Calvinism and Arminianism:
Myths & Realities
Calvinist, John Piper: “The chief end of God is to glorify God and enjoy displaying and magnifying His glory forever.”
John Piper: “God’s eternal, radical, ultimate commitment to His own self-exaltation permeates Scripture. His aim is to be exalted, glorified, admired, magnified, praised and reverenced is seen to be the ultimate goal of all creation, all providence, and all saving acts.”
Calvinism makes God into the most self-centered Being in the universe. In other words, God didn’t create men and angels in order to share His love, but only so that He can be loved. But now consider a parent, because this is how Jesus told us that we should picture God. Why do parents desire to have children? Is it so that parents can be told how great they are? Instead, I think that parents desire to have children in order to generously and sacrificially pour their love into another human being, made in their image. So by comparison, I think that God created men and angels in order to generously and sacrificially invest His love and to see us grow, that is, to be receptacles of His abundant love, and we are compelled by such amazing love, to reciprocate it. To think that God created us, despite knowing all that He would have to endure in order to redeem us, just shows how much sacrificial love that God has invested in us. Of all the love that we give to God, it must only be a tithe of the love that He has already invested in us. But not so fast, says the Calvinist.
Calvinist, Todd Friel: “Even Jesus’ death on the cross was for Him, for His glory, for His name sake. We just happened to be the beneficiaries of it.” (Is God a Megalomaniac?)
…if you happen to be one of the secretly elect ones. The Calvinist forgot to add that part. Why do Calvinists want to suck the goodness out of God? Essentially, Calvary was not an outpouring of God’s love for us, but of God’s love for Himself. Why Calvinists? Who do you speak such things?
Arminian Charge: Calvinism portrays God as being Self-Centered.
Myth or Reality: Calvinists seem to celebrate this. See for yourself.
