John Calvin and the Doctrine of Predestination

By Phil Derksen

Introduction Mention the name of John Calvin and people will frequently associate it with the doctrine of predestination. They will also often gasp, tense up, or even recoil in indignation. What sort of macabre mindset must John Calvin have been in when he first considered the doctrine of predestination anyway? His critics speculate that he must surely have been in some kind of foreboding trance, grimly contemplating God as some vindictive deity prowling the mists of eternity, arbitrarily picking and choosing those whom He would save and those whom He would damn. Or perhaps, as some modern psychologists theorize, the poor fellow was just lashing out for having been put through some contrary childhood experience when he came up with such a harrowing conception. But nothing could be further from the truth! Calvin’s thoughts about predestination did not originate from any such brooding speculation, but rather from his valid observation that such similar people, with very similar backgrounds and life circumstances, responded so differently to the preaching of the gospel. “If the same sermon is preached, say, to a hundred people,” he mused, “twenty receive it with the ready obedience of faith, while the rest hold it valueless, or laugh, or hiss, or loathe it.”  In contemplating the same question ourselves - Why do some people come to gladly embrace the Gospel while others firmly reject it? - we can better appreciate some of the possible non-spiritual alternatives that Calvin perhaps faced: Is it because some people are either more intellectually or more emotionally oriented that predisposes them to accept God’s mercy? Do some people have or develop superior natural faculties that prompt them to embrace the incredible forgiveness offered to those who repent? Perhaps it is the meritorious decision (work) of those who simply have the right life-experiences or enough just plain good business sense to take God up on such a great deal that entitles one to salvation. (Anyone who doesn’t then, must just not be intelligent enough to really deserve it anyway.) Maybe, just maybe, it is the result of the particularly clever sermon delivered by that especially ingenious preacher that persuades the spiritually dead to drag themselves from the mausoleum of sin and respond to the message of eternal life. But since, of course, none of these facetious answers are at all supported by Scripture, we may conclude, as did Calvin, that the truth must lay elsewhere. It was in his searching of Scripture to find the answers to such a compelling question that the doctrine of predestination and its prerequisite companions of God’s divine mercy and sovereign grace became so abundantly apparent to him. Historical Perspective not the first theologian to grapple with the doctrine of predestination, but it is nonetheless his name with which this doctrine has become foreverlinked. This is due in part to Calvin’s detailed commentary on predestination in his comprehensive theological dissertation, Institutes of the Christian Religion, and because he, perhaps more than anyone since Augustine with Pelagius, was called upon to defend it. It was in 1543, when the doctrine of predestination came under direct assault by the Roman Catholic Archdeacon, Albert Pighius, that Calvin first felt compelled to write a point-by-point defense of it.“Even a dog barks,” he wryly remarked, “when his master is attacked: How could I be silent when the honor of my Lord is assailed?”Pighius perceived the doctrine of predestination as destroying the premise for morality and making God unjust. (These were essentially the same arguments used decades later by James Arminius in his objections to Calvinism.) Calvin, on the other hand, saw the proper comprehension of God’s sovereign election as providing the very antidote to these troublesome contentions. In the midst of this growing controversy, not everyone in shared Calvin’s views, and the Genevan church and city council decided to ask other Swiss church leaders what they thought about Calvin’s beliefs on the matter. While the other Reformed clerics generally supported him, Calvin felt their replies were quite vague and tepid and he soon began a spirited defense of what he felt was a clear and important truth given in Scripture. Calvin proceeded in this daunting endeavor with his customary deliberative prudence, being sure to base his positions firmly on the teachings of the Bible. On this firm foundation and in some disparity with his less sure compatriots, Calvin enthusiastically proclaimed the doctrine of predestination, and saw the correct understanding of it as offering immensely practical benefits for the Christian. Accordingly, he wrote: “… in the very darkness that frightens them not only is the usefulness of this doctrine made known but also its very sweet fruit.” The Two Sides of Predestination: Election and Reprobation With Scripture as his authority and his pastoral experience plainly demonstrating so, Calvin reached the profound conclusion that “God… does not indiscriminately adopt all into the hope of salvation but gives to some what he withholds from others…” adding, “[Predestination] is God’s eternal decree, by which He compacted with Himself what He willed to become of each man… eternal life is foreordained for some, eternal damnation for others.”  (Mathew 11:25-27, Luke 8:10, John 6:34-65; 10:11-29; 17:1-26, Romans 9:6-24, Ephesians 1:3-12, many others)  Recognizing its two sides, election and reprobation, Calvin likened predestination to a coin. These contrasting articles clearly reveal two of God’s primary attributes; election demonstrates and is animated by God’s unfathomable grace and mercy, while reprobation manifests and keeps intact the integrity of God’s righteous justice. Calvin accepted the opposing tension of these concepts by realizing that without a demonstration of justice, mercy loses any intrinsic value and becomes worthless. In other words, he understood that only when punishment is real can mercy be real. It was his presentation of the dark side of predestination that aroused so much animosity toward Calvin. But he saw in reprobation far more than just deserved damnation. He proclaimed that no other doctrine so powerfully reveals the righteousness of God and clearly affirms the reality that God hates and punishes sin. While the Christian’s sins are truly and fully forgiven, they are certainly not ignored or excused by God. It was precisely the sins of the elect that necessitated that an inscrutable price be paid for their remission, being harshly punished in their blameless Substitute. In the most extraordinary act of reconciliation, Jesus Christ, the One who knew no sin, became sin for them that they might become the righteousness of God in Him. The believer is thereby superbly justified and reconciled to a holy God. Why God ordains some to reprobation and elects some to salvation, Calvin did not claim to understand. He could only declare: “the reason of divine righteousness is higher than man’s…slender wit can comprehend.” As the Bible declares, God’s infinite and perfect ways are far above our finite ability to grasp. Calvin suggested that Christians should embrace what he called a “learned ignorance,” which is to say, they must humbly trust God’s righteous judgment even though they cannot fully comprehend His reasons. He contrasts this with a “brutish ignorance” of those who bury their head in the sand and refuse to address difficult and contreversial Biblical teachings they do not understand, such as the awesome mystery of predestination. >What About “Fairness?” Calvin maintained that whatever Scripture declares on a matter is irrefutably true even when it offends our human sensibilities or goes against our fallible sense of “fairness.” “The moment we exceed the bounds of the Word,” Calvin solemnly declared, “… there we must repeatedly wander, slip, and stumble.” He rejected any notion that God is unjust as insidious by simply asserting that by definition and its intrinsic nature, God’s divine will is righteous, no matter what it is. “For God’s will is so much the highest rule of righteousness that whatever he wills, by the very fact that he wills it, must be considered righteous.”>Calvin refused to timidly sidestep the unavoidable conclusion that just as God is the ultimate cause of election, so also God must be the ultimate cause of reprobation. Calvin’s candid assessment of this unpopular judgment was that: “It is indeed a horrible decree.” Still, Calvin insisted, “none undeservedly perish.” Condemnation of the reprobate occurs “because all men deserved it on account of impiety, wickedness, and ungratefulness.” No one suffers punishment except as a consequence of personal guilt for his or her rebellion against God. Because all men are sinners, Calvin wasn’t necessarily so troubled by God’s just reprobation. He could clearly grasp the concept of a holy God meeting out righteous justice to the entire rebellious, sinful human race. But he was absolutely amazed by the fact that God had chosen instead to graciously extend His mercy to a chosen number of the completely undeserving. Nothing else could possibly display God’s mercy like God’s sovereign election. God gives sinful, spiritually dead men the gift of eternal life and sonship for no other reason except that He graciously chooses to extend His kindness to them. So, the wicked receive precisely what they fairly deserve and the elect receive what they definitely do not deserve, which is the very sum and substance of grace. This truth reveals the immense goodness of God and stirs the saved sinner to true humility. Thankfully then, for every Christian, God didn’t simply act out in “fairness,” for if He had, all mankind would surely perish. Instead, God graciously determined to redeem a chosen people for His name’s sake, tenderly bowing low to extend His love and mercy toward those He calls. What About “Whosoever Will?” - There is a very, very important correlative truth that must always be prominently held up alongside the concept of reprobation. As the Bible unambiguously declares, whosoever will may certainly come to God. But really, this once again returns us to our original question: Why do some want to come to God while so many others don’t? Calvin pointed to the Scriptures that just as plainly reveal it is the work of the Holy Spirit that takes a spiritually dead person and regenerates them, thus giving them the very ability to hunger for God. It is the Holy Spirit who works in the elect even to will and to want, initiating their very desire for salvation. A desiring and receptive heart, faith, and repentance are all themselves the gift of a loving God to sinful man, not sinful man’s gift to a holy, sovereign God. Therefore, truly blessed are they -for having received such an awesome gift! - who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall surely be filled. Anyone who sincerely repents and comes to Christ in simple faith, will in no way be cast out, but will certainly be welcomed by their Lord and Savior. Calvin carefully stressed that every person should be treated as a candidate for salvation since God’s choice of His redeemed is known to Him alone: “For as we do not know who belongs to the number of the predestined or who does not belong, we ought to be so minded as to wish that all men be saved. So shall it come about that we try to make everyone we meet a sharer in our peace.” As the Great Commission clearly mandates, every human being in every nation should be presented the Gospel, since preaching the Gospel has been ordained by God as a primary means of grace to bring those He has elected unto Himself. Blessed Assurance - As a pastor, Calvin had no doubt seen many in his congregation troubled about the certainty of their salvation. His years of ministry persuaded him that “Satan has no more grievous or dangerous temptation to dishearten believers than when he unsettles them with doubt about their election.” To counter this attack, he took refuge in the doctrine of predestination. Rightly discerned, predestination becomes a stout fortification against doubt, an “impregnable security.” It “brings no shaking of faith, but rather its very best confirmation.” Even as Christians undergo the process of sanctification, which, as Paul clearly admits, involves sometimes slipping and falling, since Christ is both the means and object of election, then despite their shortcomings, the elect can still rest in the assurance of Christ’s absolute perfection. It is certainly in Christ whom the Christian finds the very basis for their assurance of salvation and not in their own works or faithfulness. When once asked how he knew that he was numbered among the elect, Calvin replied, “Christ is more than a thousand testimonies to me.” It is in the very absence of understanding and appreciating that their salvation is totally provided for and sustained by God’s unfailing providence that a Christian can most easily fall prey to Satan’s fiery darts of doubt, despair or a sense of hopelessness and futility. Calvin taught that when believers rightly perceive predestination, the very essence and nature of this revelation obliges them to wholly rely upon God rather than their own fallible understanding and abilities. The Christian who assuredly knows that they are eternally chosen and kept by God can with unshakable confidence assert themselves in the cause of their Savior and the building of His kingdom.Christian Activity - As extensively as Calvin treated the doctrine of election, a survey of his writings reveal that he equally expounded many other important and reciprocal doctrines. A theme that he repeatedly emphasized was the importance of the Christian’s obedience to the Word and each believer’s individual responsibility to grow in the grace given to them by God. Followers of Christ are called to deliberately make disciplined, sometimes sacrificial choices as they traverse the requisite course of sanctification. Calvin candidly states, “I do not insist that the moral life of a Christian man breathe nothing but the very gospel, yet this ought to be [sincerely] desired, and we must always strive toward it.”The notion that subscribing to the doctrine of election necessarily leads to complacency was flatly rejected by Calvin. From his perspective, apathetic idleness and God’s determined election are mutually and necessarily exclusive. When God extends his mercy, it will make a visible difference in a person’s life. God elects and regenerates people to be holy and to serve Him, not to be indifferent and satisfied with a fruitless Christian life. Calvin believed that coming to terms with the dynamics of predestination will in reality create an unstoppable stimulus to bold Christian activity. Those who have the assurance of God’s eternal salvation will have confidence to press on against all odds because their election has rendered them “invulnerable to all storms of the world, all assaults of Satan and all vacillation of the flesh.” Calvin taught that while every aspect of salvation is unequivocally the monopolistic work of a sovereign God, the daily Christian walk, on the other hand, is very much a joint venture between the saved and their Savior. Certainly, God is the controlling senior partner in this grand enterprise, completely enabling, sustaining, and ensuring His perfect plan as He guides, encourages, prods, and sometimes chastises His chosen colleagues. Nevertheless, the extent to which a believer fulfils God’s preceptive will, which is well pleasing to God and established for the Christian’s own benefit, is affected in a very real way by the willful choices they make and the consequential actions they take. God’s complete sovereign purpose will surely and ultimately be accomplished, still, He graciously gives each Christian the opportunity, inasmuch as they are submitted and obedient to His holy Word, to be used in bringing about His wonderful plan. Any such reckless charge that historical Calvinism leads to fatalism or a lack of evangelistic zeal is simply baseless and easily refuted. History clearly testifies that one of the results of Calvin’s perspective of predestination, properly discerned and applied, was to actually provide a catalyst for enthusiastic evangelism and missions work amongst its adherents. At Calvin’s personal behest, the city council of Geneva created one of the very first Protestant missionary organizations, the “Venerable Company of Pastors.” This dedicated group was prolific in spreading the Gospel across Europe, and as early as 1556, participated in a missionary venture to the faraway land of Brazil. The outworking of an assertive predestinarian theology can unquestionably be seen in the vitality of the English Puritans and the French Huguenots. It inspired Jonathan Edwards’ and George Whitefield’s ministries, which propelled the Great Awakening in America. It provoked William Carey to evangelize India, and in so doing initiated the entire modern missions movement, and it inflamed the powerful, soul-winning preaching of the “Prince of Preachers,” Charles Spurgeon. Why is the Doctrine of Predestination Important? - In light of the fact that the doctrine of predestination is so controversial and often misunderstood, many Christians have concluded that it is perhaps best left alone. However, Calvin firmly believed that far from being a superfluous or simply curious proposition, the doctrine of predestination was prominently and purposefully interwoven throughout the entire matrix of Scripture. This fact by itself, he maintained, should be reason enough to compel every Bible-believing teacher to unremittingly study and proclaim it. For if even a single thread of doctrinal truth is removed the entire fabric of God’s revealed Word begins to unravel and becomes easily misinterpreted and misapplied. Seriously consequential in a theological sense, Calvin soberly warned, is that to ignore or diminish the truth of predestination is to also gravely depreciate the intent and role of Christ in accomplishing salvation. The ultimate expression of God’s love is the Lord Jesus Christ, and Calvin points out that Scripture stresses the fact that “election is in Christ.” Furthermore, Christ is the supreme “object of the Father’s election” as well as the “author and instrument of election.” Across the entire continuum of God’s divine election - from its determined inception to the attentive and resolute choice of His holy bride, from its horrifically superlative guaranty at Calvary to its ultimate joyful culmination at the wedding supper of the Lamb - Jesus Christ is clearly the focal point of God’s grace toward man. Inasmuch as election is commensurate with God’s divine love and mercy, to neglect this truth is to by default also belittle many others and dangerously skews the sacred paradigm of God’s plan of redemption. It is in the humble realization of the utterly sublime exchange of total guilt for complete forgiveness that the Christian is moved to serve such a merciful and loving Savior. Without a proper appreciation for predestination, Calvin cautioned, “humility is torn up by the roots.” Other sins can then easily grow out of this the source of Adam and Eve’s original sin: pride. The truth of election underscores God’s complete sovereignty, autonomy, and sufficiency in achieving salvation. God doesn’t just make it possible for sinners to take the final step in saving themselves, rather Christ fully initiated, specifically purchased at incalculable expense, and actually, finally, and forever secured His people’s salvation. The assuring truth of election, as revealed in Scripture, serves to establish the correct premise on which God intends his children to base their relationship with Himself: To glorify and enjoy Him forever through serving from a motive of humble reliance and gratitude. A firm and proper grasp of predestination readily provides the blessed assurance that will initiate and inspire a believer’s fruitful service to God. Realizing the unfailing certainty of God’s sovereign election is the Christian’s unmovable anchor in life’s tumultuous sea. All whom the Father has given to His beloved Son will, not possibly and hopefully, but definitely and gloriously is saved. Conclusion - The essential truth of predestination then, is not that rebellious sinners are justly condemned, but that many who deserve condemnation are graciously pardoned. Yes, the doctrine of predestination was for Calvin a “horrible decree,” but it was so much abundantly more “very sweet fruit.” He did not pretend to understand it fully, for that would require that he comprehend an infinite and eternal God. Yet he confidently pronounced, “even though… predestination is likened to a dangerous sea, still in traversing it, one finds safe and calm - I add also pleasant - sailing.” Appreciating his thoroughly encompassing view of predestination, it is little wonder that Calvin boldly maintained that this doctrine “ought to be preached openly and fully.” He further counseled, “They who shut the gates that no one may dare seek a taste of this doctrine, wrong men no less than God.” For isn’t the inevitable result of a more accurate view of God, a clearer picture of man? “Let this be our conclusion,” Calvin states at the close of his discourse on predestination in the Institutes, “to tremble with Paul at so deep a mystery; but, if froward tongues clamor, not to be ashamed of this exclamation of his: ‘Who are you, O man, to argue with God?’ ” As the verity of God’s sovereign election is plainly set forth in the Bible, it is certainly a critical truth that demands to be diligently considered in every Christian’s search to better understand God’s awesome plan. In the process, the redeemed can’t help but better appreciate and marvel at how utterly wonderful and completely transcendent is God’s amazing grace!