[Nang;4920144]This is important to discuss . . .
The Sovereignty of God does not stand above His many attributes, but rather, sums them up. God is omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, loving, righteous, just, holy, wise, etc. . . all is why and what makes Him Sovereign. There is no such thing as one divine attribute dominating over another, for God is a simplistic Being.
Thus, His attribute of benevolence does not dominate over His attribute of being perfectly and totally Just. At the core of your argument, is the notion that God is less than loving if He does not save all men, or at least make the effort. Not so. God is revealing and extending justice when He leaves a soul in their sins . . and that is as righteous as His revealing and extending mercy and grace to many others.
Theologically, there is a difference between the qualities intrinsic to God’s
being and His
character. However admirable God’s abilities are (i.e., His omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience) these are not the reason we worship Him because they do not tell us anything about
Who He is. In a similar way an athlete’s abilities might inspire our admiration but a deeper kind of admiration entirely arises when we perceive him to be a hero. This admiration and the adulation comes from knowing
who the person is. Not merely what he can do.
If Allah were real (rather than a figment of an Arabian camel-driver’s mind) and if such a deity were truly all-powerful and all-controlling He would STILL not be worthy of worship because of the deficiency of his moral character. To make the God of the Bible fit into his determinist system John Calvin had to do some radical reverse-engineering to make add to God’s attributes that of being all-controlling ("sovereign").
This immediately led to some moral paradoxes. For instance, it made God solely responsible not only for damning people but also for “fitting them for destruction,” that is, for shaping them so that when they arrive at judgement they will be in a moral state that is deserving of wrath. If it is God who shapes the "vessel of wrath" for destruction then He will punish them for the very work He Himself did, a situation that is supposed to enhance His reputation as a powerful all just deity. Rather than answer the inevitable moral questions that arise at this paradigm, Calvin would have God roar at us mortals:
“How dare you ask the potter ‘why have you made me thus’”
Like a totalitarian monarch unrestrained by laws (like the Emperor Palpatine) such a deity can make any decree He wishes to and he cannot be questioned. We mortals must acquiesce and say He is “right” because…well, because He is bigger and more powerful than we are. Besides, if we question Him we too might one day face His iron scepter and be “dashed to pieces like a potter’s vessel.” Though this kind of God dispenses the very laws upon which we base our objections, He Himself does not have to follow any principle. This is quite appalling since, in the Word, God does not merely give laws that are just, He Himself is holy righteous and just.
Lest you think I am making artificial distinctions between God’s being (and the qualities intrinsic to His being) and His character let us look at the life of Jesus. In the incarnation, Jesus laid aside the attributes that were intrinsic to His being - omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience. Acting as a human necessarily meant also laying aside any role He might have had as a universal “sovereign.” As a human being Jesus made decisions about His daily life as opposed to, say, micromanaging the universe. Still, even AFTER He had laid aside ALL the divine attributes listed above J
esus still bore the Image of the Father’s character (
John 1:14, John 14:9). Also, even before He had been seated at “the right hand of power” Jesus received worship. It was not His power or position as reigning sovereign that made Jesus worthy to receive worship but His
character of love, truth and holiness. These characteristics were fundamental to who He is and to Who His Father is. As such, they cannot be laid aside.
Jesus is is not considered worthy to rule by virtue of His
ability to exert His control over people and make them worship Him but by the admiration and gratitude He inspires in us. In other words, believers at least worship Him because of who He is. Though you have made “sovereignty” equivalent to God’s other qualities. I rather think His love is more fundamental because it defines who His is.
IOW's, anything God chooses to do, is good.
You have it backwards. Everything God does is not good JUST because He chooses to do it. It is good because He only CHOOSES to do
that which is in accord with His good nature. Pasting the word "good" on all the horrible conclusions of Calvinism does not make those ideas just or good.
In our finite and tainted understanding, there is no room for us to find fault with His determinations.
There is a lot we do not know. However, I disagree with your paradigm because I do understand it. I think it is fairly simple, really. I just think it is abominable.
See. There you say it. You find fault with God for not saving or making an effort to save universally.
God has sent a witness to all people. If everyone does not respond it is not God's fault. I do not think universal salvation is possible. On the other hand if God is responsible for
ensuring the non-response of the unsaved then He is responsible for their fate. BTW I am not finding fault with God. I am finding fault with the only conception of God that will work in a deterministic system. Unlike you, I do not believe God hates certain people since before their conception. My case is not against God but who Calvin makes Him out to be.
No, the reason we are told to love our enemies, is because all of us are wicked sinners. I have no right to hate, for I deserve the same justice from God as any other. Plus, I do not know if the person I want to hate might not be shown love, mercy, grace and salvation from God tomorrow.
Here is the scripture again:
43“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you,
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be
sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust (
Matthew 5:43-45)
Jesus is not saying that we should refrain from hating our enemies because we are not God and only He has the right to hate His enemies. He is saying that
loving our enemies makes us like our Father in Heaven who also loves His enemies. In light of this it is unlikely that the Father
literally hated the man Esau or his descendants even before they were born.
Appreciation of saving grace cannot be full, until one grasps how righteous and pure God is, in His acts of Justice. Hellfire is a horrible truth, but it is exactly what each and every one of us deserve for our sins, lack of love for, and disobedience against God and His Word.
God will be glorified in His acts of Justice as well in His acts of grace.
For He is the one and only Sovereign God Almighty. (Isaiah 46:8-13)
I do not see how believing God creates sentient beings specifically to destroy them would make me more appreciative of God's many wonderful qualities.
