Quotes from John Calvin on God Determining All Evil
*** “Hence we maintain that, by his providence, not heaven and earth and inanimate creatures only, but also the counsels and
wills of men are so governed as to move exactly in the course which he has destined.”
[1]
[The question must be asked—how are men held responsible for sinful choices that flow out of wills that are “governed as to move exactly in the course which God has destined?”]
*** “Men
do nothing save at the secret instigation of God, and do not discuss and deliberate on anything but what he has previously
decreed with himself, and
brings to pass by his secret direction.”[2]
[In Calvinism God is the logical origin and thus author of every sinful thought or choice men make. How else to explain Calvinism’s teaching that all our decreed decisions and deliberations are initiated by the “secret instigation of God” that he infallibly “brings to pass by his secret direction?”]
*** “The hand of God rules the interior affections no less than it superintends external actions; nor would God have effected by the hand of man what he decreed,
unless he worked in their hearts to make them will before they acted.”[3]
[Calvinists are well-known for redefining free-will as being “free to act in accordance with our strongest desires.” However what they leave out is the pivotal point that God has also causally predetermined which desires act upon our wills. Here Calvin admits that for God to achieve a predestined, external action in a person, he must effectively “work in their hearts to make them will before they act.”]
*** “The
will of God is the
chief and principal cause of all things.”
[4]
[There is no getting around the logical implications of this. Whether a modern-day Calvinist admits it or not his theology is logically and necessarily undergirded by the premise that God’s will is the ultimate causal force behind every sinful choice and act of rebellion throughout human history.]
***
“If God controls the purposes of men, and
turns their thoughts and exertions to whatever purpose he pleases, men do not therefore cease to form plans and to engage in this or the other undertaking. We
must not suppose that there is a violent compulsion, as if God dragged them against their will; but
in a wonderful and inconceivable manner he regulates all the movements of men, so that they still have the exercise of their will.“
[5]
[On the one hand Calvin wants to say that God’s will of decree regulates, turns and infallibly controls the thoughts and actions of every person. But on the other hand Calvin wants to preserve human accountability in making choices, so he asserts that God does not force his will of decree on anyone. How does God accomplish this? Calvin never tells us. Instead he appeals to unexplainable mystery seen in his cloaked phrase “wonderful and inconceivable manner he regulates all the movements of men…” This is theological gobbledegook in its highest form.]
*** “The
first man fell because the Lord deemed it meet that he should: why he deemed it meet,
we know not… Man therefore falls, divine providence
so ordaining but he
falls by his own fault.”
[6]
[As is obvious Calvin believed God did not just foresee the fall of man, he unconditionally decreed that man would fall. Again Calvin seeks to cover his theological rear from getting blindsided by appealing to an incomprehensible mystery (“we know not”) and then adding in the qualifier “but he falls by his own fault.” Herein lies Calvinism’s greatest conundrum concerning a compatibilist account of freedom. Compatibilist Calvinists say our choices are wholly determined and caused by our desires. Yet Adam and Eve did not have any sinful nature and thus no inherent desire to sin or rebel. So how and why did they choose to sin and rebel? Arminians do have an answer because we understand self-determination to be the ultimate and final explanation for choice and behavior—rather than compatibilist “free-will” which maintains that all “free” choices have their origin in God’s prior decree.]
***
“How it was ordained by the foreknowledge and decree of God what man’s future was
without God being implicated as associate in the fault as the author or approver of transgression, is
clearly a secret so much excelling the insight of the human mind, that I am not ashamed to
confess ignorance…. I daily so meditate on these
mysteries of his judgments that curiosity to know anything more does not attract me.”
[7]
[Here again Calvin wants to insist that God is the causal determiner of every sinful transgression and yet absolve God of all responsibility and culpability in foreordaining those sins. How does God do this? Calvin has no idea and again appeals to inscrutable mystery. The obvious problem is Calvinism creates mysteries where none should exist. There is no mystery as to how we can be held responsible for all the sins God causally determines—because God has not causally determined all our sins. There is no mystery as to how God can be the willing determiner of all your sins and not be the author of them—because God has not determined your sins. Calvinism makes God out to be a moral monster equal to the devil himself and appeals to mystery in order to extricate God from looking like the devil! The mysteries of Calvinism are just that—mysteries that solely exist in their own theological construct and are alien to biblical truth.]
*** “I have already shown clearly enough that
God is the author of all those things which, according to these objectors [non-Calvinists] happen only by his inactive permission… No, when we
cannot comprehend how God can will that to be done which he forbids us to do, let us call to mind our
imbecility…”
[8]
[In defending his view of sovereignty against his objectors John Calvin concedes that logically it must mean God is the ultimate author of everything he ordains. Moreover he argues that simply saying that God gives “permission” is not sufficient. He later attempts to say that our minds are too finite and stupid (“imbecile”) to comprehend the mystery as to why God would ordain the very sins he forbids us to do.]
*** “What we must prove is that
single events are ordered by God and that
every event comes from his intended will. Nothing happens by chance.”
[9]
[For Calvin and Calvinism in general “chance” is understood as being any choice of self-determination that lies outside what God has already unilaterally pre-chosen should occur. In other words God has chosen what each choice shall be and chance is defined as any event or choice that is free of God’s causal determinism of all choices before the world began. Whether it be the roll of the dice in monopoly, your decision on a menu, or whether or not to cheat on a test— in Calvinism the only thing God is “allowing” is his own choice to become realized.]
*** “But where it is a matter of men’s counsels, wills, endeavours, and exertions, there is greater difficulty in seeing how the providence of God rules here too, so that nothing happens but by His assent and that
men can deliberately do nothing unless He inspire it.”
[10]
[Here Calvin states that God inspires everything men do. Thus God inspires every child molestation, every lie, every act of adultery and every suicide. Accordingly God does not simply allow men to abuse their freedom to do evil—he in fact inspires the very evil men do.]