While
Calvin's beliefs on predestination are easily understood, they are difficult
for me to accept. Calvinism is very
systematic and comes to a simple conclusion through a precise explanation. Unfortunately, while it claims to give God
all the glory for saving sinners from Hell, it is completely devoid of emotion. If there were truly elect people who could go
to heaven and those who are chosen to go to Hell, there is no reason for a
Christian to try at all in life. This
idea claims to give God all of the glory, but what for? For deciding that one man is better or more
deserving than another, or because God just likes him more? No, this is not the God that I have come to
love throughout my life. Calvin uses the
example of a banker giving loans to explain his beliefs. He says that a banker gives out loans as he
sees fit, allowing one man to have money but not the other. However, there is a system behind this. The banker does not just chose who he does
because he feels like it. The banker
giving a loan looks at credit, decides who is more likely to pay the money
back, and what will be done with the money. Also, a person must ask for a loan
before a banker can either give them the money or deny it to them. I think in some ways it is the same with
salvation.
I commented on Rebekah Dye's blog
-Susan Berner
I liked when Dr. Brekke said the main problem with Calvinism is that it sounds horrible. I agree. It makes sense in a strange, terrible way. I mean, it's logical. But do we want a God that fits the logic of our mind at the sacrifice of a loving, complex and paradoxical God? is it so terrible to have a God we can't actually understand?
ReplyDeleteMark no mistake, Calvinism is not without its paradoxes. Here's a man who understands them well: TheoParadox Blog.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of the day, the Calvinists I know aren't emotionless, introverted jerks who just want everything to fit. That's a bad caricature. They feel deeply. They wrestle with the implications of their beliefs. They also wrestle with being misunderstood and people calling their God unjust and misanthropic, when they don't believe that at all. It moves them to tears. It keeps them up at night.
This is an age unfriendly to Calvinists. They suffer under the tyranny of clichés. In many ways I understand the Reformed experience, and I sympathize with them.
Calvinism and predestination really are uncomfortable topics for a lot of Christians these days, myself included. Whenever I try to think too much about this and whether or not I believe it I always have to remind myself that I am utterly incapable of understanding the mind of God. To be honest, I dont really know where I stand in the whole debate of Calvinism vs. Arminianism but I think there is some truth to both arguments. I know all that sounds like a lazy copout, but I am a firm believer that this debate is also not an essential topic for salvation, so our job and mission and Christians remains the same.
ReplyDelete>>To be honest, I dont really know where I stand in the whole debate of Calvinism vs. Arminianism but I think there is some truth to both.
DeleteThe Reformed preacher Charles Sprugeon would heartily agree.
"The fact is, there is some Truth in both these systems of theology—the mischief is that, in order to make a human system appear to be complete, men ignore a certain Truth, which they do not know how to put into the scheme which they have formed and, very often, that very Truth, which they ignore, proves to be like the stone which the builders rejected—one of the headstones of the corner—and their building suffers serious damage through its omission."