Why I Am a Calvinist, Part One

So I'll just state right off the bat that I don't have any specific plan for a series on this topic, or an outline of which topics I'll cover in which order, or a time frame in which I'll complete them. I just may return to this topic periodically, and I figured this title was as good as any since it's the first time I'm writing about it.

Also, I'm going to try to keep these posts as bite-sized as possible, which is always a challenge as I am rather susceptible to diarrhea of the blog (it's as unsightly as it sounds).

To me, the best place to start an inquiry into Reformed theology is on the topic of the Sovereignty of God, and how my understanding of it informs my belief that the Calvinist, or Reformed, position is the correct one (note, some people assign different meanings to "Sovereignty" and "Providence," with the former referring to the characteristic of God's supreme position as Lord of all, and the latter referring  to God's action in the execution of His will (including the sustaining of all things). I'm kind of blurring the two concepts in this post, so forgive me if this offends your theological sensibilities).

For the first several years of my life as a Christian, I had a vague understanding of God's sovereignty, which I accepted without much thought. I happily, wholeheartedly believed, declared, and/or sang such proclamations as "He is in control," "this is part of His plan," "He is Lord of all," "Thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven," or even "God is sovereign" without thinking about the larger implications of any of these statements. It was only later, after reading various commentaries and being challenged to think a little harder, that I began to probe the concept of sovereignty and started asking questions like:

 What does "God is in control" mean? Is He actually controlling everything, or just kind of keeping watch over everything and making sure that stuff doesn't get too out of hand, intervening periodically? And what about the "will" of God? Some passages, like Romans 9:19 and Psalm 33:11, seem to suggest that God's will can't be resisted--but then what is sin? Surely, you're resisting God's will when you sin, right? Because otherwise, that would be like saying that God wills evil to happen--and that can't be right. Because God hates evil, and therefore wouldn't will it to happen. He just allows it to happen...right? Because He gives people free will,  and if they have free will, they can choose to do evil. But if they have free will, then is God really in control of anything related to human behavior? I've been taught that God has this plan that involves making a bride for His Son in the church, and that He's going to come back and destroy evil and punish the wicked and take His bride to Heaven, where He will be worshipped and glorified forever. But what if, just hypothetically, everyone on earth turned away from God? Logically, it could happen, right? Everyone has free will. How would God's purposes be accomplished then, if He was completely dependent upon the decisions of people to bring them about--and they all turned Him down? I mean, God knows that's not going to happen, because He has total foreknowledge of everything. God has known from before time began who would choose Him and who wouldn't and He knows how this is all going to end, but if that outcome--the end of God's great plan--is based on the decisions of people, can we really say that it happens according to the will of God? It may be congruent to the will of God, but because of it? Alternately, maybe God's will can't be resisted. Again, this is what Romans 9:19 and Psalm 33:11 seem to be saying. So could it be that He does will for people to refuse him, and for people to sin, and for evil to happen as part of some larger purpose He has to bring glory to Himself...

And so it went.

Like I said, I'm going to try to keep these posts from getting too verbose (too late). Rather than wade too deep into the tall grass now, I'll try to devote future posts to topics like free will (as a preview, I think it's far more complicated than I used to think it was) or whether or not God wills evil (hint: it's more complicated than yes or no).

Here, let me just say that I have come to accept that God controls everything.

For me, one of the clearest passages on the topic of God's sovereignty is Ephesians 1, just before verse  11 and through verse 12 (NASV):

 In Him ¹¹ also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, ¹² to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.
 

Now, ignore the part about predestination just for a minute and concentrate on the second half of verse 11: "who works all things after the counsel of His will." Works all things. All things. After the counsel of His will. God fashions everything so that it happens in accordance with His will.

The NIV, in my opinion, puts it even more bluntly:

having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will...

I believe an accurate paraphrase of this portion of verse 11 could be "...who makes everything happen the way He wants it to happen." In my mind, this is the definition of total sovereignty.

And God's sovereignty, by definition, must extend to everything--including who gets saved and who doesn't. If this is not the case, specifically in the case of election, then God is dependent upon human beings to make a decision in order for His will to be accomplished. And if that is the case, then God is not sovereign.

But He is sovereign over this, as over all things, which is where the first part of verse 11 comes in-- we have "been predestined according to His purpose." God decided that you would or would not be saved, as He decides all things, according to His purpose--regardless of what yours might be. Why? Because, verse 12: for the "praise of His glory." God makes everything happen according to His will, with the ultimate aim that He will be glorified. Amen.

I said I wasn't going to get into free will in this post, but there is one objection that one might raise which presently occurs to me (I'm sure there are others): one could ask if God couldn't will that people have free will, and still work through their free will to accomplish His ultimate will. Far be it from me to say what God can't do. However, I interpret Ephesians 1:11 as not leaving a lot of wiggle room on the question of whether or not God is completely sovereign over everything, including human will. Romans 9: 14-18 seems to be an even stronger declaration of God's unmitigated sovereignty especially as pertains to election, free from deference or constraint to, or the need to work around, the will of mankind. There are other rebuttals that I can think of to this objection, but I think I'll save them for future posts.

So, allowing that I might be misunderstanding the verses I've cited, or otherwise wrong, my understanding of the Sovereignty of God is the primary principle that leads me to embrace the Calvinist view.