Dave Hunt
Dave Hunt writes: “Scripture repeatedly declares that God loves all mankind, wants all to be saved, and does not want anyone to perish. Yet Calvinism insists that God doesn’t love everyone, that He doesn’t want everyone in heaven, and that He even takes pleasure in predetermining multitudes to eternal suffering.” (Debating Calvinism, p.280, emphasis mine)
Dave Hunt writes, concerning how Calvinism ultimately portrays God: “He pretends to be sincere for repentance, while withholding the very grace men need to repent, having foreordained that man can’t and won’t repent without sovereign regeneration. Calvinism mocks God, His Word, and man himself!” (Debating Calvinism, p.314, emphasis mine)
Dave Hunt writes concerning Calvinism: “‘He that winneth souls is wise’ (Proverbs 11:30) becomes meaningless; there is no persuading the damned, and the saved are regenerated without believing anything. ‘Come now, and let us reason together’ (Isaiah 1:18) is meaningless for the same reasons. The ‘great white throne’ judgment is also meaningless if God has willed every thought, word, and deed. The Bible’s call of hope for all--‘Choose you this day whom ye will serve’ (Joshua 24:15); ‘Seek ye the LORD while he may be found’ (Isaiah 55:6); ‘Come unto me, all ye that labor’ (Matthew 11:28); ‘If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink’ (John 7:37)--all this and more is made meaningless by Calvinism!” (Debating Calvinism, p.334, emphasis mine)
Hunt writes: “The entire history of mankind becomes a puppet show, with God the puppeteer. He looked down upon men and saw that ‘the wickedness of man was great…. Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually…. The earth also was corrupt…and…filled with violence’ (Genesis 6:5, 11). This situation ‘grieved [God] at his heart.’ But, if as Calvinism says, God caused every evil thought, word, and deed, why was He grieved? And how could God be grieved if He could have caused those living in Noah’s day to be saints rather than sinners but instead chose to damn them? Yet God is love?” (Debating Calvinism, p.314, emphasis mine)
There are two matters of vital importance in relation to man’s salvation which God cannot do: He cannot force anyone to love Him; and He cannot force anyone to accept a gift. By the very nature of love and giving, man must have the power to choose. The reception of God’s love and of the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ can only be by an act of man’s free will.
Some argue that if it were God’s will for all men to be saved, the fact that all are not saved would mean that God’s will would be frustrated and His sovereignty overturned by men. It is also argued that if man can say yes or no to Christ, he has the final say in his salvation and his will is stronger than God’s will: “The heresy of free will dethrones God and enthrones man.” (W. E. Best, Free Grace Versus Free Will (W. E. Best Books Missionary Trust, 1977), 35.)
There is nothing in either the Bible or logic to suggest that God’s sovereignty requires man to be powerless to make a real choice, moral or otherwise.
Giving man the power to make a genuine, independent choice does not diminish God’s control over His universe. Being omnipotent and omniscient, God certainly could so arrange circumstances as to keep man’s rebellion from frustrating His purposes. In fact, God could even use man’s free will to help fulfill His own plans and thereby be even more glorified.
God’s grand design from the foundation of the world to bestow upon man the Gift of His love precludes any ability to force that Gift upon any of His creatures. Both love and gifts of any kind must be received. Force perverts the transaction.
