Calvinism and Arminianism:
Myths & Realities
From the Calvinist perspective, unless God determines every thought, word and deed, the universe is necessarily spinning out of control. Determinism, thankfully, rescues Calvinists from such a panic.
Calvinist, James White: “For some reason, Hunt prefers a God who created without a purpose and decree – even though He fully knew that His creation would be filled with senseless, purposeless, gratuitous evil and suffering! That is the price of libertarian freedom, and it is a price Mr. Hunt seems willing to pay.” (Debating Calvinism, p.192)
James White: “If God’s decree does not include the evil of mankind, that evil has no purpose, and Hunt is left directing us to a God who creates the possibility of evil, starts this universe off on its course, and then tries His best to ‘fix things’ as they fall apart in a torrent of wickedness. This is supposed to comfort us? This is the God who says that He works all things after the counsel of His will? Hardly!” (Debating Calvinism, pp.319-320, emphasis mine)
James White: “It’s far better to have a God, who in creating this universe, does not create with a sovereign decree, that determines actions in time. …God created all that evil, and has no purpose for it, none whatsoever. At least the Reformed person can say that God uses means, we can look at the Compatibilism that’s plainly presented in Genesis chapter 50, Isaiah 10, Acts 4, we can talk about the purity of God’s motivations and the impurity of man’s motivations, ect.” (Theology Matters: The Parable of the Farmer--Geisler)
Dave Hunt replies: “White contends that if God doesn’t decree evil, ‘evil has no purpose.’ Evil must have a purpose?” (Debating Calvinism, p.327, emphasis mine)
The omni-causality of deterministic Calvinism entails that not only are all things fully determined, sin included, but also are purposeful, and hence it follows in Calvinism that evil must have a purpose.
Calvinist Charge: Arminianism denies the purpose of sin.
Myth or Reality: This charge is centered around the concept of Determinism, in which it is argued that sin is not the product of random human will, but is instead the product of divine design, for an elaborate story of human history being told.
