Habakkuk 1:13
Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, and You can not look on wickedness with favor. Why do You look with favor on those who deal treacherously? Why are You silent when the wicked swallow up those more righteous than they?
One member of The Society of Evangelical Arminians writes: “If the Calvinist pictures God as the source of sin and evil, and yet affirms this verse by agreeing that He is too pure to see it, then it seems that their God has done something that He has no knowledge of, or something that is in darkness. Such would be a rather blind God, would He not? It is an odd picture of what a righteous God would do.” (SEA, emphasis mine)
Another member of The Society of Evangelical Arminians writes: “A God who is the source of what He is too pure to see, doesn’t match. There is an incongruity there.” (SEA, emphasis mine)
The Calvinistic, Westminster Confession of Faith, states: “The almighty power, unsearchable wisdom, and infinite goodness of God so far manifest themselves in his providence, that it extendeth itself even to the first fall, and all other sins of angels and men; and that not by a bare permission, but such as hath joined with it a most wise and powerful bounding, and otherwise ordering, and governing of them, in a manifold dispensation, to his own holy ends; yet so, as the sinfulness thereof proceedeth only from the creature, and not from God, who, being most holy and righteous, neither is nor can be the author or approver of sin.” (The Westminster Confession of Faith, IV. Of Providence, emphasis mine)
John Calvin writes: “He has plenty of reasons for comfort as he realises that the devil and all the ungodly are reined in by God, so that they cannot conceive, plan or carry out any crime, unless God allows it, indeed commands it. They are not only in bondage to him, but are forced to serve him. It is the Lord’s prerogative to enable the enemy’s rage and to control it at will, and it is in his power to decide how far and how long it may last, so that wicked men cannot break free and do exactly what they want....” (The Institutes of Christian Religion, Book I, Chapter 17, Section 10, emphasis mine)
Calvin writes: “But where it is a matter of men’s counsels, wills, endeavours, and exertions, there is greater difficulty in seeing how the providence of God rules here too, so that nothing happens but by His assent and that men can deliberately do nothing unless He inspire it.” (Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God, pp.171-172, emphasis mine)
Calvin writes: “Does God work in the hearts of men, directing their plans and moving their wills this way and that, so that they do nothing but what He has ordained?” (Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God, p.174, emphasis mine)
Don’t these quotes prove, that according to deterministic Calvinism, every conceivable evil comes from the creative mind of God? How is that not blasphemous?
One member of The Society of Evangelical Arminians writes: “So according to the deterministic reading, God is the one who accomplishes every wicked and evil thing that happens. That would mean that God accomplishes every sin, every rape, every child molestation. That’s practically blasphemy concerning the One whose ‘eyes are too pure’ to look upon evil.” (SEA)
This is concerning the coming Babylonian captivity.
According to Calvinism, although God may not look upon wickedness “with favor,” He does ordain every single bit of it. Calvinists take this view, in defense of their perspective of God’s sovereignty. In fact, Calvinists believe that God cannot be truly sovereign, unless He scripts every single bit of it, and Calvinists are clear in pointing out that it is “not by a bare permission,” but something that God specifically “commands,” yes, commands! The problem with determinism, is that it makes every conceivable evil, even the darkest of all evils, something that originates from the creative mind of God. That seems to be blasphemous, but yet Calvinists claim that it is even more blasphemous to deny it.
