Isaiah 55:9
Isaiah 55:6-9 (see also Isaiah 1:18)
“Seek the LORD while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the LORD, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.”
One Calvinist explains: “The future is known to God because it has been determined by the decree of His free will. … In the eternal decree, all that comes to pass has been foreordained. There is no place for chance or indeterminacy in the system of reality. … God determined, by the free decree of His sovereign will, which of the possible worlds should be actualized. ... God freely chose to bring about this world rather than any of the other infinite possibilities.”
If the future is known to God because it has been determined by God, over and above anything else that God could have determined instead, then it follows that our ways and our thoughts are known to God because He has determined our ways and determined our thoughts, and yet God says, “So are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.”
Question: If God has determined our ways and if God has determined our thoughts, then why is it that the verse doesn’t instead state: “So are My ways your ways, and My thoughts your thoughts,” since after all, He would have determined them?
Answer: The Calvinist system requires the unstated presupposition that we must suspend our rational faculties and mute the objection of our consciences, and just accept the alleged fact that God predestined everything, and that all things, both good and evil, comes from the creative mind of God, expressing Himself through us.
Arminian, Roger Olson: “Furthermore, I find Calvin’s doctrine of God repulsive. It elevates God’s sovereignty over his love, leaving God’s reputation in question. What I mean is that Calvin’s all-determining, predestining deity is at best morally ambiguous and at worst morally repugnant.” (My Biggest Problem with Calvin/Calvinism)
What Calvinism misses is the fact that God invites, not discourages, man to reason with Him: “‘Come now, and let us reason together,’ says the LORD, ‘Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool.’” (Isaiah 1:18) God wants for us to embrace our conscience, rather than to run from it, in having a parent-to-child discussion with Him.
For an article on this topic, click here.
