1st Corinthians 1:21
For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.
Speaking of what pleases God:
Ezekiel 18:23: “‘Do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked,’ declares the Lord GOD, ‘rather than that he should turn from his ways and live?’”
Hebrews 11:6: “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”
(1) God “is” love, and (2) God who “is” love does as He pleases, and therefore if “God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe,” then by saving only believers, does not negate His sovereignty, but is actually the free expression of it.
One Calvinist argues: “If one ultimately agrees that God does whatever He pleases (Psalm 115:3), then one cannot but conclude that those who are not included in salvation are not included by God’s good plan and, therefore, ultimately, His good pleasure. Moreover, how is it possible that a Sovereign God, about whom Scripture plainly says He does what ‘He pleases’ (Psalm 115:3), would fail to save those whom He wants to save?”
What pleases God is a Gospel that results in a kingdom of people who chose to love and be with Him under otherwise adverse circumstances. God is not pleased when people remain unbelieving, perish and go to Hell.
But according to Calvinism, God is pleased to elect people apart from the basis of faith in Christ, and is pleased to mysteriously pass by the rest into eternal death:
John Calvin: “First he points out the eternity of election, and then how we should think of it. Christ says that the elect always belonged to God. God therefore distinguishes them from the reprobate, not by faith, nor by any merit, but by pure grace; for while they are far away from him, he regards them in secret as his own.” (John: Calvin, The Crossway Classic Commentaries, p.393, emphasis mine)
John Calvin: “...God has chosen to salvation those whom He pleased, and has rejected the others, without our knowing why, except that its reason is hidden in His eternal counsel.” (Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God, p.53, emphasis mine)
John Calvin: “Those therefore whom God passes by he reprobates, and that for no other cause but because he is pleased to exclude them from the inheritance which he predestines to his children.” (Institutes, Book 3, Chapter 23, Section 1, emphasis mine)
The Calvinistic, Westminster Confession of Faith: “III. By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life; and others foreordained to everlasting death.” Additionally, it states: “VII. The rest of mankind, God was pleased, according to the unreachable counsel of his own will, whereby he extendeth or withholdeth mercy, as he pleaseth, for the glory of his sovereign power over his creatures, to pass by; and to ordain them to dishonor and wrath for their sin, to the praise of his glorious justice.” (Westminster Confession of Faith, III. Of God’s Eternal Decree, emphasis mine)
So what the Bible says that pleases God, stands in contrast to what Calvinism says that pleases God.
Question: Does God do whatever He pleases?
Answer: Yes.
Question: Are those who are not included in salvation, excluded by God’s design?
Answer: Yes, insomuch that it is God’s design to exclude unbelievers from the eternal life that He offers at John 3:16, as it pleases God “to save those who believe,” as per 1st Corinthians 1:21.
Question: Does God fail to save those that He wants to save?
Answer: No, because God will save all who believe in His Son, as per John 3:16.
Question: Does God take pleasure in the death of the wicked?
Answer: No, because God would rather have it that they turn and live, as per Ezekiel 33:11.
Calvinists are hung up on Circular Logic, because they first presume that God has picked certain elect-unbelievers to believe and be saved, while excluding the rest as a “non-elect” class, and thus God does not wish for these to turn and believe, but which is contradicted by Jeremiah 18:1-13 and Ezekiel 33:11.
