Jeremiah 10:23
Jeremiah 10:23 (see also Psalm 139:16)
I know, O LORD, that a man’s way is not in himself, nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps.
John Calvin: “But where men acknowledge their purpose and the issue of all things to be governed by the providence of God, admit fearfully with Jeremiah (10:23): I know, O Lord, that the way of a man is not in himself, nor is it for man to direct his footsteps; thinking like Solomon (Prov 20:24): The steps of a man are from the Lord, and what man will dispose his own way?, there they subject themselves wholly to the Lord and depend upon Him. Then there follow prayers, that God may begin and complete in us whatever works we confidently undertake.” (Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God, p.166, emphasis mine)
Jeremiah 10:23: “I know, O LORD, that a man’s way is not in himself, nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps.”
Psalm 139:16: “Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.”
Proverbs 20:24: “Man’s steps are ordained by the Lord, how then can man understand his way?”
Laurence Vance: “It should be remembered that the Calvinist insists that in these verses is found proof that God has foreordained all things. But what about other characteristics that are not mentioned? Specifically, man’s thoughts, dreams, plans, and actions? Well, responds the Calvinist, the foreordination of these things is implied. Implied by whom? Calvinists or the Bible?” (The Other Side of Calvinism, p.261, emphasis mine)
The concern is that Calvinists assume more than what is warranted from the texts in question. For how do we know that the steps ordained by the Lord aren’t simply the righteous and holy things that He has in store for us? That which God has ordained for us is unlikely to mean all things without qualification, but is much more likely to mean all things that God does, thus indicating His sovereign freedom to accomplish whatever He has in store for us.
The dark side of Calvinism is to suppose that God directs a man’s path into sin, and if not directly, indirectly by secondary causes. So should we assume with the Calvinists, that God directs a man into the sin of the occult? Should we say that the intricacies of the occult, originated from the creative mind of a holy God, in order to desire it, so that a person may inalterably walk in it? Should we say that a man’s ways into sexual perversion and the occult are not in himself, but in God who directs his steps? Calvinists seem to assume too much from the texts in question.
