Against Calvanism, by Roger Olson

I am looking forward to the release (in October, I believe) of Roger Olson's new book Against Calvinism. I am not sure exactly how much of what I am about to say is covered in Olson's book, but I am looking forward to what he shares.  I have copied a short synopsis of the book's content from Amazon's site:

Against Calvinism [Paperback]

Roger E. Olson (Author)

Calvinist theology has been debated and promoted for centuries. But is it a theology that should last? Roger Olson suggests that Calvinism, also commonly known as Reformed theology, holds an unwarranted place in our list of accepted theologies. In Against Calvinism, readers will find scholarly arguments explaining why Calvinist theology is incorrect and how it affects God's reputation. Olson draws on a variety of sources, including Scripture, reason, tradition, and experience, to support his critique of Calvinism and the more historically rich, biblically faithful alternative theologies he proposes.

It is about time that someone says what should have been said long ago, and what I have been saying for quite a while:  Calvinism does not deserve the place it has in accepted theologies.  It is fatalistic, flawed, deterministic, unscriptural, a horrible portrait of the God of the Bible, and has led many into flawed conclusions about life and God.

If one is honest in the study of Calvin and his Geneva experiment, the conclusions should be obvious.  I, for one, cannot and do not consider the Calvinistic position one that can even be remotely considered when studying the Bible.  But maybe I have be predetermined against all logic and free will to think this way....it's a mystery (sarcasm).

The Calvanist would have you believe that the torture and brutality of the Holocaust, horrible deaths and wars, catastrophes, and massacres by brutal dictators have been all been preordained in the decrees of God prior to creation or just after.  You are also to believe that somehow the perpetrators of those crimes will be held accountable by God, even though God foreordained that they would do it.  Does that make sense to you?  How can they be guilty of evil if they did what God ordained them to do?

Calvinists have to manipulate the Bible to get it to support such insanity.  The meticulous control of a "good" God that interprets all kinds of evil as being good is too much of a cruel game to believe.  Yet it has been promoted unchecked for so long.  It's time for it to be exposed for what it truly is - Plato's god, not the God the Bible.

I am grateful for the scholars that are now interpreting the New Testament and Old through the lens of Jewish Hebrew thought instead of the Hellenized Greek culture and philosophies.    This may offend some, but at this point it's worth the offense if it can help eliminate the insanity of the inconsistent, illogical, terrible thinking that has been promoted as truth ever since Plato's disciple Augustine.  That's a strong statement, but error like this has to be disarmed ASAP.

I have worked with too many people who have been told by misinformed people that pain, misery, disease, brutality, wars, rapes, baby killing, natural disasters where little children are buried alive under mudslides, and all the other evils that destroy life, family, and sanity are somehow God's doing.  That it's all part of some secret plan that never gets revealed to them and is a lesson from God where the point of the lesson is never revealed.

One statement I can hardly stay silent about when spoken in my presence is, "God must be teaching me something" in reference to some calamity that someone is experiencing.  This statement usually comes after the person realizes that he has no other answer for what's happening.  What he doesn't realize is that the “something” is never clarified.

When I teach my children something, they know what the “something” is.  I don't keep it a secret from them.  If they don't know what the lesson is, then I really didn't teach them.   They never have to chalk it up to some mystery.  God gave us the Bible, not evil and tragedy, to teach us "something," and He has given us His Spirit to aid in that process.   He never brings tragedy to our lives to try to teach us. The Bible and the Spirit - these are the means by which He teaches His people.

Fatalism, the doctrine that all events are subject to fate or inevitable predetermination, is not consistent with the Biblical witness.  Although Calvansts insist their view is not the same as fatalism, the similarities are too strong to pretend that they are not the same.  A barn can be painted any color; it's still a barn.

I hope and trust that if Calvinism is true and everything is predetermined, that part of God's predetermined plan is to do away with Calvinism - which is a statement that is about as logical as the system is itself.  I thank God for the Roger Olsons and others who are willing to finally call Calvanism what it is.

I don't agree with Rob Bell's assessment of some doctrines, but the man was labeled a heretic almost immediately for merely presenting the idea that there may be no hell.  To me, Calvin's teachings, which I have read extensively, qualify as heresy, if not blasphemy at times.  Jesus warned about attributing evil to the working of the Holy Spirit, and that is exactly what Calvanists do. Again, a strong statement, but if you look at Jesus and what He taught, and then look at Calvin and what he taught, you'll see that there just isn't any compatibility between the two.

Let's preach the real Gospel, the one that says that God so loved the world that He sent His Son for all people.  Calvinists say, “all who are ordained to be saved" instead of just “all” when they use this scripture.  That is just one of the many things that they have to modify to sustain their position.  Jesus taught that Salvation is for all humanity, if they turn, repent, and believe in Him - it can't get any plainer than that.  In fact, you have to purpose to mess something that simple up, which, unfortunately, happens too often.

God is good; He is the author of good.  He is not evil; He is not the author of evil. God is not in partnership with Satan to bring evil to you.  He is bigger than that - He is not a petty God that has to be in control of all things to make sure everything goes His way.  He is not mysterious either.  Paul says that the mystery of the Gospel has been revealed and by the Spirit and can be made known.  God isn't manipulative or dishonest, saying one thing but doing another. There is no hidden god behind the God of the Scriptures.  He is not disingenuous as the Calvinists make Him out to be.  He is Almighty and doesn't have to play games with his creatures to get His way.

Without hesitation I can say that Calvin does not merit the attention he gets when studying theology.  It's time for him to be left behind so we can move on to discover how glorious and wonderful God really is.