This is factually false.
Calvinists believe good happens to bad people and that there is no such thing as “good people.” All of us deserve eternal damnation and none of us deserve anything good. Election, according to Reformed doctrine, is not based on any foreknowledge by God of good deeds by the elect or any goodness whatsoever in them, but merely good done by God to undeserving sinners who have earned hellfire but get grace instead.
Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with Calvinism, it is not too much to ask you to correctly represent what Calvinism teaches. I will provide confessional reference if needed. This isn't an area in dispute.
Thanks guys. The Wikipedia article says his philosophy of law and morality was based not just on religious beliefs but also on the Scottish enlightenment and Scottish “common sense philosophy.”
re: “ Calvinists believe good happens to bad people and that there is no such thing as “good people.” All of us deserve eternal damnation and none of us deserve anything good. Election, according to Reformed doctrine, is not based on any foreknowledge by God of good deeds by the elect or any goodness whatsoever in them, but merely good done by God to undeserving sinners who have earned hellfire but get grace instead.
Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with Calvinism, it is not too much to ask you to correctly represent what Calvinism teaches.”
First, in reference to the “If you follow the logic Calvinists believe Good happens to Good people i.e. the elect and bad happens to bad people i.e. the reprobates.”, I responded to that comment, not in the belief that Calvinists believe that, because I know that Calvinists think that people cannot do good and that God sees no good in His creation at all - no I responded to the comment in and of itself - apart from Calvinism, so if I implied that that was a doctrine of Calvinism, I apologize.
As to your statement that “Calvinists believe good happens to bad people and that there is no such thing as ‘good people.’ All of us deserve eternal damnation and none of us deserve anything good.”, I completely accept the doctrine that none of us deserve God’s salvation, none of us can earn that salvation based on any good works. I also accept the doctrine that God took the initiative to bring salvation to helpless, sinful mankind.
Where I disagree is the total inability of man to respond to God’s grace and the freewill to choose God’s offer of salvation. I understand that “election” is taught in the Scriptures but I do not believe that that election or His sovereignty means that God has fixed, without any ability to respond, without any ability to recognize God’s offer of salvation, who will go to heaven and who will go to hell.
Man having the ability to respond to God’s undeserved offer of grace does in no way take away from His glory or His sovereign will to allow men to freely choose Him through the drawing of the Holy Spirit Who is working in the hearts of all men:
“It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.” John 16:7-11
I also do not believe that infants who die can possibly go to hell through “predestination”. Why? because I believe that the Bible teaches that we must come to an understanding of the difference between good and evil, right and wrong - which people do actually do!! Even those who are non-believers are able to do this - why?? Because God has imprinted His moral standard in our hearts - this is one of Paul’s apologetic arguments in Romans 1 - 3 that mankind is without excuse to be aware of God and His moral law.
If the Calvinist doctrine of total inability is true, then God created some people solely for the purpose to burn in hell and I just cannot believe that that is part of God’s character. Over and over He calls us to make choices to serve Him or reject Him. It makes no sense that man has no ability or freedom to choose.
His grace and Jesus’s atonement is available to all. His drawing all men to Himself is a calling to all.
How does a Calvinist explain the Book of Job if Job had no ability to freely live a life of righteous faith in God. God Himself pointed Job out to Satan as one who was exemplary in righteousness and faith. Satan never once accused God of causing Job to have faith. He did accuse God of protecting Job, blessing Job, and giving good health and material wealth to Job and that that was why Job exercised faith in God. The easiest accusation Satan could have made was, “Hey, Job only has faith in You because you are causing him to have that faith”.
What is the point of the Book of Job if he did not have the ability to accept or reject God?? There are other examples, but that is one that comes to mind off the top of my head.
In Jeremiah 18:3-10 it reads:
“Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something at the wheel. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
“O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?”
says the Lord.
“Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel! The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it. And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, if it does evil in My sight so that it does not obey My voice, then I will relent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it.”
Even God says that when a condemned nation repents, He says He will relent of that disaster that He was going to bring upon it - how is that possible without free will??
How does the Book of Jonah make any sense unless Nineveh had the freedom to choose to repent?
Love, courage, cowardice, sacrifice - none of these things have any meaning if men cannot choose to do these things on their own. If we are just pre-programed to do whatever God wants us to do, then we are nothing but robots. How is our love to Him real if we cannot choose or not choose to respond to Him?? How is the Calvinist view of man any different than B.F. Skinner’s “determinism” idea that none of us have freewill but are completely controlled by our environment?
All who turn to the Lord are His Elect. He called and predestined us to fulfill works He has prepared for us to do and He has predestined us to be conformed to the image of His Son - but that is His will, not forcing us to do it, it is His predetermined will that we do these things - that does not mean that He makes us do them. If we just do these things because God makes us do them, then why the rewards in Heaven, why the crowns of glory that Paul mentions??