The Sovereign Mystery

Is God sovereign, having absolute control of the Universe? Are we victims of divine fate or are we given a choice in our eternal destiny?

These questions have challenged religious thought for centuries. Different streams of thought have been developed to try to answer these questions.

The Calvinist answers the question by eliminating man’s prerogative. God chooses who will be saved and who will be lost. The Armenian answers the question by saying that God foresees who will respond in faith and elects them to eternal life.

The predestination and election of believers can be understood simply. God has chosen Jesus Christ as the elect of God. Isa. 42:1. Paul says, “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world…”
Eph. 1:4. To be in Christ is to be in Him who is chosen, thereby we become one with Him and chosen. This understanding eliminates the need to try to reconcile God’s sovereignty with the free will of man.
God’s elect is all who will believe in Jesus.
The Calvinist no longer needs to eradicate the principle of man’s free will and the Armenian no longer needs to explain election from the perspective of God’s foreknowledge.

Out of the struggle to understand the mystery of God’s sovereignty there has been significant misunderstanding of scripture. Is the destiny of the individual set-in stone? Does God preordain an individual’s destiny or is there something a person can do to affect their eternal destiny?

Calvinists believe in limited atonement. Limited atonement meaning that God has chosen some to salvation while everyone else is damned solely by the decree of God.

Let’s look at a few passages.
“…, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men...” Rom. 5:18
“…we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men…” 1Tim. 4:10
“…Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
“And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” 1 Jn 2:2
“This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe.” Jn. 1:7

These passages make it clear that the gift of God is available to everyone. Anyone can be saved. The first passage referenced is Rom. 5:18. The passage reads,
“Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.” This passage is especially powerful. It cannot be argued the gift is limited to the elect. Why? because the point is, just as the impact of sin was universal, so the offer of eternal life is universal.

If atonement is universal, then grace is not irresistible. If it were irresistible all would be saved. Luke 7:30 says, “But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the will of God for themselves…” If grace is irresistible then the pharisees could not reject the will of God for themselves, yet they did. So, what is the will of God? Peter writes,
“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise… but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

Limited Atonement is inconsistent with the character of God. If God only offers salvation to some then He is partial favoring some over others. Partiality is sin and God cannot sin. Partiality is not just, and God is just. We read in Acts, “Then Peter opened his mouth and said: “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him. Acts 10:34-35.

Calvinists believe that because of man’s depravity He cannot respond to God’s call except that God impose it on the elect. This eliminates any choice for humanity.
Jesus says, about Lazarus’s sister Mary, “But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part…” Lk 10:42. See also, Heb. 11:25, Duet. 30:19, Josh. 5:9; 24:15,22.

How can one totally depraved even respond to the call of God? It is clear, according to Jn. 16:8 The Holy Spirit “convicts the world of sin.” John does not say he convicts the elect, but the world. 1 Cor. 12:3 tells us that by the Holy Spirit we confess Jesus Christ as Lord.

What about the perseverance of the saints? While God's will be that all the saved persevere, the Bible speaks of those who fall away.

2 Peter 2:20 says this, “For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning.

Only the redeemed, those sanctified by the blood of Christ escape the pollutions of the world. How do they escape? Through the knowledge of the truth. “…The truth will make you free…” Jn 8:32. 2 Peter 2:22 uses the analogy of a dog returning to its vomit and a sow to the mire. What the analogy illustrates is that the individual has returned to their old ways. The analogy cannot mean they have always been unredeemed. because that would violate the clear teaching of verse twenty. The analogy cannot be used to adjudicate what is already established in verse twenty.

Romans tells us that there is the potential to reverse one’s destiny negatively or positively. “Therefore, consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.” Rom. 11:22–23

Romans chapter nine is often misunderstood. Paul makes a rhetorical argument. Paul says, “What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,” Rom. 9:22

Paul is not saying that God chose Esau or Pharoah to damnation apart from equitable considerations, but “what if” He did. Paul is arguing that God is sovereign, God can do anything He chooses. Paul’s argument is that the reason that Israel as a nation has been rejected is that God has the sovereign right to do so. The criteria for election, is according to the promise, to Abraham, in faith and not by works of the law. Paul concludes, “but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law….” Rom. 9:31–32.

Our Calvinists brethren do not teach that grace gives you a license to sin. But there are some individuals who have used their teachings for that purpose. Consider the following passages.

“Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. 1 Cor. 6:9–10

Titus 2:12 (NKJV)
….we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age,