SUMMARY OF JACK COTTRELL’S “COLLECTED WRITINGS” SERIES:
VOLUME FOUR: THE BIBLE VERSUS CALVINISM, by Jack Cottrell

INTRODUCTION

Calvinism is one of the most widespread, most accepted, and most destructive of all the false doctrines that permeate Christendom today. It is the framework of Presbyterianism, of all denominations that describe themselves as “Reformed,” and of many independent churches. Aspects of its system have filtered over into many churches that are not fully Calvinistic. Much of my academic career has been devoted to examining and refuting this anti-Biblical system, as this volume suggests.

It is obvious, then, that this “Volume 4” of my Collected Writings series—The Bible Versus Calvinism—is a bit different from most of the others, in that its main purpose is to refute false doctrine rather than to teach sound doctrine. I do not apologize for this, since the NT “soundly” condemns false doctrine (e.g., Eph. 4:14, and throughout the Pastoral Epistles). Titus 1:9 says that church elders must be able not only “to give instruction in sound doctrine” but “also to rebuke those who contradict it.”

I will also note that not everything in this volume is negative. This is so because showing that specific Calvinistic doctrines are false gives me the opportunity to also explain the Biblical teaching on the same subjects.

This book is divided into four parts. Under each part I will summarize one or two chosen essays and list the others.

PART ONE: GENERAL STUDIES

A. “Historic Calvinism” (pp. 5-20). The doctrinal system we call Calvinism was actually begun by Augustine of Hippo (A.D. 354-430), taught by a few scattered theologians through the Middle Ages, and picked up by the first Protestant Reformers, Martin Luther (1483-1546) and Huldreich Zwingli (1484-1531). John Calvin (1509-1564) took it over from Zwingli and began to systematize it. It is the main element of “Reformed theology.” This essay attempts to summarize classic, main-stream Calvinism thus:

1. Calvinism Is a Determinism. Calvinism’s basic belief is that God is the One who ultimately causes or determines EVERYTHING. Human beings and angels (including Satan) seem to be causing things, but God is causing them to originate whatever decisions and actions that come from them. Everything happens according to His hidden, secret, purposive, decretive will.

Calvinists believe that God predetermined everything via His eternal decree. The Westminster Confession of Faith (II.i) says, “God from all eternity did, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass.” Every detail, down to the most minute event, was unconditionally predetermined by God. Thus, there is no such thing as significant human free will.

All of this is what Calvinists mean by their basic doctrine of the sovereignty of God.

2. The Two Bases of Calvinist Determinism. If you ask what foundation this Calvinist view of deterministic divine sovereignty is based upon, the answer is twofold. First, a presupposed philosophical basis is that the very concept of “sovereignty” includes and requires that God MUST be the absolute and sole cause of everything. Otherwise He cannot be sovereign. Every act of a truly sovereign God must be unconditional, totally uninfluenced by anything outside of Himself. Thus He cannot ever be responding to anything, He always acts; He never reacts.

What we must recognize, though, is that this concept of sovereignty is a completely arbitrary philosophical presupposition, not a Biblical teaching and not a requirement of logic. From Genesis 3 onward, the Bible presents God as REACTING to human free will choices and events. Such a creation is God’s own sovereign choice, in that He freely decided to create free-will beings.

Second, Calvinists have a theological reason for believing in determinism, especially as it relates to salvation. This is their belief in total depravity. Because the human race was condemned to total depravity after Adam’s sin, God must be the only real cause of a sinner’s participation in salvation at every step of the way. Thus Calvinists speak of sovereign grace.

This is because total depravity includes what is called bondage of the will, which is the total loss of free will and the total inability to do anything right—especially make a positive response to the gospel. Thus no sinner can choose to believe in Jesus. When a person believes, that is because God chose that person for salvation and gave him faith as an unconditional gift.

3. The TULIP System. Belief in total depravity (beginning with Augustine) is what requires the rest of the Calvinist system of sin and salvation, as follows. (a) The T is total depravity itself, as the beginning of the system. (b) The U—unconditional election—is required by total depravity. Since no totally depraved sinner can respond to the gospel call, God must initiate the salvation process and decide on His own whom He will save and whom He will send to hell.

(c) The L means limited atonement—i.e., Jesus died ONLY for those chosen for salvation. (d) Then comes the I, which stands for irresistible grace. I.e., at a chosen moment when the gospel is preached, God opens the chosen one’s heart and pours into it the gift of faith. From that moment on, the person is eternally saved. (e) This leads to the P in TULIP, namely perseverance (or preservation) in the faith. Here is the source of all “once saved, always saved” beliefs.

B. The Rest of Part One. Here are the other five essays in this section:

1. “Calvinism’s Origins” (pp. 21-23). Namely, Augustine (A.D. 354-430).
2. “Did the Early Church Fathers Teach Calvinism?” (pp. 25-28). No, not until Augustine.
3. “Calvinism in a Nutshell” (pp. 29-33). Its six major points.
4. “A Brief Summary of Calvinism” (pp. 35-38). TULIP again.
5. “Calvinism and the Bible” (pp. 39-56). The above are brief summaries, compared with this solid, over-all explanation and critique from Scripture. Be sure to read this one!

PART TWO: THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD

A. “Sovereignty and Free Will” (pp. 59-75). This essay is a term paper I wrote when I was a first-year student at Westminster Theological Seminary—a staunchly Calvinistic school (I passed anyway). The issue here is how can God be truly sovereign if man has a truly free will? The Calvinist claims that such a view—the Arminian view—is actually impossible.

1. The Charge Stated. Calvinists flatly declare that if human beings have free will (as Arminians teach), then God cannot be the sovereign God of the Bible. Anything that God does not cause must be out of His control.

2. God’s Decree. Calvinists affirm that God’s eternal decree is all-inclusive, meaning that He must have determined everything. But, they say, free-will choices would be outside God’s decree and plan. My point here is to show that this is not true. The fact is that free-will choices are within the will of God, because God’s will does not have to be all-deterministic to be all-inclusive. This is true because the creation of free-will beings itself was God’s own sovereign will, plan, and choice.

3. God’s Control. Can man have free will, and God still be in control? Calvinists say no. They are wrong. By means of His foreknowledge and providential intervention, God has the final say in allowing any free choice to proceed. He can prevent any such intended choice if He chooses; otherwise he allows it. These concepts imply control. Also, we must acknowledge that any limitations that God has placed upon Himself in relation to such choices are SELF-limitations which He has sovereignly chosen.

4. God’s Knowledge. The Arminian view of free will limits God’s knowledge, says Calvinism, by making it dependent upon man. But the fact is that God in His omniscience foreknows all free-will choices, a fact that does not diminish God’s sovereignty but rather reinforces and exalts it. By saying that God cannot know something unless He determines it, it is the Calvinist who limits God’s knowledge, not the Arminian.

B. The Rest of Part Two.

1. “God’s Sovereignty, Control, and Decree—A Debate” (pp. 79-84). A debate, on paper, between me and a Calvinist writer.
2. “Is Everything ‘God’s Will’?” (pp. 85-88). Yes—but not in the same sense.
3. “What Is the Nature of Free Will?” (pp. 89-92). Here, we must distinguish between (a) the power of opposite choice, and (b) the power of different choice. The latter does not necessarily include the former.

PART THREE: THE FIVE POINTS OF CALVINISM

A. MUST-READ ESSAYS. Two of the essays in this section are “must-reads.” I can only tell you here what they are about.

1. “Pharaoh as a Paradigm for Israel in Romans 9:18” (pp. 111-136). This is an analysis of Romans 9:14-18, especially v. 18. The usual interpretation is this: God chooses those upon whom He will have mercy (i.e., save—in this case, Israelites), and He chooses those whom He will condemn (in this case, Pharaoh). Calvinists use this as a solid proof for unconditional election.

I challenge this by showing that Paul means to apply BOTH the mercy and the hardening to Pharaoh, and then to use Pharaoh as a model or example of the way God related to the NATION of Israel—not to specific individuals. Also—and this is crucial: even in relation to Israel, it has nothing to do with election to salvation, but to service.

2. “Sovereign Grace—Or Gracious Sovereign?” (pp. 141-161). This is the other “must-read” essay in this section. This is my critique of the Calvinist view of how God saves His chosen sinners, i.e., by what it calls sovereign grace. I summarize this view by saying that, for Calvinists, grace is (a) optional, i.e., He does not really have to show grace to anyone; (b) irresistible, i.e., when sovereignly bestowed, it cannot be refused; (c) unconditional, i.e., there is nothing the chosen sinner must or can do in order to receive it; and (d) monergistic, i.e., the only person actually doing anything in the salvation event is God.

Here I show how each of these ideas is false! I show that instead of Calvinism’s “sovereign grace,” the Bible teaches that God is a Gracious Sovereign. See especially my analysis of the fourth point above (that grace is monergistic), where I explain and refute the Calvinist’s use of the terms monergism and synergism. I make up some new words with new (and correct) meanings: monothelism and synthelism. I conclude, “The grace of the Gracious Sovereign is synthelic,” neither monergistic nor synergistic (p. 154). Read it!

B. The Rest of Part Three.

1. “Does Scripture Teach Total, Partial, or No Depravity?” (pp. 95-97). NO depravity at birth, then an acquired PARTIAL depravity as the moral sense develops. TOTAL depravity? NEVER!
2. “Are Babies Born in Original Sin?” (pp. 99-102). Answer: NO.
3. “Election, Calvinism, and the Bible” (pp. 103-109).
4. “Is Substitutionary Atonement a Calvinist Doctrine?” (pp. 137-140). Some deny substitutionary atonement (a basic Biblical teaching) because they think Calvinists invented it. FALSE!
5. “Once Saved, Always Saved—Again!” (pp. 163-166). A solid refutation.

PART FOUR: CALVINISM AND SPECIFIC BIBLICAL TEXTS

A. One Must-Read Essay: “Calvinism and Foreknowledge in Romans 8:29” (pp. 181-188). Calvinists really mangle this verse by trying to equate foreknowledge with foreloving (“whom He foreloved”), and identifying the “foreloving” with election itself. I show that this ignores the MAIN way the Bible uses the words for knowledge.

B. The Rest of Part Four.

1. “John 6:65 and Calvinism” (pp. 169-176).
2. “Calvinism and Acts 13:48” (pp. 177-180).
3. “Does 1 Corinthians 2:14-16 Teach Calvinism?” (pp. 189-191).
4. “Does Ephesians 1:1-11 Support Calvinism?” (pp. 193-196).
5. “Calvinism and 2 Peter 3:9” (pp. 197-200).