Lutherans on the run

On Saturday, Paul McCain did a post (“Why are some saved, and not others?”) over at First Things/Evangel in which he staged an attack on Calvinism.

I left some comments in the meta. (So did Frank Turk.) Apparently, McCain, having maneuvered himself into no-win situation, activated the autodestruct sequence. Suicide is better than surrender.

When a man deletes his own post in the face of reasoned criticisms, you couldn’t have a more spectacular concession speech.

Impotent to defend his position on an ecumenical blog like First Things/Evangel, where he can’t count on having a sympathetic ear, he retreated to the security of his own blog, where his post is safely housed behind a Lutheran moat.

I’ll repost some of the comments I left at smoldering rubble of his self-imploded post.

“Lutheranism, as does Sacred Scripture, simply does not answer the question why some are saved, and not others.”

Seems to me that Scripture does answer that question. For instance: “What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction” (Rom 9:22, ESV).

“Lutherans reject this answer as unscriptural because according to the Bible God sincerely desires all to be saved and has predestined no one to damnation.”

i) Of course, this assumes the correct interpretation of whatever prooftexts you’re alluding to. Care to state your prooftexts and justify your interpretation?

ii) In addition, what about passages like, “Jesus said, ‘For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind’”?

Why would a statement like that not be a reference point in addressing the question your raise?

“Theologians throughout history have referred to this question as the ‘crux theologorum’ (‘the cross of the theologians’) because of the difficulty (and from the Lutheran perspective, the impossibility) of giving an answer to this question which is satisfactory to our human reason…So how do Lutherans answer this question? The answer is that Lutherans do not try to answer it, because (we believe) the Bible itself does not provide an answer to this question that is comprehensible to human reason…From a human perspective, there is no ‘rational’ or ‘logical’ way to put these two truths together. Lutherans believe and confess them not because they are ‘rational’ and ‘logical,’ but because this is what we find taught in Scripture.”

Suppose a synergist defended synergism on the same grounds. Synergism is a “crux theologorum.” On the one hand, Paul says we’re justified by faith alone. On the other hand, James says we’re justified by works. So we’re justified both by faith and works, law and grace.

From a human perspective, there is no ‘rational’ or ‘logical’ way to put these two truths together. Synergists believe and confess them not because they are ‘rational’ and ‘logical,’ but because this is what we find taught in Scripture.”

Back to McCain:

“Where Calvinists continue to go wrong, and always have, is that at the heart of their ‘system,’ which they find satisfying because it answers all the questions reason demands from God, is not Christ and His love, but the ‘Sovereignty’ of God, a God who creates some people for no other reason than to predestine them to go to hell, and others to go to heaven.”

I’m sure you wouldn’t make an accusation like that unless you could back it up with suitable evidence. Please quote 5 or 6 representative Reformed theologians who say that God creates the reprobate for no other reason than to predestine them to hell. I look forward to your documentation.

“I have yet to understand, after years of reading Calvinists, and listening to Calvinsts, talk about their theological system, why the birth, and death, of Christ was, or is, even logically necessary in their system.”

Perhaps it would facilitate discussion if you told us which Reformed Bible scholars, preachers, and theologians you’ve read or listened to. Names and titles would be appreciated.

“It is merely a means to an end in their system…”

According to Calvinism, a just God must punish sin. And a just God can only forgive sinners by first redeeming them. How is that illogical in relation to Reformed predestination?

“…Which puts Predestination, and in varying degrees they are forever obsessing over God’s predestinating sovereignty, when this is not dealt with much at all in the NT Scriptures.”

And Lutherans are forever obsessing over the Eucharist, which is dealt with less often in the NT than predestination is.

“Rather, the overwhelming truth of Scripture is the chief and most essential attribute of God is love and grace, revealed most clearly and certainly, in the Incarnate Son of God.”

i) Nothing is more gracious than unconditional election.

ii) So you have a rating system for the divine attributes. You think some divine attributes (love and grace) are more important than other divine attributes. Does love get an “A,” while justice only gets a C+ in your grade book?

iii) Speaking for myself, I don’t think that God is a contingent being for whom some attributes are less essential than others.

iv) Of course, universalists also think that love and grace are God’s preeminent attributes. So they’d accept your presupposition and go you one better.

“I’ve watched Calvinists twist and turn trying to explain away the simple assertions of Scripture, that ‘Christ died for all’ and other such texts that clearly teaching universal atonement.”

And universalists think that exclusivists like you twist and turn trying to explain away passages that clearly teach universal salvation.

“The question always to put to Calvinists is the question of certainty that they are, in fact, saved by God. They can not answer because Christ died for me.”

Since Lutherans believe that Christ died for everybody who is or will be in hell, how does universal atonement furnish any certainty, or even probability, that you are saved?

“They must always qualify that statement by reference to their repentance, or their life that gives evidence that they are among the predestined.”

God’s grace is subjective as well as objective. He regenerates and renews. Why do you distrust the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the faithful? Does the Holy Spirit bear false witness?

“It is a very sad and dreary system indeed.”

And it’s a very sad and dreary system which says the death of Christ makes no difference to whether or not you wind up in heaven or hell.