The Six Points of Calvinism: A Response to Objections (Part 1)

A little while ago, a commenter posted some lengthy objections to one of my “Six Points of Calvinism” articles. The objections were directed against things in the article, but also against Reformed Theology as a whole.

Since tomorrow is Reformation Day, I thought this would be an appropriate weekend to address at least some of these objections. As I noted in one of my responses to the commenter, I think a lot of his problems with the Reformed perspective come from a misunderstanding of Reformed Theology. This may be due to misleading literature, third-hand reports, or a dedication to an opposing viewpoint that resists correction. I’ve seen all of these over the years. Whatever the reason, I’ve decided to use blog posts to respond in the event they may be helpful to a broader audience.

My approach here will be to lift a couple of the commenter’s questions and answer them.

Do you agree that by Reformed Sovereignty doctrine, since ONLY GOD can have true libertine free-will, that this means man can NEVER have libertine “free-will” and so man has no free-will AFTER the FALL, but man had no free-will BEFORE the FALL either?

There are two ways I would respond to this objection. The first is with a direct response, the second is to throw it back.

First, yes, only God has true free will in the universe. That’s the plain teaching of Scripture (Daniel 4:35; Isaiah 14:24-27, 46:9-11; Job 42:1-2; Psalm 115:3, 135:6; Acts 4:27-28; Romans 9:20-21). It doesn’t matter whether or not we like that, it’s what Scripture reveals to us. God is sovereign, we are not. Yes, this means that everything happens because God has ordained for it to happen. Does this mean we don’t have free will? That depends on how you define free will. Our will is free to follow its desires. However, those desires are often sinful. And when our free will runs into God’s free will, God wins. That is to say, we can never do anything that is outside of God’s decrees, plans, or purposes.

A reasonable response might be, “So why care about what we do? It doesn’t matter since God has already foreordained it.” First, I would point out that the heart that loves the Lord isn’t dwelling on whether or not God ordained this or that thought or action. Rather, its main concern is how to please God. And while God does indeed know what we’ll do, we don’t. As we make decisions, we check our hearts to be sure those decisions are in line with God’s revealed will and character in Scripture. We then act based on what we believe is the most God-honoring decision. And when we sin, it reveals to us and reminds us of our need for the Lord, and humbles us to repentance.

A freeing aspect of this is that, as Christians, we need not be concerned for the future. We know that God will do with us as He pleases and that our final destination is secure in Him through Christ. What matters is that we remain faithful.

Second, I would throw this question back at the objector: if both God and man have libertine free will such that both can do whatever they want, how can God prophesy anything? If man’s will is truly free, then God cannot be certain how man will act in any situation. If God did know in advance what man would do, and that action would subvert God’s plans, and yet God didn’t intervene because He didn’t want to “violate” man’s free will, then God’s plans come to nothing. Which, as the Scriptures cited above indicate, can never happen. Consider for a moment all the free will decisions that go into any action. Take, for example, Jesus’s death on the cross. What if Pilate had a change of heart last minute? What if Caesar issued an edict banning all crucifixions for a year? What if Pilate had been murdered the night before? Or a band of zealots overcame the guards and removed Jesus from the cross before he died? Or… or… or… you get the point? There are a million scenarios that could have subverted Calvary. Or Paul’s conversion. Or any of the many prophesies in Scripture.

Consider your own life. You didn’t just pop into existence. A long line of people before you had to meet, fall in love, marry (hopefully), and have children. If just one of those couples died before having kids or never turned up at that first meeting, you wouldn’t be here. And think of all the contingent actions that go into two people meeting. They have to arrive at the right time, so all those people who might hinder them have to decide not to hinder them. The restaurant or bar would need to be open, so the manager couldn’t suddenly decide to close early. The weather would have to cooperate–either rain so they would share an umbrella, or not rain so they could picnic. If God’s plan was to use you to take the gospel to an unreached people, but your great-great-great-grandfather decided to stay home instead of go on that blind date, God’s plan is thwarted. And He wouldn’t be able to change your great-great-great-grandfather’s mind because that would violate his free will.

Another consideration: If God knows in advance that someone is about to commit murder contrary to His will, would God be able to stop that person? He could send people to try to intervene… but what if those people didn’t want to intervene? God couldn’t make them intervene because that would, again, be violating someone’s free will. So God just has to sit on the sidelines and watch it happen. It seems to me everybody just ends up doing whatever they want to do, and God just has to deal with the consequences. Because the moment you allow God any kind of sovereignty, you have to allow for God to be almighty. This is why non-Reformed people pray like Reformed people. They may say, “God doesn’t violate anyone’s free will,” but they will pray that God will save people, that God will keep people safe, that He will intervene in people’s lives. Because if you know your Bible, you know God is indeed sovereign.

One last point. Someone might object that God’s exhaustive sovereignty would mean that He ordained the Fall and at least allows sin, if not directly ordains sin. To this, I would again say, yes. However, we need to remember a couple of things. First, that God is pure and holy, and His intentions and purposes are always good. This means God will use our sinfulness to achieve His ends. As one pastor once put it, God often draws a straight line with a crooked stick. A biblical example of this is Joseph. He was beaten and sold into slavery by his brothers, falsely accused of adultery, and thrown into prison. He suffered a great deal as a result of the sins of many, particularly his own family. But what did he say to his brothers when they were eventually reunited in Egypt, where Joseph was now second-in-command to Pharaoh? “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today” (Genesis 50:20). Note, he didn’t say, “You meant evil, but God took your lemons and made lemonade.” Rather, he contrasts the intentions of his brothers with the intentions of God. While Joseph’s brothers had a plan, God also had a plan and it was to use Joseph’s brothers to accomplish a good and more God-honoring purpose. God’s plan won.

As for the Fall, this is where we have to have some humility and recognize that we can’t know all of God’s purposes. We cannot presume to understand the ways of God beyond what He tells us in Scripture. God had a greater purpose in Satan’s temptation, Eve taking the fruit, Adam participating and plunging the whole human race into enmity with God. It wasn’t an accident. The sin was Adam’s but God had a purpose. Again, we may not know fully what that is, but there are a couple of observations I could make. First, pre-Fall Adam knew God’s love, goodness, and grace to an extent. Post-Fall, however, we know a whole dimension of God’s love, goodness, and grace that we would never know without the Fall. If the Fall had never happened, God wouldn’t have had to redeem a people by sending His Son to die for them. I might also venture to suggest that the restoration we will experience when Christ returns will not be simply a return to a pre-Fall condition. Rather, it will be better, since, again, we have a relationship with God based on our union with Christ that makes us His adopted children.

Let’s move on to another objection.

What is your explanation for the myriad of places all over the Bible where God genuinely expresses “remorse” and even ANGER in the context of Reformed Divine Determinism where HE PREDETERMINED all of everyone’s decisions etc. If he predetermined all, why the anger, why any anger, isn’t it “fake outrage” then?

I don’t know about a “myriad” of places where God expresses remorse over things He himself had done. There are a few passages we can look at. Certainly, there are plenty of times when God is angry at the actions of men. That might seem to be confusing if God ordained these actions, and they are all part of God’s plan. Why would He regret them or be angry over them?

For a start, we need to remember that God is not a machine. Each person of the Trinity is a person. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all have feelings just as any other person–in fact, we have feelings because we are made in God’s image. The difference is, of course, that while our feelings are tainted by sin, God’s aren’t. His emotions are free from sin. His joy is pure joy. His anger is righteous anger. Given that, is it unreasonable to think that, even if He uses Pilate’s sin to bring about the crucifixion, that He is not okay with Pilate’s sin? Why did Jesus weep in the Garden of Gethsemane, even though he knew he would die and rise again? Why did Jesus weep at Lazarus’s tomb, even though he knew he was about to raise his friend from the dead? It’s because God hates sin. And while He uses man’s sin to accomplish His purposes, sin still makes Him angry. Would we expect less of a holy, righteous God? Jesus wept at the indignity of death, the result of Adam’s sin, even though he knew he would conquer both sin and death.

What about God “regretting” things He did? I can’t find a “myriad” of these, but it’s enough that there are a few:

• “And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart” (Genesis 6:6, also see verse 7).
• “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments” (1 Samuel 15:11, also see verse 35).

What do we make of these? Did God have second thoughts? How could this be for a sovereign God, especially when Numbers 23:19 says that God doesn’t change His mind? I could ask the objector the same question. Does he believe that God makes mistakes? What does he think it means for God to regret doing something?

I think we need to read these passages understanding, again, the depth of feeling God has about sin. It is an affront to His holiness and is repugnant to His righteousness. A good, holy, just, and righteous God would only react in revulsion to sin, even if it’s sin He ordained. The idea of God “regretting” is not that God is seriously thinking He shouldn’t have done these things, that there might have been a better plan. The Hebrew verb (נחם) can have this meaning. However, it can also be an expression of deep sorrow. In this instance, it expresses how deeply sorrowful God is over the sinful actions of sinful men. We use “regret” in a similar way, for example, when communicating bad news: “I regret to inform you that you didn’t win the contest.” It’s a way of saying how deeply sorry we feel for that person in this situation. Given that Scripture tells us God doesn’t make mistakes, I believe this is how we are supposed to understand these passages.

I’ll continue my response to objections in Part 2 tomorrow.