CALVINISTIC SOVEREIGNTY REFUTED

John Calvin was a heretic, the father of what we call Calvinism today. Following are some quotes of his:

“The first man fell because the Lord deemed it meet that he should.”

“I freely acknowledge my doctrine to be this: that Adam fell, not only by the permission of God, but by his very secret counsel and decree…”

“Creatures are so governed by the secret counsel of God, that nothing happens but what he has knowingly and willingly decreed.”

“Whatever things are done wrongly and unjustly by man, these very things are the right and just works of God.”

“God not only foresaw the fall of the first man, and in him the ruin of his posterity; but also at his own pleasure arranged it…”

As you just read, Calvinism teaches that God is SO SOVEREIGN that he is the very author of sin. However, is this really what the Holy Bible teaches? We will look at these claims and refute them, one by one, with the scriptures.

1. God is NOT the author of sin. He did NOT bring sin into the world. When man became violently wicked in the earth, it GRIEVED God at his heart. Why would God be grieved by man’s sin if he was the author of it?

Genesis 6:5-6, “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.”

Isaiah 63:10, “But they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them.”

2. God does NOT control every political appointment. (Yes, Trump-supporters, that includes Donald Trump as well!) It follows that God does NOT control everything political leaders do.

1 Samuel 15:10-11, “Then came the word of the LORD unto Samuel, saying, It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king: for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel; and he cried unto the LORD all night.”

Hosea 8:2-4, “Israel shall cry unto me, My God, we know thee. Israel hath cast off the thing that is good: the enemy shall pursue him. They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made princes, and I knew it not: of their silver and their gold have they made them idols, that they may be cut off.”

3. God does NOT control the sacrifice of children. It is man’s wickedness that drives him to commit such evil, NOT God’s “sovereignty” (as defined by Calvinists).

Leviticus 18:21, “And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD.”

Jeremiah 7:31, “And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.”

Jeremiah 19:5-6, “They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind: Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter.”

Jeremiah 32:35, “And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.”

4. God does NOT decree the outcome of every event. There ARE events, believe it or not, that happen by time and chance.

Ecclesiastes 9:11, “I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.”

Isaiah 5:3-4, “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?”

Luke 10:31, “And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.”

5. It is well known (and daily observed) that not all men do God’s will. God does NOT control man’s free will, otherwise it would NOT be free will!

Matthew 23:37, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!”

Luke 7:30, “But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him.”

6. As stated before, God is NOT the author of sin, nor is he the author of confusion. If Calvinism were true, he would be the author of both, but not according to the scriptures.

1 Corinthians 14:33, “For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.”

James 1:13-15, “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”

7. God sometimes speaks of the future with uncertainty. This is NOT to say he has no foreknowledge, but in fact he knows all: He knows what will happen, but he also knows what would happen if an event took a different turn.

Genesis 18:17-21, “And the LORD said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him. And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know.”

Jeremiah 36:1-3, “And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that this word came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spake unto thee, from the days of Josiah, even unto this day. It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.”

8. God does NOT control men’s actions. Sometimes man’s actions have caused God to change his plans.

Exodus 32:7-14, “And the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves: They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation. And Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, LORD, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand? Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever. And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.”

Jonah 3, “And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey. And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.”

9. God gives everyone a chance to repent (change their mind), though most refuse. Again, he does NOT control their mind and cause them to receive or reject him.

Psalm 78:41, “Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.”

Acts 7:51, “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.”

2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

Revelation 2:20-21, “Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.”

As you can see, God is indeed the most High, and he knows all, and he is powerful, but that does NOT mean he is sovereign to the point of overriding our free will. God created man, NOT robots with no free will!