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Friday, August 06, 2010

"The problem with Calvinism is…"

According to Roger Olson:

Second, I am not a Calvinist because (hold on!) IF I WERE A CALVINIST I would have trouble distinguishing between God and the devil. Some Calvinists have misinterpreted this saying. They think I’m accusing them of worshiping the devil. Nothing could be farther from the truth. All I am saying is, if I were a Calvinist, being of the bent of mind that I am (striving for logical consistency as much as possible), I would have trouble clearly distinguishing between God and the devil in my own mind.

http://www.rogereolson.com/2010/08/06/the-problem-with-calvinism-is/

But if a worshiper finds it psychologically difficult to distinguish between a divine object of worship and a diabolical object of worship, then isn’t Olson, in fact, accusing the Calvinist of worshipping the devil?

To my Calvinist acquaintances who take umbrage at this...

I don’t take umbrage. But it does give the lie to the notion that Arminians are more tolerant than Calvinists.

The point is–God’s character. IF God elects people to salvation unconditionally and IF God IS love (1 John) why doesn’t he save everybody?

Of course, that oversimplifies 1 John. For one thing, John writes in very divisive terms about believers and unbelievers. If God is light and love, then a loving God hates darkness. A loving God hates the antithesis of light.

IF I could be a universalist, I could be a Calvinist. I don’t care about free will for its own sake or for any humanist reasons. Hell is the sticky issue. The Calvinist God could save everyone because his election to salvation is unconditional and his grace is irresistible. Apparently, he purposefully chooses to “pass over” some (which is in effect the same as foreordaining them to hell). Why? For his glory? Some Calvinists say hell is necessary for the full manifestation of God’s attribute of justice. I ask what that says about the cross-was it not a sufficient manifestation of God’s justice?

But it isn’t clear why the Arminian God couldn’t save everyone. Is Olson claiming that there is no possible world in which the inhabitants freely choose God?

Even in this world, there are many people who, according to Olson, freely accept Jesus. So why can’t the Arminian God create a world consisting of people like that?

The devil wants everyone to go to hell. The God of Calvinism wants many to go to hell. Is that enough of a difference of character? Not to me.

That could scarcely be more simpleminded. It’s like claiming that everyone who kills another person has identical motives. A father who shoots a house burglar who threatens his wife and kids is morally equivalent to the house burglar who shoots the family.

Assuming that the devil wants everyone to go to hell, his reasons are quite different from God’s. The devil is a sore loser. He presumably wants to take as many others down out of sheer spite (e.g. Rev 12:17).

That’s hardly equivalent to God exacting retributive justice on the wicked. What does it say about the level of Olson’s moral and theological discernment that he can’t tell the difference?

The God of Jesus Christ is absolutely, unconditionally good. The God of Calvinism, from my perspective, is not absolutely, uncondtionally good and, in fact, has a dark side that includes willing that people perish eternally (contrary to 2 Peter 3:9 and 1 Timothy 2:4).

i) Of course that’s dishonest because it disregards alternative interpretations.

ii) For that matter, it’s not even consistent with Arminianism. How is the Arminian God unwilling that people perish eternality when he deliberately and knowingly makes hellbound sinners even though it lay within his power to spare them that fate by not making them in the first place?

What I think is that Calvinists are confused insofar as they believe God is love (as Scripture clearly says) and yet hold onto their belief in unconditional election, limited atonement and irresistible grace.

It’s both patronizing and implausible to say sophisticated Calvinists are “confused,” as if they hadn’t thought through that issue before.

What really bothers me at a personal as well as professional level is the present, on-going attitude of superiority and even exclusiveness being fostered among many of the young, restless, Reformed Christians.

Doesn’t he think his own theological viewpoint is superior to another viewpoint which confuses God and Satan? Surely he regards Calvinism as decidedly and fatally inferior.

He talks about “exclusiveness,” but you have to wonder how many Reformed theologians, Reformed exegetes, and Reformed philosophers he’s personally shared his views with. He comes across is being very insular.

7 comments:

  1. "Is that enough of a difference of character? Not to me." -Olson

    This is quite a unspiritual, and statement made of someone in the flesh.
    This teacher is in the dark. He needs eyes to see. The wonderful grace that opens hearts to understand God's predetermined grace for sinners is evidently not upon Roger.


    "But when it pleased God, who seperated me from my mother's womb, and called me by His grace,..." Gal. 1:15

    And those He called are justified, and are glorified.

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  2. Dear Steve:

    Well stated. Amen.

    Blessings,

    Stephen

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  3. A question that really clinches it for me on the philosophy side is:

    Arminians often pray that God would save Person X. Yet is not God (on Arminianism) doing everything He can to save people? If not, why not?

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  4. As an occasional reader of this most idiosyncratically Calvinist blog, I'd like to submit that the problem with Calvinism, or at least these particular Calvinists, is a queer obsession with the logicality of soteriology and a strange tendency towards dichotomizing the world into Arminian and Calvinist halves. The resulting logical shell-game has little to do with the Gospel. It more closely resembles algebra than theology.

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  5. RE: "ii) For that matter, it’s not even consistent with Arminianism. How is the Arminian God unwilling that people perish eternality when he deliberately and knowingly makes hellbound sinners even though it lay within his power to spare them that fate by not making them in the first place." Funny how nimble they (Arminians) get when one poses this point to them. I guess God is situationally omniscient in their world. Situationally sovereign, as well.

    RE: "I'd like to submit that the problem with Calvinism, or at least these particular Calvinists, is a queer obsession with the logicality of soteriology and a strange tendency towards dichotomizing the world into Arminian and Calvinist halves." Yeah, being faithful to the Scriptures is a queer obsession, alright. It's not like Paul or anyone ever insisted on getting doctrine correct or anything. Or called Peter a hypocrite for joining those with bad doctrine (for merely switching seats at chow). Or the Galatians foolish. Or suggested castration (Gal. 5). Tish tosh.

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  6. PSEUDEPIGRAPHA SAID:

    "As an occasional reader of this most idiosyncratically Calvinist blog, I'd like to submit that the problem with Calvinism, or at least these particular Calvinists, is a queer obsession with the logicality of soteriology and a strange tendency towards dichotomizing the world into Arminian and Calvinist halves. The resulting logical shell-game has little to do with the Gospel. It more closely resembles algebra than theology."

    And what about the "queer obsession" of Arminian epologists who do the very same thing?

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  7. Not to mention our "queer obsession" with dichotomizing the world into Evangelical and Catholic halves, or Christian and atheist halves, or...

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