The God Who Saves: The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination - Anthony Faggiano

Found here. Our comments in bold.
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As is typical with Calvinists, the author is here to explain Calvinism, not the Bible. That's what these Calvinists do. They never will explain the Bible unless they can explain Calvinism.

Almost 1200 words, and almost 700 of them are quotes and summaries from agreeable theologians and statements of faith. About 100 words are actual Scripture quotes, though most are only snippets of verses. Only a few verses got quoted in their entirety. Astoundingly, only one is an actual predestination Scripture, which the author merely quotes with only perfunctory discussion.

We are at loss to explain this presentation, it's almost totally devoid of any substantial instruction. It's nothing more than a series of undocumented claims regurgitated from others who themselves make the same claims. Every single quote from a theologian is a Scriptureless bare assertion. Every one is simply a restatement of the author's bare assertion. 

We must deem this Bad Bible Teaching.

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There’s a word that makes many Christians sweat before they’ve even heard the case: predestination. Say it in the wrong Bible study and you will watch faces tighten and feel temperatures rise. (Why might that be? Oh. The author will never tell us why predestination is so controversial.)

It initially sounds like fate, like a God who moves people around a board game, smiling at predetermined outcomes. But that isn’t the God of the Bible. It’s a caricature. (The author will never discuss this again.)

The doctrine of predestination is, in reality, a pastoral truth. (What is a "pastoral truth?")

 It gives the only solid ground for genuine assurance of salvation. (There is no assurance in predestination, because one cannot know if he is predestined or is a false convert.)

It deserves a careful, honest look. (Yes, careful and honest...)

I’m not writing this from a safe distance. I was raised as a Lutheran, and when I eventually worked up the nerve to teach Romans 9 in a Sunday school class at my Lutheran church, it didn’t go over well. In the end, this doctrine became the final nail in the coffin. Leaving was painful. But the text was unmistakable, and you can’t unsee what you have seen. (What is it that he said about Romans 9 text that created all this tension? Oh, the author will never tell us.)

What the Doctrine Actually Teaches

Calvin (A theologian, not the Bible...)

opens his treatment of predestination in the Institutes with a pastoral argument, not a philosophical one:

“We shall never be clearly persuaded, as we ought to be, that our salvation flows from the wellspring of God’s free mercy until we come to know his eternal election, (Undefined term.) 

 

which illumines God’s grace by this contrast: that he does not indiscriminately adopt all into the hope of salvation but gives to some what he denies to others.”

—John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion 3.21.1 (Battles)

Pause for a moment and savor Calvin’s thought. ("Savor?" Is the author kidding? We are to "savor" Calvin's supposed brilliance? Oh, please. 

And by the way, this is not a "pastoral argument" or any argument at all. It is merely a bare assertion.)

If salvation flows from the wellspring of free mercy (and it does), it flows from a source we never dug and could never reach. We had no claim on it and no good works earned it for us. No foreseen faithfulness earned it. (Most every Christian would agree.)

Election (The author uses the undefined terminology. We will explain. Election is the idea that God long ago preselected those who would be saved, with the rest destined to hell.)

strips human boasting of every last foothold, (Election doesn't come to bear on any of these claims. The author thinks that none of it would be true without election, but that's simply false.)

that’s why so many resist it. (Really? This is the best argument against predestination, that people want to boast about their salvation?)

But the humbling truth is that our salvation is completely by grace alone, (Undefined terminology.)

independent from a single good work we perform. (Most every Christian would agree.)

Loraine Boettner,  (A theologian, not the Bible...)

whose book The Reformed (Undefined term.)

Doctrine of Predestination remains a classic nearly a century after its 1932 publication, pressed this point: this doctrine is not something John Calvin invented. It’s the recovery of the apostolic theology of grace that the medieval church had largely obscured.1 (What is the "apostolic theology of grace?" Oh. He won't tell us.)

Calvin  (Calvin again, not the Bible...)

himself agreed. “No doctrine is more useful,” (Useful for what, exactly? What difference does it make to the Christian, who is already saved, regarding whether or not he was predestined? And what difference does it make for the lost, who cannot change their destiny either? 

How exactly is this useless doctrine of any value at all?)

he wrote, “provided it be handled in the proper and cautious manner of which Paul gives us an example, when he presents it as an illustration of the infinite goodness of God, and employs it a excitement to gratitude.”2 (Oh. So it illustrates the goodness of God, and makes us grateful. Obviously this is a weak claim, for we find the very same reasons to praise God apart from considering Election.)

That matters, because this is not a sixteenth-century novelty or a harsh theological option for people who enjoy arguments. The Reformed doctrine of predestination is the historic teaching of Paul, Augustine, the Reformers, and the great confessions. (Well, that's the claim, right? The matter to be proved? Will the author actually embark on this task?)

The Westminster Confession of Faith (3.1)  (A statement of faith, not the Bible...)

states it plainly: God “from all eternity did by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass.” That includes who is saved.

Paul’s argument in Romans 9 makes this unavoidable. Writing of Jacob and Esau before either had done anything good or bad, he states: “in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls” (Rom. 9:11). (Hooray, our first actual Bible quote, passingly relevant to Calvinistic Election.

But in fact it's not about salvation, it's about God's chosen genealogy, which eventually leads to Christ. It does not speak to salvific Election at all. 

The author's task is to explain biblically the issue of the Elect as being individually selected by God for salvation.)

God’s election runs ahead of every human decision and every supposed good work.

The Canons of Dort (1.7), (Sigh. Another document of man.)

the Reformed church’s official response to the Arminian objections of 1618, defines election as God’s “unchangeable purpose” by which he “chose from the whole human race, which had fallen through its own fault from its original integrity into sin and destruction, a certain number of persons to redemption in Christ.” (Yet another undocumented claim. When will the author get to the actual biblical case?)

Not because of anything foreseen in them, but according to the good pleasure of his will.

The Covenant of Redemption: A Trinitarian Act 

(This is the only appearance of the word "covenant," which of course means the author will never explain it.)

Before we can assess whether predestination is harsh, (We were assessing harshness? We thought the author was explaining the biblical basis for his doctrine.)

we have to understand what it actually teaches; (Yes, indeed. From the Bible.)

the Reformed answer is laid out in full in our study of the doctrines of grace. David N. Steele and Curtis C. Thomas, (Theologians, not the Bible...) 

in The Five Points of Calvinism, offer the most compressed summary I have read:

“Salvation is accomplished by the almighty power of the Triune God. The Father chose a people, the Son died for them, the Holy Spirit makes Christ’s death effective by bringing the elect to faith and repentance, thereby causing them to willingly obey the gospel. The entire process (election, redemption, regeneration) is the work of God and is by grace alone. Thus God, not man, determines who will be the recipients of the gift of salvation.”3 (More undocumented claims. How long is this going to continue?)

The Father’s election is not a cold, isolated decree; it is the plan the Son executes on the cross and the Spirit applies in the new birth. (Yes, yes. More claims...)

What predestination actually describes is the Triune God reaching into a humanity that cannot save itself and doing what sinners never could. (Most every Christian would agree, apart from predestination.)

Berkhof (A theologian, not the Bible...)

states the atonement’s goal plainly: “The Reformed position is that Christ died for the purpose of actually and certainly saving the elect, and the elect only.”4  (Yes, yes. More claims...)

Why We Need It: The Human Condition

The doctrine of predestination doesn’t begin with God’s will as a whimsical choice. It begins with God’s wise and unchanging counsel, applied to fallen sinners. (Will the author EVER get around to actually documenting his claims?)

Scripture describes the fallen human condition as “dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1), with minds “hostile to God” that “cannot submit to God’s law” (Rom. 8:7). Jesus himself draws the same conclusion: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44). What Scripture describes is total inability. (Most every Christian would agree.)

R. C. Sproul, (Another theologian...)

in Chosen by God, puts it plainly: “The person who is spiritually dead cannot, in his own flesh, gain the profit of Christ. He is described as one who has no fear of God before his eyes (Rom. 3:18).”5

A man at the bottom of a well can choose any direction he wants. He can argue about the weather, debate about politics, or decide to look up or down. But he cannot climb out. Not without a rope from above. (Most every Christian would agree.)

Total inability is not about external compulsion; it’s about the internal incapacity that leaves sinners unable to do the one thing that would save them: genuinely desire and turn to Christ. (Oh, wow. The author drops this in out of the blue. Total inability apparently includes the inability to convert. But the author just moves on without discussion.)

Luther (Luther again...)

put it like this: “Free will, after the fall, exists in name only, and as long as it does what it is able to do, it commits a mortal sin.”6 (Free will, then, seems only be able to freely choose evil. Thus free will isn't free at all if only one choice is available.)

Bavinck (Another theologian...)

tells us what total inability does not mean: “Although we are dead in sins and trespasses, and have of ourselves no capacity in this world to do anything supernaturally good, God does not treat us like lifeless creatures, pieces of wood and brick, or like mindless beasts.”7 (It's a mystery what this means.)

The will is bound but not erased, and our responsibility still stands. (Imagine that. The will is bound, but God still condemns the ones He doesn't choose despite them having no involvement in the transaction. Does that make any sense at all, that sinners are responsible for their choices when they were incapable of choosing any other way?)

If anyone is to be saved, God must take the initiative. (Most every Christian would agree.)

The Ground of Election: Grace, Not Merit

This is where predestination becomes a humbling truth. If God must act first, and if that action is not based on anything he foresees in us, then election is entirely a matter of divine grace. It is monergistic (one way).

Boettner writes: (Boettner again...)

“Foreseen faith and good works, then, are never to be looked upon as the cause of the Divine election. They are rather its fruits and proof.”8

Calvin (Sigh. Calvin...)

said it in fewer words: “We were all lost in Adam; and therefore, had not God, through his own election, rescued us from perishing, there was nothing to be foreseen.”9

That principle, that election rests on God’s purpose rather than anything foreseen in us, echoes Paul’s language in Ephesians 1. He sets the clock back as far as it will go: God “chose us in him before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4). (Incredibly, this is the author's first actual verse that deals directly with a predestination claim. Finally.

The author, being a Calvinist, thinks this verse applies to him and all of us. It doesn't. A careful Bible student would want to ask, who is this "us" that God chose? It might not be you and me.

It is fortunate indeed that a few verses later Paul directly tells us who he was talking about: 

Ep. 1:1-12 1 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, 12 in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.

The chosen and predestined ones were those who were the first to hope in Christ. That happened 2000 years ago, so contemporary Christians cannot be the ones who were the first to hope in Christ. 

Ephesians 1:4-12 is about early Christians, not us.

So if we were not predestined, what is our status? Once again Paul directly answers this question in the next verse: 

Ep. 1:13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.

We were added to the predestined ones when we believed. 

Calvinists make a grave mistake here by not reading the verses carefully enough.)

Then in verse 5 he presses the point further: God “predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.” Not according to our foreseen faith or virtue, but only according to his will. The decree is grounded in God’s divine freedom, not human merit.

Sproul (Sproul again...)

says in a single sentence what deserves to be engraved on our hearts: “God sovereignly brings to pass the salvation of his elect and only of his elect.”10

That is not a cold plan. For anyone who believes, it’s a description of both the how and why of their salvation. Think of Lazarus in the tomb. He didn’t reach for life; he couldn’t. He was dead. But Christ stood outside and called him by name, and only then did breath return. Every Christian’s spiritual resurrection follows that same pattern. God’s monergistic grace gave us spiritual life, and faith followed (John 15:16). (Oh my. Now the author lies to us. Let's quote: 

John 15:16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit — fruit that will last.

Jesus is talking to and about the disciples, not us! This account is part of the longer account of the Last Supper, which began in chapter 13, where Jesus explains: 

Jn. 13:18 I am not referring to all of you; I know those I have chosen.

This account from the upper room lasts through until 17:19, where Jesus' prayer turns to all who might believe:

Jn. 17:20 My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message.

Those that Jesus chose 2000 years ago to be the apostles is not about us.

We are truly surprised the author doesn't understand this.)

The Hard Question: What About the Others?

We can’t dodge the follow-up question. If God elects some, what happens to everyone else? Here is how R. C. Sproul answers: (Sproul again...)

“God gives mercy to the elect by working faith in their hearts. He gives justice to the reprobate by leaving them in their own sins. There is no symmetry here. One group receives mercy. The other group receives justice. No one is a victim of injustice. None can complain that there is unrighteousness in God.”11

The key word is justice. God does not condemn the reprobate for no reason. He doesn’t drag them into sin against their will and then punish them for it. He passes over them, leaving them in the condition they are already in: sinners who have rejected him. Mercy is freely given to some and justice is rendered to the rest. No one receives injustice.

The Westminster Confession of Faith (A statement of faith...)

draws this line carefully. God passes by the rest of mankind and “ordains them to dishonor and wrath for their sin, to the praise of his glorious justice” (WCF 3.7). God’s decree doesn’t create their sin; it gives to sin the punishment it deserves. (Whaaaat? God makes a decree about the inevitable fate of people but is not responsible for the circumstance that created their fate? 

The author makes a bare assertion, which is the crux of the matter. We shall not permit him to simply restate his assertion with making some sort of documentation.)

No one is dragged into hell kicking and screaming for Christ; the reprobate go willingly. On the last day they won’t say to Christ, “I wanted to come to you but you stopped me.” (No, of course not. They might say, however, "I didn't come to you because I was predestined to not believe.")

They will acknowledge, “I never wanted you in the first place.” (They were predestined to not want Him.)

That is the sad but honest end of every human life lived in willful unbelief. (Actually, the end for everyone God did not choose to save.)

This is a very hard truth, to be held soberly and without arrogance. But the charge that predestination makes God a cruel tyrant rests on the assumption that fallen sinners are owed mercy because their sin really isn’t that serious. (Sigh... Is this really the best counterargument the author has come across? C'mon, Mr. Faggiano! This is not the only possibility. The simple fact of the matter is that if God chose the Elect, He didn't choose everyone else. Period. His choice cannot be resisted. Thus no one else but God made this choice, before anyone did anything good or bad. 

No amount of verbal gymnastics about freely choosing evil or that God is not responsible for their choice will change the simple fact that the doctrine of predestination makes humankind mere actors spouting their lines, possessing no agency, unable to do or think anything that contravenes Gods' Sovereign choices.)

That is precisely what Scripture denies. “None is righteous, no, not one…no one does good, not even one” (Rom. 3:10, 12). 

Before You Go

The Apostle Paul did not intend his teaching on predestination to end in debate, but to lead believers to their knees in humility and thankfulness. (This might be true, but now we require the author to prove it.

Oh, wait. He's almost done.)

When you see that your salvation was planned before you drew a single breath, accomplished by the life and death of the Son of God, applied by the Spirit who does not fail, and protected by a decree that cannot be overturned, the only fitting response is the one Paul lands on in Romans 11: “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” (That would be Romans 11:36, FYI. So the author connects his pernicious doctrine to the great doxology that ends Paul's letter to the Romans. However, what the author misses is what Paul wrote just a couple of verses before:

Ro. 11:32 For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.

In actual fact, every human starts as being "shut up on all sides" by God, which makes it possible for Him to have mercy on every single one of them. This doesn't sound like Election at all. 

John agrees with Paul, all start condemned: 

John 3:18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already...

Clearly, the doctrine of predestination as presented by the author is false.)

Soli Deo Gloria.

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Footnotes
Loraine Boettner, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination (Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, 1932), 2.
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John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion 3.21.1 (Beveridge).
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David N. Steele and Curtis C. Thomas, The Five Points of Calvinism: Defined, Defended, Documented (Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, 1963), 19.
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Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Eerdmans, 1941), 394.
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R. C. Sproul, Chosen by God (Tyndale House, 1986), 112.
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Martin Luther, “Heidelberg Disputation” (1518), thesis 13, in Luther’s Works, vol. 31, ed. Harold J. Grimm (Fortress, 1957), 40.
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Herman Bavinck, Reformed Ethics, vol. 1: Created, Fallen, and Converted Humanity, ed. John Bolt (Baker Academic, 2019), 234.
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Boettner, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination, 98.
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John Calvin, Commentary on Ephesians 1:4 (Calvin Translation Society), 198.
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Sproul, Chosen by God, 138.
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Sproul, Chosen by God, 148.
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