Calvinism in Question: Did God Ordain Sin?

By Bob Kirkland
From his book, Calvinism: None Dare Call It Heresy (click to see what others are saying about this book)

John Calvin said:

The Fall of Adam was not by accident, nor by chance, but was ordained by the secret counsel of God.¹

He also said that, “The first man fell because the Lord deemed it meet that he should.”²

In Edwin Palmer’s book, The Five Points of Calvinism, he states:

God is in back of everything. He decides and causes all things to happen that do happen . . . even sin. . . . God ordained sin and unbelief.³

Loraine Boettner, who embraced Calvinistic beliefs while studying at Princeton in the 1920s, said that God “creates the very thoughts and intents of the soul.”⁴ R. C. Sproul Jr. (R. C. Sproul’s Calvinist son) said that God “desired that man would fall into sin . . . [God] created sin.”⁵ And A. W. Pink said, “[God] foreordained sin should enter the world.”⁶

Isn’t it rather shocking that scholars will demonstrate such ignorance of the nature and character of God? John said in his epistle, “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). In other words, there is not even an iota of iniquity with God. It is blasphemous to say God is the author of sin or has any part with sin (see Romans 3:8).

According to Calvinism’s standard that God is in “back of everything,” God preordained (and wanted) David to commit adultery. Yet, Deuteronomy 5:21 says man should not “desire thy neighbour’s wife,” so how could God ordain or plan for David to desire his neighbor’s wife? And if this picture of God is true, then He desired people to be, “Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to their parents” as listed in Romans 1:30.

And if Calvinism is right, then God desired the rapists in Genesis 19:5 to come in an attempt to abuse the angels that visited Lot. And God desired Amnon to rape his sister in 2 Samuel 13:2.

According to Calvinism, God desired every child that has ever been molested to be abused. He desired every person murdered to be murdered. He desired every sin that was ever committed to be committed.
If that is not heresy, what does one have to teach in order for it to be heresy?

The title of my book, Calvinism: None Dare Call It Heresy, may seem too strong to some in that it is calling Calvinism heresy. But after reading the quotes as well as the Scripture verses I present to you in the book, should anyone question why we refer to Calvinism as heresy?

The word heresy, from a Christian point of view, means to deviate or dissent from the fundamentals of biblical faith (i.e., the salvation message). If Calvinism has not veered from the biblical Gospel message, I don’t know what has—it portrays a monster “God” who created billions of people whom he hates, whom he has given no choice in rejecting or accepting him, but whom He will send to eternal damnation anyway. Tragically, many who have believed in this “God” who ordains sin and evil have left the faith altogether because they cannot believe in a “God” who is so filled with hate and evil. Calvinism is not just heresy, it is dangerous and pitiful heresy.

Pink and those who support Calvinism have wasted a lot of paper attempting to get around the fact that they are really saying God is the Author of sin. However, if God foreordained sin, He foreordained sin! The dictionary says to foreordain is to “appoint in advance.” Any child who can read can understand what John Calvin meant when he said, “the Fall of Adam was not by accident, nor by chance, but was ordained by the secret counsel of God.”⁷

From Bob Kirkland’s book, Calvinism: None Dare Call It Heresy (click link to see what others are saying about this book). Bob is also the author of his biography, My Adventure in Christian Living.

For an excellent and thorough evaluation of Calvinism, see Pastor Andy Woods’ (of Sugar Land Bible Church in Texas) in his 54-part YouTube series on Calvinism.

Endnotes:

1. John Calvin, Calvin’s Calvinism: God’s Eternal Predestination and Secret Providence (Reformed Free Publishing Association, Kindle edition from the 2009 2nd edition), Kindle location 3796.
2. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Vol. 3, (Orlando, Signalman Publishing, from the 4th edition, 2009, Kindle edition), Kindle location 17793.
3. Edwin H. Palmer, The Five Points of Calvinism (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, Enlarged Edition, 1980, 24th printing, 2005), pp. 25, 102.
4. Lorraine Boettner, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1932, 14th printing), p. 32.
5. R.C. Sproul Jr., Almighty Over All (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1999, Second printing, July 1999), pp. 53-54.
6. A. W. Pink, The Sovereignty of God (Blacksburg, VA: Wilder Publications, 2008), p. 201.
7. John Calvin, Calvin’s Calvinism, op. cit., Kindle location 3796.

Image: John Calvin, 1509 – 1564. Influential French theologian, pastor and reformer during the Protestant Reformation. From Hutchinson’s History of the Nations, published 1915; public domain.