Le Sabot Post-Moderne

Calvinism, not Fatalism

One of the perennial charges made against Reformed Christianity is that it's "fatalistic." The idea is that because Calvinists believe God actively works out everything that happens in the universe, we also believe that humans have no will or range of action. So you get comments like, "Well, prayer doesn't mean anything if God predestined everything." Or "you don't believe in evangelism, because God's just going to save people anyway."

The problem these people have is that they aren't arguing with Calvin, but with the Word of God. If their critique was true, they'd have disproved not just the great Frenchman and predestination. The Bible itself posits both human responsibility AND the total, active sovereignty of God.

"In Him we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will. . . -- Ephesians 1:11"

God is working everything that happens in the Universe according to his own divine plan and will. But He's chosen to work out this will through means. No Calvinist believes that God makes robots of us. The Westminster Confession itself says that God does no violence to our wills in predestination. Instead He works through our own actions -- both good and evil ones.

So how does this work out practically? Take prayer as an example.

God has ordained that prayer changes things. When I pray, God really does hear and respond to it. But if God has a purpose to be accomplished, there WILL be prayer for it. God ordains both the ends, and the means to accomplish it. Far from fatalism, I have the comfort of knowing that my prayers fit perfectly into the gracious plan of God's predestination.

Evangelism is the same. God has ordained the foolishness of preaching as his primary means of reaching the lost. So I can never say, "Ah, no need to evangelize. God'll save them anyway." No, He won't. I'm responsible to preach both in season and out. But it is true that if God has predestined that someone will hear the Gospel, it WILL invariably be preached to them. Again, both means and ends.

Philippians has a great example of the two elements working together:

". . .work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure." -- Philippians 2:12,13

Paul is exhorting us as beings who have a will and the ability to choose our actions. At the same time, however, he shows us a second aspect of our reality -- that the will we exert and the actions we peform are actually thanks to the working of God within us. And that He's guiding them according to His "good pleasure."

Fatalism accepts what the Bible says about God's sovereignty without acknowledging the verses about human responsibility and free agency. Much of the rest of contemporary Christianity does just the opposite -- swallowing free agency without facing up to the sovereignty verses. Both approaches leave one with a truncated Bible and a distorted image of God.

Good Reads: Challies is doing some beautiful posting on Calvinism and predestination. Also pop over to Dave's Exegesis for a Scripture-chocked look at God's sovereignty and predestination.

Keywords: Predestination, Calvinism, Reformed Christianity, Calvinist, Reformed Theology

Posted by Discoshaman at février 19, 2005 12:58 AM | TrackBack