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(5)

The False Appeal of Modern Modified Calvinism to the Theology of John Calvin

To this point we have discovered that modern modified Calvinism has its historical origins in the so called evangelicalism of the Marrow, which was originally promoted by the Davenant School divines. We have also referred to its system of interpretation of certain texts of Scripture. We now turn to study the manner in which that system attempts to take on an apparent authority by a misinterpretation of Calvin’s commentary on the Book of Ezekiel.

Let us treat this section under the following six headings:

1. An outline of the case.

2. The writings which support the modern modified Calvinist position.

3. The misrepresentation of Calvin’s commentary on Ezekiel 18:23 refuted from his Institutes.

a. Calvin’s refutation of a duplicity of wills in God. (The first question answered).

b. The meaning of the word “wishes” or “wills” relative to God’s preceptive and decretive wills.

c. Calvin’s treatment of Ezekiel 18:23 in his Institutes. (The second question answered).

d. Calvin’s doctrine of Ezekiel 18:23 further confirmed by his treatment of I Tim. 2:4 and II Peter 3:9 in his Institutes.

4. Calvin’s doctrine that God’s purpose in sending the Gospel is to harden the hearts of the reprobate.

5. Calvin’s refutation of the notion that there is an inconsistency between God’s eternal election and the free offer of the Gospel to all men.

6. The intrusion of modern modified Calvinism into the secret counsels of God’s will.

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1. An Outline of the Case                                 

Modern modified Calvinists work from the assumption that Calvin allows that there is a sensible and reasonable will in God which He wishes the salvation of all men. They affirm that Calvin is inconsistent when he declares that God’s will is simple and undivided, because he also teaches that God’s decretive will is that by which He ordains only a certain number to salvation. In other words, if God wishes all to be saved and at the same time devotes the reprobate to eternal destruction, to them God’s will cannot be simple. They accept the position that God’s will is complex, but attempt to avoid the contradiction of having two contrary wills in God by ascribing God’s eternal election and predestination to His decretive will, and His supposed desire for the salvation of all men, to His preceptive will. In other words, they ascribe a duplicity of sensible and reasonable wills to God, one decretive and the other preceptive, and then try to keep them separate.

Having made the assumption of two sensible and reasonable wills in God, one decretive and the other preceptive, the contradiction which inevitably lies between precept and decree within the Divine mind is then denied, because it is said to be a mystery which lies hidden in the sovereign counsel of God’s will.

It is by this facility of a complexity or duplicity in God, that modern modified Calvinists hold their system of double connotation. Then Scripture is interpreted to teach that God has elected only a certain number to eternal life, and at the same time in the free offer of the gospel, desires the salvation of all men.

It is through the notion of two separate sensible and reasonable wills in God, which is the foundation of their system, that they claim to hold to the Reformed Standards, and at the same time, base their preaching of the gospel on a universal love of God. It is by this duplicity which they imagine they find in an inconsistency in Calvin that they interpret certain Scriptures as having a double connotation, e.g., Ezekiel 18:23, 32, and 33:11, and others universally, e.g., I Timothy 2:4, II Peter 3:9, and Matthew 23:37. In other words, like every sectary, they bring a system to the Scripture in order to interpret it, rather than interpreting Scripture with Scripture.

Over and against this system lies the central principle of Calvin’s doctrine of the absolute sovereignty and providence of God, which teaches that the will of God is simple and undivided. It is about that principle that Calvin builds his whole system of theology, and on it he rests his defence.

Because modern modified Calvinism does not allow that God’s will is simple, but builds its own system on a notion of complexity concerning God’s will, it involves the removal of the central principle of Calvin’s Calvinism, and therefore constitutes the overthrow of his system.

2. The Writings Which Seem to Support the Modern Modified Calvinist Position

Professor Murray is regarded by modern modified Calvinists as a leading modern authority concerning their position. In his book, Calvin on Scripture and Divine Sovereignty, he refers to Calvin’s commentary on Ezekiel 18:23 in the following terms:

Calvin was engaged before his work was arrested by the hand of death ... in his exposition of the prophecy of Ezekiel. His work ended with Ezekiel 20:24. He did not even complete his exposition of the chapter. At Ezekiel 18:23, in dealing with the discrepancy between God’s will to the salvation of all and the election of God by which He predestinates only a fixed number to salvation, he says: If anyone again objects this is making God act with duplicity, the answer is ready, that God always wishes the same thing, though by different ways, and in a manner inscrutable to us. Although, therefore, God’s will is simple, yet great variety is involved in it, as far as our senses are concerned. Besides, it is not surprising that our eyes should be blinded by intense light, so that we cannot certainly judge how God wishes all to be saved, and yet has devoted all the reprobate to eternal destruction, and wishes them to perish. While we look now through a glass darkly, we should be content with the measure of our own intelligence. (Calvin’s statement is italicised).

It is at this point that Professor Murray in his book makes his major departure from Calvin’s theology when he writes,

The present writer is not persuaded that we may speak of God’s will as ‘simple’ after the pattern of Calvin’s statement. There is the undeniable fact that, in regard to sin, God decretively wills what He preceptively does not will. There is the contradiction. We must maintain that it is perfectly consistent with God’s perfection that this contradiction should obtain. But, it does not appear to be any resolution to say that God’s will is ‘simple.’

Professor Murray has noted in the same place that: “It is more probable that the Latin verb ‘velle,’ translated on three occasions above by the English term ‘wishes’ should rather be rendered ‘wills.’” Although that would make our task much easier, in order to be the more convincing, let us retain the word “wishes” in lieu of the word “wills” in the context of our explanation.

From a superficial reading of the above quotation from Calvin’s commentary, it would appear that Calvin’s doctrine is that God desires the salvation of all men and at the same time ordains that the reprobate shall perish.

If such is the case, then Professor Murray has revealed an inconsistency in Calvin’s theological system when he disagrees with Calvin’s statement that the will of God is simple.

Two leading questions must therefore be answered, if the apparent position of Calvin is to be distinguished from the real. These are:

1. Does Calvin effectively deny that there is a duplicity of wills in God?

2. What does Calvin mean by the words, ‘God wishes all to be saved’—does he apply them universally, so that it may be assumed that there is a desire or wish in God for the salvation of all men?

Before proceeding to answer these questions, let us complete the discussion of the writings which support the modern modified Calvinist position.

The departure from Calvin’s theology becomes clearer when we consider the study by the Rev. Professors Murray and Stonehouse which was presented as a report of a committee to the fifteenth General Assembly of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church of America in 1948. In the introduction to the study they have written:

It would appear that the real point in dispute in connection with the free offer of the gospel is whether it can properly be said that God desires the salvation of all men.

It should have been apparent that the aforesaid committee, in predicating such ‘desire’ of God, was not dealing with the decretive will of God; it was dealing with the free offer of the gospel to all without distinction and that surely respects, not the decretive will of God, but the revealed will. There is not ground for the supposition that the expression was intended to refer to God’s decretive will.

It must be admitted that if the expression were intended to apply to the decretive will of God, then there would be, at least, implicit contradiction. For to say that God desires the salvation of the reprobate and apply the former to the same thing as the latter, namely, the decretive will, would be contradiction; it would amount to averring of the same thing, viewed from the same aspect, God wills and God does not will.

Again, the expression, ‘God desires,’ in the formula that crystallises the crux of the question, is intended to notify not at all the ‘seeming’ attitude of God, but a real attitude, a real disposition of loving-kindness inherent in the free offer to all, in other words, a pleasure or delight in God, contemplating the blessed result to be achieved by compliance with the overture proffered and the invitation given.

Let us restate, in other words, the real matter in dispute. It is, whether in the Reformed doctrine of redemption, the desire and pleasure of God concerns only the salvation of the elect whom He has chosen in Christ from the foundation of the world, or, whether it also refers to the non­elect whom God has made the objects of His everlasting displeasure and wrath.

There are three important facts to notice from the above quotations.

Firstly, the Professors have posited in God a sensible and reasonable will concerning His precepts for the salvation of all men. If any should object that the Professors have not used the words, ‘sensible and reasonable,’ then that which they have written is meaningless. Furthermore, if there is a sensible and reasonable desire in God which respects His preceptive will that all men shall be saved, such desire is internal to the mind of God. It would be contrary to Scripture and to reason to suppose that there is a desire in God which is without sensibility and reason, and which does not belong to His internal mind. The Professors have put the matter beyond doubt in the following quotation from their study:

The expression ‘God desires’ in the formula that crystallises the crux of the question, is intended to notify not at all the ‘seeming’ attitude of God but a real attitude, a real disposition of loving-kindness inherent in the free offer to all, in other words, a pleasure or delight in God, contemplating the blessed result to be achieved by compliance with the overture proffered and the invitation given.

Secondly, if there is a sensible and reasonable desire in God for the salvation of all men, and that desire is internal to His mind, then unless there are two minds in God, that desire must belong to the same mind which executes His eternal decrees.

Thirdly, the Professors have attempted to avoid the obvious contradiction which must exist if the desire of God for the salvation of all men has reference to God’s decretive will, by referring that desire to His preceptive will. In other words, the Professors believe that by confining the desire of God for the salvation of all men to His preceptive will, it does not involve a contradiction with God’s decretive will by which He purposes to save only some. Now as we have clearly pointed out, a desire in God for the salvation of all men must belong to the same mind which executes His decrees. The Professors, therefore, have failed to avoid the internal contradiction in God. Rather, they have by positing a desire in God’s preceptive will, created it.

If a duplicity is implied, it matters not, in this case, if it is held that there are two minds in God or only one. If it is proposed that God desires the salvation of all men, and at the same time purposes to save only some, there must be a contradiction in the Divine Mind.

The Professors have not comprehended within their theology the fact that a desire in God, whether it be made to belong to His decretive will or His preceptive will, is a state or act of the Divine Mind. If it is held that the Divine Mind is rational, then all the desires of God must be consistent with His purposes and decrees. The non-fulfilment of desire in God implies that there is an internal contradiction or want of blessedness in the ever blessed God. The Scripture teaches that God will fulfil all His good pleasure. God in the human sense does not desire or want of anything, but decrees all things according to the pleasure of His own will.

The obscurity and confusion of the modern modified Calvinist system, in the understanding of many, stems from the fact that the idea persists that the desire of God, which He is said to have for the salvation of all men is external to Himself, because it is posited in His preceptive will. The basic error, in this respect, is simply the positing in the mind of God a desire concerning His precepts. God’s preceptive will which is given for man’s rule of duty, is in no way declarative of what God desires or what He intends to do. To say that God desires the salvation of those whom He does not purpose to save, by granting them the gifts of repentance and faith, is to make God insincere and a monster in the worst sense. The free offer of Christ in the gospel, which God’s ministers are commanded to preach unto all men, is not a declaration of whom He desires to save, any more than it is one concerning the particular individuals whom He purposes to redeem.

3. The Misrepresentation of Calvin’s Position Refuted from his Institutes

In "the Epistle to the reader" at the beginning of his Institutes, Calvin instructs that his commentaries are to be interpreted in the light of the summary of religion which he has given in all its parts in the Institutes. This injunction is completely ignored by modern modified Calvinists.

As already shown, the point at which Professor Murray and other modern modified Calvinists have misinterpreted Calvin is in his commentary on Ezekiel 18:23. “Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God: and not that he should return from his ways and live.”

Having demonstrated the fact that modern modified Calvinism has established a duplicity of will in the mind of God, as necessary to their system whereby they give a double meaning to Scripture, but have failed to avoid the contradictions created thereby, let us consider how the theology of Calvin’s Institutes is in total refutation of such a system.

To this end we now answer the two questions, which are raised on page 23 herein, in the light of Calvin’s Institutes.

The answers to these questions are interdependent. If Calvin does not effectively deny that there is a duplicity or complexity of wills in God, to which the first question refers, then a desire in God for the salvation of all men cannot be excluded. Such a desire in God, to which the second question refers, implies a duplicity of wills in God.

The validity of this essay stands or falls by the answers given to these questions. If Calvin satisfactorily refutes the notion of duplicity of wills in God, there cannot be a double connotation given to the interpretation of Scripture, by which it is held, that God desires or wishes the salvation of all men, and at the same time, has decreed the certain and everlasting destruction of the reprobate. If, however, Calvin does not give satisfactory answers, then modern modified Calvinism has won the day. God does desire the salvation of all men, under which circumstance there can be no logical answer to the doctrines of universalism, while the theological system as put forward by John Calvin in his Institutes, has no relevant application in the Church of our day.

(a) Calvin’s Refutation of a Duplicity of Wills in God (The First Question Answered)

The answer to the first question, ‘does Calvin effectively deny that there is a duplicity of wills in God,’ is given in Book 1, chapter 18, section 3. Here Calvin establishes his doctrine of the simplicity of God’s will in the face of those who object against him: “If nothing happens without the will of God, He must have two contrary wills, decreeing by a secret counsel what he has openly forbidden in His law.”

In giving answer, Calvin cites cases in which God accomplishes His will when men act contrary to His precepts, e.g., “The sons of Eli hearkened not unto the voice of their father, because the Lord would slay them” (I Samuel 2:25). He then writes:

The gospel, by the mouth of Luke, declares, that Herod and Pontius Pilate conspired “to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done” (Acts 4:28). And in truth, if Christ was not crucified by the will of God, where is our redemption? Still, however, the will of God is not at variance with itself. It undergoes no change. He makes no presence of not willing [decretively] what He wills [preceptively], but while in Himself the will is one and undivided, to us it appears manifold, because from the feebleness of our intellect, we cannot comprehend how, though after a different manner, He wills [preceptively] and wills not [decretively] the very same thing.

In this we have the teaching of Scripture, in which we cannot understand how God decretively willed the death of His own Son for our redemption, when He had already preceptively willed, “Thou shalt not kill or bear false witness.”

Calvin here gives no hint of duplicity in the mind of God, rather as he has stated, within God Himself, His will is one and undivided. In dealing with another objection of similar content in Section 4 of the same chapter, he writes, “They perversely confound the command of God with His secret will, though it appears by an infinite number of examples, that there is a great distance and diversity between them” (from footnote, French translation).

It is interesting to note, that both Calvin and his opponents both rejected the notion of duplicity in God. His opponents accused him that his system promoted that position, and he ably refuted them.

In setting Calvin’s position on the simplicity of God’s will over and against that of modern modified Calvinists, it is important to understand that they actually take the position which Calvin’s objectors raised against him. On the one hand modern modified Calvinists say that nothing happens without the will of God; on the other as we have seen, they propose a duality of wills in the mind of God, the contradiction of which they cannot avoid, when they refer a desire in Him for the salvation of the non­elect to His preceptive will at the same time as they ascribe to His decretive will His ordination of their destruction.

Remember, Professor Murray has written that he “is not persuaded that we may speak of God’s will as ‘simple’ after the pattern of Calvin’s statement,” and the Professors together have written, “We should not entertain ... any prejudice against the notion that God desires or has pleasure in the accomplishment of what He does not decretively will.” Professor Murray has also written:

There is the undeniable fact that, in regard to sin, God decretively wills what He preceptively does not will. There is the contradiction. He must maintain that it is perfectly consistent with God’s perfection that this contradiction should obtain. But it does not appear to be any resolution to say that God’s will is ‘simple.’

That there is often an outward contradiction between God's precepts and His decrees, we do not deny, but, as we have clearly demonstrated, the Professors have made the contradiction internal to the mind of God, not only in regard to sin, but to the supposition of a desire in God for the salvation of all men.

(b) The Meaning of “Wishes” or “Wills” Relative to the Preceptive and Decretive Wills

Since the text of Ezekiel 18:23 specifically declares that God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, it is obvious that Calvin does not place desire in the word which is translated “wishes.”

The English word “wishes” by dictionary definition means to desire, to long for, to desire eagerly or ardently (Webster). Its use in the translation of Calvin from the Latin is therefore unreliable, and as Professor Murray has noted, should be translated “wills.” In respect to the second part of Calvin’s statement it is totally incorrect. Used in the sense God wishes, it would say contrary to Scripture, that God desires or longs for the death of the wicked.

Our next task is to show that the word “wishes” or “wills” has nothing to do with a desire which modern modified Calvinists posit in God’s preceptive will. To this end we must consider the use of the word “will” as it differs in its application in respect to God’s preceptive will and His decretive will.

In respect to God’s decrees the word “will” means that by which God “foreordains whatsoever comes to pass” (Shorter Catechism, No. 7). In respect to God’s precepts it refers to that which the Scriptures principally teach, namely, “what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man” (Shorter Catechism, No. 3).

By definition in the Westminster Shorter Catechism, God executeth His decrees in the works of creation and providence (Shorter Catechism, No. 8). “God’s works of providence are His most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all His creatures and all their actions” (Shorter Catechism, No. 11).

The essential difference between God’s preceptive will and His decretive will is that the former comprises man’s rule of duty, and the latter concerns God’s purposes in all things whatsoever come to pass in time and eternity. God’s decretive will therefore, embraces all the actions of men and angels, good and bad. Since God has declared in His Word, “My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure” (Isaiah 46:10), all God’s desire, pleasure and purpose in respect to His preceptive will, including its fulfilment and non­fulfilment, is contained in His decretive will.

In other words, God’s preceptive will is not active, but is a rule of duty. All the activity of the Divine Mind concerning His precepts belongs to God’s decretive will. The crux of the whole matter is Calvin’s doctrine that the will of God is simple.

The confusion of modern modified Calvinism stems from the positing by that system of the activity of desire in God’s preceptive will, which is then said not to have respect to God’s decretive will. The positing of the activity of desire in God for the salvation of the reprobate in God’s preceptive will separate from the activity by which He ordains them to destruction in His decretive will, does nothing but create duplicity and contradiction in the mind of God.

Since God’s satisfaction and not His pleasure is in the death of the reprobate, there can be no ground for the modern modified Calvinist notion that God desires their salvation. In other words, the fact of God’s satisfaction in the death of the reprobate is quite contrary to the idea that He desires their salvation.

To recapitulate the above argument, the decretive will of God concerns all things, whatsoever, that come to pass, including the actions of men and angels in the fulfilment or non­fulfilment of His preceptive will. Thus all the desire, pleasure and purposes of God concern only God’s decretive will.

The placing of desire in God for the fulfilment of His preceptive will, which in the purposes of His decretive will is not fulfilled, therefore creates a false duplicity in the mind of God.

The decretive will of God includes the satisfaction of His justice in the death of the wicked, but not His pleasure, which is in His own glory and perfections. Since God’s decretive will concerns all the activity of the Divine mind, it involves a contradiction therein to say that God has satisfied His justice in ordaining the death of the reprobate and at the same time desires their salvation.

(c) Calvin’s Treatment Of Ezekiel 18:23 in his Institutes (The second question answered)

An answer to the second question, “What does Calvin mean by the words, ‘God wishes all to be saved,’ does he apply them universally?" is found in Book 3, chapter 24, sections 15 and 16 of his Institutes.

In the previous Section, No. 14 of his Institutes, Calvin has given two reasons as to why the reprobate perish. They are:

(1) The refusal of the reprobate to obey the Word of God when manifested to them, will be properly ascribed to the malice and depravity of their hearts, provided it be at the same time added,

(2) that they were adjudged to this depravity, because they were raised up by the just but inscrutable judgment of God, to show forth His glory by their condemnation.

Opponents of Calvin have always objected to his doctrine that the reprobate perish through God’s ordination. In the next two Sections, Nos. 15 and 16, Calvin shows that the objection is based on a false application of such texts as Ezekiel 18:23, I Timothy 2:4, and II Peter 3:9. It is the same false application which modern modified Calvinists use to support their doctrine that God desires the salvation of all men. The following is Calvin’s refutation of the notion that the Ezekiel text has such a universal reference:

Since an objection is often found on a few passages of Scripture, in which God seems to deny that the wicked perish through His ordination, except in so far as they spontaneously bring death upon themselves in opposition to his warning; let us briefly explain these passages, and demonstrate that they are not averse to the above view.

One of the passages adduced is, ‘Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God; and not that he should return from his ways and live’ (Ezekiel 18:23).

If we are to extend this to the whole human race, why are not the very many whose minds might be more easily bent to obey urged to repentance, rather than those who by His invitations become daily more and more hardened? Our Lord declares that the preaching of the gospel and miracles would have produced more fruit among the people of Nineveh and Sodom than in Judea (Matt. 11:20-24).

How comes it, then, that if God would have all to be saved, he does not open a door of repentance for the wretched, who would more readily have received grace?

Hence we may see that the passage is violently wrested, if the will of God, which the prophet mentions is opposed to His eternal counsel, by which He separated the elect from the reprobate.

Now if the genuine meaning of the prophet is inquired into, it will be found that he only means to give hope of pardon to them who repent. The sum is, that God is undoubtedly ready to pardon whenever the sinner repents. Therefore, He does not will his death, in so far as He wills repentance. But experience shows that this will, for the repentance of those whom He invites to Himself, is not such as to make Him touch all their hearts.

Still, it cannot be said that He acts deceitfully; for though the external word only renders those who hear it and do not obey it, inexcusable, it is truly regarded as an evidence of the grace which He reconciles men to Himself.

Let us therefore hold the doctrine of the prophet, that God has no pleasure in the death of the sinner: that the godly may feel confident that whenever they repent God is ready to pardon them; and that the wicked may feel that their guilt is doubled, when they respond not to the great mercy and condescension of God. The mercy of God therefore, will ever be ready to meet the penitent; but all the prophets, and apostles, and Ezekiel himself, clearly tell us who they are to whom repentance is given.

In the above quotation Calvin refers to the fact that our Lord upbraided the cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum for their unbelief and told them that if the mighty works that had been done in them, had been done in Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom, the latter cities would have repented. From this Calvin shows that God has declared that in His providence there are those who, if they had heard the gospel would have more readily repented than those who on hearing it, daily grow more hardened against it.

In the light of this, Calvin has asked the question: “If we are to extend the Ezekiel text to the whole human race, why does God send the gospel to those whose hearts are more hardened by the hearing of it, and not to those who would be more easily persuaded to receive it?”

It is clear from Calvin’s answer, that he does not refer the text to the whole human race. In effect he has replied: If it is said that God desires or would have all men to be saved, the Ezekiel text is violently wrested because such a notion makes the will which the prophet mentions, namely God’s pleasure that the wicked should repent, opposed to the eternal counsel by which He has separated the elect from the reprobate.

He goes on to say among other things, that the genuine meaning of the text is that God has given it to give hope of pardon to those who repent. Since God is ready to pardon the sinner whenever he repents, He does not therefore will his death, in­so­far as He wills repentance, because it is clear, that all the prophets and Ezekiel teach that He gives repentance only to the elect.

Under the previous heading 1 of this essay, it is shown that:

1. the desire and pleasure of God concerning the fulfilment or non­fulfilment of His preceptive will belongs to His decretive will,

2. the word “wishes” or “wills” in both parts of Calvin’s statement also belongs to the decretive will of God,

3. the words “God wishes” are totally incorrect when used in respect to the death of the wicked, but nevertheless, God wills their death when He ordains that the reprobate perish.

The text of Ezekiel therefore does not speak of God’s wish in respect to the wicked generally, but of God’s pleasure in their repentance, which in the context of other Scripture can only refer to those who are loved of the Father and chosen in Christ.

The modern modified Calvinist’s appeal to Ezekiel 18:23 rests on the subtlety, that because God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, He must also desire the salvation of all men. From this they further compound their error with a doctrine which posits a desire in God for the salvation of all men which respects not His decretive will but His preceptive will, with its consequent implication of duplicity in the mind of God. The second branch of the Ezekiel text, however, indicates that God’s pleasure is in those who turn from their wicked ways and live. That God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked is indeed universal in respect to all those fallen in Adam, and even the fallen angels. That, however, is the limit of that part of the expression in respect to those, who in the doctrine, Of God's eternal Decree, chapter 3 of the Westminster Confession are ordained “to the praise of His glorious justice.”

As previously noted, Calvin has instructed that his Commentaries are to be understood in the light of his Institutes. From these as shown above it is clear that when Calvin uses the expression, “God wishes or wills all to be saved” in his commentary on Ezekiel 18:23, he means it only in respect of those to whom God gives repentance, namely the elect.

This brings again to the fore the central principle of Calvin’s theology, that the will of God is simple and undivided, as opposed to that of modern modified Calvinism which teaches that God’s will is complex.

(d) Calvin’s Doctrine in Ezekiel 18:23 Further Confirmed by his Treatment of I Timothy 2:4 and II Peter 3:9 in his Institutes

In I Timothy 2:4 we read: “God our saviour; who will have all men to be saved,” and in II Peter 3:9: “The Lord is ... not willing that any should perish.”

From these portions of the texts, modern modified Calvinists take further warrant for their notion that God desires the salvation of all men. It is relevant to add, that if God who is omnipotent, will have all men to be saved, and is not willing that any should perish in the universalistic sense, then we are committed to a doctrine of universal redemption. Calvin, however, does not allow such a notion, because he interprets the first branch of the sentence of both verses by their second branches which read,

I Timothy 2:4: “and come unto a knowledge of the truth,” and II Peter 3:9: “but that all should come to repentance.”

Calvin clearly teaches that the mode by which God will have all men to be saved, and the means by which He is not willing that any should perish are knowledge of the truth and repentance, both of which are gifts which God bestows on the elect only. In respect to I Timothy 2:4, he writes, “the mode in which God thus wills is plain from the context; for Paul connects two things, a will to be saved, and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” He goes on to tell us, that…

[when] God will have all men to be saved ... He assuredly means nothing more than that the way of salvation was not shut against any order of men ... He who selects those whom He is to visit in mercy does not impart it to all. But since it clearly appears that He is there speaking not of individuals, but of orders of men, let us have done with longer discussion ... If this is true, that if He were not disposed to receive those who implore His mercy, it could not have been said, “Turn ye unto me, saith the Lord of Hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the Lord of Hosts” (Zech. 1:3); but I hold that no man approaches God unless previously influenced from above. And if repentance were placed at the will of man, Paul would not say, “If God peradventure will give them repentance” (2 Tim. 2:25). Nay, did not God at the very time when He is verbally exhorting all to repentance, influence the elect by the secret movement of His Spirit, Jeremiah would not say, “Turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou are the Lord my God. Surely after that I was turned I repented” (Jer. 31:18).

It is clear from Calvin’s treatment of the above texts, within the context of his doctrine of the simplicity of God’s will, that he does not apply them universally, nor does he in any sense allow that there is a desire in God for the salvation of all men.

4. Calvin’s Doctrine that God’s Purpose in Sending the Gospel is to Harden the Hearts of the Reprobate

In Book 3, chapter 24, Section 13 of his Institutes, Calvin refers to several cases in which God purposes by the preaching of His Word, to send upon the reprobate an even greater blindness.

For example in Isaiah 6:9, 10, we read where the Lord tells the prophet, “Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.” Calvin comments:

Here He directs His voice to them, but it is that they may turn a deaf ear; He kindles a light, but it is that they might become more blind; He produces a doctrine, but it is that they may become more stupid; He employs a remedy, but it is that they may not be cured. And John referring to this prophecy, declares that the Jews could not believe the doctrine of Christ, because this curse from God lay upon them (John 12:37, 40).

The doctrine that God’s purpose in sending the Gospel to the reprobate is to harden their hearts in order that they may not believe and be saved, is a complete refutation of the notion of modern modified Calvinists that God desires the salvation of all men.

5. Calvin’s Refutation of the Notion that there is an Inconsistency between God’s Eternal Election and the Free Offer of the Gospel to All Men.

In his comments on Calvin’s treatment of Ezekiel 18:23, Professor Murray makes the point,

… there is the undeniable fact that, in regard to sin, God decretively wills what He preceptively does not will. There is the contradiction. We must maintain that it is perfectly consistent with God’s perfection that this contradiction should obtain.

We acknowledge that there is an apparent contradiction due to the weakness of man’s senses, between man’s transgression of the moral law and God’s providence in which He governs all His creatures and all their actions. This is not denied but supported by Calvin.

Professor Murray, however, has used this apparent contradiction to justify another which his system creates when it states that God desires the salvation of those whom He has foreordained to eternal destruction.

We have shown that modern modified Calvinists have posited a sensible and reasonable desire in God for the salvation of the reprobate, which belongs to the same mind as executes His decrees. Also, that they cannot avoid the inherent contradiction of their system, that God loves and desires the salvation of those whom He has made the objects of His everlasting displeasure and wrath. There is, therefore, in their system a contradiction or inconsistency between God’s eternal election and their concept of the free offer of the gospel to all men in which God is said to desire the salvation of all men. This Calvin refutes in Section 17 of the same book and chapter of his Institutes as follows:

Let us now see whether there be any inconsistency between the two things—viz. that God, by an eternal decree, fixed the number of those whom he is pleased to embrace in love, and on whom he is pleased to display his wrath, and that he offers salvation indiscriminately to all.

I hold that they are perfectly consistent, for all that is meant by the promise is, just that his mercy is offered to all who desire and implore it, and this none do, save those whom he has enlightened. Moreover, he enlightens those whom he has predestinated to salvation. Thus the truth of the promises remains firm and unshaken, so that it cannot be said there is any disagreement between the eternal election of God and the testimony of his grace which he offers to believers. But why does he mention all men? Namely, that the consciences of the righteous may rest the more secure when they understand that there is no difference between sinners, provided they have faith, and that the ungodly may not be able to allege that they have not an asylum to which they may betake themselves from the bondage of sin, while they ungratefully reject the offer which is made to them. Therefore, since by the Gospel the mercy of God is offered to both, it is faith, in other words, the illumination of God, which distinguishes between the righteous and the wicked; the former feeling the efficacy of the Gospel, the latter obtaining no benefit from it. Illumination itself has eternal election for its rule.

6. The Intrusion of Modern Modified Calvinism into the Secret Counsels of God’s Will and its Law of Opposites

                                                                                                           

Modern modified Calvinists charge those who deny that God has a favourable disposition towards the reprobate with an unwarranted intrusion into the secret counsels of God’s will. The charge, however, is an attempt to provide a screen against the proper examination of their system of exegesis.

Within their concept of the secret counsels of God’s will, modern modified Calvinists attempt to equate the wrath and curse which God has declared against the reprobate with that of His fatherly displeasure under which the elect may fall by their sins, having made this equation, they then assume that because God loves the elect and exercises His fatherly displeasure concerning them when they fall into sin, that He must also love the reprobate. In other words, if God can be said to exercise both love and wrath toward the elect, He must also have a love for the reprobate.

If they who are the objects of God’s redeeming love can also in some sense of the word be regarded as the objects of His wrath, why should it be impossible that they who are the objects of His wrath should also in some sense share His divine favour.

Let us now investigate the fallacy of this reasoning.

In the first place it must be stated that there are not two kinds of wrath in God concerning sin, one for the elect, and one for the reprobate. The text of Romans 1:18, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men,” is true both of the elect and reprobate. There is nevertheless a total difference between God’s disposition towards the elect and reprobate. While God’s anger is perfect, and this emotion is expressed in God’s disposition toward elect and reprobate, that disposition is conditioned absolutely by the factors of God’s electing, predestinating love and Christ’s death.

On the death of Christ rests the judicial removal of the wrath of God against the elect for their sins. Since the atonement has reference to particular sins and not sins in general, it is not a reservoir or storehouse of forgiveness. It therefore creates no difficulty to hold that God has expressed His displeasure against His people for their sins. This is clearly the position of Scripture as seen in the following quotation from Calvin’s Institutes, Book 3, chapter 4, section 32:

David says, “O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thine hot displeasure” (Psalm 6:1). There is nothing inconsistent with this in its being repeatedly said, that the Lord is angry with His saints when He chastens them for their sins (Psalm 38:7). In like manner, in Isaiah: “In that day thou shalt say, O Lord, I will praise thee though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortest me” (Isaiah 12:1). Likewise in Habakkuk, “In wrath remember mercy” (Hab. 3:2), and Micah, “I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him” (Micah 7:9).

Two things determine the disposition of God toward the elect. Firstly, He has chosen and loved them out of His mere good pleasure from all eternity, and secondly, He has sent His only Son into the world that He through His own perfect righteousness and death would reconcile them unto Himself.

Two things determine God’s disposition toward the reprobate. One; the fact of His wrath against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men, and two; the fact that He has by an act of His will ordained them to be the objects of His everlasting displeasure and wrath. Though they may taste of the temporal blessings which God bestows upon them in their earthly life, they are, as the Scripture teaches, given the Gospel for the reason as Calvin comments on Isaiah 6:9, 10. “He directs his voice to them, but it is that they may turn a deaf ear; he kindles a light, but it is that they may become more stupid; he employs a remedy, but it is that they may not be cured.” From this it should be clear that God’s disposition toward the reprobate is such that they have no part whatever in the purposes of God in the free offer of the Gospel except for the greater hardening of their hearts.

Modern modified Calvinists have in effect adopted the so called law of opposites, which assumes that there is a love-hate relationship in God concerning the same object. Their notion, that because God has in some sense expressed a wrath against the elect, He must also love the reprobate because He loves the elect, is entirely gratuitous. It is without warrant in any part of the Scripture and constitutes an addition thereto. There is no equation in any sense whatever between God’s disposition of wrath toward the reprobate and that of His fatherly disposition toward the elect. Since the wrath of God in the case of the latter is entirely conditioned by God’s eternal electing love and Christ's death, it can never be said, in any sense, that any are loved outside of Christ.

Modern modified Calvinism intrudes into the secret counsels of God’s will on two counts:

1. By false interpretation of Scripture it misinterprets the mind of God so teaching that which Scripture does not teach.

2. It attempts to define the inner workings of the divine mind when it says that there is unfulfilled desire in God’s mind for the salvation of all men which respects His preceptive or revealed will, but which is contrary to His decretive will. By so doing they have created a duplicity in the divine mind.

Calvin does not profess knowledge concerning the internal mystery of divine sovereignty. Where there is an apparent contradiction between God’s precepts and His decretive will he teaches that it is because it cannot be understood by the weak finite mind of man. It is the inability of men to understand the simplicity of God’s will though it appears to have “great variety as far as our senses are concerned” which in Calvin’s theology constitutes the mystery of the sovereign counsel of God’s will.

This is not as modern modified Calvinists would have it. To them there is an actual complexity or duplicity within the divine mind as contained in the second count (2) above. The mystery of divine sovereignty is made a covering for the inherent contradictions of their system. When they are confronted with the contradiction that God does not fulfil His desire for the salvation of all men in the accomplishment of His purposes, they say that it is a mystery which lies hidden in the sovereign counsel of His will.

It should be clear from the above, that it is modern modified Calvinists who have made an unwarranted intrusion into the secret counsels of God’s will, and by it they hold a false doctrine concerning God’s sovereignty.