R*o
发帖数: 3781 | 1 How can there be any real freedom of choice if only one kind of choice is av
ailable, and one which has been decreed eternally? But would a Holy God decr
ee evil? Obviously, this is not free choice at all. It is, however, the only
"freedom" Calvinism can allow. Pink favorably quotes J. Denham Smith, whom
he honors as a "deeply taught servant of God":
I believe in free will; but then it is a will only free to act according to
nature . . .. The sinner in his sinful nature could never have a will accord
ing to God. For this he must be born again. 16
Nowhere does the Bible support such a statement; and this is where it become
s sticky. Were Abraham and Moses "born again"? Isn't that a New Testament te
rm? What does he mean, "a will according to God"? Even Christians don't alwa
ys do God's will. A desire to know God? Surely all men are expected to seek
the Lord while He may be found. That God promises to be found of those who s
eek Him surely implies that the unregenerated can seek Him.
Nor does it help the Calvinist to say that man can only will and act accordi
ng to his sinful nature and against God. If sinful acts are admitted to come
from genuine choice, then we have the same challenge to God's sovereignty w
hich the Calvinist cannot allow. Either man has a free will, or his sin is a
ll according to God's will. As we have seen, the latter is exactly what Calv
in himself taught and many Calvinists still believe, making God the author o
f evil.
Could it be that Adam's nature was actually sinful, though God pronounced hi
m "good" when He created him? How else, except by free will, can his sin be
explained? The Calvinist escapes that problem by declaring that even the sin
of Adam and Eve was foreordained and decreed by God. Pink argues, "God fore
ordains everything which comes to pass. His sovereign rule extends throughou
t the entire Universe and is over every creature .... God initiates all thin
gs, regulates all things . . . ." 17
It is fallacious to imagine that for God to be in control of His universe He
must therefore foreordain and initiate everything. In fact, it diminishes G
od to suggest that He cannot control what He doesn't foreordain and originat
e. Though he was a leading Presbyterian theologian, A.A. Hodge recognized th
e severe consequences of that extremist view of God's sovereignty:
"Everything is gone if free-will is gone; the moral system is gone if free-w
ill is gone . . . ." 18 | R*o
发帖数: 3781 | 2 God don't have to predetermine everything in order to control this world.
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【在 R*o 的大作中提到】
: How can there be any real freedom of choice if only one kind of choice is av
: ailable, and one which has been decreed eternally? But would a Holy God decr
: ee evil? Obviously, this is not free choice at all. It is, however, the only
: "freedom" Calvinism can allow. Pink favorably quotes J. Denham Smith, whom
: he honors as a "deeply taught servant of God":
: I believe in free will; but then it is a will only free to act according to
: nature . . .. The sinner in his sinful nature could never have a will accord
: ing to God. For this he must be born again. 16
: Nowhere does the Bible support such a statement; and this is where it become
: s sticky. Were Abraham and Moses "born again"? Isn't that a New Testament te
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