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PART II. Is Calvinism OR Arminianism Biblical
Posted : 29 Aug, 2011 02:28 PM
Is Calvinism or Arminianism Biblical?
A Biblical Explanation of the Doctrine of Election.
By Cooper P. Abrams, III @www.bible-truth.org
PART II. Calvinism Destroys God's Grace
Calvinism is contrary to God's grace itself, which stems from God's love and unmerited favor toward man. To accept Calvinism is to proclaim that God does not love all His creation and that nullifies His grace. It makes God unloving and unjust to most men on earth. Calvinism restricts God's love to only a part of His creation and makes a lie out of God's statements that He loves the world (John 3:16). God is love and that is His very nature, therefore He cannot go against who He is and deny His love to some because He chooses not to love them. God says He is love and He cannot go against His nature. God's sovereignty does not allow Him to deny who He is.
How then can the Calvinist accept that God is love, when they believe He withholds his grace from most of the world. Not one word in the Bible limits God's love. God's love is offered freely, and is only limited by sinful men who will not accept His love. But that is not God's fault, but man's. John 3:15-16 states plainly "God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten Son." If you truly believe that statement from God's word, you cannot be a Calvinist. Man goes to hell because he is a sinner who rejects God, not because God decreed him to burn in hell and refuses to allow him to repent (Romans 1:18-23). It is a perversion of God's sovereignty and His grace to conclude He would violate His own nature and withhold His love toward the world. God is just and therefore His justice demands that if a man rejects His grace, and Christ's payment for his sins, then the man must pay the debt himself. Yet, 1 John 2:2 states clearly that "And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." (1 John 2:2)
The question is simply this: "Does God love the world and did Jesus Christ, God incarnate in the flesh, come to the earth, suffer, and die for the sins of mankind?" The biblical answer is overwhelmingly YES! Then how can the Calvinist teach He didn't. On what basis does he teach that God did not extend His love to all men?
Calvinism and man's will-Is willfully believing and accepting Jesus Christ as one's Savior at "work." One of the first arguments the Calvinist will use to "prove" his belief is that a man is totally depraved and cannot by willfully believing can be saved because that would be a "work." Their reasoning is that if a man chooses to be save his act of his will saves him.
In Genesis 2:16-17 God said to Adam, "And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." (Genesis 2:16-17) Did not God give Adam and choice? He was warned that if he ate fruit from the forbidden tree he would surely die. God gave Adam a clear choice. Eat of all the other tree, but not this one.
The Lord allowed Adam to use his will. Abe and Cain were given a choice also. Obey God and present to Him a blood sacrifice and be accepted, or reject God's word, disobey God and be rejected by Him. Abe made the right choice and Cain did not.
Throughout the whole of the Bible God gave men choices. He always told them what was righteous, meaning what was His will, and He warned them of making the wrong choice. Hebrews 11, abounds with men and women that when God told them what was His will they obeyed, believed God and it was "counted unto them for righteous." These hosts of the "heroes of faith" used their God give wills to honor God.
Joshua beckoned Israel to serve the Lord saying, "And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." (Joshua 24:15) Israel had a choice to serve God or idols. This was a choice of salvation or damnation. Joshua warned them "If ye forsake the LORD, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good." (Joshua 24:20) If they were totally depraved and could not respond they why did God speak to them through Joshua and offer then the choice. If they all were "predestined to heaven or hell with no ability to respond but how God had programmed them, why offer the choice? If any of the children of Israel, who heard Joshua's promise of salvation, and God would not have allowed them to respond, then the choice and the offer would have been a lie to those poor souls. Plainly, God gave them a choice and they used their God give wills to accept or reject God's offer.
Inconsistencies in Calvinism - There are many inconsistencies in reformed theology. God says in Hebrews 11:6 "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." Several truths stand out sharply. Plainly, the heart of God's plan is man's faith in God that without it is impossible for him to please or come to God. The man who comes to God must believe that God is. A "depraved" robot, which is the Calvinist's view of man, cannot express faith, nor believe or seek God. (irresistible grace!?) Further, faith is inseparably tied to "diligently seeking Him." A robot cannot seek anything, but only can respond to the programming he is given. How can a "totally depraved" man desire to seek something he is incapable of knowing exists? The context of God's statement is of the saving faith of men who heard God's promises and by faith received them. God's very definition of faith Calvinism is refuted. Calvinism is a maze of inconsistencies and unbiblical conclusions that defy any logic. There are no inconsistencies with God as He is a God of order, organization and logic.
The Bible Commands All Men to Believe : The Scriptures tell us that man must believe on Jesus Christ in order to be saved. There are literally hundreds of Scriptures that teach that man must believe, trust or have faith in God.
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)
"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." (Romans 1:16)
"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Romans 5:1)
"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." (Ephesians 2:9)
"For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." (1 Corinthians 1:21)
A man must believe and by faith receive God's offer of salvation. Belief is an act of man's will. However, man has nothing to boast of in the process of exercising his will and believing what God has said. The act of atonement for sin was accomplished by the Lord Jesus, not man. Suppose you received a gift from someone that offered it to you out of the goodness of their heart. They did not offer you the gift because you deserved or had earned it, but because they "willed" or wanted you to have it. In their care or love for you, they wanted you to have something nice. Your act of reaching out and taking the gift does not change it into something you deserved, does it? Would your act of receiving the gift mean you had earned it or paid something for it? Obviously the answer is no; the one who offers the gift decides, within themselves, why they give the gift, not the one who accepts it. The Arminian is right when he states that salvation is totally the act of a Sovereign God. He is wrong, however, when he concludes that a man in receiving Christ is in some way working for, or meriting salvation. The Calvinist's extreme views are wrong when they take away man's responsibility to receive Christ, by stating God has decreed some to be saved and others to be lost and that grace is irresistible. God rightly commands all men to believe and receive His Son the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. A man cannot exercise his will outside the limits which God has set in place. Thus God has, in an act of His will, enabled all men to receive salvation.
The Calvinist is right when he states that salvation is totally the act of a Sovereign God. He is wrong, however, when he concludes that a man in receiving Christ is in some way working for, or meriting salvation. The Calvinist's extreme views are wrong when they take away man's responsibility to receive Christ, by stating God has decreed some to be saved and others to be lost and that grace is irresistible. God rightly commands all men to believe and receive His Son the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. A man cannot exercise his will outside the limits which God has set in place. Thus God has, in an act of His will, enabled all men to receive salvation.
God Will Not Violate a Man's Will - One important truth that further refutes Five Point Calvinism is that God will not violate a man's will. God has not created man as a programmed robot with his life predestined at his creation. In God's plan He allows man the freedom to choose for himself the course of his life. It was God's sovereign choice to create man with the ability to reason and to love, which both are acts of one's will. Man can respond to God when the Holy Spirit enlightens the man's heart. That happens when a man hears the Gospel or as Romans 1:19-20 states, when man responds to natural revelation which God shows him from nature. God elected the plan of salvation and what He designed it to accomplish. He gave man a will and in doing so allows a man to respond to God willingly and in love.
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