I have been critiquing Calvinism in prior posts but I want to take a moment to clarify that I do not count Reform Baptists and Protestants influenced by John Calvin as enemies, but rather I am trying to admonish them as brothers like the Bible instructs us to do. There is a danger in denying free will that we need to be aware of and by exposing it I will attempt to show you where Calvinist doctrine and scientific atheism seem to converge.
We know that there is no room for the atoning power of Jesus Christ in the secular humanist worldview pushed by prominent atheists such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Noah Yuval Harari. I’m disturbed by Calvinism because their view of salvation actually fits hand and glove with the deterministic, godless worldview promoted by scientific atheists.
The Bible tells us to put a difference between holy and unholy, and to be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. So why should our beliefs in any way support a doctrine that denies Christ? Christianity is unique, and a Biblical view of the world is not conformable to worldly wisdom.
What am I talking about? I’m talking about the fact that where Calvinists and atheists can all agree is on the nature of free will. They both consider it an illusion to some degree. Calvinists will teach that we cannot choose to believe the gospel and be saved, that God has to thrust salvation upon us against our will. On the surface this seems very pious, because yes, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9) and we are by nature fallen sinners and there is none that doeth good and sinneth not (Ecclesiastes 7:20). Similarly the scientific atheist believes that the entire universe, including us, operate according to certain absolute laws and principles ungoverned by our will or consent.
Psalm 14 tells us that “The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.” Ps 14:2 and the Lord found that the answer was no, no one seeks out or understands God’s wisdom on their own. “They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” Ps 14:3
The Calvinists know all of these verses and I commend anyone for searching the scriptures and diligently studying the Bible. But in their zeal they have forgotten some of the most basic and fundamental teaching the Bible gives us about our own nature and how God created us. Free will is a fundamental component of our being made in the image of God. By denying man’s free will you make God unjust for punishing us for our sins, since we weren’t free to choose our own actions or thoughts.
Most Calvinists won’t say that out loud, and will try to blunt the argument by saying that our free will is limited only in regards to our ability to receive Christ or not, but that we can choose our behaviors otherwise. But this is grasping at straws and impossible to support with scripture since every great hero and prophet of the Bible had struggles and faults and sins except for Jesus Christ (“There is none good but one, that is, God” -Matthew 19:17).
The Bible says to give no place to the devil (Ephesians 4:27). Denying free will in any way, shape, or form leaves the door wide open to devilish doctrines such as transhumanism, which teaches that human beings are just “hackable animals” with no free will, and we have to overcome our shortcomings through technology.
If we say that human beings don’t really have free will, we are conforming to will of a devilish cabal that despises us. Take a listen to this series of interviews with Yuval Noah Harari, a “philosopher” and darling of the World Economic Forum:
"Free will, that's over." -Yuval Harari
Notice how he has to talk out of both sides of his mouth. On the one hand, human beings have no free will, but on the other hand “elites” who control data will “decide” the course of the humanity’s future. How can one “decide” anything if free will does not exist?
If human beings are just hackable animals then who hacked this animal?
The atheistic snobs never want to answer that question. They will deny that the average person has free will or capacity to think for themselves but assume that they with their superior intelligence are somehow above these limitations.
We must reconcile God’s ultimate foreknowledge and sovereignty with our free will in a way that doesn’t violate scripture or give place to devilish doctrines. What is more glorifying to God? Forcing us to conform to the image of his Son, or using each and every decision we make, good or bad, to advance his ultimate victory over the Devil?
“Surely he scorneth the scorners: but he giveth grace unto the lowly. The wise shall inherit glory: but shame shall be the promotion of fools.” Proverbs 3: 34-35
Amen.
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