Part of my introduction to the Calvinist camp was during a time in my hometown where churches were splitting over the teaching of these five doctrines. One example is a pastor who I know loved his church and served his church for probably over a decade. He married these people, he buried these people, his family included this church family.
Sadly, because of from my understanding a small minority of members finding out this pastor was a Calvinist after all these years of sitting under his teaching(and not making the connection); this small minority starting causing an uproar. They made it almost impossible for this pastor to do his job he had been doing for years. The situation was unreasonable and how this pastor chose to handle the situation I believe proved to be the right choice to make even if in the short term it hurt like hell.
This Pastor got up one Sunday, and announced to his congregation that he was leaving the church because he did not want to cause division.
During this time in my hometown, Calvinism was not popular. People were on edge and believed it was some kind of false gospel. At times it could feel like a witch hunt was happening specifically in the baptist churches in the area.
My experience with Calvinism in my hometown during this time was the experience of people who loved Jesus and loved the word having to pay the price for that in some way or another.
I believe for many Calvinists part of their story is turning Calvinist in their beliefs and feeling rejected by the church at large around them. What could be a great display of people who love God and yet disagree with each other instead turned out to create tribes. And these tribes would go to war causing you to ask the question of everyone you meet: “Are you in my tribe or not?”
The Doctrine of Unconditional Election
Words have various meanings and it is important to understand the words being used in the context they were intended to be used in. In this case I remember my first thought when I came across this idea of “election” in the Bible. I genuinely thought God has a democratic vote on who will be saved and who will not.
The word election/elect means according to the Calvinist: the group of individuals who have been chosen before the foundation of the world by God as an act of grace to receive the effects of Christ’ death, burial and resurrection.
The elect is a word referring to a group of people known as “God’s chosen people.” And this word is used all over your Bible.
And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.(Matthew 24:31 ESV)
And if the Lord had not cut short the days, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he shortened the days.(Mark 13:20 ESV)
Though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”(Romans 9:11-13. ESV)
I will stop there, you can do a simple google search to find many more passages referring to this idea of there being this group of people God chooses as His elect. And the goal is obvious for God’s elect: for them to be saved. They are saved, not because of anything they do, good or bad. They are not chosen because of anything special about them. Rather this is all an act of God’s grace that he would even choose to save some of us lowly creatures.
What I Love About Calvinists
The idea implicit in this narrative is that if God is choosing to save certain people then there must be some who are not chosen and that is indeed true for the Calvinist.
What I loved about the Calvinists I first encountered was the fact they were the only people answering the tough questions I had. In fact, when I approached my senior pastor at the time I was being mentored by my Calvinist Youth Pastor, I told the senior pastor I was really wrestling with how someone who loves Jesus could believe this stuff, and my senior pastor told me to stop worrying about it.
My senior pastor who was not a Calvinist, dodged the questions I was wrestling with, my Calvinist Youth Pastor went out of his way to let my parents know where he stood, that I was asking questions and then when given the go ahead from my parents began answering my tough questions. I say this because I believe many people who hear the general idea of Calvinism begin to belittle it. And will even go to the extreme to call it a stupid set of doctrines. “How could anyone believe that hogwash?” But really from my experience the Calvinists were the ones willing to go where God’s word led them. They are highly intelligent and deserve our utmost respect in engaging with them.
The doctrine of unconditional election may sound harsh. This idea that God chooses some people over others makes God sound unloving.
But this is where the set of doctrines beautifully paint God’s grace with a magnificent brush. The word unconditional points us back to our state of brokenness. God is not choosing people based on any thing good they have done. This is why in our passage in Romans I mentioned earlier Paul says:
Though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”(Romans 9:11-13. ESV)
God chose Jacob not because he was the better brother. Jacob’s name literally means deciever. He is the worse of the two brothers if we are putting them on a scale. But this follows in line with how God chooses people. He chose David, not because David was the best candidate to be king. He was not the strongest, or the best, or the smartest; but God chose him because God chooses the weak of this world to shame the wise. God works in upside down ways.
The unconditional part of God’s choosing emphasizes this very point that God’s choosing of us is not based on anything special within us. Because we are all totally depraved, none of us have anything good to offer him and in fact we do not want him because of how totally corrupted we are. This should wipe away any confusion you may have about why God’s chooses some. God does not look into the future and choose those who He sees would choose Him. That’s not God choosing who will be saved, that’s accepting the reality of who would have chosen Him. Rather the Calvinists believe God chooses us despite our not choosing Him. In fact, the Calvinist actually believe we would have been unable to choose Him apart from Him choosing us. They start their story of predestination/election with God’s choice.
Even our free will is tainted by sin. Calvinist believe in a freewill, as long as that free will is understood in the context of how sin entered the world and shackled it up. Our freewill is in bondage to sin and death. So could we have never chose God apart from God first choosing us?
No, we would have never wanted God and that is the result of how devastating sin is to our lives. It takes even the desire to do good away from us. This is why Paul has that famous line depicting the struggle the Christian has with their broken selves:
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.(Romans 7:15 NIV)
Paul is getting at the fact that because our flesh is so corrupted, the question “what happens if someone really wanted to follow Jesus but cannot because they were not chosen?” Is not even a real question to consider. The doctrine of total depravity already answers that by saying “that would never happen because of how devastating sin is to our lives.”
But Does this Mean God is Unfair?
A couple years ago I threw out this question for our Youth to debate. I asked “Is God fair or is God just?” There was a lot of debate. The knee-jerk reaction is to say “of course God is fair and just.” To which I threw this grenade out: “So how was it fair that Jesus died instead of you?”
God is a just God. Meaning, he does not let the guilty go unpunished. The very idea of God being this just judge was shocking in the day the Bible was written. The reason why was because many of the judges then just like today, could be bought at a price, could be swayed by opinion. They were not just judges, so the idea that Yahweh was a just judge spoke to people’s pain at how the evildoers in the world had for so long gone unpunished but in the last day, Yahweh would not let the guilty go unpunished.
The good news of the Gospel according to this framework is that God never sacrifices his justice. Instead he chooses to let Himself take the payment for the sin we all commit. Never sacrificing His judgement but he does not operate fairly. Because the reality is, it is not fair for God to suffer for our sins. But it is still just.
Likewise, you can make the argument that God choosing his elect to be saved and not choosing everyone to be saved is unfair. The Calvinist would respond back that:
- God is not fair. He never claimed to be fair.
- He is good whether he chooses to save some or all or neither. The Calvinists start their theology with some basic ideas as a foundation. One of these ideas is that God is good, and so whatever he does even if does not make sense to us, he is still good in. The actions of God do not have to make sense to us for them to be good. In fact, our very idea of what is good or not may also be tainted by sin. Some people believe critical race theory is good. Some people do not. Some people believe only reading from the KJV is good, others do not. Our sense of goodness has been corrupted by sin so we are not like God a just judge. Our sense of justice has been tainted as well. But God’s has not. For the Calvinist this is crucial to understand as you dive into these set of five doctrines.
Who Are the Elect?
The elect are the chosen ones of God. Now, we first start seeing this act of God choosing certain individuals and not others in the very early pages of Genesis.
In Genesis 6-8 we get the story of Noah and the flood.
Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above, and set the door of the ark in its side. Make it with lower, second, and third decks. For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground, according to its kind, two of every sort shall come in to you to keep them alive. Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten, and store it up. It shall serve as food for you and for them.” Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.(Genesis 6:11-22 ESV)
The corruption of mankind has frustrated God, and so he in his regret decides to wipe all of creation out and start a new creation. The way he is going to start this new creation is with the partnership of a few humans, specifically a family of individuals who God will use to restart His creation. He chooses a man named Noah, along with his family. Noah is chosen because “he was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God”(v.9. NIV)
What we see from here on out is God constantly choosing individuals with this purpose to bring about a new creation.
The old is passing away. Sin and death are destroying it. From Genesis 3-11 you see the destruction heighten in its scale and effectiveness. The way God chooses to respond to this brokeness that plagues the world is by choosing to partner with certain humans in order to make right was has been made wrong.
So we see this with Noah, we then see this with Abraham. Abraham has two sons, Isaac and Ishmael. Isaac is the chosen son of the two who God will use to continue this new creation project. Isaac has two sons: Jacob and Esau to which before either one does anything good or bad, God chooses to use Jacob. And the list goes on. This is a pattern throughout the story of the Bible of God using certain individuals whom he chooses.
He chooses these people not based on their resume but based on God’s grace. At times it looks like God chooses people based on their righteous and faithfulness to Him like in the case of Noah. But then in the case of Jacob and Esau. God chose Jacob, arguably the worst of the two brothers.
The general idea of God choosing certain people based on his grace and not on their works is not an issue. That is apparent all throughout Scripture.
What About Those Who Are Not Chosen?
We have already established the fact that Calvnists believe certain people are chosen by God to be saved not based on anything they have done or bad rather they have been chosen simply as a demonstration of God’s grace. God does not have to choose to save all, any or none at all. The fact that he would choose to save some is a gift in itself. But the obvious question in the room is: what about those God does not choose? Do they just go straight to hell with no other chance to be saved?
Part of the hard truth Calvinism presents is that God wills what he wills.
What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory (Romans 9:14-23 ESV)
Paul is answering that very question: but what about the “non-elect?” And Paul’s response is that God has every right to choose to whom he wants to offer compassion and whom not too. God has every right as the Creator to make some people objects of His grace for His glory and some people as objects of his wrath for His glory.
For the calvinist, part of what makes the grace so sweet to the elect is the fact that it is special. It’s not for everyone. Jacob was chosen not Esau. Jacob should be grateful for his status.
The obvious question then is: “does Esau mourn over his “unchosenness”?
According to the Calvinists doctrine of total depravity, that would never happen. Everyone is given a chance to be saved. Everyone is confronted with the reality of the God of the gospel.
For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. (Romans 1:20 ESV)
The non-elect or as theologians would call it: the reprobate; are predestined to receive God’s wrath as an act of what they deserve because of their sin. Because the justice of God is a good thing, this doctrine according to the Calvinists is good. God is good in how he punishes those who are guilty and God is good in that he blesses those whom he chooses.
Note: In my years of being a Calvinist, the idea of the reprobate was not hit on nearly as much; probably because it is an uncomfortable truth to sit with. And in some Calvinist circles, people who believe in what is called "double predestination"(the idea that God predestines both people for heaven and hell) are referred to as "hyper Calvinists". I just believe they are honest Calvinists.
Calvinist’s Miss the Point in the Story
The problem with the Calvinist understanding of Salvation is that they believe the goal is to save people from God’s wrath. The Bible paints a different picture though. God starts us off in the garden of Eden in union with Him. The garden of Eden is this heaven on earth spot where God and man can dwell together.
In Genesis 3 we see this union be destroyed because of sin and death. The goal for God from here on out, is to reconcile Himself with mankind.
Much of our modern understanding of religion is this framework of mankind working their way up the staircase to heaven in order to get to God. What Calvinist get right is that we could never build a big enough stair case or survive that journey up to get to God. We are too weak, to broken, to dead in our sin to be able to do this.
So instead, God comes down. We see this in the image of Jesus. God coming down to dwell with His people in order to start this New Creation project. God has tried this before. He chooses individuals all throughout biblical history to help create these heaven on earth spots. Whether it’s the tabernacle, the temple, the mountain. The problem is; none of these projects work out in the end. That’s because the brokenness of the world is too big for David or Abraham or Moses to fix. Instead it takes God not just coming down to earth, but taking on flesh in order to truly kick off this new creation project.
But its important to note: God chooses these people throughout biblical history, not just to save them. He chooses them so they can be a blessing to all the nations.
Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.” (Genesis 17:3-8 NIV)
Yahweh’s covenant with Abraham is to make him a father of many nations. Abraham’s. family will spread out. They will continue to expand, create tribes, build nations and so on. In our broken world the trajectory for a tribe is that eventually they will come across another tribe, and the two will go to war with each other. But Yahweh, seems to expect people to split off into tribes and nations. Yet, God wants to rewrite the trajectory. Instead of going to war with each other, Yahweh wants to be their God.
Yahweh’s goal is to use His chosen people to impact the lives of others. We are not called to stay still.
For the Calvinist, they believe God’s elect is a closed off group of individuals that God chooses to save. But the Bible paints a different picture. The Bible paints a picture of God choosing people, places and nations as a means to bring about redemption to the world.
Calvinist Tribalism
I’m not sure if the theology of Calvinism is the reason for this group’s tribalism or not. But I do know having spent years in that tradition that they struggle to get along with others. As for me in my Calvinist past, I was constantly arguing with people, whether Christian or not about why I disagreed with them. It got to the point even with the big C-church that I started to view people who were not Calvinists as non-christians.
The reason why is because I failed to grapple with the fact that someone could follow Jesus and have different theological convictions based on the text than I did. And how this played out was I started to believe God’s Kingdom work was way smaller than it actually was. I turned brothers and sisters into enemies of God when in fact they too had been adopted into the family.
When your theology tells you God chooses to save some people but not others, I do believe to some degree that has to effect how you relate and interact with others. And it was part of this very reason that I started to notice my attitude towards other believers that I disagree with may be a sign that I missed the point.
When I choose a leader in our Youth Group, I do not choose them to lord their chosenness over others. I choose them to help lead the way for others to always rise up.
God 1000% chooses a group of people. But he chooses them not to just save them from their depravity but to use them in order to spread out this healing nature of his work across enemy lines. Those who were not chosen become chosen.
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew. 28:16-20 ESV)
Jesus started his ministry off by choosing certain individuals to be his disciples. Discipleship is the process of becoming a student of the way Jesus life with the end goal that you would as John Mark Comer says: “Be with Jesus, become like Jesus, and do as he did.”
We are not keep this healing work to ourselves. God’s kingdom is bigger than just me and you. Jesus’ mission was to build His Kingdom here on earth as it is heaven. So likewise we are called to do the same. We serve a Big God who has a Big Kingdom.
Leave a comment