The basic theme of Calvinism is that God chooses who is going to go to heaven and who isn’t. Mankind has no say in this. Added to that, Calvinists believe that the people God picks to go to heaven, have nothing to do with them. God just randomly picks. God said, “I’ll take this one and that one.” No, not that one or that one.” Yeah right.
Does God want robots? John 3:16 says that “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son.” So providing salvation to us is because of love. “Because He first loved us…” Throughout the Bible, God is telling us that love has a lot to do with salvation. Why would God talk about love as it relates to salvation if love had nothing to do with it? If God just simply picked people because of His own good pleasure (which is what Calvinists believe), why does He keep throwing the word love in there? Already, there are seemingly two points of view. The Bible testisfys that love was the reason to offer us salvation. Yet, Calvinists say God picked people for both heaven and hell. So who is right? The Bible or Calvinists? I’ll let you answer that obvious question.
When God says love has to do with salvation what is He talking about? God created us. He created us with emotions and a thinking mind. We were created in the image of God. He created us with the ability to love. To give our affections to other people. When we marry, we choose to love that person for the rest of our lives. We choose to give our affection to that person, spend our time with that person, choose them over all others. If we are capable of loving other people (namely our spouses and children), are we not capable of choosing and loving God? He designed us so that we CAN choose to love. We aren’t robots. God designed us to love. He designed us to feel things. If you don’t think we have emotions, go spend some time with a teenage girl. In a short amount of time, you will experience the roller coaster ride of emotions that teenage girls have.
I’ve heard there is great pleasure in owning a dog. I don’t own one myself, but the dog owners I know really, really love their dogs. When they talk about their dogs, they talk about how affectionate the dog is. How their dogs wag their tails when they come home to them. Their dogs WANT to be with them. I’ve also heard, that if you are single and alone, a dog is a great companion, because they have so much love for their owner. So looking at a simple minded dog, and the dog’s great love for his owner, wouldn’t God want us to choose Him? Wouldn’t God want us to choose to love Him? Dogs are simple minded creatures, but there is great pleasure in feeling the love of a dog. How much greater would be the pleasure in being loved by people? You could come home to robot in the future, but that robot will never love you the way a dog does. That robot won’t wag it’s tail and come running to greet you when you get home unless you program it to do that. But it would never be the robot’s choice to love you like a dog would love you. The robot has no choice in the matter.
How amazing is it, to be loved by someone? I have an amazing husband. Before I met him, I prayed that God would give me someone who would love me just as I am. Soon after that prayer, God brought my husband along. We were friends, then more than friends and a year and a half later we were married. We’ve been married for over twenty-five years now. And the one thing that keeps our marriage strong, I believe, is my husband. He has always loved me just as I am. He does remind me that I’m spoiled. He says I will never find anyone like him and he’s right. I won’t. To be in this relationship with my husband and to feel his love for me, is one of the greatest pleasures. Thinking about God, if He designed us to experience love like this, to feel the satisfaction of loving and being loved, WHY IN THE WORLD, would He not want that for Himself? Why wouldn’t He offer salvation to ALL people because “He so loved the world?” Then, those people choose. And when they choose God, God feels that great pleasure of being loved by those He came to save. We, like simple minded dogs, love Him in return. We wag our tails when He comes near us. We’re just grateful and happy He saved us. We aren’t robots.
I love in a condo complex here in southern California. We are owners of our little condo. Throughout the complex there are owners and renters. There is a big difference between the owners and renters. Not to say renters are bad, they just aren’t as invested as the owners. When you own your condo, much care and consideration goes into taking care of your place. Renters have no investment, emotional or financial. In fact, the value of the complex goes down if there are too many renters and not enough actual owners living in the condos. When you choose to own something, you take care of it. It’s kind of like salvation. We have more thought and appreciation for God, because we realized that He saved us and we choose to love Him. Isn’t that better than the Calvinist point of view, that we are robots and God picked some of us for heaven and some for hell, and nobody had a choice in the matter? There is no greater value in choosing, the love is deep and meaningful, rather than having no choice in the matter.