I affirm that God predetermined to seek and to save all, and desires every person to be saved. This is demonstrated by His words, acts, and His provision for everything necessary for a genuine offer of salvation, which can be received or rejected, by enabling and allowing them a real choice as a free moral agent like Adam (Acts 17:30, 2 Peter 3:9, 1John 2:2; Ezekiel 18:21-23 & Ezekiel 18:32); further, that those who by faith accept grace and mercy to trust are saved, and those who spurn His grace go to hell, which is a place created not for men, but for Satan and demons (Matthew 25:41).
I disaffirm that God elected some to go to heaven by regenerating them prior to faith and some to hell without a chance to be regenerated in response to faith;1 further that Romans 8:29-30, a reference to God’s foreknowing, is satisfactorily handled by making it merely love, and/or synonymous with “predestined.”
Next Topic: Where Did Sin Come From?
- Calvinists are clear about their understanding of predestination, which either emphatically declares God determined to send some to hell or it happens as a consequence by His determining to only offer real salvation to some; for example, “By predestination we mean the eternal decree of God, by which he determined with himself whatever he wished to happen with regard to every man. All are not created on equal terms, but some are preordained to eternal life, others to eternal damnation; and, accordingly, as each has been created for one or other of these ends, we say that he has been predestinated to life or to death.” John Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion, translated by Henry Beveridge, (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1997 reprint), Volume 2, Book 3, Chapter 21, Section 5, page 206. “We say, then, that Scripture clearly proves this much, that God by his eternal and immutable counsel determined once for all those whom it was his pleasure one day to admit to salvation, and those whom, on the other hand, it was his pleasure to doom to destruction. We maintain that this counsel, as regards the elect, is founded on his free mercy, without any respect to human worth, while those whom he dooms to destruction are excluded from access to life by a just and blameless, but at the same time incomprehensible judgment.” Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion, Volume 2, Book 3, Chapter 21, Section 7, pages 210-211. “We say, then, that the scripture clearly proves this much, that God by his eternal and immutable counsel determined once for all those whom it was his good pleasure one day to admit to salvation, and those whom, on the other hand, it was his good pleasure to doom to destruction.” (Canons of Dordt, First Head of Doctrine, 3:21:7) [↩]
Responses to “Double Predestination”
October 22nd, 2009 at 9:47 am
[...] The Sovereignty of God: Without the baggage of Calvinism Predestination and Foreknowledge; Without T… Where Did Sin Come From? The Depravity of Man Atonement for Sin The Love of God: Calvinism does not measure up Grace World vs. Elect Faith and Regeneration Faith and Works Preaching of the Gospel I use the term “Major” Calvinist to include Five Point Calvinists regardless of other differences, .e.g. order of decrees, baptism…and refer to such in this paper simply as “Calvinists” or “Calvinism”. I use the term “minor” to include all other views which hold to one or more of the four points of Calvinism excluding limited atonement. Neither minor nor major Calvinists can be rightly classified as Arminian. The reason I am spending the time to address concerns with Calvinism and not Arminianism is because in Baptist life, questions regarding issues relating to theology are almost always related to whether one agrees or disagrees with Calvinism rather than Arminianism since Baptists, other than those like “Free Will” Baptists are not Arminian in their theology. Further, it is simply imprecise for a Calvinist to dismiss people like me by labeling us Arminian. [↩]Search my blog for Determinism, Free Will, Calvinism, Love of God, or listen to messages from 1 Peter 1:1-5, entitled Preservation of the Saints [↩]TULIP is an acronym for the five points of Calvinism 1.Total inability 2. Unconditional election 3. Limited atonement 4. Irresistible grace 5. Perseverance of the saints [↩]I was classified as a four-point Calvinist without any clarifications for many years, and have and still do respect and study countless Calvinist theologians including Calvin himself. [↩]While it is true that some “Reformational Arminians” have an understanding closer to Calvinsim regarding issues such as those mentioned as well as others than that of “popular” understandings, my beliefs are far closer to most Calvinists with regard to such [↩]An example of this is the work that is done by Calvinists in restricting terms like world, all people, all nations, everyone….in order to bolster support for limited atonement. [↩]This in no way implies that I am against “theological systems” or thinking systematically about theology, for my position is quite the contrary, and that is why my system has changed. [↩]No one verse can be read or understood apart from the complete revelation of God. Although all who maintain the inerrancy of Scripture would affirm this, our arguments surely seem to minimize it at times. An example would be Acts 2:47 that says, “The Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.” Should we rightly conclude, from that single verse, that God is the only one who plays a part in the salvation of people and that man plays no part because that verse only speaks of God doing something? Or could we rightly conclude that no one repented or believed the gospel, because that single verse doesn’t say anyone did those things? Could we rightly conclude that no one preached the gospel to those the Lord added to the church, because that one verse says nothing about anyone preaching? The reality is that no single verse or passage explains everything, whether it is John 6:44, 2 Corinthians 4: 3-6 or… The same is true of Acts 2:47. Clearly, John did not believe that regeneration precedes faith. He wrote at the close of his gospel: “But these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:31, italics added). [↩]This refers to the way some Calvinists use language that is inconsistent with the tenets of Calvinism in prayers, preaching, witnessing…or that tends to present Calvinism in a softer tone than it really is. This is particularly noticeable when they speak on the love of God, mercy, missions or when they pray…see blog “Faith And Regeneration” especially footnote on “new birth” in the disaffirmation. [↩]The section of theology that deals with salvation issues [↩] [...]
October 8th, 2009 at 8:46 am
[...] Topic: Double Predestination The Calvinist position that God elected to regenerate some and all that He regenerates will [...]