Question [condensation]: I obtained a copy of Edwin Palmer’s book, the five points of calvinism, ...

Question: I obtained a copy of Edwin Palmer’s book, the five points of calvinism, and...he does say that “...God has foreordained sin.” But why did you...fail to tell your listeners just how Palmer arrived at his conclusion? Well, of course I don’t really wonder...it would not have served your purpose, which apparently is to use any means, however disingenuous, to discredit Calvinism. A pastor friend...explained that...you have a “burr under your saddle” when it comes to Calvinists....Wresting verses and comments out of context is...most unbecoming of a man of God. You get away with it because of the credibility you have, and...most...would not be inclined to...check out the sources you quote, as I have. Your arguments regarding Calvinism involve a level of sophistry that would ill become a schoolboy....A man of your position should be scrupulously forthright when handling the things of God....

With regard to the account of Joseph...[Gn 45:8] says that God did it....Why then do you distort this teaching? Do you hope to gain favor with your people by ridiculing Calvinists...? God’s foreordination of all earthly events is spelled out in so many places in Scripture that I hardly see how you could not be aware of them....But God, while governing these events, cannot be held accountable for them.

In Westminster [Confession] III:1 we read, “God from all eternity did...ordain whatsoever comes to pass; yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin....” The Belgic Confession (Article XIII) has this to say: “...God neither is the author of, nor can be charged with, the sins which are committed....”

Bro. Hunt, I can’t believe that you are not familiar with these statements....I can only conclude, therefore, that you are willfully withholding this information from your congregation at large....Any number of your listeners see through this pretense at scholarship [and] recognize that you are being...dishonest....One might wonder, do you “plant” questions [in The Berean Call] to provide yourself an occasion for a diatribe against Calvinism?

Response: Thank you for your letter and the concern you express. I confess it was troubling to be accused of “a level of sophistry that would ill become a schoolboy...disregard[ing] contextual material...hop[ing] to gain favor by ridiculing Calvinists...willfully withholding this information from your [my] congregation at large...reluctance to be candid about these matters...‘a burr under your [my] saddle’ with regard to Calvinism...pretense at scholarship...being disingenuous, even dishonest...,” etc., etc.

I don’t resort to such ad hominem, but sincerely attempt to stick to the facts, documenting everything with contextual quotes and footnotes. You offered no quotes to support your accusations. Sadly, with few exceptions, most of the Calvinists who write to me make similar unsupported charges. For example, see James White’s response to my book, What Love Is This?

As God is my witness, I did not want to write this book, and did so reluctantly and only after I carefully and prayerfully studied God’s Word (in relation to Calvinism) plus scores of Calvinist writers. I have conscientiously done my very best to be accurate both biblically and in quoting any authors. It is therefore disconcerting to be accused of deliberate dishonesty.

You claim that I take out of context Palmer’s statement, “It is even biblical to say that God has foreordained sin.” ¹ Not so. Repeatedly he declares that “God is back of everything. He decides and causes all things to happen that do happen...the moving of a finger [God is “behind” and causes that finger to be lifted in an obscene gesture?]...the mistake of a typist [the typist did not make a mistake? God caused the mistake?]—even sin.” Every sin is caused by God? On the contrary! He hates sin, commands man not to sin, and it is a libel of the character of God to charge Him with causing sin.

Yet Calvin wrote, “He [God] has decreed that...all events take place by his sovereign appointment...² everything done in the world is according to his decree...³ so ordained by his decree.” ⁴ Boettner said, “[God] creates the very thoughts and intents of the soul.” ⁵ In other words, the most wicked sins men commit are conceived, predestined and caused by God! Calvin states, “The first man fell because the Lord deemed it meet that he should....” ⁶ Sproul agrees, as he must in order to maintain TULIP: “God desired for man to fall into sin...God created sin....God wills all things that come to pass....” ⁷

For Calvinists and their creeds, after declaring scores of times that God causes sin, then to say that He is not the author of sin is a contradiction too obvious to discuss further (TBC Jun ’02, Q&A).

I’m dishonest? Palmer paraphrases Genesis:45:8So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.
See All... as “You did not do it.” No, Joseph says, “it was not you that sent me hither, but God.” Of course they did it. God did not cause Joseph’s brothers to hate him and to sell him into slavery. But He used their evil to bring Joseph into Egypt for His purposes.
It is one thing to say that Christ was crucified according to the “determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God,” and something else to say that God caused the hatred and evil in the hearts and actions of those who did it. In specific situations, to fulfill His will God is able to use man’s determination to sin, but He does not cause men to sin in those situations; much less is He the instigator of every evil thought, word and deed, as Calvinism teaches.

Endnotes

1. Palmer, the five points of calvinism. (Baker Books, 1999), 82.
2. Calvin, Institutes, III:xxiii, 6
3. Op. cit., I:xvi, 6.
4. Op. cit., III:xxiii, 7
5. Loraine Boettner, The Reformed Doctrine of 
Predestination (Presbyterian and Reformed 
Publishing Co., 1932), 32.
6. Calvin, op. cit., III:xxiii, 8.
7. R. C. Sproul, Jr., Almighty Over All, 54.