Those who believe the Bible believe that God is all-powerful. “Is anything too hard for Jehovah?” (Gen. 18:14) anticipates a negative answer. Scripture refers to God as “Almighty” 59 times. Paul mentioned “…the exceeding greatness of his power” (Eph. 1:19). Truly, the Bible abounds with claims of God’s omnipotence. Paradoxically, in spite of these claims the Bible also reveals that, in at least one respect, human beings are more powerful than God. This statement is not intended to shock and it certainly comes not from a blasphemous heart.John Calvin, the 16th century reformer, perverted the Biblical doctrine of God’s omnipotence into his doctrine of God’s sovereignty. To Calvinists, the sovereignty of God means the absolute and unqualified power of God through which He forces His arbitrary, random will upon mankind. This warped view of God’s omnipotence fuels the entire Calvinistic engine. Because of God’s “Sovereignty,” they aver that He:
1. Brings every baby into the world totally depraved in sin and incapable—even in adulthood—of a pure thought or a good deed apart from a supernatural act of the Holy Spirit.
2. Unconditionally (i.e., apart from faith or obedience on their part) elected before the world began (i.e., predestined) every individual who would be saved and who would be damned.
3. Sent Christ to die, not for all sinners, but only for that limited number whom God had already arbitrarily and unconditionally elected to salvation.
4. Imposes His irresistible grace upon those He has elected (i.e., they cannot be damned even if they should so choose).
5. Will see that they persevere unto eternal salvation because He will not allow them to be lost, regardless of the degree of their faithlessness or wickedness.
Calvin and his millions of disciples have it all wrong. Their theology deprives us of our free will, which God gave us from the beginning. God allowed Adam and Eve to choose to obey or disobey Him (Gen. 2:17) with the awful consequence of death if they disobeyed. God’s gift of man’s free will is a Self-imposed limitation. Everyone has the “power” to say “No” to God’s grace and salvation, so in this sense God allows men to be “stronger” than He is. What glory redounds to God if the “elect” are all helpless robots with no choice but to serve Him? Moreover, Calvin’s view of God’s Sovereignty makes Him a capricious ogre. Free will is precious, but woe unto those who wrongly exercise it and rebel against their Creator! ---Dub McClish, TheScripturecache.com
---Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets
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