Calvinism. It still elicits strong emotions. But, let’s try to clear our way through the emotional reactions and really try to understand what Calvinism is.
A couple of weeks ago I started looking at what author Craig Brown calls The Five Dilemmas of Calvinism. You can get his book at Ligonier Ministries. My posts here and here and here are not a book review. They are simply using Brown’s outline as a springboard for discussion. I recommend getting the book.
So here is the essence of dilemma three: If God has predetermined everything that comes to pass, why should we spend valuable time in prayer or evangelism?
Fair question. To the non-Calvinist, this is the crux of the matter. This is often the accusation (sometimes correctly) against Calvinists; that we do not evangelize and we need not pray. God has decided everything. Why bother?
Well I could answer that we should evangelize and pray because the Bible says we are to. God commands it (Matthew 28:18-20 and Romans 12:12 for example). But that does not usually satisfy the real dilemma for the person struggling with Calvinism.
If God has predestined all things, why pray? What good will it do? And, if He has chosen some and not others for eternal life, why bother witnessing? Will not God get His chosen to heaven anyway?
Let me begin by summarizing a few givens from the Bible.
1. God is sovereignly in control all things. The Westminster Confession of Faith for our denomination says well, in III.I.
God from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass;[1] yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin,[2] nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established.[3]
You can see the WCF here. Now the WCF is not Scripture. It is a humanly conceived document. But, it is what we believe as a best expression of what the Bible teaches.
In ant case, the point is that nothing happens but what God has ordained.
2. God is pleased to use people and means, so to speak, to accomplish what He has ordained. Again the WCF in III:
I. God the great Creator of all things does uphold,[1] direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things,[2] from the greatest even to the least,[3] by His most wise and holy providence,[4] according to His infallible foreknowledge,[5] and the free and immutable counsel of His own will,[6] to the praise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy.[7]
II. Although, in relation to the foreknowledge and decree of God, the first Cause, all things come to pass immutably, and infallibly;[8] yet, by the same providence, He orders them to fall out, according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely, or contingently.[9]
III. God, in His ordinary providence, makes use of means,[10] yet is free to work without,[11] above,[12] and against them,[13] at His pleasure.
Please go to the WCF site above to see the biblical basis for these confessional statements.
Here is the point. God has ordained all things. He sovereignly controls all things, else He would not be God. He has, for instance, chosen (elected) some, but not all, for eternal life. He has given us the command and task to evangelize. He uses us, even in our feebleness, to bring the good news of the Gospel to His elect! How wonderful is that?
You see, perhaps the greatest section of Scripture on this is in Romans 9-10. There God says through Paul that he has elected some. He has done it for His glory. He has planned that His elect will hear about His good news (that God saves sinners) through the preaching of the Gospel. The preaching of the Gospel is the “means” to God’s “end” to save His elect!
And why pray? Isaiah 46:9-11 says:
9 remember the former things of old;
for I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me,
10 declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
and I will accomplish all my purpose,’
11 calling a bird of prey from the east,
the man of my counsel from a far country.
I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass;
I have purposed, and I will do it.
So what is the use? Well besides the commands to pray, God desires to hear from His children and delights in answering our prayers. They do matter. Rather than re-inventing something here, I will simply refer you to Matt Waymeyer’s excellent blog series on this subject over at Pulpit Magazine.
I welcome any questions and discussion.
November 26, 2007 at 2:00 pm
Les, this is a great topic to discuss! It seems to me that we Calvinists need to recover our rich tradition of transcendence AND immanence. I think hyper-calvinism (basically fatalism) has wounded our prayer lives.
The two extremes:
1. Fatalism emphasizes God’s transcendence with a very shallow doctrine of immanence. I have had conversations with a lot of people who are quick to footnote EVERYTHING with God’s sovereignty.
2. Open Theism - Very shallow doctrine of transcendence and high value on God’s immanence. Honestly, I think the reason that open theism exists is because mainline theology was often fatalistic for all practical purposes. When you have fatalistic theology, God dies and has no purpose for us.
Thankfully, our reformed tradition has a rich tradition of both. We should understand that within the perameters of his sovereignty (character, counsel, covenant), God is free!
I think one way that we can recover our rich tradition is to take seriously what the confession says in 3.2, that God ordains his eternal counsel to fall out necessarily, freely, and contingently. It is this idea of intervening human contingencies that I think we need to recover.
When it comes to prayer, I think many people in the scriptures really took to heart what it meant that God worked through intervening human contingencies! Many times people employed a “who knows?” mindset. When God decreed that David’s son would die in 2 Samuel 12, David did not say, “Oh well, I guess its going to happen because God decreed it and he is sovereign over everything.” No, he prayed and fasted, with the mindset that God might be gracious and let the child live. In Jonah 3 God declared he would destroy Nineveh, but the people repented saying “Who knows? Maybe God will CHANGE HIS MIND.” And from our perspective, God did!
Amos is perhaps my favorite example of someone whose prayers caused God to relent. (Amos 7:1-6)
Whenever I find myself slipping into doubt about whether God hears my prayers, I think of Amos.
It is within the rich tradition of transcendence and imminence that passages like James 5:16 and Matthew 21:22 can spur us on to regular and authentic prayer.
Something I have personally tried to do lately is to stop saying “if it is your will” in my prayers. Granted, I know God will only act according to his will, but I pray from my human perspective. Sometimes that might lead me to beg God, plead with him, just as Amos did, without any footnotes about his sovereignty. The Psalms are a great example for us in this!
November 26, 2007 at 3:44 pm
I agree. We need more pleading and less soft-pedaling in our prayers, as we see in a myriad of biblical models.
November 26, 2007 at 5:04 pm
I grew up (unbelieving) in an Arminian context but was converted as an adult through RUF, so I was immediately discipled in solid Reformed teaching. I can honestly say that God’s sovereignty immediately provided for me a REASON to pray! The question for me from that time has always been, if God is NOT sovereign, why pray?
It seems simple enough to say that God ordains the means as well as the end, and so he has willed my participation in his accomplishment of his purposes. Having no idea what God’s decreed will is until after it has occurred, and believing he has called me to pray not only to accomplish its end but to enter into the joy of his fellowship, not to pray is actually to disdain the sovereign hand of God as well as to deny our father-child relationship.
For these reasons, and certainly not to demean your point, Stephanie, regarding praying from a human perspective, it seems best to me that we best view prayer from this eternal perspective. It’s no surprise that the longest chapter of the Institutes is the chapter on prayer, where Calvin begins by saying that prayer is the “chief means” by which we receive the benefits of Christ.
One of the best sermons on prayer I have come accross is Johnathan Edwards’ “Hypocrites Deficient in the Duty of Prayer.” The name alone is convicting! I gave it to my Leadership Development Class and it has had an incredible effect.
I view the “who knows” comment of the Ninehvites to be more informed by their pagan worldview, where the deities pretty much do everything arbitrarily. Their comment is innocent, though ignorant ultimately of the immutability of God (Numbers 23:19–”God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind.”).
All the Scriptures regarding God “relenting” I believe are to be understood as God’s certain hand of judgement being staid by his own intervention through the prayers of his people. Had he not ordained Moses’ or Hezekiah’s pleas in their several cases, then his announcement of judgement would have been carried out. Instead, it is clear that each case serves as a “mini-drama” of the story of God’s free mercy in redeeming his people. When God’s people truly humble themselves in repentance (which we know is only the work of his Spirit), God’s response is mercy. If not for his purposing to show mercy through the work of his Spirit in his elect, his righteous wrath would be unrestrained.
November 26, 2007 at 10:20 pm
I didnt see this reason anywhere yet (unless I missed it through my perhaps too hasty read) but one of the main reasons for me to go to the Lord in prayer is found in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 which says “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” I have taught this to my boys and stressed to them the part that says “…for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus…” As i tell my sons, if we love God, and if we believe the Bible is His Word to us, then what other reason do we need to go to Him in prayer than that it is “the will of God in Christ Jesus”? Anyhow, thats my two cents worth!
Good post and thank you again!
November 26, 2007 at 10:24 pm
I hope the above comment didnt come across the wrong way…as I re-read it I thought someone might not understand, but I agree with the blog post and with the comments..just wanted to add my own thoughts too! Forgive me if it came out wrong!
November 26, 2007 at 11:14 pm
Rob, thanks for weighing in.
Anony, that is so good to hear of you teaching your children that way. It is indeed God’s will and that is a great addition to my post.
Ezequiel, thanks for your post as well. No, you did not come across too harsh at all. Thanks so much for commenting.