A Primer For Young Calvinists And For Others Who Didn't Know Such Teachings As “Predestination And Limited Atonement” Could Be Derived From The Bible

A Primer For Young Calvinists And For Others Who Didn't Know Such Teachings As “Predestination And Limited Atonement” Could Be Derived From The Bible

Yahweh hardened their [the enemy's] hearts to meet Israel in battle in order that He might destroy them utterly, that they might receive no mercy.
— Joshua 11:20

According to Martin Luther, “‘Freewill’ after the Fall is just a word.” According to John Calvin, “Through freedom man came to be in sin, but the corruption which followed as punishment turned freedom into necessity.”

So, according to these Fathers of Protestantism, after the Fall, every newly born person is automatically damned to hell, with no “freewill” to do or to believe otherwise, unless God gives them the proper “faith” as a gift of his “Divine favor.” This means that God is the one who Chooses to leave most of mankind in its damned state, i.e., since Adam's fall. Concerning this matter, Luther and Calvin quoted Paul that faith in itself was not a work of man (“by grace [=Divine favor] through faith, and that Not Of Ourselves, it is the gift of God” Ephesians 2:8). So, man doesn't even have enough “freewill” to “choose” to have faith, which is a “gift” of God's divine favor, to give to whomever he will, and Not To Give To Whomever He Will, thus keeping most people Damned From Birth.

“Whence does it happen that Adam's fall irremediably involved so many peoples, together with their infant offspring, in eternal death unless because it so pleased God?…the decree is dreadful (horribile) indeed, I confess.”
— Calvin, Institutes

Along those lines, here are some verses to ponder:

Nor does anyone know the Father, except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son Wills To Reveal Him.
Mat. 11:27

But for the sake of The Elect. Mat. 24:22

His Elect. Luke 18:7

No one can come to me unless the Father draws him. John 6:44

You do not believe because you are not of my sheep. John 10:26

You Did Not Choose Me, but I chose you, and Appointed You. John 15:16

To all whom Thou has Given him (Jesus), He may give eternal life. John 17:2

For the promise is for you and your children, as many as the Lord Shall Call To Himself. Acts 2:39

For whom He Foreknew, He also Predestinated to become conformed to the image of His son…and whom He Predestinated, these He also called; and whom he called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified…God is the one who justifies…For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then, It Does Not Depend On The Man Who Wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy [=Divine favor]… Does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use, and another for common use? What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath Prepared For Destruction? And He did so in order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He Prepared Beforehand for glory, even us, whom He called…I (God) was found by Those Who Sought Me Not, I became manifest to those Who Did Not Ask For Me…In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God's gracious Choice.
Romans 8:29-30,33; 9:15-16,21-24; 10:20; 11:5

HE who set me apart even from my mother's womb, and Called Me through his grace [=Divine favoritism], was pleased to reveal His son to me. Gal. 1:15-16

He Chose Us in Him Before The Foundation Of The World, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. He Predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the intentions of His Will… to the glory of His grace [=Divine favoritism], which he freely bestowed on us. Ephes. 1:4-6

God will send upon them [the damned] a deluding influence so that they might believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth. 2 Thes. 2:11-12

Those Who Are Chosen. 2 Tim. 2:10 To this doom They Were Also Appointed. 1 Peter 2:8

Long beforehand maked out for this condemnation. Jude 4

Everyone who's name has not been written in the Book of Life From The Foundation Of The World.
Rev. 13:8

I am the Lord, and there is no other, The One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating evil (or calamity). I am the Lord who does all these things…Woe to the one who quarrels with His maker — and earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth! Will the clay say to the potter, “What are you doing?” Or the thing you are making say, “He has no hands?”…It is I who created the earth, and man upon it. Isa. 45:7-13

The Lord has made all things for Himself: Even The Wicked For The Day Of Evil. Prov. 16:4

Jacob have I loved, but Esau I hated (from the womb!) Romans 9:11-13

Concerning these clear verses, and others less clear, Calvin wrote, “God is said to have Ordained those whom He Wills to embrace in love, and those upon whom he Wills to vent his wrath. Yet he announced salvation to all men indiscriminately. I maintain that these statements agree perfectly with each other. For by so promising he merely means that His mercy is extended to all, provided they seek after it and implore it. But Only Those Whom He Has Illumined Do This. And He Illumines Those Whom He Has Predestined To Salvation.

(The following is from a Calvinist tract, titled, Mourn, God Hates You!) The Bible nowhere says that God loves all men alike. He love certain persons (Isa. 43:4), and chastises those He loves (Heb. 12:6). Those verses declare that God loves SOME and those whom he loves are sons and are partakers of chastisement. Those without are not sons and not loved.

The passage generally referred to as proof of God's love for all men is John 3:16, “For God so loved the world…” But What “world” is being spoken of? Not the “whole” world of Acts 17:24 (a geographical notion). Not the Gentile-only “world” of Rom 11:12, since Jews excluded here will also be saved. Certainly not the wicked “world” of men of John 14:22 to which Jesus refused to reveal himself, or the rejected “world” of John 17:9 for which Jesus would not pray. The same Greek word, Kosmos, is used in every one of these passages, and they all mean a different “world.” What, then is the “world” that God loved and gave His Son for? Since it cannot be any of the above, it must mean the same world of John 3:17. The “world” that “through Him should be saved.” That is the world that “God loves,” and not other. It cannot mean all men indiscriminately, but those for whom Christ was given and who should be saved. All other are ruled out by the sober declarations of the Scriptures.

So it also is with Romans 5:8, “God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” All men were yet in sins when Christ died, yet God, seeing the finished work of the Savior on behalf of those who should trust Him, loved us already in His Son. It is US who believe upon Him toward whom He has commended His love.

So it is with 2 Peter 3:9…he is longsuffering to USward, not willing that any (of US) should perish. Christ is not delaying His coming in hopes that every one shall be saved. He declared that multitudes will go to hell. He is delaying His coming until all of US (the “elect”) are saved. Are you one if “us,” dear friend, who shall trust in Christ, or will you be one of the millions who will tumble into hell?

We must go a step further. Not only does God not love all men: He hates some! Deut. 32:19, “he abhorred them.” Ps. 5:5, “thou hatest all the workers of iniquity.” Ps. 11:5, “him that loveth violence, His soul hateth.” Rom. 9:12, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” These passages have generally been shrugged off with the ignorant cliche, “God hates the sin but loves the sinner.” A nice thought, but unscriptural and impossible. Unscriptural because the word declares that God hates the very Person of the wicked. Impossible because sin is never found outside the sinner. Separate sin and sinner, and you have neither a sin to hate or a sinner to love. Sin always exists in a man. God even had to put our sin upon His Son before He could judge it. He put all the sins of His people upon Jesus Christ and poured out His full unmitigated wrath upon Him, the man, not just he sin. No, my friend, if you are yet unrepentant in your selfish rebellion against God, His wrath is revealed from heaven against you. He hates you. He despises the sight of you. He intends to put you in hell… He is not obliged to withhold his judgment another minute!

(from the tract, Mourn, God Hates You!, published by a Calvinist group, who haven't forgotten their Biblical roots, unlike a lot of “soft” evangelicals who today argue for the “freewill” defense of hell.)

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