Psalm 37:13
Psalm 37:12-13
The wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes at him with his teeth. The Lord laughs at him, for He sees his day is coming.
Calvinism: Does this mean that God thinks it’s funny when the wicked perish?
Answer: It does not say God laughs at the calamity of the wicked, but rather that He laughs at them for the sake of their plans which ignores God. In terms of their actual calamity, God specifically said that He takes no joy in the death of the wicked. (Ezekiel 18:23)
Notice also what Calvinism teaches about God’s foreknowledge, in terms that the future is foreknown because it is 100% predetermined:
Calvinist, Steve Hays: “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.” (My predestination is all freewill, emphasis mine)
Calvinism: God foreordained whatsoever comes to pass, which is a necessary consequence of His foreknowledge. The future is known to God because it has been determined by God. If, from all eternity, God knew all things future, then from eternity he must have ordained them. The foreknowledge of God will necessarily infer a decree; for God could not foreknow that things would be, unless He had decreed that they should be. God necessarily knows what He decreed. The decrees of God relate to all things future without exception; whatever is done in time was foreordained before the beginning of time.
Question: If, according to Calvinism: God predetermined everything “without exception” (without which, He allegedly could not otherwise know what might happen next), then does that mean that God laughs at his own jokes, and is amusing Himself?
Answer: Calvinism has God laughing at the evil that He thought up and scripted. In other words, if God predestines the evil plans of the wicked, as some Calvinists suppose, and then laughs at His evil plans for them, then how can they avoid the conclusion that God finds evil to be humorous?
