Who Chose Whom?
by Terry Wane Benton
The Calvinist asks, “Who chose whom? Did you choose God? Or did God choose you?” He says delightfully, “God chose us!” While that is true, it is not true that God chose us against our will. There is room for God’s choice to be conditional according to many scriptures (Romans 1:16; II Peter 3:9).
What the Calvinist veils in his language is an assumption that God was arbitrary and programmed some people to be able to believe and unite with Him, and programmed all the rest to be unable to believe and unite with Him. The Calvinist holds a position with logical conclusions that dictates belief that God lied about “wanting all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth” (I Timothy 2:4; II Peter 3:9).
When the Calvinist talks about God “choosing” specific individuals, he means that God predesigns all so that there is no real choice on our part. Choosing is just God predesigning.
God did not actually choose people who would believe Him, but designed certain ones to believe and designed others so that they could never believe and be saved, and then blames the unbelievers for doing what He designed them to do.
The Bible shows that God does the choosing, but does He predesign each person so that none have a choice? The God of the Bible actually “sets before us life and death” and He urges us to “choose life” because He designed us with the ability to choose (Deuteronomy 30:19). Does our choice really exist, and does it matter to God? If we are predesigned, we only do what we are programmed to do!
Does God choose to predesign a robot and then punish the robots for doing what He designed them to do? The Calvinist does not want to face this, but it is the logical consequence of their doctrine. They can strain to avoid facing it, but we cannot let them evade it.
Does He design other robots and then reward them with glory for doing what He designed them to do? Among the two kinds of robots that God designed, did He” choose” or merely design and program? It sounds silly to say we have two choices:
- I can choose the one I designed to praise me, or
- I can choose the one I designed to curse me.
Well, obviously, we have no real choice, and God’s choice is to make humans of no real choice power. Then He pretends to be no respecter of persons, to love all men, to desire none to perish, to desire that all men be saved, and then turns around and designs many to go the broad road to destruction (Matthew 7:13-14). We do only what the false god of Calvinism predestines us to do.
When I design one computer to praise me and another computer to curse me, what have I done? Have I made a choice to “save” one from the flaw I built into the robot? What kind of game am I playing? Calvinism teaches that God designed all to sin and then pretends to get angry at all of them and then pretends to “save” certain ones He chooses to save from His wrath at them doing what He designed and programmed them to do. That is Calvinism, but it is not the God of the Bible.
One gigantic problem among Calvinists is that they don’t know if they are chosen or not, because they also believe that some have a false belief that will fall away, even though they seem at first to be chosen. When someone falls away, they don’t know if it is permanent or just temporary. So, nobody can really be confident that they are among the chosen until the final day of judgment. All who think they are saved may have false faith. All who fall may come back at the last moment. So, nobody can be sure that God chose me until the very end. God designed some to have a false faith, and nobody can really know whether theirs is one of the false faiths that falls away at the last moment or sustains the false faith and gets surprised to learn that they were not really among the chosen. So, who chose whom?
In Calvinism, it is all a game of wishful thinking. God may not want you at all, even if you choose God. Calvinism is a terrible heresy. Do not get sucked into the philosophy of men. The truth is that God wants you, and if you want Him and choose the way of life, being faithful until death means something (Revelation 2:10). God decides all who choose Him and meet His conditions. He desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. He has not predesigned anyone to be unable to seek Him, grope for Him, and find Him in Jesus (Acts 17:26-27).
He chooses all who will use their free will and make wise choices to seek Him. He has set before us life and death, and He urges us to choose life. He designed us with that power of choice. These are the ones He chooses.
His conditions do not earn us His favor, but the free gift is conditional. We have earned our own condemnation by choosing sin, but He offers us a way out of condemnation through the blessings in Christ. By grace through faith, we are offered a way out of condemnation. The foolish will neglect so great a salvation (Hebrews 2:1f), but the wise will take the access route (Romans 5:1f) into His merciful offer. We can each be among the chosen! We have a part in making our calling and election sure (II Peter 1:10-15).
