Suzy B Software 2/Suzy B Software CD-ROM 2 (1994).iso/christin/calvin/calvin.ism

Text File | 1995-05-02 | 13KB | 217 lines

A century ago, Charles Finney wrote of a man who refused to believe the
Bible and become a Christian, "The Bible contravenes my innate sense of
justice at every step," he said, "I cannot, I will not receive it!'
   As it turns out, the man said this because he grew up around a Calvinistic
church community, and he naturally thought the Bible taught Calvinism.
   After Charles Finney showed the man the Bible didn't teach Calvinism,
he broke down in tears and accepted Christ. His painful struggle of many
years was finally over.
   Since then, Calvinism has lost much of its influence and it is not
widely known about nowadays, nor is it even understood. Most readers, for
example, would have no idea why the man felt Calvinism contravened his innate
sense of justice.
   Today, especially in Baptist circles, there is a common misconception that
Calvinism is merely the doctrine of eternal security, i.e., the doctrine of
"once saved always saved." Although that is certainly a part of Calvinism,
that doctrine does not necessarily make one a Calvinist.
   The remainder of this file explains Calvinism, albeit from an opponent's
viewpoint.

                              WHAT IS CALVINISM?

Calvinism is a strong predestinarian theology. It makes God the sole doer
of all that happens, yet it places the blame for wrong doing on the man
and woman who acts out the predestination. You might compare it to a
Puppet Master who acts out a play with his puppets and has one of the puppets
play an evil role. When the play is over, however, the Master is ANGRY
because the puppet was evil, so he hurls the puppet into the furnace because
of its' evil. In a very similar manner, Calvinism makes God the author of sin
but holds man to blame.
   Most Calvinists would be outraged with what I just said.  They do not see
themselves as teaching God is the author of sin. In fact they would tell you
outright they do not believe any such thing. In all fairness, Calvinists do
not BELIEVE God is the author of sin!  But they do TEACH it! This is an
incredible inconsistency on their part that often bewilders those who are
trying to understand Calvinism for the first time.  Here, Mr. Calvinist is
like a man who believes in the formula, TWO plus TWO, but he becomes upset
with you if you should tell him he believes in FOUR. He says, "No, I do not
believe in FOUR, I believe in TWO plus TWO! Why do you misrepresent me?!"
And, no matter how you try to reword your statement to show him he is
teaching four, he will claim you have either misunderstood him or you are
intentionally misrepresenting him.
   To understand the Calvinists, therefore, one must realize they believe
a formula which necessarily makes God the author of sin, but they don't
believe the conclusion of their formula. Here is a quote from John Calvin
himself which may help illustrate the point:

    "The reprobate (i.e.  the wrongdoers) would excuse their sins by
     alleging that they are unable to escape the necessity of sinning,
     especially because A NECESSITY OF THIS NATURE IS LAID UPON THEM BY
     THE ORDINATION OF GOD. We (i.e. we Calvinists) deny they can be
     thus validly excused, since THE ORDINATION OF GOD, BY WHICH THEY
     COMPLAIN THEY ARE DOOMED TO DESTRUCTION,  is consistent with
     equity, -an equity, indeed, unknown to us, but most certain."
     Institutes of the Christian Religion (Vol 2, Book 3:23:9)

Calvin is saying there is an ordination of God which makes it NECESSARY for
the Reprobate to sin. But, he says this is no excuse for sinning because they
are doomed to destruction by some UNKNOWN principle of right.
  Now I think this "unknown equity" is UNKNOWN simply because it does
not exist!  It is an escape mechanism  Calvin had to imagine up to avoid
making God the author of sin and yet allow Calvinism to say God causes sin.
  Calvinists often proclaim their five point system is one of great logical
beauty and symmetry. The bottom line however is that their entire system
traces back to this one great logical and moral contradiction; that they make
man to be at fault for what God makes him do!

                         The Five Points of Calvinism

As mentioned briefly above, Calvinism is based on five points. Calvinists
often use the word "Tulip" to refer to their five points because each letter
can stand for a doctrine of Calvinism. As follows:

                       Total Depravity of Man
                       Unconditional Election
                       Limited Atonement
                       Irresistible Grace
                       Perseverance of the Saints.

Their five doctrines work together as a system. The logic of the "system"
sounds like this:

                 T-Man is totally depraved since the fall of Adam. This does
                   not mean he is as bad as he can be, it means he can have
                   no interest in spiritual things and no ability to perform
                   them. Man is not interested in his own salvation nor can
                   he be.

                 U-Since no one can choose salvation, God chooses for them.
                   Those chosen, however, are "Unconditionally Chosen." This
                   means there was no reason for God's choice or rejection of
                   a man that is based on the man himself. Imagine ten
                   identical marbles. Now bend down and pick up two. Since
                   they are all the same, why did you pick the two you did?
                   That is Unconditional Election.

                 L-Limited Atonement means Christ did not die to save every
                   one. He died only for the ones who were chosen before the
                   world was made. It is impossible for any one else to
                   believe and become saved.

                 I-Irresistible Grace.  Those who are chosen have no choice
                   in the matter. The grace which saves them is irresistible.
                   In fact it is so irresistible it makes them willing.

                 P-Perseverance of the Saints. It means once saved always
                   saved. It is impossible for the Elect to fall away from
                   salvation. They might backslide but they cannot sin so as
                   to fall away and become lost.

Now, let us ask some sharp questions. Under this system God can choose who
He wants, so why doesn't He choose to save everyone?  Mr. Calvinist says some
have to be saved in order to glorify the mercy of God and others must be
damned to glorify the wrath of God. This is probably that UNKNOWN equity John
Calvin refers to! However, where does such a teaching leave the love of God?
If you were able to save ten people would you only save two?
   Furthermore, where does it leave the justice of God? Unconditional elec-
tion is fine for choosing marbles, but there would be no justice on judg-
ment day if THAT principle determined who was condemned and who justified!
Calvinism makes a mockery of the final judgement, and it undermines the
justice of God.
  Calvinism also undermines salvation by grace. Finney once said that if man
was born in a state like that described by Calvinism, where he is made to
sin, then God would OWE man his salvation for having placed him in such a
condition in the first place. An illustration may help, if a king placed a
tax on you that was humanly impossible to pay and he did this for his own
sake, that he might take away your possessions, the king would then OWE you
his resignation for having treated you that way! Forget the fact that he is
king and you could not make him resign, morally speaking he would have placed
himself in debt to you, and would have lost all opportunity to give you
anything "by grace." Furthermore, you would be in a position to show grace to
the king by forgiving him for how he treated you!! Calvinism implicitly
places God in the same compromising position that king was in, where man needs
to forgive God, and not where God needs to forgive man but owes man instead!
Calvinists speak much of "free grace" when in fact their entire system
undermines salvation by grace.
    Of course, if man has a free will then it makes sense to punish him for
wrong doing and then salvation would not be owed at all. Calvinists deny
freewill however. Therefore, in their system salvation by grace can not
exist.
    Finally, the five points of Calvinism are so inter-related that if just
one point is proven true or false the whole system would be proven true or
false. If the Calvinist proves just one of his doctrines, then we are all
puppets. On the other hand if just one of the five points of Calvinism is
proven wrong, then it is also proven that men have freewill, and it
establishes the impartiality of God's moral justice.
    That is to say, it does on paper. For you see, the five points of
Calvinism conflict with natural reality from the start. The five points have
no real existence except in the minds of its adherents. God's moral justice
and man's freewill however, are the reality.

Anyone out there want to become a Calvinist?

-------------------
Addendum:

COROLLARY OBSERVATIONS

Observation 1: I wish to mention the matter of the Calvinists continually
using terms that sound as if they were in support of man's freewill.
   They will speak of man being a free agent, they will say God truly
offers salvation to all men, they will declare that man is responsible for
his sin, and they will speak of God permitting sin. They don't mean what the
average person would think however. When they say man is a free agent they
ONLY mean man has the ability to do what he wants to do. That's all fine and
good until you find out later they really meant that man can only want to do
what God wants him to!
   And, when they speak of God `truly' offering salvation to all men, they
mean that God will truly save them if they believe.  Again, that's all fine
and good until you find out later that God made it impossible for them to
believe, by an eternal decree, and THEN made the offer!
   Or, they will declare man is responsible for sin and sound so wholesome in
saying so, but all the while they believe God's foreordination causes the man
to act as he does.
   Then, on top of all that, they speak of God `permitting' sin, again with
the meaning that God allows a man to do what he wants. This too sounds fine
until you realize they mean God has foreordained the man to want to sin and
that God merely `permits' what He caused.
   Calvinists have clothed their doctrines in freewill terminology, but they
have significantly redefined the terms. There's a basic integrity issue here
that the Calvinists aren't maintaining. Although this re-definition probably
occurs subconsciously and  `lightning fast' in the mind of the Calvinist, I
felt it needed to be addressed.

Observation 2: When you encounter Calvinism for the first time you receive
an intuitive impression that is difficult to describe. It is similar to what
you'd feel stepping into a room where the furniture was nailed to the
ceiling. There's an instantaneous feeling of, `something is strangely wrong
here.'
    I believe the Calvinist has substituted his intuitive knowledge of right
and wrong with a program of mechanistic response derived from the letter of
scripture. In Calvinism it all comes down to, `if they say this then I say
that.' There will be times when the Calvinist says something that you
intuitively know is wrong but yet you technically can't answer. However, I've
learned the answer to Calvinism isn't merely to  play better technical
`chess' than they do, though that is part of it. Rather, the answer
ultimately exists within each of us in that hidden place where our knowledge
of right and wrong intuitively resides.
    The purpose of this essay has been to show what Calvinism is, but there
was a purpose in that also. It was also intended to make you aware of an
innate knowledge within yourself, a knowledge of right and wrong that you
surely felt as you read about Calvinism.
     More than any technical expertise, this knowledge will enable a man to
escape deception. This knowledge is too valuable a gift not to develop.
Develop it and learn to think with it, for it's a gift that can be lost if
not cultivated. Don't substitute it with a mere algorithm of answers and
counter answers. Instead, learn to place technical information into the hands
of intuitive knowledge and you will have an ability that few possess.


                                   The End