White writes, "Those who love their king...find His sovereignty great comfort." What comfort have those whom the "king" has "pleasure to doom...to destruction"? [1] Do Calvinists care? How could they? He claims that "God could...restrain all evil." Why doesn't He? Any kind person would if he could. Calvinism repudiates the compassion of God and man.
For believing that God desires "all men to be saved" (1 Timothy 2:4), I'm accused of denying His freedom "to do with His creation as He sees fit." Of course, God "does whatever He pleases" (Psalm 115:3), but it doesn't please Him to damn anyone.
White denies that Calvinism assigns to hell multitudes who are without any choice. Those predestined to hell have a choice? He says they "chose to sin freely." But "the sinner's will is...free in only...the direction of evil" [2]; "every unsaved person is...free to go...only...down" [3]; "men do nothing save...what [God] decreed [4]...even sin" [5]; and "there aren't any...free decisions." [6]
I believe that God offers salvation to all. White says I deny "the freedom of God in election and regeneration." No, Calvinism denies God's freedom by limiting those to whom He can offer salvation. But God wants "the wicked [to] turn from his way and live" (Ezekiel 33:11).
"The Father loves the human race [7] ... [but] the elect alone are they whose eyes God opens." [8] What love is this? White argues that free will gives man "the final say." No, God makes the rules; man just responds. White says the belief that God is obligated "to grant `chances" is "the fatal flaw of the anti-Reformed polemic." God is not obligated—but He loves all.
As for my "vague allegation of a connection" between Augustine and Catholicism, Warfield called him "the founder of Roman Catholicism," [9] and Piper calls him "one of the most esteemed fathers of the Roman Catholic Church." [10] White says that the lives of Calvin and Augustine are "irrelevant to the real issue," but lives reflect doctrine (2 Timothy 3:10). Every man will be judged by his works (Matthew 16:27; 1 Corinthians 3:13; James 2:17-20).
1. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, tr. Henry Beveridge (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1998), III: xxiii, 1.
2. Arthur W. Pink, The Sovereignty of God (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 1986), 135.
3. E. Best, Free Grace Versus Free Will (Houston, Tex.: W. E. Best Books Missionary Trust, 1977), 20.
4. Calvin, Institutes, I: xviii, 1.
5. Edwin H. Palmer, The Five Points of Calvinism (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 1999), 24-5, 82, 97-100, 116.
6. John Piper and Pastoral Staff, TULIP: What We Believe about the Five Points of Calvinism (Minneapolis, Minn.: Desiring God Ministries, 1997), 22.
7. John Calvin, trans. William Pringle, Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 1979), 123; cited with approval in John MacArthur Jr., The Love of God (Dallas: Word, 1996), 17.
8. Ibid., 125; cited in MacArthur, Love of God, 18.
9. Benjamin B. Warfield, Calvin and Augustine, ed. Samuel G. Craig (Phillipsburg, N.J.: Presbyterian & Reformed, 1956), 313.
10. John Piper, The Legacy of Sovereign Joy: God's Triumphant Grace in the Lives of Augustine, Luther, and Calvin (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway 2000), 24-5.
