Yes, Calvinism Really Teaches That

I am sometimes accused of caricaturing Calvinism when I make claims like:

• Calvinism teaches that God SPECIFICALLY WILLS and TAKES DELIGHT IN every evil event in history as well as each person who will suffer eternally in hell.
• Calvinism teaches that God ordains every single evil thing that people do IN SUCH A WAY that God is all-holy for ordaining these evil acts while the people who do the evil acts God ordained them to do are sinful for doing them.
• Calvinism teaches that God has a “sovereign will” that ordains and delights in evil and a “moral will” that is revolted by the evil his “sovereign will” ordains. This is why I have claimed that God’s “moral will” must hate God’s “sovereign will” if Calvinism is in fact true.

I believe this brief article demonstrates that I’m caricaturing nothing. And let me just say, with all sincerity, that I deeply respect John Piper’s willingness to “say it straight” and to be logically consistent. Check it out if your interested.

(By the way, if you’re interested in an alternative interpretation of the verses Piper cites to support his determinism you can find them in the Q&A section of this website).

Peace,

~Greg

Image by bareknuckleyellow. Used in accordance with Creative Commons. Sourced via Flickr.