by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
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).<\/p>\n
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<\/em>” (I Timothy 2:4; II Peter 3:9).<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n God did not actually choose people who would believe Him, but designed <\/b>certain ones to believe and designed others so that they could never believe and be saved, and then blames <\/b>the unbelievers for doing what He designed them to do.<\/p>\n 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<\/em>” and He urges us to “choose life<\/em>” 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!<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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:<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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?<\/p>\n 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).<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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).<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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;…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[59,563],"class_list":["post-92151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-calvinism","tag-unconditional-election"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":92338,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/god-gives-before-they-come\/","url_meta":{"origin":92151,"position":0},"title":"God Gives Before They Come?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 25, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Jesus said, \"All that the Father gives Me will come to Me\" (John 6:37). The Calvinist takes this to mean that God arbitrarily chooses a person and programs them with the ability and determination to \"come to Jesus\" at some point, so that they are \"eternally\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":63618,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/total-depravity\/","url_meta":{"origin":92151,"position":1},"title":"Total Depravity","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 8, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Romans 3:9-26 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0John Calvin proposed a five part system to explain salvation \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It is generally remembered as TULIP, an acrostic from the first five letters of each point. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Many denominations accept some or part of Calvinism without questioning whether those points are true. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":53774,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-tale-of-two-gods\/","url_meta":{"origin":92151,"position":2},"title":"A Tale of Two Gods","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 2, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"How Calvinism's God and the Bible's God are Two Very Different God's by Ben Giselbach One very popular denominational preacher and writer, John Piper, is famous for saying that \"all things\" - even down to the subatomic level - \"are ordained, guided, and governed\" by God.\u00a0[1]\u00a0The idea that God determines\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":47970,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-sovereignty-of-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":92151,"position":3},"title":"The Sovereignty of God (Frost)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 31, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Gene Frost Sovereignty is the state of being sovereign, which is to be \"above or superior to all others; chief; greatest; supreme.\" We illustrate: In all the realm, the king was sovereign. There was no one holding\u00a0 greater rank, with greater authority, or greater power. He willed that on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":83065,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/dead-in-trespasses\/","url_meta":{"origin":92151,"position":4},"title":"Dead in Trespasses","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 9, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton \"And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":53521,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-christian-lose-salvation\/","url_meta":{"origin":92151,"position":5},"title":"Can a Christian Lose Salvation?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 16, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Matthew W. Bassford The other day, a brother sent me this link (Can a Christian lose salvation?) and asked if I had ever before addressed the topic in a blog post. I replied that I hadn't (at least so far as I can remember), but this seemed like a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92151\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n