An Offer You Can’t Accept

The Calvinist doctrine of Total Depravity/Inability means that no one can really respond positively to accept God’s free offer of salvation. Instead, all of God’s calls are ‘not effectual’ unless He uses Irresistible Grace to make those select few He has Unconditionally Elected inexorably believe.

As for everyone else… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But could God really be insincere in His promises? I say thee, nay! “GOD FORBID! YEA, LET GOD BE TRUE, AND EVERY MAN A LIAR! – ROMANS 3:3”

If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it. – Genesis 4:7

For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off… But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it… I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live – Deuteronomy 30:11,14,19

Choose this day whom you will serve – Joshua 24:15

Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. – Isaiah 1:18

Now therefore mend your ways and your deeds, and obey the voice of the LORD your God, and the LORD will relent of the disaster that he has pronounced against you. – Jeremiah 26:13

It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the disaster that I intend to do to them, so that every one may turn from his evil way, and that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin. – Jeremiah 36:3

Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel? – Ezekiel 33:11

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. – Matthew 11:28

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. – John 3:2

That whoever believes in him may have eternal life. – John 3:15

But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. – John 20:31

God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. – 1 Corinthians 10:13

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. – 2 Corinthians 5:20

And with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. – 2 Thessalonians 2:10

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts” – Hebrews 3:7-8

Logical Fallacies Used by Calvinists

1) FAULTY GENERALIZATION

Meaning: Taking one or a few examples, and extending them to many or all cases.

Example: Taking the example of God hardening Pharaoh’s heart (Exo 14:4), or God turning the heart of the king (Prov 21:1), and using it to generalize that this happens ALL THE TIME to EVERY PERSON, ergo Exhaustive Divine Determinism.

#######

2) NEGATIVE INFERENCE FALLACY

Meaning: Taking a statement that includes (e.g. Sally likes cake) and wrongly using it to exclude (e.g. Therefore, Sally hates pie).

Example: Jesus lays His lie down for His sheep (John 10:15), therefore Jesus lays His life down for ONLY His sheep (nobody else, hence, Limited Atonement. For a ridiculously extreme example using this same logical fallacy that Calvinists reject, Jesus died for ONLY Paul (Gal 2:20)!

#######

3) FALLACY OF EQUIVOCATION

Meaning: Using a word/phrase in one meaning, then using the same word but now with a different meaning.

Example: One meaning of ‘work’ is ‘any sort of action’. A second meaning of work is ‘salvation by your own merit’ which is what Paul uses (Eph 2:9). By conflating these two different usages of the word ‘work’, Calvinists argue that accepting salvation (an action, hence Work Meaning 1) = boasting that you can save yourself (soteriological, hence Work Meaning 2).

Another example, on sovereignty using an attempted meme by a Calvinist.

#######

4) NON SEQUITUR

Meaning: Coming to a conclusion that doesn’t actually flow from the premise.

Example: People are slaves to sin and cannot be freed from sin through their own ability, THEREFORE people cannot even rely on and accept God’s gracious offer to set them free. (????)

ONLINE GAMING, GOD & SIN – PREFERENCE & CONCESSION

For this analogy I’ll be using the word pair of PREFERENCE (specifically wanting something) vs CONCESSION (accepting/allowing something).

I play games online with other humans. My PREFERENCE would be for teammates and opponents who aren’t toxic, trolls or throwers. I can actually have that by playing with all bots (computer controlled) only. But then I wouldn’t have any real human interaction. It would soon get entirely predictable and boring.

So since I want real agency in my games, my CONCESSION is to play with annoying, fallible but libertarianly free humans. They can do really dumb and triggering things, sure. But they also have real interaction, innovation and personality.

This is the picture of God I get from the Bible. He doesn’t have a PREFERENCE for sin and evil and rebellion and damnation (contra John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, RC Sproul Jr, John Piper, James White etc).
He has the CONCESSION to sovereignly permit these things (despite being grieved over them) in order to achieve the greater good – imagers with real agency, real love, not a ‘world of automata’ as CS Lewis put it but a ‘more valuable world’ like Alvin Plantinga described.

#######

For he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.

To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth, to deny a man justice in the presence of the Most High, to subvert a man in his lawsuit, the Lord does not approve.

Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?

– Lamentations 3:33-38

A Forgiveness/Unforgiveness Syllogism

Rate my logical argument as follows:

1) Jesus gave believers the right to not forgive sins, John 20:23.

2) But if we do not forgive others then neither will God forgive us, Matthew 18:35.

3) We are definitely forgiven of our sins, Colossians 2:14 & others.

4) THEREFORE, we must always forgive others of their sins against us.

My Soteriological (and Other) Memes

Every meme I’ve made related to soteriology (and some not really).

Click for full size, and feel free to share, send or otherwise use without crediting. Doesn’t matter to me!

You can probably find most of these scattered around related blog posts and FB groups, but not all have seen the light of day (yet). Try searching for keywords related to any meme for more on my blog.

Above Leighton Flowers quote from 2:20 of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYvqXS-_D8A

Above Leighton Flowers quote from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUYggh-xdOg

Tim Stratton quote from: https://freethinkingministries.com/what-is-libertarian-free-will/

Above quote from 44:10 to 44:40 of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPDbNwo1IuE

Above from this quote:

VesselsCleanseSelf

I Stand at the Door and Breach-and-Entry

Yes, Revelation 3:20 is actually Jesus speaking to already-believers.

But hey, if Lazarus and the dry bones of Ezekiel and Ephesians 1 and 1 Corinthians 2:14 can somehow actually be about prebelievers being regenerated unto salvation… Fair game!

Man’s Steps From the LORD = Determinism?

A man’s steps are from the LORD; how then can man understand his way? – Proverbs 20:24

Take the immediate context. Proverbs 20:22-23 tells us not to take revenge and that God hates cheating.

Do not say, “I will repay evil”;  wait for the LORD, and he will deliver you. Unequal weights are an abomination to the LORD, and false scales are not good. – Proverbs 20:22-23

The rest of the Psalm also is full of warnings to avoid evil acts. Odd things for God to tell us if He determines and controls everything we do, including said evil acts.

The parallel in Psalms 37:23-24 qualifies that God establishes the steps of the righteous, which is the theme of that Psalm overall:

The steps of a man are established by the LORD, when he delights in his way; though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the LORD upholds his hand. – Psalm 37:23-24

So the meaning of ‘A man’s steps are from the LORD’ is not some sort of determinism, but rather a reminder that God guides and aids those who trust in Him as the famous Proverbs 3:5-6 promises:

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. – Proverbs 3:5-6

Context – often the immediate verses right next to prooftext passages – clears up a lot of misinterpretation.

A TEXT WITHOUT CONTEXT IS PRETEXT FOR A (CALVINIST) PROOFTEXT

I’ve heard it said before that many prooftexts for TULIP are proven to not teach those doctrines if taken in their proper context.

But I was surprised by how often I found this accusation to be true, when I personally examined even just the surrounding verses. Common examples:

John 6:44 – Those who come to Jesus know their Old Testament, are granted to come, and the offer is open to all (John 6:45 & 65, John 12:32). [Plus, why is the word ‘can’ (possibility) instead of ‘will’ (certainty) in v44?] MORE: JOHN 6 & DRAW

Acts 13:48 – Those appointed to eternal life had chosen to come and hear Paul, possibly for the second week in a row (Acts 14:44-45). MORE: DOES ACTS 13:48 TEACH UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION?

Romans 8:29-30 – This is a callback to what God did for the Old Testament believers. Key points being the past tenses used especially ‘glorified’ which is a future event for Paul’s generation (Romans 8:17-18), and ‘foreknew’ which are the Israelites (Romans 11:1-2). MORE: ROMANS 8:29-30 – PAST TENSE OLD TESTAMENT?

Romans 9 – Stumbling is not to make them fall, contra Unconditional Election to Reprobation. They can act to change God’s intentions for them (Romans 11:11-12, 23). [Which is reiterated in Jeremiah 18’s potter & clay, and 2 Timothy 2:20-21’s vessels.] MORE: ROMANS 9 – SUPERPOST

1 Corinthians 2:14 – Paul is addressing already-believers who have plateued in their spiritual growth, not unbelievers/prebelievers who can’t understand the Gospel (1 Corinthians 2:15-16, 3:1-3). MORE: 1 CORINTHIANS 2:14 – ABOUT UNREGENERATE UNBELIEVERS, OR IMMATURE BELIEVERS?

Ephesians 1:4 – The section is addressed to already-believers about the process of adoption, not about unbelievers or prebelievers being chosen for salvation. (Ephesians 1:1-14). MORE: EPHESIANS 1 AND PREDESTINATION – TO WHAT?

Potter passages – In every case, the context is punishment for continued rebellion and evil. It is not arbitrary exercise of authority. Too many to summarize, see MORE: POTTER PROOFTEXTS – TALKING BACK TO GOD & THE EUTHYPHRO DILEMMA

God directing steps – Similar to the potter texts, see MORE: Man’s Steps From the LORD = Determinism?

RC SPROUL JR – GOD DESIRES TO MAKE MANKIND SIN SO HE CAN SHOW WRATH UPON THEM

This is the logical conclusion of Calvinism – reversing cause and effect because of their skewed definition of ‘sovereignty’ whereby God cannot be allowed to be affected by anything.

Instead of God having wrath because of our sinful actions, we have sinful actions because God eternally has wrath and needs something to pour out that wrath on. So God makes us have sinful actions to fulfil His desire to show wrath.

#######

“God desired for man to fall into sin. I am not accusing God of sinning; I am suggesting that God created sin.” – RC Sproul Jr., Almighty Over All,, page 58

http://itsaboutjesus.weebly.com/its-about-jesus/speaking-of-gods-wrath

In his book, Almighty Over All, R.C. Sproul Jr. writes this excellent statement: “We cannot imagine God looking at His wrath like unwanted pounds He wants to lose, if only He had the power. No, God is as delighted with His wrath as He is with all of His attributes. Suppose He says, ‘What I’ll do is create something worthy of my wrath, something on which I can exhibit the glory of my wrath. And on top of that I’ll manifest my mercy by showering grace on some of these creatures deserving my wrath.'”

#######

See also related in OKAY FOR GOD, NOT FOR YOU, BECAUSE. whereby the argument is: It’s not sinful for God to cause people to sin, because God never made a law stating ‘God shall not cause people to sin’.

TULIP & EVANGELISM

John Piper’s answer is basically “Yes God doesn’t love everyone with the special love He shows only to the Elect. But don’t mention anything about TULIP to the person you want to evangelize”.

Whereas if he gave them the full ‘truth’ of Calvinism on the first date, there’d never be a second.

This is why this image rings so true:

See also:

A DIFFERENT GOSPEL

And by comparison:

PLAIN PROVISIONISM

Maybe Spurgeon should just become the Provisionist he acts like:

And same goes for James White:

And John MacArthur:

And (gasp!) John Calvin himself: