Calvinistic Caricature

On another blog a friend presented a picture of Calvinism that was perhaps a popular understanding, but not very accurate. I don't want to link to that blog because putting a name to it tends to make it personal and I don't want to make it personal. But I do want to address the popular understanding ... or misunderstanding. So here is the representation offered over there:

Calvinism is the view that God decides whether you go to Heaven or Hell and nothing that you do affects where you end up. If God wants to save you, then he will, and you can’t resist it. If God wants to damn you, then he will, and you can’t resist that. God saves some people and not others, but not based on anything that the people themselves do. God does not want everyone to be saved.

Now, I understand where this comes from, and that's the nature of a "caricature". A caricature takes certain genuine characteristics of a person or a thing and then exaggerates them. Thus, there are certain characteristics of Calvinism in this depiction that have been exaggerated ... and thus misrepresented. So let's see if we can clear the air, because I'm relatively certain that there are more than a few who actually believe that this description is not a caricature, but an accurate representation. I'm quite sure that the guy who wrote it believes that. So what's the truth?

Calvinism (I hate that term ... can we switch to something less "man-centered"? Maybe "Reformed theology" or "the doctrines of grace" or something?) holds that human beings in their natural condition are dead in sin (Eph 2:1), hostile to God (Rom 8:7), inclined only to evil (Gen 8:21), and incapable of recognizing the kingdom of God (John 3:3) or understanding the things of God (1 Cor 2:14). While we all agree that "all have sinned", those who disagree with Reformed theology argue that Man is not so bad off that he cannot overcome his "dead in sin" condition, hostility to God, evil inclination, and inability to recognize or understand the things of God and, with the proper wooing from God, choose to come to Christ. That's a key difference between the two views. How bad off are humans in their natural state? Dead, or only mostly dead? The doctrines of grace hold that Man is spiritually dead and incapable of changing that condition. That's the initial condition.

According to Reformed theology, then, why do people go to Hell? The caricature version above indicates it's because "God wants to damn you" and it is "not based on anything that the people themselves do." The biblical ... I'm sorry ... Reformed theology view is that "all have sinned" and, on that basis (what they do), they have earned damnation for themselves because the wages of sin is death (do I really need to give you a verse for that?). So, with all things in static condition without God's direct intervention, human beings will have chosen to go to Hell and God would allow (not force) them to do so. Praise God that He does not leave it in static condition.

A solution, then, is needed. Outside of Reformed theology, the solution is that God will lay out His offer to everyone, encourage them to come, and leave it up to them. This view requires that the human condition be not quite so bad as Scripture seems to say it is. Thus, Reformed theology argues that God is sovereign in everything, not merely some things. We believe that those who receive Christ do so not by their own actions or will, but by God's work (John 1:12-13). We believe that those who are appointed will believe (Acts 13:48). We believe that in order to believe you must first be one of His sheep (John 10:26), that faith is a gift from God (John 6:64-65) rather than a summoning from the will of the human being, and that this it does not depend on human will or effort, but on God who has mercy (Rom 9:16).

Is it true that Calvinism believes that salvation is "not based on anything that the people themselves do"? This would not be an accurate representation of Reformed theology. While we surely believe that spiritual life (regeneration) is initiated by God and faith is a gift from God, we believe that each person must exercise that faith and choose Christ. No one is saved who doesn't do that. We believe that "With the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved" (Rom 10:10). Further (and perhaps more than those who oppose this view), we believe that you are required to "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling", keeping in mind that "it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure" (Phil 2:12-13). (Our view of "the Perseverance of the Saints" includes work instead of "it doesn't matter what you do".)

Is it true that Calvinism believes that "God does not want everyone to be saved"? I'm afraid, with all due respect to my friend at the other blog, that this is simply a lie. You cannot avoid the straightforward statement from Paul that God "desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim 2:4). Reformed theology argues that, while this is clearly (because it says so) a desire of God, it is not the plan of God. Those who disagree with this must argue that it is God's will that all are saved, but He is bound in some sense and incapable of accomplishing His will. Human Free Will appears to be Sovereign in that view. In the Reformed view, God desires that all be saved (in direct contradiction to the caricature above), but wills "to show His wrath and to make known His power" on "vessels of wrath prepared for destruction" (Rom 9:22). He desires to show mercy to all, but wills to contrast wrath with mercy. The Bible suggests that He is well within His rights to do so as the "Potter" (Rom 9:21).

There are two defining positions in Reformed theology. The first is the Sovereignty (capital "S") of God. We believe that He works all things after the counsel of His will (Eph 2:11), that He is sovereign in everything, including salvation. He incorporates "second causes" like Man's free will (lowercase "f" and "w") and Man's work, but is the First Cause of everything because, well, He's God. It is hardly possible to overemphasize this concept -- the Sovereignty of God. The second point is like unto the first. God is the issue. He initializes salvation for His purposes and His glory. He saves whom He will save and does so perfectly. He accomplishes what He intends without fail. Everything that occurs is, in the final analysis, to His glory. Not Man's. He enables us to cooperate and we cooperate, but those are two phases. The first is "monergism" -- His effort alone -- and the second is synergism -- His work in us and our work for Him. All for His glory. He regenerates and we respond. He gifts us with faith and we believe. He dwells in us and we work out our salvation. It is not about us; it's about Him. These are the two positions that make Reformed theology somewhat different than the rest. They make grace much larger since in the other views I at least mustered the right faith on my own and accomplished the right decision. That's something, right? Thus, "the doctrines of grace". And while there are tendrils to truth in that caricature above, it does not truthfully represent what we believe. On the other hand, what the other beliefs do with the passages that I've listed (and more) eludes me. But, hey, that's their problem.