Calvanist Theology does not believe God creates people to destine them for hell?

[Ben_Sinner]

I came across this article saying that Calvinists believe God created people to be damned is misconception about Calvinist theology. I want to know what your thoughts are on this.

reclaimingthemind.org/blog/2010/01/calvinism-and-the-divine-decrees-correcting-a-misunderstanding/

From the article:

*Theoretically, there is an “order” of divine decrees. The order of decrees implicitly tell a story about not only the what of redemption, but the why. This is where things get a little dicey. For example, when Kristie and I got married, we had a certain order of arrangements about what our marriage would look like and how it would function. First, we decreed to get married. We had an understanding that we might have children (Lord willing), but we also might not have children. Either way, the decree to get married was set, children or not. Once we had children, we decreed to bring them up in the Lord. But, we might have done things differently. We might have first decided to have children who we would bring up in the Lord. But, as this scenario goes, we needed to get married in order to accomplish this purpose. Therefore, the marriage served as a means to an end to another purpose (i.e. having godly children) in the latter, while the former, the marriage was the purpose, and the children were a contentious possibility that would be a result of the first decree (i.e. getting married). Notice how the two situations produce the same result, but reveal different “ultimate” purposes. Put that in your back pocket for a minute.

The divine decrees produce similar effects with regard to God’s purposes. Here are the different decrees, in no certain order and stripped bare of many of the implications of purpose:

God’s decree to redeem the elect and to reprobate/”pass over” others
God’s decree to create man
God’s decree to allow for the fall
God’s decree to send Christ as the redeemer
God’s decree to apply salvation
Our next goal is to put these in a certain order (like with the marriage). However, this is not necessary a temporal order, since the divine decrees are before creation and hence timeless, but a logical order.*

 

[Wesrock]

Not all Calvinists agree with double predestination. Saying so is a bit of a simplification. Some Calvinists really do take double predestination as an implied point of unconditional election, though. Catholics may not go that far.

I found this article to be interesting. A bit of a Catholic walk through TULIP, or the five points of reformed theology: ewtn.com/library/ANSWERS/TULIP.htm

 

[AKDee]

My boss is a Calvinist and he absolutely believes in double predestination- he says it doesn’t matter what we do, we’re either destined for salvation or not, and if you’re not it doesn’t matter what you do, you’re going to hell. I think that’s ludicrous (even in the Bible it shows that the Angel Gabriel waited on Mary to say yes or no to the Incarnation, so how could we not have free will?) but he’s quite serious. He points to one of St. Paul’s letters as proof but I think he’s badly misunderstanding it.

 

[jaimeleglise]

Yes, Adam and Eve had free will, the angels had free will, etc.

 

[Kliska]

The problem is, even if denied, strict Calvinist theology logically entails God predestining people to Hell. The key is in man being absolutely dead in sin rendering mankind incapable of choosing God. If man is literally unable to choose God, and only those regenerated by God (prior to belief) can believe, then the men that don’t choose God have the “excuse” that God did not regenerate them so that they could believe.

The Calvinists I dialogued with that did not believe directly in double predestination simply said that they do what God says and evangelize all men despite the fact that man has no free will.

 

[Gorgias]

My boss is a Calvinist and he absolutely believes in double predestination

At first blush, this seems pretty clear cut. Yet, I know from personal experience that there are plenty of Catholics out there who believe things that the Church definitely doesn’t teach – and that doesn’t imply that their beliefs are actual Catholic teachings!

Is this what [some flavors of] Calvinism teach? Perhaps – but we can’t use the assertions of one believer to prove what the denomination believes. If we take that approach, then non-Catholics are completely justified in condemning Catholics for our belief that we ‘earn’ our way to heaven through good works, and for worshiping the saints and Mary…!