I was looking into Calvinism a few days ago after seeing a thread in the Theology section on these forums. For those who don't know, one of Calvinism's main beliefs is that God, in his foreknowledge, predestines some people to salvation and others to damnation. It's a bit of a puzzling paradox.
Anyway, I wanted to ask any Calvinists here a few questions; if God knows in advance those who won't get saved, why did he make them? What purpose do the unsaved serve? Does God just want to watch some people burn in hell or something? Why doesn't he just make people who believe in him? I'm pretty sure that in 1 or 2 Peter it says that God desires
all people to be saved. How can he say this when Calvinism specifically states that God chooses who will be saved and who will be damned (
Calvinism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)?
I'm not a Calvinist, but my understanding of Calvinism is that to answer this question they go to Romans chapter 9:
"
As it is written, 'Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.' What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! For He says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.' So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, 'For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.' So then He has mercy on whomever He will, and He hardens whomever He wills. You will say to me then, 'Why does He still find fault? For who can resist His will?' But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, 'Why have you made me like this?' Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show His wrath and make known His power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of His glory for vessels of mercy, which He has prepared beforehand for glory--even us whom He has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?"
As a Lutheran the problem Lutheranism has with the Calvinist understanding of Romans 9 is that it stops entirely too short. Paul's point hasn't yet been made, and doesn't get made until later on.
St. Paul's overarching declaration comes in Romans 11:
"
As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For just as you [Gentiles] were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy. For God has consigned all to disobedience, that He may have mercy on all."
A central theme in Romans is some of the struggle between the Jewish and Gentile believers in Rome, the epistle begins addressed to the Jewish believers giving them plenty of reason to nod as he recounts the idolatry and errors of the Gentiles who followed after idols; but then immediately states that no one has a right to judge because all are guilty under the Law and all are made just by the Gospel. This theme moves through several points until the Apostle gets to what he wrote in 9, which is simply a beginning point to where he gets in Romans 11. Repeating his theme from earlier in the epistle, that all are disobedience and that God has mercy on
all.
This is probably the central Lutheran criticism of Calvinism. We agree that God has predestined us to salvation apart from our will, as we both agree that the human will is fallen and incapable of choosing Christ due to the yoke of sin. Where we depart at a very central and very important point is that Calvinism reasons that since God has chosen us according to His election apart from our will then it follows (quite rationally) that God has chosen some for damnation either by divine fiat or by simply passing over them.
Lutheranism agrees that this is
logical, we just disagree that it is
true and
biblical. Instead we believe that God chooses none for damnation, that God has not passed over some, or that (as the rest of the Calvinist schema follows) that Christ only died for the elect (Limited Atonement) and that those chosen cannot turn away or resist God's grace (Irresistible Grace and Perseverance in the Saints in Calvinism's TULIP).
Because we believe that God desires none perish, God loves everyone, and that Christ died for everyone. We can resist God's grace, we can turn away, and God's grace is, through the Gospel promise, for everyone without exception.
Now for those taking notes it's clear that this doesn't make sense logically or rationally. Calvinism is a logical conclusion, but from the Lutheran POV it's a logical conclusion that is contrary to what Scripture says concerning God's love for everybody and that God's mercy is for every person who has ever been or ever will be.
Lutheran theologians speak of the Crux Theologorum, the "Theologian's Cross", the burden a theologian has to bear because there is no answer, no solution, no way to make sense of it: We are saved apart from any will or choice on our part entirely by the grace and will of God according to His mercy. Those who are not saved are not passed over by God, they are not chosen by God for damnation, it is their choice to resist God's grace and we can and often to reject and resist God's grace because God loves all and has mercy upon all and wants everyone to be saved.
There's no question here, that's a contradiction, it's a paradox. It makes no sense. However, says Lutheranism, we must affirm both positions: God's universal love and mercy upon all human beings and His desire for all to be saved, as well as our salvation being entirely the work of God apart from all human will and effort since we are unable and incapable of choosing Christ.
Placing the emphasis on human effort leads to despair and boastfulness, for if we see that we are failing God we despair and if we see ourselves as active agents who accomplished the right choices/acts/beliefs/thoughts then we can too easily see ourselves as elite or special over and above others.
Saying that God loves only some, has grace only on some, and that Christ only died for some and that the vast majority of humankind has been created only to exist for damnation turns God into a devil and a tyrant.
Neither of these is acceptable, therefore we have the Crux Theologorum.
-CryptoLutheran
