Post by Dr James Ach on Oct 12, 2014 8:05:25 GMT 3
A Quick Word About Sovereignty & Why Calvinist Usage Of It Is Blasphemous
Calvinists often (mis)use sovereignty as a starting point to describe the character of God. This is not only bad theology but bad etymology. Sovereignty is NOT an eternal attribute of God. It is certainly one of His attributes NOW, and even then only in part, because HE HAS NOT YET TAKEN FULL CONTROL OF EVERYTHING IN HEAVEN AND EARTH. And if you don't believe that, better check Hebrews 2:8 and pay close attention to those 2 little words "NOT YET". Calvinists are missing out on a fascinating element of God's display of power.
Sovereignty is defined as,
sovereignty www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=sovereignty
mid-14c., "pre-eminence," from Anglo-French sovereynete, Old French souverainete, from soverain (see sovereign (adj.)). Meaning "authority, rule, supremacy of power or rank" is recorded from late 14c.; sense of "existence as an independent state" is from 1715.
To be sovereign means to RULE OVER. What Calvinists are describing is OMNIPOTENCE or ALL POWERFUL. What Calvinists miss is that an eternal attribute is something God possesses that is not contingent upon something else. Sovereignty requires a contingency, i.e., something or someone to rule over. God did not rule over anyone or anything BEFORE He created anything and hence He was not eternally sovereign. HOWEVER, God IS all powerful (omnipotent), the "only wise potentate" 1 Tim 6:15. There can be MANY lords (a word Calvinists use with sovereignty, which is correct IN PROPER CONTEXT) 1 Cor 8:5, but there can only be ONE all powerful God. Isa 48:11, Isa 42:8. Isa 44:24, Heb 1:3, Rev 19:6. Sovereignty is the expression of God's power, not the source of it.
God is not all powerful because He is sovereign, He is sovereign BECAUSE HE IS ALL POWERFUL. To reduce the character of God to a temporal attribute is to share God's glory with other rulers INCLUDING SATAN (2 Cor 11:4), and hence it is BLASPHEMOUS to build a theology for the character of God that is based on a false premise that robs God of an attribute that He shares with NO ONE or ANYTHING ELSE. Before God ruled over creation, He was/is love. 1 John 4:8. The Father has loved The Son from all eternity (John 17:5, 23-24) before He became sovereign over any created thing. Anything that God 'becomes" is not an eternal attribute because becoming is based on contingency. God is not limited nor defined by what is dependent upon Him as sovereignty would demand if it was an eternal attribute.
The Reformed heresy of defining God's eternal attribute of love by His temporal attribute of sovereignty is not only an "eternal anachronism", but is the starting point that defiles every other doctrine that Calvinists have introduced into Christian theology as well as polluted sound philosophy (particularly in the area of theodicy). The Calvinist view of God is no different than the Islamic concept of Allah (even right down to Allah's love for only those who are Allah's elect).
So before you buy into Calvinist heresy, consider this fatal flaw over sovereignty. Then read just a few of these passages from the Quran and Hadith and ask yourself if any of it sounds familiar!
“Nor can a soul die except by Allah’s leave, the term being fixed as by writing” (Al-Imran 3:145)
“Say: Nothing will happen to us except what Allah has decreed for us” (At-Tauba 9:51)
“This is an admonition: Whosoever will, let him take a (straight) path to his Lord. But ye will not, except as Allah wills; for Allah is full of knowledge and wisdom.” (Al-Insan 76:29,30)
Calvinists often (mis)use sovereignty as a starting point to describe the character of God. This is not only bad theology but bad etymology. Sovereignty is NOT an eternal attribute of God. It is certainly one of His attributes NOW, and even then only in part, because HE HAS NOT YET TAKEN FULL CONTROL OF EVERYTHING IN HEAVEN AND EARTH. And if you don't believe that, better check Hebrews 2:8 and pay close attention to those 2 little words "NOT YET". Calvinists are missing out on a fascinating element of God's display of power.
Sovereignty is defined as,
sovereignty www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=sovereignty
mid-14c., "pre-eminence," from Anglo-French sovereynete, Old French souverainete, from soverain (see sovereign (adj.)). Meaning "authority, rule, supremacy of power or rank" is recorded from late 14c.; sense of "existence as an independent state" is from 1715.
To be sovereign means to RULE OVER. What Calvinists are describing is OMNIPOTENCE or ALL POWERFUL. What Calvinists miss is that an eternal attribute is something God possesses that is not contingent upon something else. Sovereignty requires a contingency, i.e., something or someone to rule over. God did not rule over anyone or anything BEFORE He created anything and hence He was not eternally sovereign. HOWEVER, God IS all powerful (omnipotent), the "only wise potentate" 1 Tim 6:15. There can be MANY lords (a word Calvinists use with sovereignty, which is correct IN PROPER CONTEXT) 1 Cor 8:5, but there can only be ONE all powerful God. Isa 48:11, Isa 42:8. Isa 44:24, Heb 1:3, Rev 19:6. Sovereignty is the expression of God's power, not the source of it.
God is not all powerful because He is sovereign, He is sovereign BECAUSE HE IS ALL POWERFUL. To reduce the character of God to a temporal attribute is to share God's glory with other rulers INCLUDING SATAN (2 Cor 11:4), and hence it is BLASPHEMOUS to build a theology for the character of God that is based on a false premise that robs God of an attribute that He shares with NO ONE or ANYTHING ELSE. Before God ruled over creation, He was/is love. 1 John 4:8. The Father has loved The Son from all eternity (John 17:5, 23-24) before He became sovereign over any created thing. Anything that God 'becomes" is not an eternal attribute because becoming is based on contingency. God is not limited nor defined by what is dependent upon Him as sovereignty would demand if it was an eternal attribute.
The Reformed heresy of defining God's eternal attribute of love by His temporal attribute of sovereignty is not only an "eternal anachronism", but is the starting point that defiles every other doctrine that Calvinists have introduced into Christian theology as well as polluted sound philosophy (particularly in the area of theodicy). The Calvinist view of God is no different than the Islamic concept of Allah (even right down to Allah's love for only those who are Allah's elect).
So before you buy into Calvinist heresy, consider this fatal flaw over sovereignty. Then read just a few of these passages from the Quran and Hadith and ask yourself if any of it sounds familiar!
“Nor can a soul die except by Allah’s leave, the term being fixed as by writing” (Al-Imran 3:145)
“Say: Nothing will happen to us except what Allah has decreed for us” (At-Tauba 9:51)
“This is an admonition: Whosoever will, let him take a (straight) path to his Lord. But ye will not, except as Allah wills; for Allah is full of knowledge and wisdom.” (Al-Insan 76:29,30)