Well, it wasn't invented by Calvin. Augustine said it before him, and Paul before Augustine. The "5 points of Calvinism" don't even come from Calvin's writings
Augustine openly admitted to making many errors in his early writings and that his beliefs had changed as he grew in wisdom of God’s word. The problem is he didn’t explain exactly what these errors were.
And yet, I would not want anyone to embrace all my views in order to be my follower, but only those points on which he sees that I am not mistaken. […] I have not always held the same views, rather, I think that, as I wrote, I made progress by the mercy of God, but not that I have started off with perfection. […] We can, of course, have good hope for someone if the last day of this life finds him making progress.” (
On the Gift of Perseverance, XXI, 55)
Iranaeus refuted Calvin’s theology in his writing titled Adversus Haereses written in 170AD.
1. Man has received the
knowledge of good and
evil. It is
good to
obey God, and to
believe in Him, and to keep His commandment, and this is the life of man; as not to
obey God is
evil, and this is his death. Since
God, therefore, gave [to man] such mental power (magnanimitatem) man
knew both the good of
obedience and the
evil of disobedience, that the eye of the
mind, receiving experience of both, may with judgment make choice of the better things; and that he may never become indolent or neglectful of God's command; and learning by experience that it is an
evil thing which deprives him of life, that is, disobedience to
God, may never attempt it at all, but that,
knowing that what preserves his life, namely,
obedience to
God, is
good, he may diligently keep it with all earnestness. Wherefore he has also had a twofold experience, possessing
knowledge of both kinds, that with discipline he may make choice of the better things. But how, if he had no
knowledge of the contrary, could he have had instruction in that which is
good? For there is thus a surer and an undoubted comprehension of matters submitted to us than the mere surmise arising from an opinion regarding them. For just as the tongue receives experience of sweet and bitter by means of tasting, and the eye discriminates between black and white by means of vision, and the ear recognises the distinctions of sounds by hearing; so also does the
mind, receiving through the experience of both the
knowledgeof what is
good, become more tenacious of its preservation, by acting in
obedience to God: in the first place, casting away, by means of repentance, disobedience, as being something disagreeable and nauseous; and afterwards coming to understand what it really is, that it is contrary to goodness and sweetness, so that the mind may never even attempt to taste disobedience to
God. But if any one do shun the
knowledge of both these kinds of things, and the twofold perception of
knowledge, he unawares divests himself of the character of a
human being.
2. How, then, shall he be a
God, who has not as yet been made a man? Or how can he be perfect who was but lately created? How, again, can he be
immortal, who in his mortal nature did not
obey his Maker? For it must be that you, at the outset, should hold the rank of a
man, and then afterwards partake of the
glory of
God. For you did not make
God, but God you. If, then, you are God's workmanship, await the hand of your Maker which creates everything in due time; in due time as far as you are concerned, whose creation is being carried out. Offer to Him your heart in a soft and tractable state, and preserve the form in which the Creator has fashioned you, having moisture in yourself, lest, by becoming hardened, you lose the impressions of His fingers. But by preserving the framework you shall ascend to that which is perfect, for the moist clay which is in you is hidden [there] by the workmanship of
God. His hand fashioned your substance; He will cover you over [too] within and without with pure gold and silver, and He will adorn you to such a degree, that even the King Himself shall have pleasure in your beauty. But if you, being obstinately hardened, reject the operation of His skill, and show yourself ungrateful towards Him, because you were created a [mere] man, by becoming thus ungrateful to
God, you have at once lost both His workmanship and life. For creation is an attribute of the goodness of God but to be created is that of
human nature. If then, you shall deliver up to Him what is yours, that is,
faith towards Him and subjection, you shall receive His handiwork, and shall be a perfect work of
God.
3. If, however, you will not
believe in Him, and will flee from His hands, the
cause of imperfection shall be in you who did not
obey, but not in Him who called [you]. For He commissioned [messengers] to call people to the marriage, but they who did not
obey Him deprived themselves of the royal supper.
Matthew 22:3, etc. The skill of
God, therefore, is not defective, for He has power of the stones to raise up children to
Abraham;
Matthew 3:9but the man who does not obtain it is the
causeto himself of his own imperfection. Nor, [in like manner], does the light fail because of those who have blinded themselves; but while it remains the same as ever, those who are [thus] blinded are involved in darkness through their own fault. The light does never enslave any one by necessity; nor, again, does God exercise compulsion upon any one unwilling to accept the exercise of His skill. Those
persons, therefore, who have
apostatized from the light given by the
Father, and transgressed the law of liberty, have done so through their own fault, since they have been created free agents, and possessed of power over themselves.
4. But
God, foreknowing all things, prepared fit habitations for both, kindly conferring that light which they desire on those who seek after the light of incorruption, and resort to it; but for the despisers and mockers who avoid and turn themselves away from this light, and who do, as it were, blind themselves, He has prepared darkness suitable to
persons who oppose the light, and He has inflicted an appropriate punishment upon those who try to avoid being subject to Him. Submission to
God is
eternal rest, so that they who shun the light have a place worthy of their flight; and those who fly from
eternal rest, have a habitation in accordance with their fleeing. Now, since all
good things are with
God, they who by their own determination fly from
God, do defraud themselves of all
good things; and having been [thus] defrauded of all
good things with respect to
God, they shall consequently fall under the just judgment of
God. For those
persons who shun rest shall
justly incur punishment, and those who avoid the light shall
justly dwell in darkness. For as in the case of this temporal light, those who shun it do deliver themselves over to darkness, so that they do themselves become the
cause to themselves that they are destitute of light, and do inhabit darkness; and, as I have already observed, the light is not the
cause of such an [unhappy] condition of
existence to them; so those who fly from the
eternal light of
God, which contains in itself all
good things, are themselves the
cause to themselves of their inhabiting
eternal darkness, destitute of all
good things, having become to themselves the
cause of [their consignment to] an abode of that nature.
St Iranaeus 170AD Adversus Haereses Book 4 Chapter 39
Notice how befitting God’s punishment is according to the offense. Those who desire darkness over the light are sent to darkness where there will be weeping and knashing of teeth. Kind of brings a whole new meaning to the term “be careful what you wish for, you just might get it”.
You asked “By what standards would you tell God that He wasn't just?”
Well in reality I would never tell God that He isn’t just because He is just. That’s the whole point of this thread, that God is just and in His being just He cannot punish man for failing to meet impossible expectations. It is Calvin’s theology that teaches that God’s expectations are impossible for the unelected to meet. But since we’re on the subject I would add that the unjustness of God’s judgement on the unelected according to Calvin’s theology is unjust because of God’s own standards.
Psalm 9:8
He will judge the world with justice and rule the nations with fairness.
Job 8:3 Does God twist justice? Does the Almighty twist what is right?
Acts 10:34-35 Then Peter replied, “I see very clearly that God shows no favoritism. In every nation he accepts those who fear him and
do what is right.
James 2:1-4 My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
Leviticus 19:15 Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.
Proverbs 31:9 Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.
Colossians 3:24-25 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for their wrongs, and there is no favoritism.
Romans 2:9-12 There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God. For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law;”
I am confident that we would agree that God is not a hypocrite. So the standards He has expected of us He would also adhere to Himself. Jesus surely lived His life here on earth as an example of how we are to live our life. He led by example. The scriptures also repeatedly remind us that God does not show partiality towards some while forsaking others. He is no respecter of men. Calvin’s interpretation of God’s election teaches that God is showing partiality towards some and not towards others while all are equally guilty of transgression against Him.
You claim that Paul taught unconditional election but that is not true. Consider what Paul said in Romans 2.
I apologize in advance for the portion in all CAP letters, my Bible app automatically puts all OT references in the NT in all cap letters.
“But do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or
do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?
I want to interject here to point out that this highlighted portion is a mirror verse of Romans 9:22. So we need to consider the implications of what it means that God is being kind, tolerant, and patient with us, and not just towards His elect but also towards the vessels of wrath. Is God being kind and patient towards the unelected by not allowing them to even be capable of repentance and believing? Paul says right here that God’s kindness leads us to repentance. I’ll come back to this after the next few verses.
But
because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who WILL RENDER TO EACH PERSON ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS: to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation.”
Romans 2:3-8 NASB
Notice Paul says that we are storing up the wrath of God’s righteous judgement because of our stubbornness and unrepentant heart. There is a big difference between stubbornness or unwillingness and incapability. In order for someone to refuse to do something out of stubbornness they must first be capable of doing what is expected. If they are incapable of meeting the expectations then their failure to comply is the result of inability not unwillingness or stubbornness. But as I pointed out according to the previous verse God’s kindness (His calling) leads them to repentance making them capable of repentance. That is why they are righteously judged for their stubbornness because God has enabled the unelected to repent and they have chosen of their own accord to reject His offer of grace. Hence the term “Many are called but few are chosen”. What was Jesus’ message right before He said these words?