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So I finished my essay on Calvin’s Doctrine of Predestination just in time to turn it in. I went considerably over the word limit, but what can you do when you’re up against the clock? Any who care to read it may do so here. It’s not a terribly inspiring essay, mostly because the assignment was to sketch Calvin’s view, not to set forth my own. Nevertheless, I am reasonably happy with how it turned out.

Ash has been after me to post something thought-provoking, and since this essay has been provoking many of my thoughts lately, I figured I’d post something on predestination. In fact, I think this will be the first in a series of posts on predestination.

Among other things, researching for this essay has added further fuel to my suspicion that most of those whose lips instinctively curl at the name of John Calvin (and they are many) have never taken the time to read his writing or grapple with his teaching. I realise that this is a fairly broad generalisation, yet I stand by it nonetheless. For one thing, Calvin is a first rate exegete, and the majority of his teaching would be accepted by all Christians. Secondly, his views on predestination are clear, and thoroughly biblical, and should be studied by all Christians if for no other reason than the fact that they have shaped Protestant theology and church life for over 400 years.

Many people today, however, would prefer to avoid discussing predestination altogether. It’s a hot topic, and just mentioning it tends to get some of us riled up. There are a few problems with this position, however. As Calvin says,

For neither will anything else suffice to make us humble as we ought to be nor shall we otherwise sincerely feel how much we are obliged to God. And as Christ teaches, here is our only ground for firmness and confidence: in order to free us of all fear and render us victorious amid so many dangers, snares, and mortal struggles, he promises that whatever the Father has entrusted into his keeping will be safe [John 10:28-29]. (XXI, 1)

In other words, predestination keeps us humble, for it teaches that we have no part in our salvation, and thus no reason to boast. Yet it also gives us comfort, for our salvation rests not in our ability to obtain it (and conversely we do not run the risk of falling away through inability), because God who predestined us is able to carry our salvation through to its completion.

The second reason why we cannot simply avoid talking about predestination, as much as we might like to avoid controversy, is that it is a thoroughly biblical concept. Forms of the words ‘predestine’ or ‘election’ occur over 25 times in the New Testament, and the concept occurs even more often. To ignore predestination because it is controversial or uncomfortable is akin to calling the Holy Spirit, who authored the Scriptures, a fool. For the omniscient God who inspired the authors of Scripture included all that we need for faith and life, and nothing that we don’t need. So if we can safely ignore predestination, we must question what this teaching is doing in the Bible at all. Either it can and should be understood by Christians, and give us reason to worship God, or God has unduly burdened us with teaching that we don’t need and only leads to schism. If we ignore predestination we say that the Spirit of God miscalculated our need and/or capacity.

Clearly those who are Christians and respect the authority of the Bible cannot makes such a statement. We therefore have to address this (and other) issues in the Bible, even if we don’t really feel like it. Obviously, we need to approach the more contentious issues tactfully and carefully; but we also need to be willing to take a stand where the Bible is clear.

I hope this post (and those forthcoming) will help any who read our blog regularly to think through the Bible’s teaching on predestination. In the next post I’ll take a stab at defining predestination (with the help of some dead friends). Until then, feel free to leave questions or comments, insights or rants in the comments.

This entry was posted by Bryce on Thursday, March 3rd, 2005 at 1:10 am. This entry was tagged with Predestination, Theology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.