I think a kind Calvinist is a rare and powerful thing. I hope to be one of those here in this writing, and all my days. Here are some simple thoughts of mine I had that I hope will help some people understand the Bible in it’s plain form regarding salvation, God’s knowledge and prayer. I’m passionate about these things and I realize not everyone agrees, and that’s okay with me. I can’t help be passionate about this because it has been so life giving to me.
Does God know everything that will happen? Yes. Therefore, must those things he knows necessarily happen? Yes. Which things? All things. From making a sandwich to the salvation of a soul from hell, there is not a rogue molecule in the universe. There is nothing that doesn’t live or move or have it’s being without His foreknowledge and power. He holds all things together. And He therefore powers and wills all things that exist and that happen, or else they wouldn’t. Satan is not a god. God is the one who holds even the spiritual molecules of Satan together by the word of God’s power. If anything happens in the universe therefore, God has ordained it. Does the future shift and change in God’s mind, meaning he errs in what he foreknows? No, every event is fixed in the mind of God. There are no “maybe”s or “possibly”s in his mind. There is no such thing as chance in the mind of God. This doesn’t mean we don’t make choices, or pray, but before God ever created the world, our choices and prayers were fixed in his mind forever. We don’t know the future, so the future appears open to us, but it was all fixed before God created the world. We all therefore have a destiny, and it was decided by God before He created the world, or else God didn’t create the world. There are no surprises for Him. The future appears open to us, but it is not open to God. God is in no way restricted by this because he makes no mistakes.
All those who “find” God therefore, have done so by His Spirit as he has enabled in history. All those who don’t find God therefore, don’t find God, because He allows them to find only justice instead. In the end we will see even more plainly that He could have intervened and given understanding to anyone He pleased, just as He has gifted us with understanding, which is not of the flesh or of human will (see Romans 1-10). No one perishing would ever call that coercion, but healing! “Give me understanding God, that I may see you and live,” every person would say if they knew to ask, but cannot, being spiritually blind. For those who think it unfair for God to graciously give spiritual sight and choose some for eternal salvation and not all, they must remember that it is God who decides what is fair, not us. We are not His judge, and we don’t decide what is right and wrong for God to do. Whatever God decides to do is by definition good, because God does it.
Those who are not believers don’t care about any of this. Those who are believers are the ones who often feel this is unfair (if God is the one who ultimately saves individuals, what a thought) but instead we should be grateful, and go tell the world, with real hope that God in his mercy really wrote it into the story of history, that you and I would be His voice to tell anyone who believes, that Christ freely invites them into his Kingdom. In this way, we rightfully see salvation as fully a gift from God, from start to finish, without a lick of credit, or merit, being given to you or me. This is humility. This is giving God all glory. This is the Bible.
Adorn the Gospel 