How do I reconcile my belief in the importance of loving other people with the idea that God dooms some of those people to Hell?
I think that the greatest theologians of each faith, each denomination will ultimately have more in common with each other than with ordinary people in their own faith.
I’m currently in the middle of reading a book in the defense of Calvinism, and the more I read, the more I agree with it. I believe strongly in many of the ideas that have been put forth by some of the greatest writers within the Calvinist faith.
When I started the book, I expected to disagree vehemently with most of what I found there. I foresaw myself throwing the book away in disgust, easily able to dispute the tenets offered up in its pages. And that has not been the case.
Calvinism says that God chose certain people before the creation of the world to be set apart, to be his chosen people. Those people will never fall away from Christ, and they are set apart. It says other things as well, but that is the point on which my hesitations hang.
Because I want to believe. I want to know that I am chosen. Calvinism says that the chosen are so by grace alone; that no one merits the grace of Heaven, and that we should praise God the more for it. I want to be one of those chosen people.
But I have been on the losing side of things too many times. So, instantly, my mind asks: what about them? What about the unchosen? Of course, just like the chosen, they are not worthy of Heaven. But unlike them, Calvinism says that God chose not to offer them life. He chose, instead, to allow them to live their lives, and then spend eternity in Hell. And why?
Calvinism does not have an answer that satisfies me. It says that God is allowed to do whatever He wills with his creation. It says that I should not question God.
And I understand. There are many things that I have chosen to place in God’s hands- things I believe will be revealed to me later in life, or not until Heaven. But what I hear about Calvinism does not align with the God I meet in the Bible.
The Bible I read introduces me to a stern God, a righteous God, who is yet loving and kind and affectionate towards his creation. The God I meet in the Bible gets glory from every person who chooses him. He cares about them deeply. Sure, we can argue that those featured in the Bible were already God’s chosen. But, then, what are the rest of the people who have ever lived? Doomed to be a soul writhing in the agony of Hell, how are we supposed to feel about these people? Pity? Anger? Sadness?
So I cannot defend Calvinism. Neither do I believe the Arminians have the right of things with their beliefs that God’s grace can be resisted, that there is any force strong enough on Earth to choose to say no to God’s calling once it has been issued.
I don’t know if I am right. I don’t know God’s plan. If it is Calvinism, I submit to it wholeheartedly, because I know that God works for my good and his glory. I know that the whole of creation waits in eager expectation for the sons and daughters of God to be revealed, and my faith is in the perfection of God’s plan, whatever it may be. But until God himself tells me, I will continue to pray for the souls of all his creations.
