Does Calvinism Deny God’s Goodness?

I just watched it again. It’s on Youtube. “Does God Predestine People to Hell // Ask Pastor John.”

Before answering the question, Piper says that people should NOT believe God predestines people to hell IF believing that would cause them to doubt God’s goodness.

But the underlying but important issue is Does believing that God predestines people to hell (in the way Piper and other Calvinists believe it) actually require doubting God’s goodness? That is—logically?

Now, before you answer that, it would be helpful to listen to Piper’s whole answer which is only about eight minutes long.

Piper explains that in hell NOBODY will have a right to say that their being there is unjust or wrong. He also explains that God predestines people to hell in such a way as not to violate them. He admits that God’s decrees in this regard are to us inscrutable.

I do believe that this theology, Calvinism, Piper’s version of it, anyway, DOES conflict with goodness. If I believed it, I would have to believe God is not good.

So Piper does not want me to believe it even though he thinks it is true.

Where does that leave me? Justified in not believing what Piper teaches so passionately not only as true but as biblical truth.

I once asked Piper, to his face, whether he would allow a church staff member of his own church (where he was the lead pastor) to disagree with his Calvinism. He indicated that he would not. But if I am justified in not believing it, why would I be excluded from ministering alongside him? (Not that I would want to. But someone else like me might already be there, on staff, when he becomes pastor. And what if the church wants someone like me on staff?)

But the biggest question Piper’s statement raises is not whether someone might be justified in denying Calvinism because believing it would cause them to believe God is not good but whether Calvinism itself totally undermines God’s goodness.

Well, much depends on what “goodness” means. I think even Piper would have to admit that goodness includes justice and love. Is there any way to reconcile justice and love with TULIP? Only by making them “inscrutable.” In other words, meaningless. We don’t know what they mean when they are attributed to the God of TULIP.

I suggest that Piper (and other Calvinists) need to think more deeply about God in light of Jesus Christ as the prefect revelation of God’s character.

But thank you, John Piper, for giving me license NOT to believe what you so passionately teach. But I do not disbelieve it because I THINK it conflicts with God’s goodness but because it DOES conflict with God’s goodness.

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