No other doctrine, in my estimation, impugns and maligns the character of God than that of divine determinism, i.e., Calvinism. Tracing Calvinism back to its father, John Calvin, we can see clear-as-day rotten fruit to begin with: A man responsible for the senseless torture and killings of many that opposed his teachings. Fast forward to modern times, we have Calvinistic teachers claiming that “God is the author of evil and sin”, something only Gnostics were teaching. If Calvinism is true, we have an inconsistent, unloving, unjust, deity of deception.
Photo from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Calvinism
Such beliefs as Stoicism, Gnosticism, and Manichaeism all taught a form of divine determinism in the first several centuries of Church history but were not taught within the Church itself. It wasn’t until Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD) rolled onto the scene where all this changed. His influence of divine determinism dropped a nuclear bomb within Christianity to which the fallout is still seen to this very day. Interestingly enough, before his conversion to Christianity, Augustine was a Manichean gnostic who believed in, taught, and defended determinism. After his conversion, and for the first 25 years of his Christian walk, he taught the same teachings of the early Church fathers: freedom of the will. But it wasn’t until the final 18-ish years of his life that his Manichean teachings in his debates with Pelagius started to rear its ugly head and surface like a slow-rising stagnant swamp bubble. But the bubble clearly didn’t pop fast enough. Enter Calvinism…
Protestants eventually split from the Catholic Church (1517 AD), and a theologian by the name of John Calvin (1509-1564 AD) emerged from the depths of the Swamp of Divine Determinism and helped shape the theology of the West. The very father of Calvinism himself was influenced by Augustine and his teachings on predestination and divine determinism (Calvin quoted Augustine’s writings over 1,000 times, so to say he was influenced is a massive understatement). In one of his writings, Calvin stated, in more or less words, that the early Church fathers were confused in their teachings on free will:
<aside> 🗨️ “Further, even though the Greeks above the rest–and Chrysostom especially among them–extol the ability of the human will, yet all the ancients, save Augustine, so differ, waver, or speak confusedly on this subject, that almost nothing certain can be derived from their writings.” — Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book II, Chapter 2, Section 4
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In essence, Calvin is agreeing that the early Church fathers unilaterally taught free will. What he goes on to say is that every early Church father and, subsequently anyone who believed their teachings in free will, were confused for the first several centuries of Church history. Think about that. These people he’s referring to are the same Christians that studied directly under the Apostles Paul, Peter, or John (Christians such as Ignatius (35-108 AD), Polycarp (69-155 AD), Clement of Rome (35-99 AD), etc.).
Ironically enough, highly respected Reformed scholars even today, such as Loraine Boettner, agrees with Calvin’s point that determinism wasn’t seen in Christianity until towards the end of the 4th century (in other words, it wasn’t seen before Augustine)[1]:
<aside> 🗨️ “…the doctrine of Predestination was not made a matter of special study until near the end of the fourth century. The earlier Church fathers…taught that salvation was through Christ; yet they assumed that man had full power to accept or reject the Gospel.” — Calvinism in History, Chapter 1
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Yet another respected Reformed scholar, Herman Bavinck, had come to similar conclusions as Boettner and Calvin:
<aside> 🗨️ “In the early Church, at a time when it had to contend with pagan fatalism and gnostic naturalism, its representatives focused exclusively on the moral nature, freedom, and responsibility of humans and could do no justice, therefore, to the teaching of Scripture concerning the counsel of God. Though humans had been more or less corrupted by sin, they remained free and were able to accept the proffered grace of God. The Church’s teaching did not include a doctrine of absolute predestination and irresistible grace.” — Reformed Dogmatics, Volume II: "God and Creation”
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Calvinists and other Reformed scholars themselves–the same people that typically hold to a deterministic worldview–conclude that these teachings were altogether absent in the early Church. Well, at least we’re not putting people to death anymore that oppose determinism, right? (cough, cough)
We don’t talk about people like Michael Servetus, someone who critiqued and resisted some of Calvin’s teachings, who Calvin said he would put to death in his letter to Farel if he saw the man face to face[2]:
<aside> 🗨️ “Servetus offers to come hither, if it be agreeable to me. But I am unwilling to pledge my word for his safety, for if he shall come, I shall never permit him to depart alive, provided my authority be of any avail. (emphasis added)” – Letter to Farel, 13 February 1546
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Unfortunately for Michael Servetus, he met his fate promised by Calvin. Servetus was burned alive[3]. And, yet this isn’t the only ungracious, ungodly, un-Christ-like act Calvin committed against his opponents. Consider this next quote from Calvin as a build-up to his next victim (spoiler alert):
<aside> 🗨️ “I am persuaded that it is not without the special will of God that, apart from any verdict of the judges, the criminals have endured protracted torment at the hands of the executioner.” – Calvin’s letter to Farel on 24 July
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Calvin was unfortunately a man of his word… again. Jacques Gruet, who was a theological opponent to John Calvin, wrote him a letter in which he called Calvin a hypocrite and a heretic. In the only natural response to these accusations, John Calvin had Jacques tortured inhumanely every day for a month before finally “showing mercy” and having Jacques beheaded[4]. What a prime example of Christlikeness, Calvin.