The one error in the expression of Calvinism
Dec 21, 2013 10:21:07 GMT
Post by Colossians on Dec 21, 2013 10:21:07 GMT
This material is for the teaching of the Body of Christ, however the author reserves copyright over it.
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THE ONE ERROR IN THE EXPRESSION OF CALVINISM
Calvinism is bigger than Calvin, Whitefield, Augustine, Spurgeon ... etc.
Whilst John Calvin the French theologian did a lot to formalise the matter as a school of thought, he does not have the sole rights to its principles: the principles are God's, not man's.
One mere rationalisation by Calvin and Co. is to do with the idea known as Unconditional Election.
Specifically, although the biblical principle of Unconditional Election teaches that God elects certain people to salvation, it does not teach that He elects such people arbitrarily, nor that He even has a choice in the matter.
That is, the idea of the general Calvinist that God chooses to love certain ones, is false, if for no other reason than the fact that love is not a choice, but an irresistible outworking of who one is.
So the anti-Calvinist’s objection to Calvinism - that God doesn’t save people on a ‘lottery-ticket’ basis - is correct: God doesn't sit there and, as the general Calvinist thinks, decide "iny mini miny moe, save this one and tell the other where to go".
The situation is rather this: God has no choice whatsoever as to whom He elects to salvation: He is absolutely constrained to choose only those who have always been in Christ outside of time.
So:
"According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world" Eph 1:4.
And experientially the born again believer knows this to be the case, for the nature of such an one's experience with Christ, is that which intimates that his Saviour's love for him were no mere act of the will (and therefore not that which at some point did not exist), but that which has never not existed in the mind of his Saviour - that his Saviour has in fact never had any choice in the matter - that his Saviour's love for him has been from everlasting, and will continue to everlasting.
So:
"If we believe not, yet He abideth faithful: He cannot deny Himself" 2 Ti 2:13.
Summary
The common idea of the general Calvinist that God has at least done a good thing in selecting some to salvation (and that fortuitously such selection just happened to include him) rightly incites indignation in the anti-Calvinist camp: the idea, no matter how you put it, smacks of opportunism, false gratitude and a certain smugness.
The situation is rather and simply that those who are unconditionally elected to salvation inside of time, are those who are "one spirit" (1 Cor 6:17) with the Second Person of God outside of time; and that those who are not elected to salvation inside of time, are those who are not "one spirit" with the Second Person of God outside of time. That is, the process of election is simply that which reconciles the inside-of-time state of human beings with their outside-of-time eternal spiritual state.
So God has absolutely no choice in the matter whatsoever: He has no more choice over His own spiritual 'anatomy' (the believer is, as we have said, "one spirit" with the Lord) than the choice a man has to decide on his own physical anatomy: they both will be who they both will be.
So election is simply a product of the fact that God is who He is and can't do anything about it.
Whilst this may not satisfy the anti-Calvinist camp, it will hopefully go a long way to showing them that true Calvinism contains no ingredient of the smugness and exclusiveness which we usually ascribe to cults.
Amen.