A slave cannot will himself into being free...

OK so I am listening to Mark Driscoll defending his view of predestination and I have to say, he is a very good communicator but his understanding of his own theology is muddled at best. He wants to be a good 'young, restless and reformed' dude but his understanding of the heart of God messes up his Calvinist leanings.

The video is very interesting and reveals the true problem with Calvinism. It runs counter to the Biblical revelation of God's character. As Mark tries to show that God's desire is that all men be saved he (mark) constantly talks about people are going to heaven because they believe in Jesus and they are not going to heaven because they do not believe. All well and good until you realize that a truly Calvinistic position absolutely forbids the free will believing that Mark implies here.

According to the traditional  Calvinist position God has to regenerate a person before they can believe. This view can be found in a multitude of modern and older authors. Sproul, Piper and Kennedy are a view. This view requires that we disregard the normal understanding of 'Believe' and 'faith' and remove any and all human activity.

I use a simple hermeneutic (Method of Bible Interpretation). If the plain sense makes sense seek no other sense. Unfortunately the Calvinist must use  a complicated series of interpretational (I think I made up a word there)  gymnastics so that he can make the Bible say what he wants it to say.

But I'll go down those roads more in the future. I entitled this blog the way I did because Driscoll made this statement in the aforementioned video.

A slave cannot will himself into being free he has to be set free.

I would agree wholeheartedly if he meant the same thing as I do. Here is my view Christ has redeemed me and offers me (and all humanity) freedom from slavery to sin and eternal life with Him. I have the opportunity to accept that gift by faith (Libertarian freewill human choice to believe). If I accept it I am free If I reject it I remain a slave. The offer is real for all people. 

The Calvinist view makes this freedom open to ONLY those whom God has chosen to save and all others are damned. Driscoll says he believes in a single predestination God predestines a finite number known to Him for salvation and passes over the rest)  but in reality God has created people He has no intention of saving and that means they are predestined to Hell. 

Please note* this means that God has given you children that are possibly (and,if you have more than 2 children) quite probably not going to have a chance at salvation. (unconditional election) If there are any Calvinists reading this I usually get this as their response to this argument. "Oh, so  you can save your children?" Of course not! 

But if one of my children (In my understanding of salvation) rejects the offer of salvation it is on them and them alone. The Calvinist view says that if one of my children is not one of the chosen he is going to hell and that is on God. 

Oh boy, I warned you I could get on my hobby horse and really get going and I have done so. Enough for now... I'll try to be more organized in the future!