If you read my About page you’ll know that I’m not a big fan of Calvinism. This stream of Christianity comprises a number of currents, but the one I want to concentrate on today is what Calvinism is best known for — predestination. Now this concept means that God, in His sovereign will, decided that some would be saved and some lost. Let me quote from Wikipedia:

The Calvinistic doctrine of predestination is a doctrine of Calvinism which deals with the question of the control God exercises over the world. In the words of the Westminster Confession of Faith, God “freely and unchangeably ordained whatsoever comes to pass.” The second use of the word “predestination” applies this to the [sic] salvation, and refers to the belief that God appointed the eternal destiny of some to salvation by grace, while leaving the remainder to receive eternal damnation for all their sins, even their original sin. The former is called “unconditional election”, and the latter “reprobation”. In Calvinism, men must be predestined and effectually called (regenerated/born again) unto faith by God before they will even wish to believe or wish to be justified. —Wikipedia article Predestination (Calvinism).

This doctrine is opposed to the so-called Arminian/Wesleyan view that God gave us Free Will, and therefore it’s up to us to accept or reject God’s offer of salvation. You can see a chart of the two views, side by side, here. The Calvinists have a lot of scriptures to back them up. But, like so many other supposed doctrines of Christianity, when you look at the verses, they don’t actually talk about what people say they do. Not only that, but many of these verses are from the Old Covenant. And while all Scripture is God-breathed and inerrant — we’re also in a New Covenant. Contrary to the fire and brimstone crowd, Jesus changed everything at the Cross.

What does this have to do with the freedom we have in the United States? Bear with me, all will be made plain shortly. But first a couple of observations.

First, ask yourself this question: Why did God create the universe, and mankind, in the first place? If we’re just automata, acting out the Father’s will without a possibility of making any decisions on our own — what is the point of creation? The Bible makes it plain that “we love God because He first loved us.” Not because we (oops, some of us) have no choice but to love Him. If God chooses some for salvation and some for damnation — what “Good News” is there in that? What kind of God would create people who live and struggle and die (no eternal life) with no hope of salvation? Is that a God of Love? Hardly! That’s more like Allah. And there you have a good indication that this concept of predestination is false: really, now, if you believe in the total sovereignty of God, and that there’s no free will, you might as well be a Muslim. They have exactly the same doctrine! Interesting, no?

So let’s be frank here: the doctrine of predestination leaves us with no free will, no hope of salvation (if we’re not among the chosen few), and no reason even to pray (except that God told us to do so)! For if everything was determined beforehand, then what’s the point of doing anything? It will all happen anyway! You can see where this takes you. And if you think that last assertion is hyperbole — I’ve heard Calvinistic Christians say that very thing: “we pray because God told us to, but since He’s sovereign, things will happen the way He wants them to anyway, so we don’t really have any expectation that our prayers will be answered, necessarily.” It makes the Christian walk nothing more than fire insurance — for the favored few.

But wait, that doctrine of demons is found nowhere in the Bible! Go ahead, send me comments if you think it is. I guarantee those scriptures don’t say what you think they say. If you stop looking at them through the lens of Calvinism, the Bible — and God Himself — looks quite different.

So what does this have to do with American freedom? Let me give you a couple of examples. In 17th and 18th Century England (and elsewhere in Protestant Europe) most missionary work stopped because of Calvinism. Come on! If God is sovereign, and He picks and chooses who will be saved and who won’t, why bother to convert the heathen? They’ll either be saved by God’s sovereignty — or they won’t. Another example from England of the same time period: people are poor because God chose them to be so. People are rich because God chose them to be so. No point in helping the poor, right? They’re poor because of God’s will. And we don’t want to go against God’s will, right?

See what I mean? The logical conclusion of predestination is that all forward movement stops. Because if it’s all up to God, then it’s not up to you!

Fortunately, our Founding Fathers (and Mothers) didn’t subscribe to this fallacy (or, if they were nominally Calvinistic, they didn’t actually live it out). They saw injustice, and realized that it was up to them to fix it. They saw tyranny, and decided it was up to them to resist it. Folks, Free Will requires responsibility. Predestination doesn’t. God created the universe and put us in charge (see Genesis 1:26: Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”). God did not leave everything up to Himself! The Fall is all about Free Will! To deny that is to deny the foundation of the Good News! Jesus never lived fatalistically. He always did what He saw His Father doing. But He had a choice. He was God, but He was man, and he had a choice. Yet he yielded that choice to His Father (see Luke 22:42: Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”). That’s the point. Jesus had a choice. And so do we.

Today our choice is this: to let our country fall into decay, ruin, and tyranny: or do something about it. The Calvinists, if they’re true to their doctrine, will say that “it is as God wills.” But the Bible says “it is as God wills — if we will only act!”

God created the universe and gave his ultimate creation, mankind, Free Will. In doing so He gave up total sovereignty. As heretical as that sounds, that’s what the Bible says. Anything else is nonsense. And certainly not Good News! God wants to partner with us to restore the world that was scarred and degraded by the Fall. Therefore, He waits for us to act, to come along side Him and do His will. Does He sometimes do things on His own, without our involvement? Yes. He’s sovereign. That doesn’t mean we are powerless or not responsible. It means that sometimes He does things without waiting for us, or to kick our butts to get us moving (examples: the First and Second Great Awakenings, the Welsh Revival, the Azusa Street Revival, and the Toronto Blessing). But at the end of the day, it’s up to us to make things happen. The Spirit will partner with us, work through us, even do miracles through us — but we need to be willing to do His will.

Likewise, in the political arena, we can’t sit back and say “if our country falls, it’s just God’s will.” No, if it falls, it will be because we didn’t have our own will to save it! Christ came to set the captives free. The New Testament is full of statements like this: For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. (Galations 5:1.) What is Paul saying here? Does this statement not say we have a choice, and we must choose? Without Free Will, you can’t choose!

So in these troubling and uncertain times, we must choose freedom! The United States isn’t marked for destruction because of the sins of some. God was willing to spare Sodom if He could only find ten righteous men there (see Genesis 18). I think we can find more than ten men and women in the United States who will say “But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:15.) Oh, gosh! Did Joshua make a choice?

For a very in-depth look at how God wants to partner with us, and how we can transform the world around us (if we so choose!), see Kris Vallotton’s new book Heavy Rain. I’m only half way through it at the moment, but it’s rocking my world! Pick up a copy today! (Unsolicited plug!)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 24th, 2010 at 5:54 pm and is filed under Faith, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.