Tough Questions From Christian Teens – What About Calvinism?

We are answering tough questions from Christian teens about a variety of subjects. The current topic deals with how God saves people.

In our last article we looked at the question of ‘predestination.’

You can read previous questions and answers here.

“What about the TULIP of Calvinism?”

Good question!

TULIP (the ‘five points’) is an interesting way of teaching a particular view of salvation. Each letter (point) builds on the one that comes before. If people struggle with the first point (total depravity), they will struggle with what follows. If they understand the doctrine of total depravity, what follows is easier to understand and accept.

One major difference between God choosing the elect from eternity and playmates choosing people for a team is that the people waiting to be chosen for a team know the choosing is going on. They are alive to the process and wanting to be chosen for a team. That differs from what the Apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians –

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

Ephesians 2:1-3

Sinners are not alive to the process of selection or opportunity. They are ‘dead’ in trespasses and sins. Their live their lives in accordance with the course of this world, the devil, and the lusts of their flesh. They are by nature ‘children of wrath.’ They do not have the ‘potential’ to play in the game. Only God’s intervention (love and grace) can save them and He does that without their even knowing about the game (speaking metaphorically).

I think maybe the metaphor breaks down when you consider the point you just made and the fact that it is a deadly serious game (really not a game at all) and you ‘play for keeps’. One feels that choosing teams is a reasonably fair process because the point is to take turns picking in order to have even teams and an even match. Still, it seems that there isn’t a really good way to explain this dilemma so every picture or metaphor that accurately reflects God’s Word is helpful. Another point that has often occurred to me and disturbed me is that God seems to be saying that He is sovereign so everything about me that is good is from Him. However, we have free will so everything about me that is bad is my fault. That sounds like ‘heads I win, tails you lose.’ To put it another way, what if I introduced my son to you and said ‘everything good about him is because I’m such a great dad but any issues he might have are all his fault.

Excellent points! Jesus was best at sharing metaphors, parables, stories, etc. 😊

There are most likely better ways of sharing the idea of God’s fairness in His sovereign choice of some but not others, but I sometimes like to use life situations that children and teens would understand. I think what’s good about humans is God’s design of them. After God created man and woman He looked at what He had done and said it was “very good.” God designed humans in His image and likeness, so our initial design was very good. God placed the male into the Garden and introduced him to a life of perfection and purpose.

God also introduced the man to the idea of ‘corruption’ – “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” That’s a corruption to the design. Design good – disobey God bad. We know what happened after that. The devil deceived the woman who gave the fruit to the man who willfully disobeyed God. What happened to the very good design? Something bad entered – a corruption to the design. The design is good, but the corruption (sin) is bad. God has a cure for that, but it would cost Him the life of His Son. Jesus died to cure the disease of sin. Disease and sickness is a picture God uses throughout His Word of something that infects and affects the health of humans and something He can cure.

Psalm 103 is a great example of that. When Jesus began His earthly ministry He healed people of every type of sickness and disease. He cast demons out of many people. The fact that He did that demonstrated His love for people and desire to return them to His original design.

We can see the original design to some extent in babies. It looks like there is so much potential for good, but “sin,” the corruption, exists in every newborn child. We saw that in Cain and Abel. God told Cain – “If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”

Cain and Abel are examples of two types of people – righteous and unrighteous. Jesus called Abel “righteous” in Matthew 23:35. The writer of Hebrews wrote – “By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous.” (Hebrews 11:4) Cain, on the other hand, was “of the wicked one.” The Apostle John wrote that – “For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.” (1 John 3:11-12).

Goodness exists in the design. God loves people because He designed them for His love. Sin corrupted the design and affects people in a wide variety of ways. Some people are just nicer than other people. That good behavior might lead us to think of some people as being more deserving of God’s favor than others. In fact, that’s what most other religions teach – do good and you’ll go to Heaven (or be absorbed into the universe, or whatever other nonsense they believe). That ‘works’ oriented belief leads everyone down a dead-end path because God won’t allow anyone to work their way into His favor. His favor is unearned, unmerited (the meaning of the word grace). God gives His favor freely to those He chooses.

When we look at the last two chapters of the Bible, we see the renewal of God’s original design for human beings – to be with Him forever –

“Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”

Revelation 21: 3-4

Anything that is outside of God’s original design is not allowed to invade our relationship with God –

“But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.”

Revelation 21:7

Paul explained the beauty of this so well in 1 Corinthians 15 –

“The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being.’ The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.”

(42-49)

In God’s great and eternal purpose He designed perfection, allowed corruption, expressed loving grace, and saved to perfection. We have great worth to God even though we are corrupt and sin against Him. Even with the great corruption, God works out His eternal plan. Things looked bleak for humanity when God saw their wholesale wickedness on the earth –

“The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.”

Corruption everywhere. Violence everywhere. God determined to destroy the creatures He had designed –

“But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”

Genesis 6

God created us to be good and do good and we will return to that because of His great love and mercy –

“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

Ephesians 2:4-10

I am not a “Calvinist,” though I do agree with some of what Calvin taught about Scripture. I am first, foremost, and only a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. Whatever He did and said, and whatever His disciples did and said (under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit), are what I believe is correct. If a man (e.g. John Calvin) gets some of what’s taught in the Bible correct, that’s a good thing. If there are things he doesn’t get right, my choice is always to follow Jesus.

Hope that helps. Thank you for your question.

The Next Question

In the next part of our special series, Tough Questions From Christian Teens, we will answer a question about temptation and sin.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.