Hebrews 11:6
And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
Akiane Kramarik: “The most important thing in this world is faith, because without faith you cannot communicate with God.”
According to Calvinism, without Irresistible Grace, it is impossible to have the faith that pleases God, but the thrust of the verse is an imperative that you need to do, and yet with Irresistible Grace, there is nothing that you can do, either in the getting or the keeping. So what happens to this imperative if there is literally nothing that you can do about it?
Ask a Calvinist why God chose them to be saved. Will it be because they have placed their faith in Jesus or because of a perceived special status with God as members of “the elect”?
John MacArthur: “You and I are saved and know the Lord Jesus Christ because God chose us before the world ever began.” (Understanding Election, emphasis mine)
John MacArthur: “We are chosen unto salvation. We are chosen to belong to Him. When you look at your salvation, then thank God. Thank God! Because you are a Christian because He chose you. I don’t understand the mystery of that. That’s just what the word of God teaches. That is the most humbling doctrine in all of Scripture. I take no credit, not even credit for my faith. It all came from Him. He chose me. He selected people to be made holy in order to be with Him forever. Why he selected me, I will never know. I’m no better than anyone else. I’m worse than many. But He chose me.” (Understanding Election, emphasis mine)
John MacArthur: “To whom do you owe your salvation? You owe it to the God who chose you. You owe it to the God who predestined you. You owe it to the God who redeemed you, the God who forgave you, the God who wanted you to be His own because He wanted you to be His own. It doesn’t give any other reason, even though we are so unworthy, so unworthy.” (Understanding Election, emphasis mine)
So God was pleased to choose them for salvation, but without their ever knowing why, but solely for reasons known only to God. That’s Calvinism. In contrast, Arminianism presents a “why,” and that being faith, and really, that’s simply what John 3:16 states, insomuch that God bestows eternal life based upon something, that is, faith in His Son, rather than bestowing Unconditional Election and Irresistible Grace based upon reasons that are never given.
Question: If without faith, it is impossible to please God, then how is it that God was pleased to unilaterally elect to salvation those who did not believe?
Answer: It would seem that on the basis of Hebrews 11:6, Calvinism would be “impossible.” Without faith it is impossible to please God, but at the same time, without faith, it is possible for God to be pleased enough to elect you, in order to bestow the faith that pleases Him. That seems conflicted, does it not?
John Calvin: “If the way to God is only open to faith it follows that all those who are outside of faith are displeasing to God. From this the apostle shows first how faith procures favour for us because it is our teacher in worshipping the true God; and secondly because it makes us more sure of His goodness so that we do not seem to seek Him in vain.” (Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries: Hebrews and I and II Peter, p.162, emphasis mine)
According to Calvin, unbelievers are displeasing to God. Only believers are pleasing to God. However, Calvin goes on to teach that God only gives certain people faith, that is, Calvinism’s elect. So that begs the question of how God is pleased to give Calvinism’s elect the faith that will, in turn, please Him?
John Calvin: “...why God delivers one man and not another are matters constituting His inscrutable judgments and His univestigatible ways. Again, if it be examined and enquired how anyone is worthy, there are some who will say: By their human will. But we say: By grace or divine predestination....” (Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God, p.64, emphasis mine)
John Calvin: “...God has chosen to salvation those whom He pleased, and has rejected the others, without our knowing why, except that its reason is hidden in His eternal counsel.” (Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God, p.53, emphasis mine)
So Calvinism has no answer.
John Calvin: “Paul further confirms this, declaring that God was moved by no external cause; He Himself and in Himself was author and cause of our being elected while yet we were not created, and of His afterwards conferring faith upon us.” (Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God, p.69, emphasis mine)
John Calvin: “There are some, too, who allege that God is greatly dishonored if such arbitrary power is bestowed on Him. … they should look up to the sovereignty of God and not evaluate it by their own judgment.” (Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries: Romans and Thessalonians, pp.209-210, emphasis mine)
John Calvin: “For God looks at nothing outside Himself by which He is moved to elect us, for the counsel of His own will is the only and proper and (as they say) intrinsic cause of election.” (Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries: Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians, p.130, emphasis mine)
According to Calvin, God doesn’t even look at faith as the reason for adoption into the family of God, which is interesting in light of John 1:12 which states: “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name....” Arminianism differs from Calvinism by establishing a knowable motive for grace, and that being, faith. God gives grace on the basis of faith, in Him. Of course, Calvinists consider faith to be a work, which of course it is not, but that’s what they think, and which drives their logic. Faith is not about working but about trusting.
John Calvin: “Again, God did not choose us because we believed, but in order that we might believe, lest we should seem first to have chosen Him. Paul emphasises that our beginning to be holy is the fruit and effect of election. Hence, they act most preposterously who place election after faith. Then, when Paul lays down as the unique cause of election the good pleasure of God which He has in Himself, he excludes all other causes.” (Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God, p.69, emphasis mine)
John Calvin: “First he points out the eternity of election, and then how we should think of it. Christ says that the elect always belonged to God. God therefore distinguishes them from the reprobate, not by faith, nor by any merit, but by pure grace; for while they are far away from him, he regards them in secret as his own.” (John: Calvin, The Crossway Classic Commentaries, p.393, emphasis mine)
Thus to Calvin, faith had no basis for our reconciliation with God, since we obtained the grace of the “good pleasure of God” before we were ever born, having been His secret possession all along.
Commenting on Ephesians 1:4, Calvin writes: “For what a childish quibble is the sophistry that we were not chosen because we were already worthy, but because God foresaw that we would be worthy. We are all lost in Adam; and therefore, had not God rescued us from perishing by His own election, there was nothing to be foreseen.” (Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries: Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians, p.125, emphasis mine)
Calvin argues that the elect, in the eternal sense, were “already worthy” to be “rescued” by Unconditional Election, irrespective of faith in Christ. So what then, in the Calvinist system, does faith in Christ actually accomplish, that election has not already procured? These are some of the difficult questions that Calvinism faces. Hebrews 11:6 says that without faith, it is impossible to please God, and yet according to Calvinism, God is pleased to elect without faith, and John Calvin candidly admits that his theology cannot explain it.
