I've come to the conclusion that I'm too dumb to read Calvin. I tried to read the document mentioned in my earlier post, called 'Calvins Calvinism,' but I couldn't get into it. I love to read informative books and articles from earlier times and normally enjoy the more detailed and precise language of those times, but this was not interesting to me, and the fact that Calvin kept referring to some other men who he called various derogatory names because they had the 'audacity' to believe in the free will of man was very annoying to me. The Bible teaches the free will of man along with the sovereignty of God, and as Spurgeon said:
“That God predestines, and that man is responsible, are two things that few can see. They are believed to be inconsistent and contradictory; but they are not. It is just the fault of our weak judgment. Two truths cannot be contradictory to each other. If, then, I find taught in one place that everything is fore-ordained, that is true; and if I find in another place that man is responsible for all his actions, that is true; and it is my folly that leads me to imagine that two truths can ever contradict each other. THESE TWO TRUTHS, I DO NOT BELIEVE, CAN EVER BE WELDED INTO ONE UPON ANY HUMAN ANVIL, but one they shall be in eternity: they are two lines that are so nearly parallel, that the mind that shall pursue them farthest, will never discover that they converge; but they do converge, and they will meet somewhere in eternity, close to the throne of God, whence all truth doth spring” (Charles Spurgeon, New Park Street Pulpit, Vol. 4, 1858, p. 337).
Following are some links from wayoflife.org that speak about Calvinism:
http://www.wayoflife.org/database/calvinscamels.html
http://www.wayoflife.org/database/calvinismprooftext.html
http://www.wayoflife.org/database/page22/page22.html
http://www.wayoflife.org/database/calvinismdebate.html
http://www.wayoflife.org/database/hypercalvinism.html
I think David Cloud's biblical view on the subject of Calvinism is the most sensible I have heard.
No, I'm not too dumb, but I do believe the Gospel is simple to understand and shouldn't require a high level degree and years of study to understand, and any system of belief that makes people proud and hateful towards others who don't agree with them is not the gospel.
Just to clarify, as David Cloud says in response to James White's desire to debate him on Calvinism vs. Arminianism: I am not a Calvinist, nor am I an Arminian; I'm a Biblicist.
CORRECTION: A reader has pointed out to me that I misunderstood Spurgeon's statement about man's responsibility and God's sovereignty, taking 'man's responsibility' to equal 'free will'. I did later realize my mistake but it never occurred to me to go back and correct it. Thanks 'Anonymous' for bringing that up :) Anyway, about 'free will' and God's sovereignty, I do believe "that the mind that shall pursue them farthest, will never discover that they converge; but they do converge, and they will meet somewhere in eternity, close to the throne of God, whence all truth doth spring". I believe our free will is subject to God, but that only He understands where the line is between them.
2 comments:
Posting several years later but this isn't correct and needs to be corrected for future readers of this post. Spurgeon did not believe in free will.
“Once there was Free-will in Paradise, and a terrible mess Free-will made of it there; for it spoiled all Paradise and turned Adam out of the garden. Free-will was once in Heaven; but it turned the glorious archangel out, and a third part of the stars of Heaven fell into the abyss.I want nothing to do with Free-will.” Sermon VI C.H. Spurgeon
Hi Anonymous,
thanks for catching that. I had realized later that I had misunderstood that, but never bothered to go back and fix it. Maybe I was hoping Spurgeon really did believe in free will, and since I'm not an expert on Spurgeon, I hoped I'd find out more later to confirm it. I did see somewhere that he wrote, at some point, that he believed that there would be more people in heaven than in hell. I don't know how he reconciled that with his Calvinism.
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