Avoiding the disaster of hyper-Calvinism - by Simon van Bruchem

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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We think it is good that Calvinists wrestle with the implications of their odd doctrines. Here the author doesn't want to be a hyper-Calvinist (i.e., a Calvinist who actually believes Calvinism), but he cannot escape. He tries to gain cover by noting Paul's passion for evangelism, but he never comes to grips with the implications of this as opposed to what he believes about God's "complete control."

Our belief is that God did predestine people, but only as it applied to Israel. Until Christ, everything revolved around Israel. They where chosen, they received all the blessings as God's people [Ro. 9:4-8]. But now that we have been grafted in [Ro. 11:17] by faith when we believed [Eph. 1:13], we are partakers of God's blessings.

Therefore, we gentiles are not predestined, but Israel is [Ro. 9:30-31]. 

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God is in complete control of the world. Yes, complete control. (That is, every single detail, every event, every person's decisions, choices, and actions, every tornado and flood, is caused by God. This is the inescapable conclusion one must reach. The author thinks he's not a hyper-Calvinist, but it turns out he is. 

Let's see how this plays out.)

There are no surprises to God. Everything He wants to happen does happen, just the way He wants it to. (The author extends the reach of his assertions.)

We see this in all kinds of places in the Bible, including:

Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. (Ps. 139:16 ESV)

That’s pretty comprehensive, right? (??? "Comprehensive?" King David wrote this psalm as a very personal and specific observation about himself. We know that God specifically selected him [1Sa. 16:10], so we cannot assume that what David wrote about himself applies to us.)

God knows all of our days before they have happened. Or perhaps we could look at what Paul says to the Athenians:

26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. (Acts 17:26-27 ESV)

God determined where nations would form, how long they would last for, and where their boundaries were to lie. (Indeed, but this is not the same claim as before. God indeed creates nations and their boundaries, which is not the same as "complete control" of every person, every event, and every thing.)

Even the big issues of world affairs are under God’s control. The census that led Mary to give birth in Bethlehem was God’s doing, as was the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart in Exodus. God is in control of the flowers (Matt 6) and the animals (Job 40-41). (The author continues to try to make the specific into the general. 

These certainly point to God controlling things. But this does not require that He dictates everything.)

If you believe this to be true (and the Bible clearly says it is!), ("Clearly?" We would like to see some of these clear Bible verses.)

it is possible to take this to an extreme position. (We hope he will explain how his previous statements about God's control is any less extreme than the "extreme position" he will describe later.)

This is called ‘hyper Calvinism’ (The author doesn't explain Calvinism, so the typical reader will not have the background to understand hyper-Calvinism.)

and is a disaster for your faith. This means to believe in God’s control so strongly that you fail to see any reason to do anything or to pray or to evangelise. After all, God will do what God will do, so why bother? (This is the inescapable conclusion of believing God controls everything. The author in essence is critical of those who would fully believe Calvinism, even though his position is similar.)

I grew up in a church that had this tendency. Being strongly Reformed, we were often taught about the sovereignty of God. Everyone at church knew that God chose some and not others for salvation. (Finally. Our first hint of what Calvinists believe. So God chooses [predestines] those who will be saved [the Elect], and He sends everyone else to hell.)

Yet there were some critical elements missing in church culture. There were never any prayer meetings, and even small Bible study groups were rare. There was no culture of evangelism. I cannot recall seeing one person come to faith from outside the church in the 21 years I was part of that church. And when opportunities arose to do some major evangelistic work, only a handful signed up to be part of it. The majority of the church population didn’t seem to value evangelism and prayer as a major part of life. (For 21 years the author was in a church that fully embraced Calvinism. Why would he stay in a church that practiced this distasteful "hyper-Calvinism?"

But in fact, this church was staying true to the implications of their doctrines. The logical conclusion of Calvinism is that prayer doesn't matter, evangelism doesn't matter, and in fact, sin doesn't matter. If God has already predestined the Elect, nothing anyone can do will change that.) 

Yet that cannot be right, can it? Think about the apostle Paul, for example. He was the one who said those words quoted above from Acts 17. He clearly believed that God controlled all things, including who was saved (Eph 1, Rom 9-11). (These passages do not teach universal predestination. Ephesians chapter 1 is explained here. Romans chapter 8 is explained here. Romans chapters 9-11 is explained here.)

Yet when we look at the example of his life, we see a man devoted to evangelism and prayer. He risked so much and did whatever he could so that he might save some (1 Cor 9:22). He underwent all kinds of shame and harsh treatment in his efforts to tell the gospel to all who would hear. So Paul didn’t take his understanding of God’s sovereignty (The author has mentioned God's sovereignty for the first time. But how does God's sovereignty come to bear on this? The author will not make the connection for us.)

to mean he didn’t need to do anything. It motivated him to do something, for he knew that the results were due to God and not to him. (Indeed. It sounds to us like Paul's idea about God's purposes differs from the author's Calvinism. Paul's passion for the lost is a pretty clear indicator that he didn't believe that God predestines those who would be saved. 

This dichotomy perplexes Calvinists. Why did Paul evangelize if he believed everyone is predestined? For the same reason, why should we evangelize? These quandaries Calvinism creates requires Calvinists to explain, contextualize, and navigate around.)

How might we avoid falling into hyper Calvinism? Let me give you two suggestions in addition to Paul’s example we have already considered.

Firstly, the Bible teaches both God’s sovereignty and human responsibility. (New phrase. What does he mean by human responsibility? Responsible for what? Where does the Bible teach it? The author will not explain.)

They are both true. We are told that God is the King of everything, and there are many commands that we are expected to follow as God’s children. (Ok, we find out that for the author sovereignty means God is king of everything, a characterization that nearly all Christians would agree with. This does not help us to explain the author's previous statement about God's sovereignty and human responsibility and how they might come to bear on predestination.)

I do understand that we would like to understand how both of these things can be true, but we can never fully do that. What we don’t want to do is only read the bits of the Bible on one side and ignore the other side. We don’t want to fail to do what God clearly calls us to – like prayer and evangelism – because we hold to something else the Bible also teaches. (The author punts on the discrepancy. Basically, it's a mystery, he says. This is the best that Calvinism can do, pass off a contradiction caused by their doctrine as something we can never understand.)

Secondly, consider that God’s purposes in the world, one of the ways He expresses his control, is through the actions of His people. (So God controls people as they share the gospel, and He controls those who hear the preached gospel by either saving them if they're predestined for salvation, or condemning them if they're predestined for punishment.

This essentially means that we are puppets enacting a pre-scripted movie, actors just parroting our lines. It's a pretend reality, where the movie proceeds exactly as the script-writer lined it all out.

According to the author, this truly bizarre scenario is not hyper Calvinism.)

God doesn’t usually zap people to make them Christian, for example. He uses the gospel which is shared from a Christian to someone who is not yet Christian. So if we think that we should sit back and wait for God to save people, we are not doing what we are called to do. (Of course we should be obedient to God's commands. But the logical deduction is that disobedience carries no consequences. Everything will still happen exactly as God predestined it.)

God, the great King, is kind to use even people like us in His work. Let’s do it with enthusiasm and joy, trusting in His control and work even as we do this.