then he talks about the evils and abuse Joseph faced in the Bible, and he says:] It doesn't just say God used it for good. No! God arranged this for good... '[God] ordained the whole process.'... God is fully sovereign and in control, and He is good..."
[Once again: Where in Calvinism is the line between good and evil? When "good" looks and acts just like evil, can it still be "good"? How close does "good" have to get to evil before it stops being good and starts being evil? Or is any amount of evil okay for Calvi-god because Calvinists still call him a "good god" no matter what he does? So while it might be evil if someone else does it, it's always "good" when he does it, just because?😕😖]
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C.S. Lewis on a good God and His Will
My ex-pastor basically teaches that whatever God does is good, even if it's evil, because He is God and cannot do evil.
This is a very Calvinist thing, turning evil into good as long as God (Calvi-god) is the one who wills it/does it/causes it.
John Calvin (in Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God): "... God may be free of guilt in doing the very thing that He condemns in Satan and the reprobate and which is to be condemned by men... For what man wickedly perpetrates, incited by ambition or avarice or lust or some other depraved motive, since God does it by His hand with a righteous though perhaps hidden purpose - this cannot be equated with the term sin. Sin in man is made by perfidy, cruelty, pride, intemperance, envy, blind love of self, any kind of depraved lust. Nothing like this is to be found in God." [Translation: "Our motives and natures determine if it's sin or not. And so God can do the same evils Satan and wicked men do, but it's not sin for Him because He has a good nature with pure motives, but it is sin for us because we have a sin nature with bad motives. And so He is still righteous and good when He does them, but we're sinful and evil and get punished when we do those very same things."😕]
A Calvinist, RadCentristThrowaway (on a reddit post about what happens to children who die too young) said this in response to "God wouldn't be very just if he sent people to hell who weren't given the choice or a way to sanctify.": "God is the one who dictates what is just. Just because it doesn't seem just to me (or indeed, to ANY human) says nothing about whether it is just." [Translation: "Any apparent injustice God does is always 'just,' just because He's the one doing it. We humans just can't tell the difference between just and unjust the way God can. What's injustice in our eyes is justice in God's eyes." Question: If we can't discern justice from injustice - if they appear the same or are really both one and the same - then how can we carry out God's commands to do justice?😕]
He also says in another thread on the same post "Further, sin is transgression against God's law. God has not given Himself any law that says He cannot do these things, therefore it is not sin for Him to do them." [Johngalt1234 responds, accurately summing up Calvinism's view of God: "So God be as evil as he likes and it wouldn't be inconsistent with his character?"]
Jonathan Edwards said this in "Remarks on Important Theological Controversies, Chapter III": "... God has decreed every action of men, yea, every action that is sinful... he determines that there shall be such actions, and just so sinful as they are... God does not decree the actions that are sinful as sin, but decrees them as good... God decrees that they shall be sinful, for the sake of the good that he causes to arise from the sinfulness thereof; whereas man decrees them for the sake of the evil that is in them."
[Translation (I think): "God decreed all sin but since He does it for good reasons, it's not sin for Him; but since we do it for bad reasons, it is sin for us." And can you see the great lengths they go to - the convoluted nonsensical babbling they engage in - to try to say that God's responsible for evil without sounding like they're saying God's responsible for evil? Ridiculous! (But it works, seeing as how many people and churches have embraced Calvinism, unaware of or unconcerned about what it's really teaching.)]
William Boekestein (Ligonier Ministries, "Is God in Control of Everything?"): "Sovereignty is complicated, so it is important to understand the purpose behind God's governing of both good and evil. If God's providence seems blameworthy to us it is because we forget that God is executing His good plan..." [So it's okay for Calvi-god to cause any evil he wants to because he's "sovereign" and has good things he's trying to accomplish. He can cause any evil he needs to in order to work his good plans out... and it automagically makes the evil "good." So in Calvinism, the ends justify the means, any means, all means, evil means!]
(Sovereignty is only that "complicated" when you misunderstand it that badly, twisting it to try to teach that God preplans, ordains, decrees, causes, controls all evil, sin, and unbelief.)
John MacArthur would agree, saying that whatever God does - even if it seems evil or unjust to us - is okay because He is God and can do whatever He wants, and so anything He does is good and just, just because He does it (Doctrine of Election, part 1):
"... The pervasive notion of these skeptics and critics of this doctrine is that somehow election is unfair. Somehow it is unjust. But first of all, we want to make it very clear that God is not to be measured by our understanding of what is just... God has ways and thoughts that are to us incomprehensible, unresolvable, inscrutable... And so whatever he says is just is what justice is. [But the problem isn't about what God says is just, but it's about what Calvinists say God says is just. And that's very different!]
... And whatever it is that he wills is by definition just because he is just. It is just because he wills it. It is not because he sees that it is just that he wills it, it is that he wills it and then it becomes just." [And so, therefore, whatever Calvi-god wills to happen automatically becomes good and just - even evil, sin, murder, abuse, and unbelief - just because he willed it. It's not that he does what's just, but it's that whatever he does is just, just because he does it.]
But contrary to MacArthur, to Calvinists, to my ex-pastor, who say that whatever Calvi-god does - even sin and evil - is just and good just because he causes it, C.S. Lewis (love him!) says this in The Problem of Pain, chapter 6:
"It has sometimes been asked whether God commands certain things because they are right, or whether certain things are right because God commands them... I emphatically embrace the first alternative. The second might lead to the abominable conclusion...that charity is good only because God arbitrarily commanded it - that He might equally well have commanded us to hate Him and one another and that hatred would then have been right. I believe, on the contrary, that 'they err who think that of the will of God to do this or that there is no reason besides His will.' God's will is determined by His wisdom which always perceives, and His goodness which always embraces, the intrinsically good. But when we have said that God commands things only because they are good, we must add that one of the things intrinsically good is that rational creatures should freely surrender themselves to their Creator in obedience. The content of our obedience - the thing we are commanded to do - will always be something intrinsically good, something we ought to do even if (by an impossible supposition) God had not commanded it."
Lewis is saying that he disagrees (with Calvinism's view) that God commands everything, even sin and evil, and that it then becomes "good" simply because He commands it (other words Calvinism uses: "decrees, ordains, causes, wills, controls, etc."). He disagrees that God's Will is based only on God's Will, that God arbitrarily decides what happens, good or evil... and that it all magically becomes "good," even if it's evil, simply because it's "His Will."
[Note: Calvinists misunderstand - among almost everything else - the idea of "God's Will." They think it's about everything that happens, that just because it happens it must be "His Will," that God always causes whatever He wills to happen. But according to the concordance, God's Will is about what He prefers to have happen, His desire for us and what He wants us to do. But we have the choice of whether to obey His Will or to ignore/reject/disobey it.]
Lewis believes that God commands what's intrinsically good, that first God knows/sees what's good and then He commands it because it's good, not the other way around as Calvinists say. Something doesn't become good just because God commands/causes/wills it. It either is or isn't good, and God commands what's good. And just because He allows people to disobey His commands, make bad decisions, and resist His Will doesn't make it "good/God's Will." It just makes it sin and contrary to His Will.
But in Calvinism, God's Will is everything that happens, good or evil. And because it's "His Will," it automatically becomes good, even if it's evil. (But we dumb humans just can't see it the way God does. It might look evil to us, but it's good to God just because He willed it.)
John Calvin (Institutes of the Christian Religion, book 1): "... [God's will is] the most perfect cause of all things..."
R.C. Sproul Jr. (Almighty Over All): “God wills all things that come to pass"
Gordon H. Clark (Predestination): “[Some people] do not wish to extend God’s power over evil things, and particularly over moral evils… [But] the Bible therefore explicitly teaches that God creates sin.”
Edwin Palmer (The Five Points of Calvinism): “All things that happen in all the world at any time and in all history… come to pass because God ordained them. Even sin– the fall of the devil from heaven, the fall of Adam, and every evil thought, word, and deed in all of history… Foreordination means God’s sovereign plan, whereby He decides all that is to happen in the entire universe… He decides and causes all things to happen that do happen... He has foreordained everything… even sin...”
Gordon H. Clark (Religion, Reason, and Revelation): “I wish very frankly and pointedly to assert that if a man gets drunk and shoots his family, it was the will of God that he should do it… Let it be unequivocally said that this view certainly makes God the cause of sin. God is the sole ultimate cause of everything…”
James White, in answer to the question [listen here]: “When a child is raped, is God responsible and did He decree that rape?”, says "... Yes, [He decreed it] because if not, then it's meaningless and purposeless..."
A Calvinist grandfather-to-be (quoted in "The total depravity of certain Calvinists") not only said this about his unborn grandchild: "This is an ultrasound photo of our first grandbaby... And even though I love this baby, I know God may not and may [have] created it for damnation.", but apparently, he also said that God may have even decreed his unborn grandchild to be a mass murderer... and "God can do what He chooses to do with His creation" and "God is not ashamed of Himself so why should I be."
And if that's not sickening enough, he also said this about God decreeing rape (which fits with R.C. Sproul Jr's comment about God decreeing that poor 10-year-old girl's rape, torture, and murder): “God must then direct the rapist not just who to rape but how to perform the rape and how long… Amen, but I would go even farther than that, God originated every detail in His mind from all eternity and decreed it to be so.”
How is this not saying that God causes and is responsible for evil!?! That's exactly what Calvinists are saying, regardless of how many times they cry "We're not saying God causes evil or is responsible for evil!"
Hogwash! And yeah, sure, they might not always come right out and say it, but they sure do teach it and then try to hide it. [See my post about this grandfather for more. Oh my goodness, am I getting angry! Hold on while I try to calm down a second... One one-thousand, two one-thousand, three one-thousand, four one-thousand, five one-thousand ... okay, let's go on...]
And finally, Mark Talbot/John Piper (editor) (from Suffering and the Sovereignty of God, pages 42-44, 70-77): "It isn’t just that God manages to turn the evil aspects of our world to good for those that love him; it is rather that he himself brings about these evil aspects… This includes God’s having even brought about the Nazi’s brutality at Birkenau and Auschwitz as well as the terrible killings of Dennis Nadar and even the sexual abuse of a young child... God's foreordination is the ultimate reason why everything comes about, including the existence of all evil persons and things and the occurrence of any evil acts or events. And so it is not inappropriate to take God to be the creator, the sender, the permitter, and sometimes even the instigator of evil.
... In summary, this means that we should affirm the age-old Christian doctrine of God’s complete providence over all. God has sovereignly ordained, from before the world began, everything that happens in our world... It should be beyond all doubt that no one suffers anything at anyone else’s hand without God having ordained that suffering.
... Even though he ordains all of our free sinful choices ["Free" that's not free is not free. Duh!], those sinful choices still 'count' and we are held responsible for them.... In ordaining the evil works of others, he himself does no wrong, 'upright and just is he.'... We can be sure, as Scripture confirms, that God has made everything for its purpose, even evil persons like Joseph Mengele or Dennis Rader. We can be sure that God has made our lives’ most evil moments as well as their best.
... I myself find it very difficult to understand how [God can ordain evil for our good] with some of the worst things that human beings do, like sexually abusing young children or raping or torturing someone mercilessly.
And, of course, something much less horrible than these sorts of things can happen to us and still leave us wondering how God could be ordaining it for our good. I have seen marriages break apart after thirty-five years and felt to some degree the grief and utter discombobulation of the abandoned spouse. I have watched tragedies unfold that seem to remove all chance for any more earthly happiness.... Many of us have tasted such grief....Yet these griefs have been God’s gifts.... [And in the end, when we see Jesus face-to-face] we will see that God has indeed done all that he pleased and has done it all perfectly, both for his glory and our good..."
So do you still think they're not really teaching what they're really teaching? Are you still going to believe them when they deceptively claim "We don't say God causes or is responsible for all sin and evil"?
Well...
But once again - contrary to Calvinism which says that God first decides whatever He wants to do and that it then becomes "good," even if it's evil, because He's the one doing it, because it was His Will, and because He has a good nature and good reasons for doing it - Lewis says that God's Will is not arbitrary but that it's based on what's intrinsically good. And so therefore, intrinsically bad things are not His Will... and intrinsically evil things do not magically become good just because Calvi-god willed them to happen. It either is or isn't good or evil from the very beginning, and God does not do/will/cause what is evil (but He can and does work our self-made evil decisions and sins into His plans for good).
[And did you notice that Lewis also noted that having the freedom to choose to surrender to God is an intrinsically good thing too? An affirmation of free-will, a strike against Calvinism! And yet Calvinists regularly quote from him, as if he supports their theology.😕]
And furthermore, contrary to Calvinists who try to excuse their idea that it's okay for God to cause sin and evil by saying that God and humans view things differently - that because of our limitations, we mere humans can't really tell the difference between good and evil, and so what's evil in our eyes might actually be good in God's eyes, even if He commands against it - Lewis (love him, love him, love him!) says this in chapter 2 of The Problem of Pain:
"if God's moral judgment differs from ours so that our 'black' may be His 'white,' we can mean nothing by calling Him good; for to say 'God is good,' while asserting that His goodness is wholly other than ours, is really only to say 'God is we know not what'. And an utterly unknown quality in God cannot give us moral grounds for loving or obeying Him. If He is not (in our sense) 'good' we shall obey, if at all, only through fear - and should be equally ready to obey an omnipotent Fiend. The doctrine of Total Depravity - when the consequence is drawn that, since we are totally depraved, our idea of good is simply nothing - may thus turn Christianity into a form of devil-worship."
Amen and amen! And the walls come tumblin' down!
If there is no real, clear dividing line between true good and true evil - if (as Calvinism claims) good can be evil and evil can be good, and whatever God does becomes good even if it's evil - then we cannot call anything good or evil, and we cannot even call God Himself good.
"Good" loses all meaning when it looks and acts just like evil or when it's used as an excuse for evil. The words "good and evil" become meaningless when they can mean the same as their opposites.
Calvinism erases the line between good and evil, which essentially erases the line between God and Satan, lowering God to Satan's level and, consequently, elevating Satan to God's level. (And who do you think benefits from this? I'll give you a hint: 😈)
[Lewis is most definitely not a Calvinist, and he even often emphatically opposes Calvinism. And this makes me wonder: Why in the world do Calvinists - even my ex-pastor - respect him and keep quoting him!?!]
