06 The Arrogance of Calvinism

The Arrogance of Calvinism

Those principles most necessary to be known and understood about the gospel are simple. God told Habakkuk, “Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables that he may run that readeth it”Habakkuk 2:2.

“And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those; the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein”Isaiah 35:8.

“My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew”Deuteronomy 32:2.

Notice that the text compares the truth to the falling rain. The easiest thing you will ever do is to get wet in a rainstorm. If you stay out there long enough, you will get wet. And if you stay in the Bible long enough, you will get wet from the gentle rain of gospel truth. For the humble, prayerful, obedient, child of God nothing could be simpler than learning enough of the gospel to satisfy your present need. You are not likely to become any kind of scholar, but you will learn enough of Bible truth to satisfy your need. But while that is true, there are some things connected with the gospel you will never learn-some things that are so far beyond your ability to comprehend, that you cannot understand them, and you certainly cannot explain them. We can usually understand the who, the what, the when, and the where. But when it comes to the how and the why of much that God does, we are almost always at a loss.

We cannot begin to explain how God spoke the word, and created the universe out of nothing; and if it was explained to us, we still could not understand what we had been told. The Bible teaches it, and we believe it, but it is beyond our comprehension to understand it.

We cannot understand how he will, one day, speak the word, raise our long decayed bodies, and put them back together again. We have no doubt he will do it, but we cannot begin to understand how.

We cannot understand how the spirit does its work in regeneration. God does it; we feel the effects, and enjoy the benefits; but we cannot understand, nor fully explain, how he does it.

We cannot understand why he chose to give the very best heaven had, to suffer, bleed, and die, to redeem lost sinners. It boggles our minds to think that God would pay such a price for the redemption of such worthless sinners as we know ourselves to be.

We could make a career talking about those questions that are beyond our comprehension. The point I am getting to is that we cannot know how God can know all that is going to be before it happens. He knows and, when he chooses, he tells us. That is one of the proofs that he is God. But we cannot understand how he knows.

We can explain that he is eternal. He is not bounded by time the way we are. With us there is a past, a present, and a future. But with God all is one eternal now.

We can explain that he is the beginning and the end. That is not to say that he is the beginning, and he will be the end. He is the beginning and the end-at one and the same time. He is-right now-the alpha and the omega, the first and the last. He is all of that at the same time. We can say all of that, and be right proud of ourselves. But after we have said it, we do not really know what we just said, because with us there is a past, a present, and a future. We cannot really comprehend anything that is not bounded by time the same way we are-regardless of our pretending that we understand. Being the timely creatures we are, we cannot comprehend how God can know everything that ever happen in the future. The simplest, and most honest, thing is for us to admit there are some things that are entirely beyond our comprehension. We are creatures of time, and we do not know everything. But our Calvinistic/fatalistic theologians will have none of it. With their keen intellect, their massive learning, their nearly encyclopedic reservoir of explanations and illustra-tions, they have it all figured out. They write their massive systematic theologies, with their almost infinitely subdi-vided topics, and sub-topics. And they fully explain every subject that comes under consideration.

God himself issues the challenge, “Canst thou by searching find out God; canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?”Job 11:7. And all over the room our Calvinist friends raise their hands, “I can,” “I can,” “I can.”

They have put the Almighty under the microscope, and they are sure they have him all figured out; they know how he can foretell the future. They tell us God can foreknow the future, because, before he created the universe, he predes-tinated everything that would ever happen-both good and evil.

They tell us that if some reprobate abducts and mistreats a little child, it is because from all eternity God predestinated he would do that very thing, at that very time. They are sure God knows it will happen, because he orchestrates and manipulates all the surrounding events-all the second causes-to make it happen.

They remind us that God could have stopped it, if he chose to. And with that sickening, Calvinistic grin, they assure us that since God could have stopped it, and did not, that is proof positive he wanted it to happen. I have trouble recording the words-even as a quote from a heretic. It is totally beyond my comprehension how anybody can say the words, and expect somebody to believe it.

You and I cannot explain how God can foretell the future. We cannot explain why he tolerates sin in the world. I cannot explain why he puts up with all my own short-comings. I certainly cannot explain why he tolerates such sin and wickedness as there is in the world. But it is a simple matter to admit that I do not know everything. There is much I cannot begin to explain. But our arrogant Calvinistic theologians will have none of it. It would leave a huge hole in their system to admit there are some things they cannot explain. So rather than admit they cannot explain everything, they lay the cause of sin at God’s feet. They tell us God predestinates everything, manipulates everything, orchestrates everything, so that everything falls out according to some grand plan, and that plan involves everything that will ever happen, from the rise and fall of mighty empires, to the formation of every tiny snowflake.

Rather than admit the obvious-that none of us knows everything-they charge God with all the sin and wicked-ness in the world.Such arrogance, such conceit, such foolhardiness, is beyond belief.

It patches the hole in their system, but at what a price.