PREDESTINATION
Most Christian denominations believe in some form of predestination because the Bible uses the term, but in what way predestination should be understood is not itself made clear.
It was a big issue in the Reformation, and two camps emerged: Calvinism and Arminianism. Calvinism is common in Presbyterian, Reformed, and a few Baptist churches. Arminianism is common in Methodist, Pentecostal, and most Baptist churches. (The influence of Calvinism in the US is perhaps disproportionate, because the Puritans and the Baptists among the early settlers were Calvinists.)
Calvinists claim God predestines people by choosing which individuals will accept his offer of salvation. These people are known as “the elect”. God has chosen them and instilled in them the desire to come to him. Those who are not among the elect, “the reprobate,” will not desire God, and thus will not be saved.
This view was rejected by Catholicism and Orthodoxy. As all sin in Adam, all can be saved in Adam. God is the God of all, not the God of some.
The ‘argument’ or ‘misunderstanding’ as I see it results from a misconception regarding the nature of the Divine. The fact that God foreknows something does not mean He determines it to happen.
If the Bible says the finding of one lost sheep is a cause for celebration, then by the same token, the loss of one sheep is the cause of distress.
Too often predestination is a convenient way of dismissing those who don’t do what you tell them to do, or who resist your teachings.
Conversely, the pseudo-Buddhist notion: ‘when the student is ready, the teacher will appear’, is neither Buddhist nor assured. (It seems to have been coined by the Theosophical Association.) But really? How do we know? How do we count those who were ready but for whom no teacher appeared?
TOTAL DEPRAVITY
Christ points out that the publican in the Temple is justified before God, because his prayer is pleasing to God. So he was not ‘totally depraved’. Peter baptised Cornelius and his household because it was clear to him they had been baptsied by the Holy Spirit before they had even heard of Christ. And they weren’t even Jews, but they were pleasing to God. So not totally depraved.
Christ admired the faith of the centurion ... and so it goes...
The accepted Catholic teaching is that because of the fall of Adam, man’s nature is wounded. His eye to the supernatural is occluded, because God withdrew that transcending grace, and only God can reinstate it, but that does not mean man cannot be naturally good, nor that nothing he does is pleasing to God.
UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION
Same argument as above.
LIMITED ATONEMENT
And again.
Calvinists believe the atonement is limited, that Christ offered it for some men but not for all. They claim Christ died only for the elect. To prove this they cite verses which say Christ died for his sheep (John 10:11), for his friends (John 15:13-14a), and for the Church (Acts 20:28, Eph. 5:25).
I might add here that if we are being literal about it, the Church He was talking about was the Church founded on Peter. So the Catholic Church.
One cannot use these verses to prove Christ died only for the elect. When in Galatians 2:20 Paul says that Christ “loved me and gave himself for me,” that does not mean He gave Himself for Paul and no-one else!
John 4:42 describes Christ as “the Saviour of the world,” and 1 John 2:2 states that Christ “is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” 1 Timothy 4:10 describes God as “the Saviour of all men, especially of those who believe.”
IRRESISTIBLE GRACE
Calvinists teach that when God gives a person the grace that enables him to come to salvation, the person always responds and never rejects this grace. For this reason many have called this the doctrine of irresistible grace.
Yet Scripture indicates grace can be resisted. In Acts 7:51 Stephen tells the Sanhedrin, “You always resist the Holy Spirit!”
PERSEVERENCE OF THE SAINTS
Calvinists teach that if a person enters a state of grace he never will leave it but will persevere to the end of life. Analogies are used to support this teaching. Calvinists point out that when we become Christians we become God’s children. They infer that, just as a child’s position in the family is secure, our position in God’s family is secure. A father would not kick his son out, so God will not kick us out.
This reasoning is faulty. The analogy does not prove what it is supposed to. Children do not have “eternal security” in their families. First, they can be disowned. Second, even if a father would not kick anyone out, a child can leave the house on his own, disown his parents, and sever all ties with the family. Third, children can die; we, as God’s children, can die spiritual deaths after we have been spiritually “born again.”
Calvinists chiefly use John 6:37-39, 10:27-29, and Romans 8:35-39 to state their case. But the texts are interpreted out of context, and there are numerous objections to their interpretation.
There is no reason why a person cannot “believe for a while” but “in time of temptation fall away” (cf Luke 8:13).
Most Christian denominations believe in some form of predestination because the Bible uses the term, but in what way predestination should be understood is not itself made clear.
It was a big issue in the Reformation, and two camps emerged: Calvinism and Arminianism. Calvinism is common in Presbyterian, Reformed, and a few Baptist churches. Arminianism is common in Methodist, Pentecostal, and most Baptist churches. (The influence of Calvinism in the US is perhaps disproportionate, because the Puritans and the Baptists among the early settlers were Calvinists.)
Calvinists claim God predestines people by choosing which individuals will accept his offer of salvation. These people are known as “the elect”. God has chosen them and instilled in them the desire to come to him. Those who are not among the elect, “the reprobate,” will not desire God, and thus will not be saved.
This view was rejected by Catholicism and Orthodoxy. As all sin in Adam, all can be saved in Adam. God is the God of all, not the God of some.
The ‘argument’ or ‘misunderstanding’ as I see it results from a misconception regarding the nature of the Divine. The fact that God foreknows something does not mean He determines it to happen.
If the Bible says the finding of one lost sheep is a cause for celebration, then by the same token, the loss of one sheep is the cause of distress.
Too often predestination is a convenient way of dismissing those who don’t do what you tell them to do, or who resist your teachings.
Conversely, the pseudo-Buddhist notion: ‘when the student is ready, the teacher will appear’, is neither Buddhist nor assured. (It seems to have been coined by the Theosophical Association.) But really? How do we know? How do we count those who were ready but for whom no teacher appeared?
TOTAL DEPRAVITY
Christ points out that the publican in the Temple is justified before God, because his prayer is pleasing to God. So he was not ‘totally depraved’. Peter baptised Cornelius and his household because it was clear to him they had been baptsied by the Holy Spirit before they had even heard of Christ. And they weren’t even Jews, but they were pleasing to God. So not totally depraved.
Christ admired the faith of the centurion ... and so it goes...
The accepted Catholic teaching is that because of the fall of Adam, man’s nature is wounded. His eye to the supernatural is occluded, because God withdrew that transcending grace, and only God can reinstate it, but that does not mean man cannot be naturally good, nor that nothing he does is pleasing to God.
UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION
Same argument as above.
LIMITED ATONEMENT
And again.
Calvinists believe the atonement is limited, that Christ offered it for some men but not for all. They claim Christ died only for the elect. To prove this they cite verses which say Christ died for his sheep (John 10:11), for his friends (John 15:13-14a), and for the Church (Acts 20:28, Eph. 5:25).
I might add here that if we are being literal about it, the Church He was talking about was the Church founded on Peter. So the Catholic Church.
One cannot use these verses to prove Christ died only for the elect. When in Galatians 2:20 Paul says that Christ “loved me and gave himself for me,” that does not mean He gave Himself for Paul and no-one else!
John 4:42 describes Christ as “the Saviour of the world,” and 1 John 2:2 states that Christ “is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” 1 Timothy 4:10 describes God as “the Saviour of all men, especially of those who believe.”
IRRESISTIBLE GRACE
Calvinists teach that when God gives a person the grace that enables him to come to salvation, the person always responds and never rejects this grace. For this reason many have called this the doctrine of irresistible grace.
Yet Scripture indicates grace can be resisted. In Acts 7:51 Stephen tells the Sanhedrin, “You always resist the Holy Spirit!”
PERSEVERENCE OF THE SAINTS
Calvinists teach that if a person enters a state of grace he never will leave it but will persevere to the end of life. Analogies are used to support this teaching. Calvinists point out that when we become Christians we become God’s children. They infer that, just as a child’s position in the family is secure, our position in God’s family is secure. A father would not kick his son out, so God will not kick us out.
This reasoning is faulty. The analogy does not prove what it is supposed to. Children do not have “eternal security” in their families. First, they can be disowned. Second, even if a father would not kick anyone out, a child can leave the house on his own, disown his parents, and sever all ties with the family. Third, children can die; we, as God’s children, can die spiritual deaths after we have been spiritually “born again.”
Calvinists chiefly use John 6:37-39, 10:27-29, and Romans 8:35-39 to state their case. But the texts are interpreted out of context, and there are numerous objections to their interpretation.
There is no reason why a person cannot “believe for a while” but “in time of temptation fall away” (cf Luke 8:13).
