Once upon a time there was a man who decided to father as many children as he could. You could think of him as “the mighty sire.” Long before his first round of insemination, he pre-determined that he would let the third, the fourth, and the seventh child live. When the last child turned 18 years old, he would leave the third, fourth, and seventh child alive, and throw the rest of them into a potter’s kiln and burn them alive. As it turns out, he had a total of 39 children. We are not to question the wisdom, character or nature of this man; we are only to recognize that by his grace, he let Bobbie and Johnny and Susie live. We are to believe that this man is loving, holy, and worthy of praise and adoration.
YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!
THIS IS THE PICTURE OF OUR SOVEREIGN GOD, ACCORDING TO CALVINISTIC THEOLOGY, AS CONCERNS ELECTION AND PREDESTINATION.
This false doctrine is widespread among bible believers. It is a result of Paul's letters. How about asking God himself to enlighten our minds by his Holy Spirit concerning such things rather than letting a pastor, teacher, or other individual (Paul) impose his/her own theology on us without some level of healthy skepticism which would cause us to do as the Bereans did in Acts 17:11:
These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
In other words, they SEARCHED THE SCRIPTURES TO VERIFY WHAT THEY HAD HEARD. They had, indeed, a healthy sense of skepticism - enough so that they wanted verification from the scriptures, but not an unhealthy sense of skepticism which would cause them to refuse all that they heard.
The fairy tale I wrote at the top of this post is the simplest form into which I could summarize Calvinistic theology. As it concerns election and predestination, as well as "once saved, always saved", this indeed is a fairy tale - for those who believe such nonsense, this fairy tale makes them beautiful princes and princesses. Unfortunately, this Calvinistic fairy tale also relegates everyone else to an utterly tragic and hopeless role. Those who believe this fairy tale relegate God to someone like the man in the fairy tale above. How absurd and horrendous this teaching is!
It is my aim to refute this sort of teaching with all proofs being found in the Word of God. For more information, please see other posts in this category of Election and Predestination, both existing and forthcoming.
I praise the LORD for all who study the bible as the Bereans did. Thank you for reading. Shalom!
