IS GOD WHO HE STATES HE IS?

[GodsGrace]

The bible teaches us not to call good evil and evil good.
Isaiah 5:20
20Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

We are further admonished...
Luke 11:35
Be careful, then, that the light within you is not darkness.
We also learn from the bible that God is loving, merciful and just.

1 John 4:8
8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
Deuteronomy 4:31
For the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.
Job 37:23
The Almighty...; he is great in power; justice and abundant righteousness he will not violate.
But the following is what John Calvin taught about God:

By predestination we mean the eternal decree of God, by which he determined with himself whatever he wished to happen with regard to every man. All are not created on equal terms, but some are preordained to eternal life, others to eternal damnation; and, accordingly, as each has been created for one or other of these ends, we say that he has been predestinated to life or to death.
Book 3
Chapter 21
Paragraph 5


Questions:

1. Is there conflict between the God as described in the bible and the God that Calvin taught?
2. Which is the God we believe in? And why is Calvin's God not a just God? Or is He?
3. Is Calvinism calling a good God, evil? Is it evil to send persons to hell for no apparent reason?

 

[Dorothy Mae]

The bible teaches us not to call good evil and evil good.
Isaiah 5:20
20Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

We are further admonished...
Luke 11:35
Be careful, then, that the light within you is not darkness.
We also learn from the bible that God is loving, merciful and just.

1 John 4:8
8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
Deuteronomy 4:31
For the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.
Job 37:23
The Almighty...; he is great in power; justice and abundant righteousness he will not violate.
But the following is what John Calvin taught about God:

By predestination we mean the eternal decree of God, by which he determined with himself whatever he wished to happen with regard to every man. All are not created on equal terms, but some are preordained to eternal life, others to eternal damnation; and, accordingly, as each has been created for one or other of these ends, we say that he has been predestinated to life or to death.
Book 3
Chapter 21
Paragraph 5


Questions:

1. Is there conflict between the God as described in the bible and the God that Calvin taught?
2. Which is the God we believe in? And why is Calvin's God not a just God? Or is He?
3. Is Calvinism calling a good God, evil? Is it evil to send persons to hell for no apparent reason?

That theology attributes moral evil to God. If any father on earth would decide before having any children, that the first born would be sent out of the house at 16, the second would be sent (all expenses paid) to university, the third would be taught to dig ditches and the fourth inherit the whole estate, we’d think (rightly so) that this father was deeply unjust and cruel.

 

[GodsGrace]

That theology attributes moral evil to God. If any father on earth would decide before having any children, that the first born would be sent out of the house at 16, the second would be sent (all expenses paid) to university, the third would be taught to dig ditches and the fourth inherit the whole estate, we’d think (rightly so) that this father was deeply unjust and cruel.

Agreed.
A just father would set terms for his children to follow if they wanted to go to university.

If the child adhered to the rules, he would go, all expenses paid as you stated.

If the child did not adhere to the rules set by the father, then he would not go and plus it would be his own responsibility.

This is exactly as God has planned our salvation from the beginning.

He is a just God. He would not randomly choose who gets to go to university based on nothing.