There are certain precepts that we can use to test a theory. In this case Calvinism which is based on Augustine’s thinking about Determinism which also came in no small part from Plato and the Ancient Greek religious philosophies. Determinism holds that God determines everything in the Universe. Augustine was originally a follower of Mani the author of an esoteric philosophy called Manichaenism. A form of gnostic dualism. Gnosticism tends toward the idea of a supreme hidden divinity and a lesser malevolent one often identified as Yahweh. Dualism is a division between two states such as light and dark or good and evil. Augustine later converted to Christianity but brought some of his previous Manichaen thinking into his new faith.
Now Calvinism roots deeply into the scriptures where both Christ Jesus and the apostle Paul spoke about Predestination, being Chosen from the foundation of the Earth and being drawn close to Christ Jesus by the Father. The good thing about Calvinism is that it does have scriptural basis for the claims it is making. These being that everyone is predestined either to salvation or damnation by God and from the foundation of the Earth. This belief is held firm and uncompromising within the the Reformed Church globally.
The What Ifs
What if, the bible has been altered slightly to enhance the scriptures relating to predestination with the intention of supporting the doctrines relating to Calvinism? This would have worked well in the Church before the Reformation given that Rome always proposed to be a one stop shop for salvation. So it figures that you’re predestined to salvation through the Church or Eternal Damnation outside of it.
What if, we look at the example of Lucifer. He was an archangel created perfect and without defect. Yet he must of had self will. At some point he became corrupted and began to be jealous of Yahweh Elohim. He began to be angry and embittered about the way that God ran the universe. This judgement and hatred of God spread amongst the angels and one third of them rallied in battle against Yahweh, at Lucifer’s side.
This is where the doctrine that God is the Perfect Sovereign begins to founder. If God were perfect and orders the Universe in perfection then this situation would never have arisen. Lucifer’s programming would have been such that he had no autonomous control and could never malfunction in the way he did. As it is He failed and Yahweh is at fault.
This is because Yahweh allowed a measure of freewill. This shows that Yahweh does not wish his creations to be enslaved. It behoves that he is prepared to take responsibility when things go wrong. When Lucifer and the angels rose up against God it must have been an unimaginable battle on a truly cosmic scale. Some wonder whether the Earth shows the scars of it and if this might explain the fossil record? Our God is a truly wonderful God who grants love and freedom and will fight to make things right even if it seems He is far from achieving it. It does not embarrass God that this situation is imperfect and He will correct it to His high standards of perfection in the end. Romans chapter 8 verse 28.
What if we apply God’s handling of the Satanic rebellion and the situation that arose in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve at the Fall. God made man and man was innocent but not perfect because He and She had freewill. They had a relationship with Yahweh Elohim and were in close communion but not locked into that relationship. If they accepted what Satan said to them. Which they did and were tricked into disobeying God. As they were. They were free to choose to eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge although they underestimated the consequences of doing so by an order of magnitude. When God told them the impacts of their rebellion and how things were to change one can only sympathise with them and how they had been duped by the Dragon.
What if we take the Calvinistic perspective and we say God is Perfect Sovereign and cannot be anything but perfect. He cannot make mistakes and this series of failures are not mistakes. So Satan was predestined to be corrupted and sin and the same with Adam and Eve at the Fall. One can only be amazed that God would be so caught up in His own pride that He refused to accept any blame for the great errors in His creation and that he takes the point of view that He predestined them to fail and fall into sin. Accepting no responsibility and stating that He intended it to happen for His own reasons? Highly illogical and something that sounds surprisingly like the sort of nonsense that Satan would endeavour to spread, far and wide, in his efforts to besmirch the character of God.
To many Christians this is simply too unbelievable to accept. As a friend of mine once said “This is not the the conclusion we would come to by simply reading the bible.” He also said that he found it to be an abhorrent attack on the character of God. A clue to why this is the case is that the bible describes God as a loving Father who interacts with His creations. Many times he does this on a personal level. Note his interactions with Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David, Elijah and Daniel and there are many others.
Yahweh’s negative reactions are always enacted by His complete abhorrence of sin. His love overcomes these and he has enacted a more perfect solution in Christ’s work on the cross, bearing our sins and through His resurrection lifting us to the newness of life in the Spirit and eternal life to come. To speculate that He has predestined those who are saved and those who are lost is frankly out of step with the purpose that He has laid out in the New Covenant. He desires that none would be lost as the scripture says in 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 9 “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance...’ ESV
If we look broadly at Scripture it shows the interaction between God and His creations. It highlights the importance of the decisions that we make as men and it warns of the consequences of bad decision making. Rather than describing the concrete actions of automatons it shows the freedom of choice that our loving God has given us. Does this mean that we are not predestined? No it means that those who can be influenced by the Father to come to the Saviour do so. Those whose hearts are hardened by the world and the activities of Satan reject God. But my belief is that God’s desires a people who will choose to follow him and gives all of mankind the choice.
So, what can we say of Calvinism and it’s stoic insistence upon the absolute Sovereignty of God but applied in such a way that it conflicts with the literal interpretation of much of scripture. In this doctrine man’s view of God will not allow God to be himself. God is perfect and no one can be allowed to say that he has made mistakes or has allowed for error on the part of His creations. Yet scripture describes the events and consequences of those errors and it would appear that God allowed for those errors and consequences and intends to use those events to build a more robust and perfect creation in the end. At which point the old creation will have served its purpose and will be done away with and a New Heavens and Earth will arise.
Bear in mind that when I say this I am not disputing the main points involved here. Is God the Sovereign God? Yes He is. Is God Perfect? Indubitably, He is absolutely perfect. Has he made errors in Creation? No, He has allowed for freewill in His creations and has been prepared to accept the consequences of His actions. As Romans chapter 8 verse 28 says, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
Finally, I would ask whether Calvin’s teaching around “The Sovereignty of God” is a false teaching. Is this doctrine another gospel? Calvin followed Augustine’s teachings which included gnostic dualism and Augustine had been a Manichaen. Augustine also believed Plato’s theories of determinism based on a creator God who by nature was inherently arbitrary and whimsical. In the Greek world view where God controls the destiny of every aspect of creation whether object or creature.
This is not God of the bible who brought into being a creation that He said was “Very Good.” A God who created man in His own image and who shows us in the bible that we possess the range of emotions just as He does and we are creators just as He is. A God who is prepared to risk imperfection in His creations to allow Freedom of Choice. A God so loving that He bore our sins on the Cross at Calvary and was raised from the dead on the third day that he might defeat sin and death and pave the way of salvation for all of mankind should they choose to believe on His only begotten Son Jesus Christ.
My answer to this question would be that the God of the bible is not the God of Plato and therefore not the God of Calvin. The determinist God of the Greeks is Zeus or Lucifer and we know him as Satan, that old Dragon. He is a hard and dictatorial ruler who has little love for Yahweh or His creation. This in the end means that Calvinism is in essence a cult based on the Greek Perspective of God. It has the essential aspects of a cult in that it has false teachers and a false teaching. It has John Calvin and Augustine of Hippo as founders and holders of the false doctrines and a central distorted doctrine in their view of the Sovereignty of God and in essence the nature of God. They see God as a whimsical creator saving whom he desires and damning those he hates.
That there are scriptures in the bible that imply some integrity to this teaching does not genuinely convey that the God of the bible is a vengeful and hateful God. He is long suffering, a loving father who judges even those who hate him in a just and even handed way not an arbitrary and whimsical way. His main emphasis is to end sin and heal creation. To save man and to restore him for eternity.
