Question: In the May issue you gave statistics about the moral depravity of American society and ...

Question: In What Love Is This? you quoted Tozer on page 102: "So when man exercises his freedom [of choice] he is fulfilling the sovereignty of God, not canceling it out." In the May issue you gave statistics about the moral depravity of American society and said the judgment of God cannot be long in coming upon them....By your definition...are Americans not fulfilling the sovereignty of God? And if so, wherein lies the justification of the impending judgment of God on them? How different is such a God from the Calvinistic God who refuses salvation to some people, only to turn around and condemn them for rejecting the salvation He withholds from them?

Response: You misunderstand Tozer. He was saying that in exercising free will, man uses the power of choice that God gave him. That does not mean (as you seem to think) that what men choose to do is caused by God's will because He sovereignly gave them the power of choice. That can't be true, or the free will God gave to man wouldn't be free after all.

That same misunderstanding of sovereignty and free will (the latter expression is used 17 times in the Old Testament) clouds what you say about God's judgment upon America. You seem to think that what Americans do must be according to God's will because He sovereignly gave them freedom to choose. Not so. Man is accountable to God for what he willfully does and will be punished for the sin he freely chooses. The fact that God allows man to choose does not mean that God is the author of what he chooses.

The huge difference between the biblical God and the Calvinist God is clear. The biblical God punishes men for rejecting the salvation He provided for everyone, which all could have accepted by their free will-and punishes them for their sins, which are contrary to His will, none of which they had to commit but chose to do so.

But the Calvinist God condemns to hell those whom He could save if He so desired but for whom He sovereignly chose not even to have Christ die and from whom He deliberately withholds the salvation He pretends to offer them—and punishes them for not accepting. Yes, that's a huge difference.