Calvinism and Arminianism:
Myths & Realities
Luke 2:10 states: “But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people.’”
Calvinist, Erwin Lutzer: “Similarly, he desires that all men be saved. Yet, on the other hand, he allows the greater part of humanity to perish. We simply do not know why he has chosen to forego his desire to see all men saved. We can be quite sure, however, that there is some ultimate purpose, for the Scripture says, ‘The Lord has made everything for its own purpose, even the wicked for the day of evil’ (Prov. 16:4).” (The Doctrines That Divide, p.197, emphasis mine)
How ironic that Lutzer used that verse, since John Calvin answers the question from that same verse:
John Calvin: “Solomon also teaches us that not only was the destruction of the ungodly foreknown, but the ungodly themselves have been created for the specific purpose of perishing (Prov. 16:4).” (Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries: Romans and Thessalonians, pp.207-208, emphasis mine)
John Calvin: “...the wicked were created for the day of evil simply because God willed to illustrate His own glory in them; just as elsewhere He declares that Pharaoh was raised up by Him that He might show forth His name among the Gentiles (Ex 9:16).” (Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God, p.97, emphasis mine)
That is the great Calvinistic fable. You see, Calvinists have to come up with a reason for why God does what He does. To an Arminian, God created mankind in order to have fellowship with him, not that God needed man, but that God freely WANTED to need man, and to have fellowship with him. Conversely, the fable of Calvinism is that God created man “because God willed to illustrate His own glory,” and thus Calvinism has the perfect solution for why God is opposed to seeing all men saved. According to Calvinism, God needs to predestine people to go to Hell, because saving everyone would defeat God’s alleged purpose in the creation of man, which is to “illustrate” His diverse characteristics, which includes demonstrating His characteristic of hate, anger and wrath, in order to display the full picture of who God is, which essentially means, then, that the perishing of the vast majority of humanity on the wide road to destruction is an expendable resource to God, rather than each soul being precious in His sight. The Devil wants for you to have a devalued view of humanity, and Calvinism accomplishes exactly that goal within the body of Christ.
Ironically, if a man were to breed an animal and raise it for the purpose of torture, simply for his pleasure and amusement, we would call that “cruel” and “twisted,” but according to Calvinism, if God were to create certain people for the purpose of eternal torture in Hell, for His pleasure and amusement to “illustrate” His various attributes of wrath, we would simply call that “sovereignty.”
One member of The Society of Evangelical Arminians: “The first statement represents fairly well what Michael Vick did and ended up in prison for. The second statement presents the ultimate way to justify all manner of evil and sin, in that it’s all OK if God does it, because Calvinistic sovereignty means the right to do what Michael Vick did, and it now becomes GOOD, perfectly acceptable AND EVEN DESIRED, because that is what Calvinists/Determinists mean by ‘sovereignty’ (i.e. good and evil are all relativised, if God wants it to occur, no matter how evil or sinful it appears, then it is good, and everything is exactly how and what God wants to occur, so it is ALL GOOD). So I guess when I hear nonbelievers sometimes exclaim, ‘It’s all good,’ they are correct!”
Arminian Charge: Calvinism needs people to go to Hell.
Myth or Reality: The alleged motivation in the Calvinist paradigm is to display various divine attributes, which would mean, then, that villian(s) are necessary.
