Matthew 22:37
Matthew 22:34-40 (see also Deuteronomy 6:5)
But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered themselves together. One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”
John Calvin: “At this point in particular the flesh rages when it hears that the predestination to death of those who perish is referred to the will of God.” (Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries: Romans and Thessalonians, p.208, emphasis mine)
Thus, Dave Hunt rightly asks: “The person God has predestined to eternal hell is to love Him with all his heart?” (Debating Calvinism, p.258, emphasis mine)
Question: Would God be expecting better of His creation than of Himself?
Most Calvinists insist that God has “degrees if love,” but the real question is whether predestining someone to Hell is any kind of love at all, and one Calvinist answers:
Calvinist, R.C. Sproul candidly admits: “If some people are not elected unto salvation then it would seem that God is not all that loving toward them. For them it seems that it would have been more loving of God not to have allowed them to be born.” (Chosen by God, p.32, emphasis mine)
Now Calvinists are at a fork in the road.
Some Calvinists will admit that God really is unloving
to them, but ultimately that He is under no obligation
to love them, as Sproul points out:
R.C. Sproul adds: “Is there any reason that a righteous
God ought to be loving toward a creature who hates
him and rebels constantly against his divine authority
and holiness? ...if grace is obligated it is no longer
grace.” (Chosen by God, p.33, emphasis mine)
Remind Calvinists that they are the ones who teach
exhaustive predestination. In Calvinism, the very
creatures who hate and reject Him are the same ones
who are unilaterally created from birth for that very
purpose, so that God can allegedly obtain glory from
them going to Hell.
Recall that Jesus declared God’s omni-benevolent grace with the following: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:43-48) So God declares His love to those who do not deserve it.
Question: So although God is not obligated to love anyone, as Sproul correctly observed, God does so anyway, in demonstration of His character, and that brings up the next question. Why would God supply a physical aid (sun, rain, ect.), but not a spiritual aid?
Sproul should have reasoned, If God already extended grace to all men, at least for a person’s physical well-being, does this obligate Him to provide a further grace for a person’s spiritual well-being?Calvinists might argue that the one undeserved act does not necessitate another, but that misses the point about what Jesus was demonstrating in the model character of God, and how man is to imitate it, and that brings up the second point: If God predestines someone to Hell, which Sproul agreed was “not all that loving,” then why would God command them to love Him in return, as per the greatest commandment?
Hunt adds: “How could God who is love, not love all mankind when He commands us to do so?” (Debating Calvinism, p.255, emphasis mine)
And that’s the point. The Ten Commandments are not merely addressed to “the elect.” It’s for all men, and since the Ten Commandments are intended for every human being that has ever lived, all of mankind is therefore commanded to love God first and his neighbor second. Since Calvinists believe only “the elect” can love God, do they also believe only “the elect” are capable of loving their neighbor? Moreover, Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) Therefore, do Calvinists also wish to suggest that no one other than “the elect” has ever given up their own life to save another?
Question: If God has an eternally unkind intention for most, even from before they were ever born, having predestined them to perdition by an immutable decree, then how can God rightly command them to love Him in return?
