Calvin Calvin

I have long wanted to use Calvin to illustrate Calvin in a meme. Here are those scripture references and some things to ponder. This is by no means an exhaustive list ...

Romans 8:28-29

28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

1) Who was called by whom?

2) Why were they called?

3) Foreknew is relational – God sets his sight on us in order to have a relationship with us and in order to bring this about He predestines us to be changed so that through Jesus we might be part of a super family.

Romans 9:11-16

11 Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand:

12 not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

14 What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! 15 For he says to Moses,

“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,

    and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

16 It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.

1) who were the twins and how did God favour one and despise the other?

2) was the favoured twin a better person than the unfavoured one?

3) who decides to show mercy and compassion where he wants to? Does this match with an idea of generally offered grace to all who choose freely to take it?

4) does salvation depend on our desire or effort or does it depend on God’s mercy and choice (meditate on V16 on context)?

Romans 9:19-20

19 One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” 20 But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’”

1) All humans when presented with sovereign grace or more commonly called “Calvinism” eventually ask this question (v19).

2) do you feel Paul’s response in v20 is harsh?

Matthew 11:27

27 “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

1) this “revealing” – is it referring to the revelation of scripture? But then everyone can read the Bible so this must be a different sort of revelation, right?

2)Could this revealing be a revelation God chooses to give to some but not all?

Ephesians 1:5

5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 

1) who predestined who? Does predestined mean chosen?

2) is the “us” in view here all humans? is Paul writing to all humanity or only the church (in this case in Ephesus)?

Ephesians 1:11

11 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, 

1) whose plan? Will he leave his plan to chance or does he actively choose and predestinate people in accordance with it?

Ephesians 2:1-3

2 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 

1) can someone who is dead and an enslaved follower of the “ruler of the kingdom of the air” suddenly get – of their own volition – holy longings for God?

Ephesians 2:8

8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 

1) where does the faith that saves come from? Is it a volitional choice or is it a gift that has nothing to do with ourselves?

2) Are you really – if you believe that you chose to follow Christ – are you really going to stand before the throne of God with even the smallest conceit that you got there because you made a wise choice. Will you be able to brag that you developed feelings of searching for truth or that you co-operated with God’s pleading you to come?

John 3:8

8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

1) Can anyone control the wind? All we can see is its effects.

2) Sometimes the wind blows from the north and we get cold weather and sometimes from the west and we get warm. God chooses whom he breathes life into. Some will be in the valley of dry bones and come to life others will be dry bones elsewhere and no wind will come to give them life.

2 Thessalonians 2:13

13 But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as first fruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. 

1) who chooses here?

2) we are saved through which two things? Who is in control of how these are dealt out?

1 Peter 1:2

2 who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood:

Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

1) and again who chooses?

Now the challenge – find me one straight scripture that teaches freewill and carries the weight of any sort of doctrine other than the sovereign grace of God as he rescues some and leaves others in their perishing state.