How many think of the Calvinist God as just some crazy Being that forces some to go to heaven and forces others to go to hell against the wills? It certainly is a strange sterotype that is often perceived by those who are inconsistent in their theology.Philip Schaff comments on the Canons of Dort (as cited by Riddlebarger; Taken from Philip Schaff’s Creeds of Christendom, Vol 1 (pp. 519-523)). Keep in mind that Dort's Canons are in response to the followers of Arminianism.
Moreover the promise of the gospel is, that whosoever believeth in Christ crucified shall not perish, but have everlasting life. This promise together with the command to repent and believe, ought to be declared and published to all nations, and to all persons promiscuously and without distinction, to whom God out of his good pleasure sends the gospel.
So many think Calvinists are not commanded to give the Gospel call to all men. Although the same can not grasp as to why we would do so (the apparent contradiction as many see it), read the next paragraph.
And, whereas many who are called by the gospel do not repent nor believe in Christ, but perish in unbelief; this is not owing to any defect or insufficiency in the sacrifice offered by Christ upon the cross, but is wholly to be imputed to themselves.
The problem is not God but sinners remaining in their rebellion. This next paragraph says something I have thought about for a long time.
Faith is therefore the gift of God, not on account of its being offered by God to man, to be accepted or rejected at his pleasure, but because it is in reality conferred, breathed, and infused into him; nor even because God bestows the power or ability to believe, and then expects that man should, by the exercise of his own free will, consent to the terms of salvation, and actually believe in Christ; but because he who works in man both to will and to do, and indeed all things in all, produces both the will to believe and the act of believing also.
So many think that God now gives some kind of prevenient grace by which men now have the ability to believe if they so choose. Notice that God has not bestowed "the power or ability to believe, and then expects that man should, by the exercise of his own free will, consent to the terms of salvation, and actually believe in Christ" but instead actually creates faith in the heart of unregenerate person.
Salvation is about God saving dead sinners for His own glory. So the next time you proclaim the Gospel, keep in mind you are simply the means by which God is working in the lives of men and women around you. IMHO, this is quite humbling.
2 comments:
"The problem is not God but sinners remaining in their rebellion."
Would you say that there is a "Jesus-shaped hole in every man's heart (as I read on a Catholic blog today), but man's rebellion prevents God filling it?
To me that reads very close to "Men thwart God's plan of Salvation," if it is man's rebellion, not God's sovereign choice to send souls to hell.
Either God planned to save some and damn the rest from the beginning or he did not. Which is it?
God's decree of man's fall and his Electing Grace to save those He has chosen to join to Christ from eternity past does not mean man is some innocent creature that God forces to sin and bring judgment upon Himself.
Allow me to offer an example. Was the Cross an accident? Was it something God foresaw and used to His advantage? Or was it decreed by His sovereign purpose and will?
Acts 4 makes that last the plain and obvious answer. But notice that Peter teaches that God holds men accountable for their sin and rebellion in the murder of the Son of God.
Therefore God is able to both decree man's actions in time as well as hold men accountable for his actions.
However, please do not confuse Election unto life with Reprobation. They are not the same and should not be considered synonymous.
2) Is there a God shaped hole? Man was created for a purpose. Each day man lives in his rebellion and sin, he abandons His God-given purpose of fellowship. The problem isn't that man if he so chose to, he could fix the problem. He is a slave of his sin and has no ability or desire for such a thing. Romans 1 teaches that all too plainly.
God Bless
Post a Comment