UGW #4: Taking Our Responsibility Seriously

Understanding God's Will #4: (And sorry about the highlighting.  I can't undo it.)

Is there danger in believing that God will always work His plan in our lives, regardless of what we do or any responsibility we have? 

Definitely.  And I think this is a big pitfall for Calvinists.  Because if we think that everything that happens is God's Will, that He'll always work His Will out regardless of what we do or don't do (because in Calvinism, God essentially preplans and controls everything we do, so everything we do is His Will, even our sins), then we don’t think so much about what we do and about our responsibilities.  We won’t take seeking righteousness, wisdom, His kingdom, prayer, and obedience, etc., as seriously as we should, because we don’t see the effect it has over our lives.  

If He’s just going to do whatever He’s going to do anyway, then it doesn’t matter what we do or don’t do, think or don't think.  Because it's all been scripted by Calvi-god anyway, and no-one can go off-script, right.

Right?

1 Kings 20:42: "He said to the king, 'This is what the Lord says: 'You have set free a man I [God] had determined should die.''"

Hosea 8:4 (God's words): "They set up kings without my consent; they choose princes without my approval."  

Calvinists would simply say, "Oh, well, God has two different Wills.  He can say He wants one thing to happen but then cause the opposite.  He can predestine/ordain/cause things He doesn't approve of, for His mysterious plans."  

Umm, well, can He predestine/ordain/cause things He never thought of causing?...

Jeremiah 19:5 (God's own words): "They have built the high places to Baal to burn their sons in the fire as offerings to Baal - something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind."

Isaiah 30:1: "Woe to the obstinate children," declares the Lord, "to those who carry out plans that are not mine..."  (Once again, Calvinists might simply say, "Well, God has two different plans.  In one plan, He didn't want the people to do what they did.  But in the other plan, He caused the people to do what He didn't want them to do ... for His glory and mysterious reasons.  And He's so far above us that we can't understand it.  He is the Potter and we are clay.  How can the clay talk back to the Potter or understand the Potter's ways?"  Blah, blah, blah.  Gobble, gobble, gobble.  Well then, I wonder, how can we ever trust anything God commands us to do then, if He might actually want the opposite to happen?  If you listen carefully, you'll see how - when it comes to the hard questions and their contradictions - they deflect or switch topics or verse-bomb you with verses taken out of context.)

Psalm 33:10: "The Lord foils the plans of the nations ..."  (If all plans are God's plans, and if we can only plan what God causes us to plan, then isn't God foiling His own plans here?  Oh but wait, I forgot ... Calvi-god can have two plans that contradict each other.  He can ordain one thing but then ordain that people do the opposite of what he ordained.  Yep, makes perfect sense!) 

Acts 14:16: "In the past, he [God] let nations go their own way."  (Impossible ... if every way is God's preplanned way!)

Calvinists have to twist an awful lot of verses to make the Bible teach Calvinism!

But the Bible is clear, in verse after verse, that God has allowed mankind a certain level of freedom - to obey or disobey, to carry out His Will or resist it, to follow Him or reject Him.  And we will face the consequences of our choices.  But God did not and does not make our choices for us.  Not everything we do is because He predestined it and ordained it and caused it.

If, in Calvinism, "ordained" meant "Whatever happens is because God chose to allow it to happen, instead of stopping it," then I could agree.  But that's not what Calvinists mean.  By "ordain," they mean "God preplans/causes/controls everything that happens, and nothing different could have happened."  And I cannot agree with this.  It makes God the ultimate cause of all evil and sin.  And this destroys God's holiness, character, justice, love, etc.  Because then He punishes people for the sins and rebellion He caused, that He gave them no choice about.

And this is simply not truth!  

This is Calvinists misunderstanding what sovereignty is.  Calvinists have decided that a sovereign God has to control all things, even sin, or else He can't be God.  They have decided how He has to use His power and authority, and if He doesn't use it to control all things like they think He has to, then He can't be God.  And this is wrong.

Sovereignty is not about how God uses His power and authority.  It's about God having the highest power and authority there is.  But He can use it any way He wants to.  He's God!  And in His sovereignty - as the highest authority and greatest power there is - He has decided to give men a certain level of freedom to make real decisions (that He doesn't preplan/control/cause).  And since He is also the most all-knowing Being there is, He knows what we are going to choose - whether we will obey or disobey in any given circumstance - and He knows how to work it all into His plans.  

And so He doesn't have to preplan/ordain/cause all we do, even our sins.  (This makes Him the cause of evil.)  All He has to do is let us choose what He knows we will choose, and then He works it into His plans.  (This is how evil can happen but He is not responsible for it.)

God can allow evil and still be holy, righteous, just, loving, trustworthy, etc.  But He cannot cause evil and still be holy, righteous, just, loving, trustworthy, etc.

Don't get me wrong, God does cause things and He does have plans that He's working out over the course of history.  But He doesn't cause us to be evil or to do evil, to want to sin or to sin.  Those things come from us.  He just knows how to work whatever we pick into His plans.  

But we are not locked into choices He "predestined" for us.  And we are not locked into a sinful nature that can never want Him or seek Him or choose Him or obey Him or do good.  The opportunity to seek Him is available to all people.  The option of doing good and believing in Him is open to all.  And He lets us make our choices, real choices, from the multitude of options that are available to all of us.  He has given us all the opportunity and possibility of picking obedience or disobedience, belief in Him or rejection of Him.  He does not make those decisions for us.  They are ours, and we will be held accountable for our choices to sin.  And rightly so, because He didn't "ordain" it.  He just allowed it.   

(However, Calvinists will say "We don't say God causes evil."  And they're right.  They don't SAY it.  But their theology, when you connect all the dots, inevitably and undeniable teaches it.  Even though they cover it up with so many layers that they trick even themselves into thinking they are not saying God causes evil, when they really are.)

The following is taken from "When Calvinism's 'Bad Logic' Traps Good Christians":

And it's not just "ordains."  Whenever a Calvinist uses these words or phrases about God, what they're really saying is that "God preplans and causes everything that happens": ordains, determines, decrees, foreknowledge, foresight, plans, wills/willed, omnipotence, omniscience, sovereign, sovereignty, controls, God "agrees" to it, God "allows" it, God "knew" it would happen, God "understood" what would happen, God is "in control," etc.

They never mean that He just "allows" something to happen (because then He wouldn't fit their view of "sovereign," which is "He has to actively control all things or else He's not God.").

They always mean that He predestined it to happen and caused it to happen exactly the way it happened, and that nothing different could have happened.

(Can you see why a verse like 1 Kings 20:42: "He said to the king, 'This is what the Lord says: 'You have set free a man I [God] had determined should die''" would defeat their theology, even though they try to cover it up any way they can!)

Everything always comes back to "God preplans/causes everything that happens," even if they're trying to make it sound like they're saying that God simply "allows" what happens.  (Also see "Do Calvinists Really Believe God Causes Sin?  Let Them Speak For Themselves!")  

A classic Calvinist tactic (which I will come back to again and again to cement it in your mind because it's foundational to their theology) is to say "God allows us to sin, to carry out the evil desires that are in our hearts."  But what they really mean is "God allows us to do the sins He predestined for us (and we could never choose anything differently), to carry out the evil desires that are in our hearts - evil desires that came with the 'sin nature' He predetermined we would have.  The 'sin nature' comes only with the desire to do evil and to sin all the time, and you cannot change the nature you have because God Himself predestines which nature we get, and so if He gave you the 'sin nature' you will only have sinful desires and you can only act according to those sinful desires.  God 'allows' you to do the sins that result from the sinful desires that came with the sin-nature He predestined you to have, just as He preplanned everything to happen long ago.  And if you get the 'sin nature' you can never want to obey Him or do good because you weren't given the nature that comes with those good desires."  And yet Calvinists will insist that this is truly mankind "having a choice, making their own decisions, being accountable for their sins."  It's messed up!  It really is!  But this is what Calvinists mean when they say that God 'allows' us to sin and make decisions, that we are 'responsible' for our choices!   

In fact, they will do their best to hide their belief that God causes sin (to the point of even convincing themselves that it’s not what they’re really saying) by wrapping it in layers of “truth,” saying things like “There are two causes of sin.  God is the proximate/ultimate source of sin, but we are the remote/secondary source of sin.  And we willingly choose to carry out the sin that God ordains for us.  And so therefore, we are really responsible for our sin, because we wanted to do it (even though we could only want to sin and therefore we could only choose to sin, according to the nature He gave us), and so God is totally just in punishing us for it.”  (Even though Calvi-god preplanned our sin long ago and we couldn’t have done it any differently!)

Calvinism is truly sick, completely backwards and utterly deceptive, and it destroys God's good, holy character, not to mention the Gospel!


"Oh," says the Calvinist, "but we don't have to know how it all works out.  We just have to believe it because the Bible teaches both God's sovereignty and mankind's responsibility.  We don’t have to like or understand this teaching; we just have to accept it."  This is how my Calvinist pastor puts it.  (And yet no one stops to question his definition of sovereignty.)

They go to great lengths to hide the fact that Calvi-god causes sin, to make it sound like he's not really responsible for our sin when he really is, because they know they can't accuse God of sin.  And so they come up with all sorts of convoluted ways to put the blame on us and not on Him.

(You could sit under a Calvinist pastor for years and not really know it.  Because they are so good at disguising their beliefs and appearing to back up everything they say with Scripture.  And they are usually powerful, dynamic, bold speakers who sway the congregation with their zeal and knowledge and confidence.  See "How to Tell if a Church, Pastor, or Website is Calvinist.")

Calvinism is nothing less than a slippery, slithery, evil theology!

Back to this UGW #4 post now:

Another risk of thinking that He’ll always do whatever He wants and that all things happen because He wants them to happen is that we might not be so discerning about the “open doors” that come our way.  

Well, this is the first job or house or relationship or offer that came my way, so it must be from God.  

Or This is just what fell in my lap when I waited on God, so it must be His Will.  

Many times, these “open doors” can take us down paths God never wanted us to go, because we didn’t use wisdom or pray for guidance and discernment to find out if it really was from God.  And we will miss out on His best for us.    

Sometimes, God’s Will does fall in our laps, like when the path that He desires us to take comes to us very obviously.  And when the time is right, the doors do open.  (But we still have the choice to walk through the door or not.)  But there are open doors that are not from God.  And we need to use wisdom to be discerning.  

Satan would love nothing more than to trip up Christians and get them off-track with God, out of His Will.  Because this makes us vulnerable, easier targets for him to attack. 

And we need to be careful that we don’t use “It happened, so it must be God’s Will” to do (or excuse) something selfish.  Just because it happened, doesn't mean it was God's Will.  Sometimes things that happen are simply a result of our own bad choices, things God never intended for us.  And instead of excusing them, we need to seek to make things right with God again.  If we do not acknowledge our sins and the consequences of our sins, our relationship with God will continue to be hindered, which will make us more callous to His messages to us, which will lead us further and further away from Him, into sin.

"And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption."  (Ephesians 4:30)   

(If Calvi-god causes us to do the bad things we do for his pleasure and glory and plans, how can anything we do grieve him?  Is he grieved to be pleased and glorified and to see his plans done?  Do you know how Calvinists would respond to this?  "Because God can cause us to do things He doesn't 'want' us to do, things that make Him angry or upset, for His mysterious plans.  We can't understand it; we just have to accept it."  Nonsense and hogwash!)

I think that some open doors are tests, particularly when it leads to something we really want anyway, like an abundance of money, the chance to get ahead, a relationship with someone who’s not our spouse, or a job that we really want.  They could be tests to see if we will seek what God wants or if we will follow our own desires, excusing ourselves from the necessary effort, prayer, and pursuit of holiness that Romans 12:1-2 calls us to.

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship.  Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will."

[This makes no sense if Calvinism is true, if it's true that everything that happens is because God willed it and caused it for His glory and pleasure.  Because it would mean that God tells people to offer their bodies as living sacrifices because it's pleasing to Him ... while He causes them to disobey Him, for His glory and pleasure.  So Calvi-god tells people it pleases him if they live as sacrifices, while causing them to disobey for his glory and pleasure.  Doesn't make sense!  That's a schizophrenic, untrustworthy god!  

And why would we need to be renewed and transformed to figure out His "good, pleasing and perfect" Will ... if everything that happens, even our sins and disobedience, is His "good, pleasing and perfect" Will?  Once again, doesn't make sense!  But that's Calvinism for ya!  Nonsense and hogwash!]

Always remember that God will never guide us to do anything that violates a Biblical principle that He has already revealed in His Word, no matter how much it looks like “God’s Will” to us (and no matter how much Calvinists convince themselves that whatever we do is God's Will and that God causes people to do the opposite of what He commands us to do in His Word).  

So it will never be God’s Will for you to divorce your spouse to marry someone who “makes you happier.”  (He has allowed some reasons for divorce, but "I want to be happier" isn't one of them.)  It’s never God’s Will for you to hoard tithe money because things are tight.  (He’s already said that we are to tithe and then He’ll take care of us.)  It’s never God’s Will for you to experiment with sexual partners before you get married to see if you are compatible.  (He very clearly says that He created sex to be between a husband and wife.)  It will never be His Will for you to take a job that is un-glorifying to Him, because we are to do everything to the best of our ability, for His glory!      

God, through His Word and the Holy Spirit, will only guide us in paths that glorify Him and uplift His holy name, and not paths that smudge His good name or that are for selfish gain.

Psalm 23:3:  “. . . He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.”  (Emphasis is mine.)  

2 Corinthians 3:18:  “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

James 4:3:  “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” 

These are things to keep in mind when you are trying to discern if God is leading you down a certain path or not.  We need to be cautious about letting our desires mislead us.  And we need to be immersed in prayer and in the Word (and be obedient as God leads) if we want to be sure to stay on the path that God desires we take.  

(And if you are a Calvinist, you need to be repenting of your terrible theology and asking God to help you understand His Word correctly!  Your witness as a Christian and God's Gospel and good character are at stake!  In fact, ask God in prayer to show you if and how your Calvinism hurts His character and His truth.  And then listen for the answer over the next several weeks.)

For the posts in this series, see the "Understanding God's Will" label in the sidebar (or find the original series, without the Calvinism info, by clicking here).