At the last GES national conference, Geoff Stevens spoke on the dismantling of dispensationalism. One of the points of his presentation is that if we reject a plain, common-sense way of interpreting the Scriptures (dispensationalism), we will lose sight of God’s goodness.
Some will say that this is ungracious or an overstatement. But I would like to discuss how Calvinism denies God’s goodness.
Most readers of this blog have probably heard a sermon on Gen 3:1, when Satan asks Eve in Eden: “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?’” Many have pointed out that Satan is questioning God’s goodness here. He leaves off the fact that God told them they could freely eat from all the trees of the garden except one. Satan implies in this question that God is a killjoy. He is holding something back from Adam and Eve. Whatever Eve might have thought about all God had done for them, He wasn’t as good as she thought.
Who can listen to the Calvinist view of eternal salvation and conclude that God is good? Once again, some will accuse me of being ungracious. Surely, Calvinists believe that God is good. Don’t they?
But a five-point Calvinist says that God chose only a small group of people to be eternally saved. This small group is called the elect. If you are not one of the elect, you have no hope. Whether you are of the elect or not was determined long before you were born, and there is nothing you can do about it.
To make matters worse, you can never know in this life whether you belong to the elect. Even if you believe John 3:16, there is no guarantee that it applies to you. If you are not one of the elect, you only think you believe it. Either you didn’t really believe, or you will deny that you believe it at some later date. After you die, you will find out the truth: You never had any hope of eternal life. You were destined before you were born to an eternity of torment in the lake of fire.
I cannot imagine believing such things. I cannot imagine the anxiety and torment it would produce. Nobody who believes such things can honestly say that God is good.
The most he could say is that God is good to the elect. But since nobody can know whether they are part of that group, nobody can, as an individual, say that God is good. The non-elect were born into this world, destined for hell, and with no hope. The Calvinist will say they all deserve it. But the one thing he can’t say is that these people should proclaim, “God is good!”
Satan told Eve in the garden that God was not good. There is a lot of teaching in Christendom today that says the same thing. In fact, Satan was just suggesting it. Calvinism just comes right out and says it: If you aren’t of the elect (and you probably aren’t), God destined you to hell before you were born.
Whatever else we say about such a system, it does not describe a good God. Free Grace theology is not like that. We need to get back to the basics: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son that whosoever believes in Him might not perish but have everlasting life.” That applies to everyone. If you believe in Jesus for eternal life, you have it and can never lose it. God is good.
