Hosea 8:4
Hosea 8:4 (see also 1st Samuel 8:4-22; Jeremiah 32:35)
They have set up kings, but not by Me; They have appointed princes, but I did not know it. With their silver and gold they have made idols for themselves, That they might be cut off.
A similar passage is 1st Samuel 8:4-22, in which the people asked Samuel for a king, just like the heathen nations. However, God had discouraged the people from doing this, warning of the excessive burdens created by having a human king to rule over them.
For the Calvinist who believes in exhaustive, meticulous determinism, this passage would amount to God being displeased by Israel doing exactly as He decreed and rendered certain. It would be like pulling the strings on a puppet and then complaining about what they do.
Isaiah 30:1-3: “Woe to the rebellious children,” declares the LORD, “Who execute a plan, but not Mine, and make an alliance, but not of My Spirit, in order to add sin to sin; who proceed down to Egypt without consulting Me, to take refuge in the safety of Pharaoh and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt! Therefore the safety of Pharaoh will be your shame and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt, your humiliation.”
For God to deny doing certain things, effectively refutes Calvinism’s doctrine of an exhaustive decree.
Calvinist response: “It’s not as if they didn’t want to do it, is it?
However, according to Calvinism, God determines their wants, and Calvinists don’t even deny that, but simply assert that people freely participate in what God determined for them to want to do. However, that would also mean that God makes them want to commit sin, and if that is the case, how would one distinguish between God and the devil? Consider the following meme which demonstrates this point.
Also notice how consistent this meme is with what John Calvin stated.
John Calvin: “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, Ch.17, Sect. 10, emphasis mine)
