As for Calvinism.............. That would be hard to pin point. I see concepts of it even in churches that don't claim they believe. One doctrine I am against is that God knows ahead of time what will happen to us. That would be the Molinism and Arminianism.
I know a little of these belief systems but I'm certainly no expert. I know William Lane Craig subscribes to Molinism and that it has to do with God knowing what people would choose given alternate realities or outcomes or something like that. I don't subscribe to this - mostly because I don't believe in alternate realities, not because I don't believe that God couldn't know a person's choice given a set of circumstances. Despite that, I really like William Lane Craig otherwise for his work in apologetics.
Most Christians are Arminians and don’t even know it. I don't subscribe to Arminianism mainly because the Arminian believes that people choose God out of the "free will" that God supposedly grants them. I don't find this to be scriptural because I find that the Bible teaches that man is
totally depraved and cannot come to the knowledge of Christ without the supernatural intervention of the Holy Spirit. In other words, I believe very strongly that God chooses us, i.e. election, and then acts to regenerate us which allows us to actually recognize our sin, repent, and believe.
This is where Arminians cry “foul” citing some sort of “fairness” doctrine. Calvinists believe that not all are elect, not all are called. And
because you must be predestined, elected, called, and regenerated prior to recognizing your sin, repenting, and believing on Christ, the Arminian cries, “that’s not fair!” The Arminian demands that in order for God to be “just,” He must provide everyone an equal opportunity to “accept Him.” In other words, God must be “fair,” which, in my opinion, is the biggest stumbling block to people recognizing the full truth of God’s
grace. Indeed,
God is and must be just. However, I don’t find that in order for God to be just He must also be fair.
In fact, God is
not fair – at least as we understand the sense of the word - and I personally don't see a problem with that. Not everyone is given “equal opportunity.” God chooses some, and He doesn’t choose others. It’s not because some are more righteous than others. It’s not because God looks into the future and “discovers” which people will choose Him and then retroactively elects them. We don’t know why God chooses who He does other than the fact that the Bible tells us God loves the ones He chooses. Why does he love some and not others? The Bible doesn’t tell us. And Arminians don’t like it because, after all, they believe “everything must be fair.”
The two doctrines don't make sense, because when did God receive the foreknowledge? If it was before the womb and God knowing that person would go to hell, then it's no longer foreknowledge. This is why Calvinism makes more sense to me unless God is just some fortune teller. I still do not buy into full Calvinism.
Well, I do believe in God’s foreknowledge. For whom God foreknew, he also predestined. “Foreknowledge" and “Predestination” are Bible words. I can’t explain foreknowledge, but I affirm it because the Bible teaches it.
one persons child dies early, the Other child next door lived. Is God fair?
Or did God actually have anything to do with it?
I was serving God to the best of my knowledge at the time. I was teaching men in the homeless shelter, I held a job and was a witness to those that would hear.
Was it fair to me my son just contracted T-cell a rare form of cancer suddenly? From the first day I got the diagnoses to day 8, there was nothing to be done. It was that quick and sudden.
Is that fair?
Was it fair I was in Prison and trying to get Jesus across to people yet some that where skinheads and into a occult after warning me about speaking about Jesus decided to put bleach and window cleaner in my coffee which I took a big gulp.
I was just trying to teach on Jesus hoping some would hear.
Is that fair?
No, it’s not fair, and yes, God had
everything to do with it. God wrote every day of your life
when as yet there were none. He wrote in cancer. He wrote in being passed over for promotion. He wrote in prison. He wrote in your greatest accomplishments and greatest failures. God is sovereign and in total control of every speck of dust in the universe. Everything is proceeding perfectly according to God’s sovereign plan. God foreknew you, he elected you, predestined you to be conformed to the image of His Son. At some point during your life He called you, He regenerated your heart and made you
spiritually alive so you could recognize your sin, repent, and believe. He is 100% responsible for
everything that happens, including your own salvation. You did not choose him. He chose you. Is
that fair?
Not if you're an unbeliever it's not! Yet this is what the Bible teaches.
Is it completely horrific that a child dies? Absolutely. Is it fair? No! It sucks! But fairness is irrelevant. God promises us that all things work out for good for those called according to His purpose. We don’t know the second and third order effects of this child’s death. God may use this as the catalyst that brings someone to a knowledge of Christ. How can something so horrific work out for good? That’s up to the imagination of God… and He is exceedingly good at it.
Well, I think we both pretty much know why I did not get my promotion and the others did not. Had I done right everyday before my Father and worked unto him I know by his comment that I would have gotten it.
Actually, I would submit to you that the reason you did not get the promotion was because
God ordained you not to get it. Again, your life was written in His book before you had logged any days on Earth. This promotion passover is part of His sovereign plan for your own sanctification. There is no regret of “well had I done it this way things would have been different.” There are no alternate realities. There is the Book of your life that God wrote before you were conceived. You are currently executing that book and right now the pages have you being disciplined and sanctified by His Holy Hand.
Last year I suffered an extreme disappointment myself. I am an Army officer, and my file had gone before a Department of the Army centralized selection board that selects future battalion commanders. Everyone was telling me that my file was strong and that they would be shocked if I wasn’t selected, blah, blah, blah and I believed the hype. When the list was finally published, I discovered that I did not make the Principal list.
I was completely devastated. But I have to tell you, after about 30 seconds of recovering from the shock of the disappointment, I found great comfort in my knowledge of the sovereignty of God. There was no “had I only taken this other assignment” or “had I only performed better during that one rating period.” My only thoughts were, “clearly this isn’t what God wants me to be.” Ultimately, God makes selections on who will be battalion commanders and who won’t be. It has
nothing to do with selection boards, bosses, flirty brown-nosing women, or any of that. All these things are just tools and conditions that God uses to execute His sovereign Will.
One thing about God being fair............... is if we don't mix Faith into the equation then it would appear that God may not be fair. We add Faith into the mix, we find God is not only fair, but faithful.
God is indeed faithful. We definitely agree on that.