Doulos Iesou
Member
At the beginning of my walk with the Lord I was so hungry for the Word that I longed for preaching that focused primarily on it. Expositional Preaching I came to understand it as, and within the Reformed Camp, I had more than I could ever hope to exhaust.
Whether it was reading the works of Jonathan Edwards like Freedom of the Will to Calvin's Institutes of Christian Religion, I loved reading this stuff. I was among the Young, Restless and Reformed and made no qualms about my convictions.
Motivated by such teachers and pastors as John Piper, RC Sproul, Matt Chandler and Francis Chan, I was ready to answer any objection to reformed doctrine. That was until I started really considering the logical end to the doctrines I believed.
Here for example, are a couple of reasons why I am no longer a Calvinist.
Reason 1 l The Author of Sin
This was a common objection that I heard as a Calvinist and I had my pet answers for it, but that was until I started questioning my own defense and really considered the reasoning.
Here is my argument for Calvinism making God the author of sin.
Let's begin with why it is referred to as God being the "author of sin," it provides the imagery of a writer who is telling a story and that he is the one who creates every element of that story. Since God in Calvinism is sovereign over every little detail, the actions and behavior of sin is not outside his scope of work. A common rebuttal will then be along the lines of trying to demonstrate Compatibilism. That while God is sovereign and determines everything, humans still act freely, but they act according to their nature.
The question then arises, where did that nature laced with sinfulness come from? The Calvinist who emphasized Original Sin and the Fall would quickly allude to the fact that Adam and Eve sinned freely in the Garden and therefore caused this fate as their Federal head (or some variety of that doctrine).
Yet, if God determines everything that will happen and nothing happens without him decreeing that it should, then the fall of mankind is decreed to happen and this then makes God responsible for all human wickedness as he determined the nature by which they act according to.
Why would God decree a Fall?
This question leads me to my second point for the rejection of Reformed theology.
Reason 2 l The Glory of God
I don't see the Glory of God as a bad thing, it is absolutely Scriptural, but in Calvinist theology it became all I could even know about God. Did I know if he was loving? Did I know if he was good? Did I know if he was Just? I couldn't say, all I could say was that he would do whatever it takes to get his glory.
That he would setup a broken universe, decreeing the fall of mankind and punishing these people whose nature he determined and could not do otherwise. Then, he would fix the very problem he decreed to be created, but only for an elect few choosing to pass over the others to be consigned to their predetermined fate. And for what purpose? For his own glory.
That he setup a universe as broken and evil as this so that he could show off how awesome he is. Why does he want to punish angels and men forever in hell? So he can get glory. Why does he want to bless those who believed in him? So he can get glory. Why does he love? So that he can get glory. Why does he act in a way that is good? So he can get glory.
As one writer has put it, it is the black hole that sucks up all of God's other attributes till we are left with an undiscernable and unknowable God who is all about himself, even if he is doing things for others.
These in addition to many others are the reasons for why I am no longer a Calvinist.
Whether it was reading the works of Jonathan Edwards like Freedom of the Will to Calvin's Institutes of Christian Religion, I loved reading this stuff. I was among the Young, Restless and Reformed and made no qualms about my convictions.
Motivated by such teachers and pastors as John Piper, RC Sproul, Matt Chandler and Francis Chan, I was ready to answer any objection to reformed doctrine. That was until I started really considering the logical end to the doctrines I believed.
Here for example, are a couple of reasons why I am no longer a Calvinist.
Reason 1 l The Author of Sin
This was a common objection that I heard as a Calvinist and I had my pet answers for it, but that was until I started questioning my own defense and really considered the reasoning.
Here is my argument for Calvinism making God the author of sin.
Let's begin with why it is referred to as God being the "author of sin," it provides the imagery of a writer who is telling a story and that he is the one who creates every element of that story. Since God in Calvinism is sovereign over every little detail, the actions and behavior of sin is not outside his scope of work. A common rebuttal will then be along the lines of trying to demonstrate Compatibilism. That while God is sovereign and determines everything, humans still act freely, but they act according to their nature.
The question then arises, where did that nature laced with sinfulness come from? The Calvinist who emphasized Original Sin and the Fall would quickly allude to the fact that Adam and Eve sinned freely in the Garden and therefore caused this fate as their Federal head (or some variety of that doctrine).
Yet, if God determines everything that will happen and nothing happens without him decreeing that it should, then the fall of mankind is decreed to happen and this then makes God responsible for all human wickedness as he determined the nature by which they act according to.
Why would God decree a Fall?
This question leads me to my second point for the rejection of Reformed theology.
Reason 2 l The Glory of God
I don't see the Glory of God as a bad thing, it is absolutely Scriptural, but in Calvinist theology it became all I could even know about God. Did I know if he was loving? Did I know if he was good? Did I know if he was Just? I couldn't say, all I could say was that he would do whatever it takes to get his glory.
That he would setup a broken universe, decreeing the fall of mankind and punishing these people whose nature he determined and could not do otherwise. Then, he would fix the very problem he decreed to be created, but only for an elect few choosing to pass over the others to be consigned to their predetermined fate. And for what purpose? For his own glory.
That he setup a universe as broken and evil as this so that he could show off how awesome he is. Why does he want to punish angels and men forever in hell? So he can get glory. Why does he want to bless those who believed in him? So he can get glory. Why does he love? So that he can get glory. Why does he act in a way that is good? So he can get glory.
As one writer has put it, it is the black hole that sucks up all of God's other attributes till we are left with an undiscernable and unknowable God who is all about himself, even if he is doing things for others.
These in addition to many others are the reasons for why I am no longer a Calvinist.