Only.me80 #10: MacArthur 4C-F (Reversing God's Word)
Here is footnote #4C-F (part 10 of the whole series inspired by Only.me80's comment) on John MacArthur's sermon about Limited Atonement, quoted in part 4. (Also see part 1... part 2... part 3... part 5... part 6... part 7... part 8... and part 9 of this series.)
C. Calvinists say that God opens sinners' hearts to cause them to understand and believe the gospel... but the Bible says that He opens the hearts of those who already believe in Him - who seek Him, call to Him, pursue Him - to help them understand spiritual truth better.
Jeremiah 33:3: "Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know."
Luke 24:45: “Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.” This isn't about God causing unbelievers to understand the gospel, but it's about Jesus helping those who are already believers - his disciples - to better understand Scripture and what His death meant.
Likewise, Acts 16:14: “One of those listening was a woman named Lydia... who was a worshipper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.” This doesn't say that God caused an unbeliever to believe the gospel (as Calvinists interpret it). It doesn't even say that Paul's message was the gospel. It simply says that Lydia already believed in God and that God opened her heart to respond to Paul's message - which is most likely a message about the need for believers to get baptized, because that's the next thing she does. So it's most reasonable to view this as a story about God leading a believer to do the next right thing, to take the next appropriate step on a believer's path, and not about God causing an unbeliever to believe. (Incidentally, this is also what happened in Acts 19 when Paul preached to other believers who hadn't yet been baptized after putting their faith in Jesus, telling them about the need to get baptized.)
And in Acts 8:26-35, the Holy Spirit leads Philip to stand by a chariot where he overhears a man trying to understand the book of Isaiah, and Philip is able to explain to him the Scriptures, the gospel, and to lead him to faith in Jesus and get him baptized in the faith. Do not miss what happened here: The man had "gone to Jerusalem to worship" and he was "reading the book of Isaiah," trying to understand it, and he "invited Philip to come and sit with him" because he wanted Philip to explain it to him. It was because of his desire and efforts to seek, follow, and understand God and His Word better that God sent Philip to explain it to him. So God did not cause a resistant unbeliever to believe, but He was helping someone who was already seeking Him to understand better.
God doesn’t arbitrarily decide whose minds and hearts to open, with no influence from us. He opens the hearts and minds of those who already believe or who are seeking Him and showing a willingness to believe, to help them find Him, understand His truth better, and know the next steps to take.
This is what's behind His promise of "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart..." (Jeremiah 29:13), and other promises like these:
Matthew 7:7: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened unto you."
Matthew 6:33: “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
James 1:5,4:2: “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him... You do not have, because you do not ask God.”
Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”
Proverbs 2:1-2,9,11: “My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding... Then you will understand what is right and just and fair - every good path... Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you.”
Psalm 111:10: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding..."
Jeremiah 6:16: "This is what the Lord says: ‘Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls...’ "
Isaiah 26:3: “You will keep in perfect peace he whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.”
What do we see over and over again in these verses? That we do our part first to make our decision - we choose what we seek after, what we set our minds on, which course we take - and then the Lord responds accordingly.
Psalm 25:9,12: “He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way.... Who, then, is the man that fears the Lord? He will instruct him in the way chosen for him.” First, we choose to fear the Lord and be humble... and then, as a result, God leads us in the way that all humble and God-fearing people should take, the path of all who follow Him.
D. Calvinists say that being blinded/hardened by God results in sin and unbelief (the non-Calv-elect are blinded/hardened first so that they don't and can't believe, so that they sin and reject Calvi-god, just as he predestined)... but the Bible says that sin and unbelief (rejection of God) results in being blinded/hardened, that being blinded/hardened is a possible consequence/punishment of our self-chosen resistance against God and continued rejection of His ways and truth.
2 Cor. 4:4, KJV: "In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not..." They "believed not" first, and then Satan blinded them, solidifying their decision.
John 12:37,39: “Even after Jesus had done all these miraculous signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him.... For this reason, they could not believe.”
Hebrews 3:12-13: "See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God…. so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness."
In Exodus 7-10, Pharoah hardened his own heart against God in the first five plagues... and then, as a consequence, God hardens Pharoah's heart in the sixth through ninth plagues (which God foreknew and told Moses would happen in Exodus 7:3), solidifying Pharoah's self-chosen resistance.
Ephesians 4:18-19: “They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening ["blindness," KJV] of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.” The people hardened themselves... and, as a result, they became ignorant, darkened, insensitive to God, and morally depraved. Strong's Concordance with Vine's Expository Dictionary says that "blindness [of heart]" involves the idea of being callous toward something, and it comes from a word that described Israelites who deliberately refused God’s ways and His Will. So it's not that God hardened their hearts to make them ignorant and blind (as Calvinists would say), but it’s that they chose to be ignorant and blind and so God hardened their hearts. They chose to be callous toward Him, to deliberately refuse Him - and this is what led to their ignorance, darkened understanding, insensitivity to God, and moral depravity. Refusing God’s way. Willfully blind. This verse is basically saying: “They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because they have willfully chosen to be blind, callously refusing God’s Will and way.”
It's the same with “ignorant” in Romans 10:3 (RSV): “For, being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.” Paul says that the people are "ignorant" of the righteousness that God gives (through salvation in Jesus). But once again, "ignorant" in this passage does not mean "I couldn't see the truth or believe it because God blinded my mind." It means to deliberately ignore something, being unwilling to see it. And so Paul is saying that the Israelites knew the truth and chose to ignore it. It is a deliberate ignorance. They were unwilling to see God's truth, and so they chose to resist it, to be ignorant of God’s way, choosing to create their own way instead. [For more words Calvinists misdefine and what the actual definitions are according to the concordance, see "According to the concordance... It's NOT (Calvinist) predestination!"]
And this is why we have verses like Romans 1:18-2:5 which explain the consequences on our self-chosen resistance to God, our deliberate ignorance of Him, even though there's more than enough evidence to prove He's real and to lead us to Him: “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened... Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind... But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed."
And Zechariah 7:11-13: "But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and stopped up their ears. They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to [the Lord]. So the Lord Almighty was very angry. 'When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,' says the Lord Almighty."
And 2 Kings 17:14-15: “But they would not listen and were as stiff-necked as their fathers, who did not trust in the Lord their God. They rejected his decrees and the covenant he made with their fathers and the warnings he had given them. They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless…”
And even Romans 9:22 (a verse which Calvinists think totally supports Calvinism when it really doesn't), in the KJV: “What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction.” Other translations say "prepared for destruction," making it seem (at first glance) like God deliberately prepared certain people to be destroyed, that He predestined them to hell. But according to Strong's Concordance with Vine’s Expository Dictionary, the Greek word for “fitted” in this verse is in the middle voice, meaning that the people fitted themselves to destruction by how they chose to be. It ties their destiny to their character. They chose who they wanted to be and what they wanted to believe, and then they got the destiny that went with it, setting their own course for a certain destination: whether to mercy or to destruction. Now doesn't this make total sense and fit nicely with God's fair, just, trustworthy character, so much more so than Calvinism's idea of reprobation!?!
God never arbitrarily hardens people, but He can harden those who repeatedly choose to resist Him, who choose their sin over Him. In fact, in verses like Romans 9:18: “... [God] hardens whom he wants to harden”, "hardens" is (according to the Greek in the concordance) a retributive hardening, a deserved punishment where God further hardens the hearts of those who willingly choose to resist Him, solidifying their self-made decision (like what happened to Pharoah).
And this is what we see all over the Bible, in verse after verse, example after example. We decide first, and then God responds accordingly.
[This is why prayers like "God, please make so-and-so believe in You" or "Make them stop (or start) doing such-and-such" don't work - because God has created humans with free-will, with the right to make up our own minds about certain things and to pursue the path we choose. He has chosen to set up this world in such a way where He voluntary restrains Himself, limiting His right and ability to force us to do what He wants. And so He will not control people's thoughts to force them to think/decide/act the way He wants them to, the way we want them to, or the way they should. He lets us decide.
But He can and does sometimes put circumstances around us or things in our life that can influence our path and our decisions, working with our free-will instead of controlling or overriding it.
As Proverbs 21:1 says: "The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases." Calvinists wrongly think this teaches that God controls us (our thoughts and decisions and actions), but it's really saying that God directs the king's heart like a watercourse. And how do we direct watercourses? Not by physically grabbing hold of and controlling every molecule of water to force it to go where we want it to go, but by putting things in the stream's path or taking things out, to cause it to shift direction.
God can do that, too. He can put circumstances or obstacles in our paths (or take them out) to make us shift direction (like putting a tree across the road to cause us to take a different path). This doesn't mean He causes/controls our thoughts or decisions, just that He can influence us through circumstances and by presenting us with particular choices He wants us to make a decision on. And then whatever we choose - good or bad, obedience or disobedience - He can find a way to work it into His plans, to get something good or productive out of it.
This is how God's sovereignty and man's free-will work together (unlike Calvinism's view where "sovereignty" means God preplans, causes, controls all our thoughts, decisions, and actions).
But let's not forget that Proverbs are wise sayings and principles, not hard-core theological teachings. So never take any Proverb too far or build your whole theological system around it or view/reinterpret clear biblical truths through the lens of proverbial sayings.]
E. On a similar note, Calvinists say that God's rejection of certain people (the non-Calv-elect, rejected in eternity past) leads to and causes their rejection of Him, that He predestined certain people to perish and then He orchestrates it so that they cannot believe (their unbelief and rejection of the truth is the result of their predestined damnation)... but the Bible says that people's decision to reject God (in spite of the fact that He's constantly reaching out to them) is what leads to and causes His rejection of them, sealing them in the damnation that's in store for everyone who rejects the offer of eternal life (but it doesn't have to be that way, for they can choose to believe and be saved instead).
Zechariah 7:13: "... 'When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,' says the Lord Almighty."
Matthew 13:15: "For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn, and I would heal them.'" Jesus is saying that if the people didn't choose to be calloused to the truth, to close their ears and eyes to the truth about Him, then they would be able to see the truth, turn to Him, and be healed. But they chose to be blind and hard-hearted, and so they couldn't understand Jesus and wouldn't believe in Him.
John 3:18: "Whoever believes in [Jesus] is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son." Whoever does not believe is condemned. First we choose to not believe, and then we are condemned to the fate that awaits all who don't believe. But Calvinism flips this to "First we are condemned, and then we don't believe because we have been condemned." In Calvinism, it's "Whoever is not pre-condemned will believe, but whoever is pre-condemned won't believe." In Calvinism, our predestined eternal destination determines our decision about Jesus. Whereas the Bible shows that our decision determines our destination.
2 Thess. 2:10: “... They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.”
John 5:40: “yet you refuse to come to me to have life.”
Romans 2:5: “But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath against yourself..."
Romans 11:20,23: "But they were broken off because of unbelief... And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in..."
James 1:14-15: "but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death." Notice the order: We follow our own evil desires - rejecting God and His truth and conviction - and it leads to sin, which leads to death. Death is a result of our choice to give ourselves to sin. Our evil desire causes us to choose sin which results in death. But in Calvinism, it's death, desire, then sin: The reprobates are first predestined to death, born into spiritual death, and because of this, Calvi-god gives them the unregenerate nature filled with the desires to sin which causes them to sin. Totally backwards! [And don't forget that the Bible tells us how we can cross from death to life: turning from our unbelief to belief in Jesus. John 3:16: “... whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Romans 11:23: "And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in..." 2 Thess. 2:10: “... They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.” John 5:24: “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” Our decision determines our destiny, not the other way around as Calvinism teaches.]
There are only two choices: Eternal Life With God or Eternal Life Without God. And it's our choice. No one is prevented from being able to find God or believe in Him, except by their own choice. We decide first to either seek, accept, believe in God or to reject, resist, ignore Him, and then He gives us what we chose, letting us have the result of our decision, the destiny that goes with it.
The Bible is clear that the God loves all and Jesus died for all and the offer of eternal life is available to all, but it's up to us to open our hands and hearts to accept it.
And if we choose to ignore/reject it instead, then we choose (by default) Eternal Life Without God, sealing ourselves in the damnation that awaits all who reject Him. It's not God's choice to send anyone to hell. It's our choice to send ourselves there when we reject the only way to escape it.
F. Similarly, Calvinists say that our depravity (ordained by Calvi-god) causes us to sin and reject Him... but the Bible shows that when we choose to sin and reject Him then we become depraved.
Romans 1:21,24: "For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened... Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind."
2 Kings 17:14-15: “But they would not listen...They rejected his decrees...They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless…”
Psalm 81:11-12: "But my people would not listen to me; Israel would not submit to me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices."
Psalm 14:1,3: "The fool says in his heart 'There is no God.'... All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one." As I said earlier in this series, Romans 3:10-18 (which Calvinists use to try to prove their doctrines of total depravity, unconditional election, and irresistible grace) is a reference to Old Testament verses like these from Psalms 14 and 53. And these Psalms clearly explain why people don't seek God: It's not that they can't seek God because God created them to be blinded and hardened reprobates predestined to hell (as Calvinists would say)... but it's because they have turned away from Him, claiming that there is no God.
People who refuse to believe in God - who have chosen their sin, wickedness, and self over God - will not seek God and will become corrupt and depraved.
Psalm 10:4, KJV: "The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God..."
Yes, humans are sinful - "depraved," if you want to call it that - but Calvinists have stretched the idea of depravity to such extremes that it's not biblical anymore. [We should really just get rid of the phrase "total depravity" altogether because it reeks of Calvinism.]
Biblically, we are sinful, and our sin separates us from God, and we are unable to work our way to heaven. And so to get to heaven, we need to admit that we're sinners and that we need Jesus, that His payment for our sins is what wipes our slate clean and gets us into heaven.
But Calvinism has redefined depravity, turning it from "separated from God because of sin and unable to work our way to heaven" to "so totally wicked that we are unable to want, seek, believe in God unless He causes us to" (because they incorrectly define belief as "working for salvation").
And then with "total depravity" at their foundation, they regularly stress the idea that we have to admit how totally depraved, wretched, wicked, and worthless we are before we can be saved.
As my ex-pastor says in his July 2018 sermon on the doctrine of sovereign election: "If you're unsure if you're saved, if you're elect, ask yourself some questions. [Here he lists some "signs" you're elect, but then he ends by saying to ask yourself this:] 'Am I the worst sinner I know?' If you're saved, the answer is 'Yes, you're the worst sinner you know.'"
And from a February 2016 sermon: "All people, all cultures, all generations are universally evil, spiritually ignorant, rebellious, wayward, worthless, morally corrupt, evil-mouthed, deceitful, full of bitterness, violent, miserable, and have no fear of God in their eyes... We're dead in sin, slaves to sin, unable and unwilling to seek God... No one is righteous... We are depraved down to the core... utterly saturated, permeated, and consumed by corruption... No one is righteous. [Wow, we're terrible, aren't we? Bad, bad people. Worthless, no-good worms.]... Why does nobody seek God? Because no one is able to seek God on their own and the reason goes back to total depravity... We are born slaves to sin, wickedness, depravity.... You don't understand the gospel until you realize you're the worst sinner you know."
"The worst sinner!"
"Evil, spiritually ignorant, rebellious, wayward, worthless, morally corrupt, evil-mouthed, deceitful, full of bitterness, violent, miserable, no fear of God, slaves to sin, unable and unwilling to seek God, depraved down to the core, and utterly saturated, permeated, and consumed by corruption."
"You don't understand the gospel until you realize you're the worst sinner you know."
But what does the Bible say?
James 2:10: "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it."
Biblically, all it takes is one sin to be a sinner in need of a Savior. And all normal honest people would admit to sinning at least once.
But Calvinism doesn't require people to admit that they are sinners who need Jesus because they sinned at least once, but it requires that they admit they are "totally depraved, spiritually ignorant, rebellious, wayward, worthless, morally corrupt, etc.... the worst sinner you know." As if salvation is a matter of the level of badness we are at. As if we must admit we are at the deepest worst level before we can admit that we need Jesus.
And yet God only requires that we know we sinned at least once, that it makes us a sinner in need of a Savior.
How little God asks of us! But how much Calvinism does!
Oh, the damage Calvinism does - repelling more people than it wins - by shifting the goalposts, raising the bar, going above and beyond what Scripture says, requiring more out of people than God does!
And because Calvinists have built their whole TULIP on their unbiblical understanding of depravity, it's led to a completely messed-up theology all down the line, a complete misunderstanding of the gospel, Jesus's sacrifice, the way to salvation, God's character, etc.
So much damage from one seemingly-small (and deceptively-humble-sounding) error.
A final extra thought about being blinded:
MacArthur says this in his "For whom did Christ die?" sermon: "According to Scripture, sinners are dead...blind... in a state of perishing eternally. They are double blind because the god of this world has blinded their minds. In their natural state, they cannot understand the things of God..."
Question: If Calvinism is true that God predestined people to be unbelievers who are totally unable to understand the things of God, totally unable to seek God or believe in Him, totally unable to hear/understand/respond to the gospel, then why in the world would they need to be blinded even more by Satan, to be double-blinded?
Why would Calvi-god need Satan's help to make sure that his predestined decrees happen?
Calvi-god predestined those filthy stinkin' reprobates to hell, creating them as dead, blind, perishing, unable-to-seek-or-believe, unrepentant sinners (and Calvi-Jesus never died for their sins anyway, so there's no chance they could be forgiven). Was this not enough to ensure their damnation?
The fact that Calvi-god needs Satan's help to double-blind the reprobates whom he predestined to hell really just reflects badly on his Calvi-sovereignty - reducing it, minimizing it - making it seem like if the reprobates weren't given that extra helping of blinding from Satan then they might've been able to overcome Calvi-god's decree on their own, choosing to believe in him despite Calvi-god reprobating them to hell.
Hmm, I wonder: Is Calvi-god that impotent, that weak, that ineffective on his own that he needs to depend on Satan's help to get the reprobates into hell, to make his plans happen? What kind of a god needs Satan to back him up, to strengthen him and his word?
("Reversing God's Word" will be continued in the next post in this series.)
