Cheryl Schatz

Gillian, Calvinists do believe that God is omniscient. They just disagree HOW He is omniscient. They define omniscience by God’s Sovereignty, so that the knowledge of the future comes from God’s Sovereign choice. Thus God sovereignly chooses every event and every act and by sovereignly choosing, He has omniscience. In contrast, those who are not Calvinists may not fully understand how God is who He is, but they believe what He says. So I may not understand how God can be everywhere at the same time (omnipresence), but I can believe His word that He is. That allows me not to worry about how God can be God, but I can put my full trust in His ability to be what He claims to be. In the area of omniscient, I don’t have to know how God in His nature can know the future fully before it happens, but I can believe that He does know. I can also believe that He knows the future without decreeing the evil of the future. This is consistent with His holy nature and the fact that He has said in the OT that the evil of sacrificing one’s child to burn it in the fire to an idol did not enter His mind as an origin of this evil. So I believe that Calvinists can believe that God is omniscient while going off the rails on how He is omniscient. As far as whether Calvinists believe that God is just and righteous. This is an area that Calvinism has a difficult time. Calvinists can affirm their belief in God righteous standing and His Just judgments, but it is difficult for them to explain how determinism is just. It becomes a mystery. Those of us who do not accept Calvinism and who believe the Bible as it is written, want to accept God’s justice as it is written in the Scripture, rather than a mysterious and contradictory view of justice. It is true that if a human judge acted as the Calvinists believe God acts, we would consider him an unjust judge. That is also very hard for a Calvinist to explain. I also know some ex-JW’s who have become Calvinists after their conversion to Christ. I do want to be gentle with them helping them to see the holes in their doctrine so they don’t lose faith in God as they see the patient Savior from the pages of the Bible who is fully Sovereign, but who is not bound by His Sovereignty to act as man thinks a Sovereign God should act. I try hard to think how I would want to be approached if I was the one who was deceived. If I want a gentle, loving and caring individual to help me to see the truth for myself, then I must also endeavour to me that same loving and caring individual who gently guides a person into truth. I don’t want to be like many Calvinists who come across as prideful, nasty and close-minded. I have come across a few gentle Calvinists who have let me ask them questions about the contradictions in Calvinism, but most Calvinists whom I have come in contact with have been willing to attack the person when they can’t answer the questions. I pray for unity in the body of Christ so that we can all properly represent God both with our doctrine and our attitude. I believe that God is able to bring about this kind of unity, although it may seem difficult to believe in the natural. Gillian, thanks so much for your comments! I am glad that you are willing to think these things through and to push for understanding and truth.