I also cant help but wonder about the validity of calvies belief that unregenerate man will always use his freedom to resist God. Imagine a man who is an adulterer. His God-given conscience condemns him continually (see Rom. 2:15), but he continues in his adulterous relationship. Thus he is using his freedom to resist God, which calvies say is all he can or will ever do since he is totally depraved. But imagine that he finally breaks off his adulterous relationship due to guilt. Now can it still be said that he has only used his freedom to resist God? No, it cannot. He used his freedom to repent of adultery, and yielded to his God-given conscience. If he can use his freedom to do that, why cant he, with the help of the Holy Spirit, repent of a lifestyle of rebellion and humble himself before God?
How could someone who has the free choice to remain
unrepentant possibly
not have the freedom to choose
to repent? How could a person have the capacity to choose to become more evil but not have the capacity to choose to become less evil? Merely by choosing to not become more evil is by default, a choice for good. If we can use our freedom to resist God but cant use it to yield to God, we really have no freedom at all. Were robots, programmed to do evil, having no freedom. It is utterly impossible to have
freedom to resist God if one doesnt have
freedom to yield to God. Calvin himself certainly admitted this fact, writing in his
Institutes,
Nothing is more absurd than to think anything at all is done but by the ordination of God
.Every action and motion of every creature is so governed by the hidden counsel of God, that nothing can come to pass, but what was ordained by Him
.The wills of men are so governed by the will of God, that they are carried on straight to the mark which He has fore-ordained (Cal. Inst., book 1, chapter 16, sect. 3).
At least Calvin was consistent in this respect. He admitted (unlike some modern Calvinists) that there really was no room for free will in this theology. If depraved man can do nothing other than sin, then he has as much free will as a bullet shot from a gun.
Calvinists clearly add to what Scripture states regarding humanitys depravity and Gods grace. Although unregenerate people are indeed, dead in [their] trespasses and sins,
hundreds (if not
thousands) of scriptures clearly state or imply that spiritually dead people can choose to humble themselves and repent, especially while they are under the influence of the gracious drawing of Gods Spirit. Gods drawing, however, never forces anyone to repent, nor does it change anyones will apart from the consent of his heart.
Although Scripture repeatedly decries the sinful state of humanity, at the same time it calls on
all people to repent; thus it is obvious that
all spiritually dead people still have the capacity to repent. For example, Paul publicly proclaimed, Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that
all everywhere should repent (Acts 17:30, emphasis added). If Paul believed that people were so depraved that they had no capacity to repent, he would not have said that God was calling
all people everywhere to repent, unless he was a deceiver. Moreover, if it were impossible for spiritually dead people to repent, God would be unrighteous to expect
all of them to do what they are incapable of doing and then hold them guilty for not doing it.
Like Paul, John the Baptist, Jesus, and all the other apostles preached the gospel, calling on
all people to repent (see Matt.3:2; 4:17; 11:20; Mark 6:12; Luke 5:32; 13:3, 5; 24:47; Acts 2:38; 3:19; 5:31; 11:18; 20:21; 26:20; Rom. 2:4: 2 Pet. 3:9). Several times in the book of Revelation, John is amazed that unregenerate people dont repent while suffering Gods judgments (see Rev. 9:20-21; 16:9, 11). Jesus pronounced woe upon all the people of Chorazin and Bethsaida because they didnt repent, obviously indicating He believed they had the capacity to repent (see Matt. 11:21). He also declared that the wicked people of Tyre and Sidon, who didnt repent,
would have repented if they had seen miracles like the people of Chorazin and Bethsaida had seen! In both cases, Jesus believed that those who
didnt repent had the capacity
to repent and
should have repented, in contrast to Calvinists, who believe unregenerate people have no capacity to repent outside of God changing their wills and forcing them to repent (which He only does for some). Thus, Calvinism portrays Jesus as a liar and a deceiver, because Jesus gave all indication that people could do what He knew full well they couldnt do. This also makes God the Father a liar, as Jesus only spoke His words (see John 12:49).
Jesus expected
everyone of His generation to repent, because He stated that the men of Nineveh, who repented at Jonahs preaching, would rightfully condemn His generation for not repenting. Again, if they had no capacity to repent, He would not have condemned them, as that would make God unrighteous. Moreover, what right would the repentant people of Nineveh have to condemn Jesus unrepentant generation? The people of Jesus generation could rightly say, How can you, who by Gods sovereign decree could do nothing other than repent, condemn us, who by Gods sovereign decree could do nothing other than remain unrepentant?
Thus, the Calvinist, who believes God condemns people for not doing what they are incapable of doing, makes God grossly unjust. God is thus somewhat equivalent to the parent who spanks his baby for not walking, but He is a million times worse. Why? Because to the Calvinist, God tortures people eternally in hell for not doing what they were absolutely
incapable of doing.
The Calvinist also makes God ultimately responsible for all the evil in the world. Why? Because God could put an end to all evil by influencing everyone with His irresistible grace, but He sovereignly chooses not to, thus evil remains only because of Gods sovereign choice. Depraved man can supposedly do nothing but sin unless God keeps him from it by choosing to show him His irresistible grace, so the ultimate reason for evil is because God doesnt keep evil people from sinning.
Calvinists often decry the position of non-Calvinists, accusing them of making
man responsible for his own
salvation (which is a false accusation). Yet Calvinists make
God responsible for the
damnation of billions! Clearly, the God of Calvinism hates people even before they are born, when He determines that their eternal fate will be incarceration and agony in hell. If God is
solely responsible for the salvation of certain people, He is also
solely responsible for the damnation of everyone else, because only He could have rescued them from their fate, but He decided not to do so. And that decision was not predicated on Gods
inability to stop sin, but His
unwillingness to stop it. Thus God wills sin in select peoples lives. To the Calvinist, man doesnt stop sinning because he has no choice, but because God, who can stop sin, chooses not to! God is thus even more totally depraved than we are!
Calvinists should not object to this point, because Calvin himself believed that Adam fell, not because Adam chose by his own free will to sin, but because God ordained his fall:
God not only foresaw that Adam would fall, but also ordained that he should
.I confess it is a horrible decree; yet no one can deny but God foreknew Adams fall, and therefore foreknew it, because he had ordained it so by his own decree (Cal. Inst., b. 3, c. 23, sec. 7).
The Calvinist also portrays God as a very confused God who is actually working against Himself, hating sin and evil, yet promoting the very thing He hates by creating people who have no capacity but to do evil and who are predestined to never change. Moreover, the Calvinists God is a hypocrite, as He practices sins that He condemns in others, such as deception and showing partiality.
In summary, the Calvinist makes God a lying, deceiving, bigoted, malicious, unjust, confused hypocrite who is responsible for the worlds evil and who creates people for the expressed purpose of torturing them forever. If any man did the things Calvinists say God does, every person on the earth would rightly consider that man worthy of immediate execution, and certainly not worthy to be worshiped. Who is really robbing God of glory? Is it the non-Calvinist who says that man must yield to Gods Spirit using his God-given free will in order to be saved, or is it the Calvinist, who turns God into a monster?
Unlike the Calvinist who (whether he admits it or not) places the responsibility on
God for peoples lack of repentance, Jesus placed the blame on the unrepentant people themselves. He said as He wept over Jerusalem,
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling (Matt. 23:37, emphasis added).
Notice that Jesus loved them all and wanted them all to repent, but they refused to yield to His love. The Calvinist, however, makes Jesus say, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her, proving that you are totally depraved. I never wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, thus I chose not to grant you My irresistible grace, and I predestined you to eternal damnation. Im weeping now, not for you, because Ive hated you from the beginning. Rather, Im weeping for no good reason. Perhaps Im weeping for Myself, an unrighteous hypocrite, because I expect people to do what they cant do and I command people to do what I dont practice Myself. The Calvinist, who claims he is zealous for Gods glory, makes God into an immoral, repugnant monster.
Jesus also rebuked the religious Jews, saying, You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of Me; and
you are
unwilling to come to Me, that you may have life (John 5:39-40, emphasis added). Clearly, Jesus believed that people had the capacity to choose to repent or not. This cannot be denied by any honest reader of Scripture.
Have fun with this one. SoaringEagle