Horrendous doctrine (1)
One of the worst faces of Reformed doctrine is its insistence that God has set his love on a small fraction of the human family. The story is that before he created the human family God chose some to enjoy eternal life with him and the rest he consigned to eternal torture. Some of these teachers are bolder than others and without apology they insist that not only did God foreordain the saved to be saved (independent of anything God foresaw in them) he also foreordained the lost to eternal torture (independent of anything he foresaw in them). Others who sense the horror of such a view try to ease the situation by saying that God chose some and "simply passed by" the rest. Hard-line Calvinist, John Piper (rightly in my view), thinks that lacks consistency and follows John Calvin who made no bones about it: he said God created some (including those that die in infancy) for no other reason than to consign them to eternal torture. (He admitted it was a horrible decree but thought if the Bible taught it he should go along with it.)
Many of us take 1 John 2:2 at face value and think that Christ died to deal with the sins of the entire human family (even John Calvin believed that) but people like Piper and Sproul, Packer and Feinberg tell us that "the world" really means the elect that are scattered throughout the nations of the world. They limit the love of God to the relatively few he chose.
Piper in a book of over 300 pages tells us how thrilled and pleased God is with all his works—including sea monsters, wild donkeys and flowers of the field but he has no section dealing with God's delight over the human family. That's hardly surprising since he thinks God has planned to torture billions of conscious beings, ceaselessly and for ever. I came across only three passing remarks about God's love of the entire human family; one implies it and another is qualified with a "but". The best he could do was to say, "I do not deny that God loves the world of lost men" and then he tells us that God is compassionate to the non-elect. I find it astonishing that people can tell you with a straight face that God loves and is compassionate to those he has created for no other reason than to torture them eternally. Piper thinks when we press him with something like that we're using "alien logic" and he will not allow us, he says, to force him to make a choice but to make clear what it is that Piper says he won't be forced to choose between let me spell it out. Piper says: God "loves" those he has created for no other purpose than to torture them eternally. Piper teaches that God (in essence) says to billions: "I love you." Piper also teaches that God (in essence) says to the same billions: "I created you for no other purpose than to torture you everlastingly." Piper says, "You can't make me choose between those two 'truths'."
In point of fact I have misrepresented Piper somewhat for he follows hard-liner Jonathan Edwards who insisted that God foreordained these people to eternal and ceaseless torture to show his glory. Piper quotes Edwards to say that without the foreordained billions (writhing eternally) God's glory wouldn't be fully seen.
Thankfully the Bible doesn't teach anything like that. Most of us are happy to take John 3:16 as it sits and believe that God loves the entire human family and that life is possible for all. The "world" in that text according to Calvinists who are Calvinists means only the elect who are scattered through the world. There's no doubt that in some contexts the word "world" doesn't mean every single individual but the context should be allowed to determine that and not an already adopted theological stance.
John 3:16-17 has this: "For God so love the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." So what are we to make of that? "For God so loved the elect…God did not send his Son to the elect to condemn the elect but to save the elect through him"?
I suppose that'll satisfy someone.
In the meantime: If you want nothing to do with Jesus and his Holy Father that is tragic beyond expression but don't let Piper or anyone else tell you that you were ordained not to want Jesus and then eternally tortured for not wanting Jesus.
Better still, why don't you focus on the obvious meaning of John 3:16 and believe that you are one of the "whosoevers" and give your life to him in faith.
Write me if you think I can help in some way.
©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.
Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, the abiding word.com.
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