Admittedly, what proves most bothersome even for the faithful elect is that aspect of double predestination whereby non-believers have been created as such by God for the fires of hell; and this according to his good pleasure and for his glory. Defenders of Calvin's stern reading reply that given humanity's abysmal depravity, the fact that a holy God would ever save anyone testifies to his remarkable goodness and grace. However, if humanity is sinful only by God's design and intent, which Calvin readily asserts, how can their consequent eradication due to their sin be declared a just action by a purely just God? Moreover, if it is within God's grace and power to save one sinner from destruction, why not save everybody? Why would a God who is love and whom scripture unambiguously declares in love with all sinners capriciously rescue a few while leaving the others to burn?
"It is not right," Calvin replied, "that man should with impunity pry into things which the Lord has been pleased to conceal within himself, or scan that sublime eternal wisdom which it is God's pleasure that we should not understand but only adore. . . . The will of God is the supreme rule of righteousness, so that everything which he wills must be held to be righteous by the mere fact that he wills it. Therefore, when it is asked why the Lord did so, we must answer, Because he pleased. But if you proceed farther to ask why he pleased, you ask for something greater and more sublime than the will of God, and nothing of such sublimity can be found. Let human temerity keep quiet, and cease to inquire after what exists not, lest perhaps it fails to find what does exist. . . . The arrangement of all things is in the hand of God, since to him belongs the disposal of life and death. He arranges all things by his sovereign counsel, in such a way that individuals are born doomed from the womb to certain death, and are to glorify him by their destruction. [Adam] fell because the Lord deemed it meet that he should: why he deemed it meet, we know not. It is certain, however, that it was just, because he saw that his own glory would thereby be displayed. Ignorance of things which we are not able to know, or which it is not lawful to know, is called learning, while the desire to know such things is but a species of madness."
Nevertheless such madness pervades Christian thought. Calvin's detractors insist that while God's will is supreme and sovereign, within that sovereign will is made space for human freedom and responsiveness. They interpret those texts declaring Christ's coming into the world to seek and save the lost rather than condemn them as evidence of God's universal salvific will. If Jesus is the light of the world as he says in John's gospel, then he is light for the whole world, one who desires to draw all people to himself even if all do not respond affirmatively. The parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin testify to God's perseverance is chasing down those whom he considers his but are lost. The prodigal son teaches about God's patience in waiting for repentance and the joy he has when it occurs. If these are true depictions of the love of God for sinners, is it credible that he would create billions with no hope for anything but eternal annihilation? If Calvin is right, how could the apostle Peter ever say, "God is patient, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance"?
"So wonderful is his love towards mankind," Calvin wrote in his commentary on 2 Peter, "that he would have them all to be saved, and is of his own self prepared to bestow salvation on the lost. . . . But it may be asked, if God wishes none to perish, why is it that so many do perish? To this my answer is that no mention is made of the hidden purpose of God, according to which the reprobate are doomed to their own ruin but only of his will are made known to us in the Gospel. For God there stretches forth his hand without a difference to all, but lays hold only of those, to lead them to himself, whom he has chosen before the foundation of the world." And round and round it goes.
Frankly, we could go round and round on this forever. At least on earth. And perhaps some of you will. Scripture does teach predestination—but it also teaches human responsibility and responsiveness. I'm sure any final clarity does await our ultimate clear encounter with God face to face. Calvin is correct that if double predestination is indeed God's will, it is right and good and just if for no other reason than it is God's will. Calvin's fervency grew out of a deep reverence and awe of the Almighty who stooped so low as to save a wretch like him. Yet it also grew out of Calvin's pastoral concern that believers have rock solid assurance of their salvation. In a time when a duplicitous church hierarchy set themselves up as purveyors of God's salvation for their own profit, preying upon naïve parishioners' guilt and illiteracy, Calvin's reorientation of the procurement of salvation back onto the author of salvation provided confidence and freedom that few would have ever imagined possible. Because nothing you have done secures your salvation, nothing you do can lose it. If you belong to God then you belong to God and are held in a grip no one or nothing can loosen.
Calvin died in his sleep on May 27, 1564, after a month-long illness, leaving an enormous legacy to Protestant theology, biblical understanding, and church practice. In his will he wrote, "I give thanks to God for he drew me out of the abyss and into the light of His Gospel. He has so far extended His mercy toward me as to use me and my work. He will show himself the father of so miserable a sinner. It is enough that I have lived and die unto Christ, who is the reward for those who are his, in life and in death." May such be said of us.
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