Calvinist Bad Logic #8: Two Different Types Of ...
Bad Logic #8: To make their "theology" fit the Bible, Calvinists break many biblical concepts into two types. Something NOT supported by the Bible. Because, once again, this comes from their own philosophical reasoning.
Two Loves: Calvinism believes Calvi-god only really loves the "elect," which is why he saves them and only them. But the Bible says God loves all people, right? So how do they mesh this? By saying God has two kinds of love - a "save your soul" love for the elect and a "give you food and water" love for the non-elect (before sending them to hell for eternity!).
Two Wills: The Bible says that God wills that no one perishes, that He wants all people to be saved. But Calvinists believe that God predestines most people for hell. So how do they mesh these two? By claiming that God has two wills: a "revealed" one, where He says He wants one thing to happen, and a "hidden" one, where He really wants the opposite to happen. (They go by other names too.) This is how Calvi-god can say one thing but cause the opposite thing to happen. Because he's got two Wills, you see. Two opposing Wills. There! Problem solved! And "It's a mystery! You can't understand how it all works, so just accept it, okay!"
Two Calls: The Bible shows God calling all men to believe. But Calvinists believe that the only people who can respond to God's calls are the "elect," those whom God predestined to believe and causes to believe. So then, how do they mesh that with the fact that God "calls" to all? Well, with two different calls, of course.
There's a special, irresistible call for the elect that Calvi-Holy-Spirit causes them to respond to, and a "call" for the non-elect that they can never respond to because they are predestined to hell. BUT the fact that they were "called" and that they rejected the call makes them punishable (even though they could never respond to the call anyway). And it makes Calvi-god appear righteous for punishing them for rejecting him, which apparently was why Calvi-god “called” them in the first place (so that they would reject the call, so that he could have a reason to send them to hell, even though that’s what he predestined for them from the beginning anyway for no reason at all).
Oh, and Calvi-god also did it so that he could “show off” his holiness, justice, and love. He needed sinners so that he could have people to punish in order to show off how holy he is, how seriously he takes sin, how just he is in punishing sin, and in order to show the elect how loved they are, compared to the non-elect! It’s frickin’ lunacy!
And you know what? They say that God shows off His justice by predestining people for hell. But you know what God says about how He shows off His justice? By sending Jesus to the cross to pay for our sins. (Romans 3:25-26)
Seriously, they do say that God needed sin and sinners in order to fully display all of His attributes, like His wrath and justice, etc. So then, I'm just wondering, how incomplete was God all that time before humans came along? If He "needed" sin and sinners so that He could display all of His "God-ness" then He must have been severely lacking before we came along. In fact, He couldn't really have been fully "God" before we came along then, could He?
Calvinism acts like it shrinks people and elevates God, but what it really does in so many subtle ways is shrink God and elevate humans. (Calvinists: "Look how humble I am to accept such difficult teachings that I can't understand and don't like!")
My ex-pastor (a dogmatic Calvinist) has a grown son who is a missionary to Muslim nations and who is a dogmatic Calvinist too. (Big surprise, huh. I'll call him "Bob." Bob is creepy when he preaches! He seems all about intimidating the audience and strong-arming them into siding with him, staring them down and pointing his finger at them, basically warning us that we should NEVER question [his dad's view of] God's sovereignty. Like some sort of a domineering power-play.)
Bob once wrote a post on the church blog where he wondered why God (Calvi-god) would deliberately blind people from knowing the truth, from finding God and salvation. He was contemplating this after an encounter with a Muslim man who just wouldn't listen to or accept anything Bob told him about the Gospel. (It's clear that Bob assumes - due to his Calvinist upbringing - that God is responsible for this man's blindness, that it couldn't possibly be because of the man himself. And I bet Bob never stopped to wonder if maybe the man doesn't believe him because of the Calvinist garbage he's preaching. I wouldn't accept that stuff either.)
Anyway, on the church blog, Bob contemplated why Calvi-god (I have to call him "Calvi-god" because he is NOT the God of the Bible!) deliberately blinds some people. And his conclusion is this (paraphrased):
Calvi-god's highest goal is to be worshipped. But worship is impossible without a love-relationship. And since the greatest commandment is "Love the Lord your God," then this must be Calvi-god's greatest commandment for himself too, to love himself.
Therefore, says Bob, Calvi-god's greatest concern isn't our salvation; it's his self-love and self-worship. (Bob makes the classic Calvinist assumption of, paraphrased, "If God was really concerned with our salvation, then we'd surely all be saved. But since we are not, it shows that our salvation isn't a top goal of his.") So Calvi-god doesn't really care about our salvation; he really just wants to be known and to be worshipped. (However, if God's greatest goal is to be known and worshipped, isn't "blinding people" and "causing them to reject Him" the very opposite of that!?!)
So because of Calvi-god's self-love, he wants to worship himself for all of eternity. And this is why he blinds some people and hardens their hearts - so that he can send them to hell for their sins so that he can eternally worship himself for his strong sense of justice against sin. But he saves some people (the super-special elect!) so that he can eternally worship himself for his sense of love and goodness. And we should all be singing his praises because of how great he is!!!
It's sick. It really is. To turn "God causes sin and unbelief, but then punishes us for the sin and unbelief that He causes" into the reason to praise God, into something that makes Him more just, more loving, more holy, righteous, and glorious. To squash any opposition to this with "Well, God can do whatever He wants because it's all about His self-love and self-worship and self-glorification. And you'd better just accept it!"
Turning evil into good! It's satanic. And there are no verses to support this garbage. (He calls this stuff "his reflections." And you know what? That's exactly what it is - his reflections. Because it's not from the Bible!)
What a horrible assault this is on the character of the God of the Bible! And how satanic to make it sound like it's all for God's glory!
Now, most of us would read this to mean that we are all sinners, unrighteous, and enemies of God at first, but that Jesus died for us all. Because He died for sinners. And all of us are sinners.
But Calvinists believe that Jesus died only for the elect. (And how good Christians can get sucked into Calvinism after hearing this I'll never understand!) So if Calvinism is true, then either the elect alone are "sinners, unrighteous, ungodly enemies of God" … or there has to be two different types of sinners (the “sinning, unrighteous, ungodly enemies” that Jesus died for and the “sinning, unrighteous, ungodly enemies” that Jesus didn't die for). But does this sound like what the Bible's saying when it talks about sinners? Seriously!?!
Two Sources of Sin: Calvinists believe that God causes/controls all things - ALL THINGS, which includes sin - but they know they can't accuse God of sin, so they have to make it sound like man is really responsible for his sin even though Calvi-god controls all that we think and do. And how do they do this? With two sources of sin! Two sources of causation!
To them, God is the ultimate source of everything that happens, ordaining from the very beginning everything we think and do ... but down here, we are the secondary source, the ones who "choose" to carry out our desires and actions, our sins. Much like a robot carries out the commands that the programmer programmed it to do.
However, unlike a robot, they say that if we sin it's because we wanted to sin, according to our desires (irresistible desires that came with the sin-nature Calvi-god gave us!), and so we are really responsible for our sin, and so we deserve the punishment we get. And they think this gets Calvi-god off the hook for being the ultimate cause/programmer of sin, that it makes man responsible for his sin, even though Calvi-god preprogrammed him to do it and he could never choose to do anything differently.
[Here's something you need to know about Calvinism, for when you ask them "If God predestines everything, then can the non-elect choose not to sin? Can they choose to believe and obey?" and they answer with "Well, of course. If they wanted to, they could choose to not sin or choose to believe!":
What they're really saying by "if they wanted to" is "if they could want to, but they will never want to, because they have the 'sinner nature,' and the 'sinner nature' will always only want to sin and always only choose to sin and to reject God."
As I pointed out earlier, they believe that Calvi-god determines the nature we get, that he chooses whom to give the "saved" nature to and whom to give the "sinner" nature to.
(Or, to better hide Calvi-god's role in causing sin, they'll say that Calvi-god doesn't "give" the sinner nature to anyone but that he simply leaves them as the sinners they start out as, refusing to give them the "saved" nature. This way, they can say “See, God doesn’t force anyone to be a sinner.” Yeah, Calvi-god just leaves them the sinner they started out as, refusing to turn them into a repentant person. So many ways to hide what they really believe. So many deceptive layers. But either way, this is still Calvi-god determining who's a sinner and who's not.)
And, as I said, according to them, the "sinner nature" comes only with the desire to sin and to reject God. And so those who get the "sinner nature" will always only want to sin and always only choose to sin. But, says the Calvinist, because they "wanted" and "chose" to sin (even though that's all their "sinner nature" could choose), they are accountable for their sin. Not Calvi-god!
A Calvinist's desperate, convoluted attempt to get Calvi-god off the hook for causing people to be sinning unbelievers, hiding it under layers and layers of deceptive nonsense! If this doesn't make you angry, then you don't really understand what's at stake!]
If you have to break many biblical concepts into two different types (whereas the Bible doesn’t) in order to make your theology fit with Scripture, then your theology is WRONG!
(For all the posts in this series, see the "Intro ..." Or look for "'Calvinist Bad Logic' Series" in the labels on the side-bar. Or find the whole series in one post, "When Calvinism's 'Bad Logic ' Traps Good Christians.")
