Enablement or Irresistible Enforcement?

[AlwaysLoved]

A passage used most frequently and with greatest confidence by Calvinists is John 6.37,44: "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me.... No man can come to me, except the Father...draw him...."

Of course "enablement" of God is essential not just for coming to Christ but for anything a saved or even unsaved man does--even to draw a breath. Enablement, however, is far from irresistible enforcement causing man's action. Should you claim grace is irresistible? To help someone is not to irresistibly force them. We help people to do what they desire to do; without such desire on their part, such "help" would be coercion!

The troubling tendency is the apparent lack of sympathy for the lost among Calvinists. And how could it be otherwise? They wouldn't dare to have sympathy for those whom God has been pleased to predestine to eternal doom.

Such a theory logically leads to apathy towards evangelism, though many Calvinists do not succumb to the practical consequences of their belief, but to be concerned would be to complain against God for predestining them to their just fate. But the conscience God has placed within even the ungodly condemns such an attitude.

Yet the Calvinism God does not love the lost enough to save them all? He lacks sufficient mercy for the lost to give them faith to believe unto salvation--and is even glorified in sovereignly damning so many and saving so few? Could this actually be the biblical God?

God "planned" even their sin? Even the "mistakes of a typist". If this is the God of the Bible, Calvinism is true and you don't have to repent or believe in Christ to be regenerated. If not, Calvinism ought to be condemned for its misrepresentation of God and leading people away from true salvation.

[AlwaysLoved]

How Many Verses Have Calvinists Altered?

The Lord Jesus Christ wept over Jerusalem, identifying Himself as Yahweh, the One who has wept over His rebellious children (Isaiah 1.1-9) for centuries. The Calvinism God could never plead to all of Israel like this:


These visions concerning Judah and Jerusalem came to Isaiah son of Amoz during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah-all kings of Judah. Hear, O heavens! Listen, O earth! This is what the Lord says: "The children I raised and cared for have turned against me. Even the animals-the donkey and the ox-know their owner and appreciate his care, but not my people Israel. No matter what I do for them, they still do not understand." Oh, what a sinful nation they are! They are loaded down with a burden of guilt. They are evil and corrupt children who have turned away from the Lord. They have despised the Holy One of Israel, cutting themselves off from his help. Why do you continue to invite punishment? Must you rebel forever? Your head is injured, and your heart is sick. You are sick from head to foot-covered with bruises, welts, and infected wounds-without any ointments or bandages. Your country lies in ruins, and your cities are burned. As you watch, foreigners plunder your fields and destroy everything they see. Jerusalem stands abandoned like a watchman's shelter in a vineyard or field after the harvest is over. It is as helpless as a city under siege. If the Lord Almighty had not spared a few of us, we would have been wiped out as completely as Sodom and Gomorrah.
The Calvinist changes "world" to "elect" in twenty scriptures. He changes "whosoever" and "all" into "elect" at least sixteen times each. In addition, he turns the phrase "every man" into "elect" six times and "everyone" into "elect" three times. In no case is there anything in the text to justify substituting "elect." The change has been made for one reason only: to support Calvinism! Thus, when Christ says He would draw "all men" to Himself (John 12.32), the Calvinist claims "The 'all' plainly refers to all of God's elect" (Arthur W. Pink). Plainly? Only if one is a Calvinist.


God is love and ever merciful to all and wants all to come to the knowledge of the truth. Should all who are Christ's true followers accept gratefully and joyfully that this good news would be proclaimed to the whole world as Christ commanded?


One must interpret passages such as "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me" (John 6.37) and "no man can come to me, except the Father...draw him" (John 6.44) in harmony with the overall message of God's love for everyone.


Yet Piper claims this is not divine schizophrenia and exegetical confusion in Calvinism to claim God's will for "all persons to be saved" (1 Tim. 2.4) and his will to elect unconditionally those who will be saved. Such a dead conscience that believes this double mindedness, yet can't reconcile it, is a hopeless contradiction and sign of unsalvation. We shall know them by their fruit especially their teaching. Surely if the Calvinism God wants everyone to be saved and nobody can receive salvation because everyone is totally depraved, then the god of Calvinism ought save everyone-regenerate them all forcing them to repent and believe to be saved. But he doesn't do this because he can't, and he can't because he does not have the power or love to do so. He is a liar, if like Piper says he desires "all persons to be saved."


Consider Christ's words: "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me" does not say that "all that the Father draws shall come to me." Nor does "No man can come to me, except the Father...draw him" say that all that the Father draws come to Christ. And surely "I will raise him up at the last day" (John 6.40,44,54) refers to those who actually come to Christ, and not all who are drawn-certainly not those who are drawn and then "draw back unto perdition" (Heb. 10.39). Let us accept what Christ actually says.

[AlwaysLoved]

John 6.37-45 (RSV):

All that the Father gives me will come to me; and him who comes to me I will not cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me; and this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up at the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that every one who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day." The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, "I am the bread which came down from heaven." They said, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, 'I have come down from heaven'?" Jesus answered them, "Do not murmur among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God.' Every one who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.
James White says this is "the clearest exposition" or proof of Calvinism in John 6.37-45:

Literally Jesus says, "No man is able to come to me." These are words of incapacity and they are placed in universal context. All men...lack the ability to come to Christ in and of themselves.... That is Paul's "dead in sin" (Eph. 2.1) and "unable to please God" (Rom. 8.8). It is the Reformed doctrine of total depravity: man's inability [here being] taught by the Lord who knows the hearts of all men....

All men would be left in the hopeless position of "unable to come" unless God acts, and He does by drawing [some but not all] men unto Christ.... No man can "will" to come to Christ outside of the divine drawing.... Reformed scholars assert that the ones who are drawn are the ones who are given by the Father to the Son: i.e., the elect....

It cannot be asserted that...the Father is drawing every single individual human being [or] universalism [everyone is saved] would the result, for all who are drawn are likewise raised up at the last day.
Where in this passage does Jesus mention anything about "total depravity," "incapacity," those who don't want to remain in the flesh are "unable to please God," or a person can't believe because they are "dead in sin"? Only those who truly refuse God [such as Calvinists] are unable to truly please God. Jesus does not say the drawing is limited to the elect or universalism would be the result. Nor does He say that the drawing is irresistible or unconditional. We see no impelling or compelling. There is no explicit or implicit description of the Lord's selective drawing. Such ideas are imposed upon the text because Calvinism requires such stepping over God's boundaries. Satan tries to do no less.

Jesus actually said:

All that the Father giveth me [not all He draws] shall come to me;
and him that cometh to me [not everyone the Father draws] I will no wise cast out;
And this is the Father's will...that of all which he giveth me [not all whom He draws] I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
Every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him [not all who are drawn], may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up....
No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him [all who come have been drawn-not all who are drawn come] and I will raise him up at the last day [all who will be raised up have been drawn, but not all who have been drawn will be raised up].
Read the entire text again carefully (John 6.35-65). Christ does not say that all whom the Father draws, but all whom He gives to the Son, will come to Him.

The promise is throughout John's gospel "that whosoever believeth in him should not perish.... He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life...he that believeth not the Son shall not see life.... If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink" (John 3.16-17, 36; 7.37).

Christ's statement is clear that not everyone who is drawn, but "everyone which seeth the Son, and believeth on him may have everlasting life..." (John 6.40). In this passage we encounter not Unconditional Election or Irresistible Grace but human responsibility. Calvinists shy away from this every day of their lives, because they refuse to repent and believe in Christ to be regenerated.