The Problem With The God Of Calvinism

“Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory” [Romans 9:22-24]

There are lots of problems that sinners have with the God of Calvinism… problems that even professing Christians have also. These problems would not exist if we correctly understood the nature and character of God and if we properly understood the utter lostness of man. Becuase the God of Calvinism is the God of the Bible. Calvinism is just a name applied to 5 major points of the Gospel – just as there are 5 major points to the false free-will gospel called Arminianism.

The primary issue with the God of Calvinism (i.e. the God of the Bible) that irks many people to no end is that they (Calvinists and others who believe in election and predestination) believe the Bible teaches that God has a right to do whatever He pleases, even if we don’t think that He is being fair, and even if He chooses to let many people die in their sins with His full knowledge that He will have to send them to Hell to pay for their sins.

Unbelievers and even Christians will look at this situation and say, why in the world would a loving God create people, knowing He was not going to choose them for salvation and knowing that He would then have to cast them into the Lake of Fire for eternity? God gives us the answer to this question in Romans Chapter 9 (verses 22 – 24 in particular quoted above) but we choose not to believe His answer, because we don’t like the answer. In fact we probably don’t even want an answer. We want to think that we are all worthy of salvation or at least worthy of being offered salvation. We may feel that way because we may be missing the point of what Heaven is all about:

Heaven is about God.
It is about what God wants.
It is about fellowship with God for all eternity in a world of absolute moral purity.
It is about fellowship with those whom He chooses to spend eternity with.
It is about God desiring to share His glory forever with people He chooses to share it with for reasons known only to Himself.
It is about God choosing to share His glory forever with people (and only those people) for whom Christ died.
It is about God choosing to not share His glory with some people, as a display of His hatred for sin.
It is about God choosing to not share His glory with some people, as a display of His justice being doled out to the sinner.
It is about God choosing to not share His glory with some people, as a display of how merciful He is being to the people He is pardoning.

It is not about creating a kind of heaven tailored to the liking of each and every sinner, or tailored to what spiritually blind sinners consider to be fair. We can sit in judgment of the Almighty and His motives if we dare, but He surely will have the last word. And yes, we really are at His mercy as to whether He will save us or not. Whether a person knows they are elect or not is not the issue. The issue is that we are all urged and even commanded to seek the Lord while He may be found and to call upon Him while He is near [Isaiah 55:6]. The right perspective on God is to be in awe that He would save any of us rebels and that He would desire to adopt any of us ungodly sinners into His eternal Kingdom.

— R.M. Kane

REFERENCES

1. Romans 9:18-20 “Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?”

2. Daniel 4:35 – “And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?”