…Is God Genuine in His Offer of Love?

Leighton Flowers, a proponent of Provisionism, has said something like “If Calvinism is true, then, isn’t God being disingenuous in his telling believers to love all people and share the gospel with all people? Why would God ask his children to be more loving than he is?”[1] So, Provisionist proponents might invoke the Good Samaritan story to support this idea (as John Cranman did).[2] If God doesn’t want us walking past the broken down and poor but wants us to help them, to love them–so the Provisionist reasoning goes–isn’t that what God would be doing if unconditional election were true?

Let’s look closely at this objection along with Romans 9:14 and 19.

• Objection from Provisionists: “Why would God ask his children to be more loving than he is?”
• Objection in Rom 9:14: “Is there injustice on God’s part?”
• Objection in Rom 9:19: “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist His will?”

The Provisionist objection is theoretical and not taught in Scripture, not raised as a correct question by a biblical author but is similar to objections Paul deals with in Romans 9. The two objections Paul addresses are forms of unbelief that his readers had raised or would raise. Likewise, the Provisionist objection finds fault with God in a similar way of reasoning that the two other objections do, and thus, is another form of a doubt-filled question like those raised in Romans 9.

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[1] Leighton Flowers debating Chris Date on Unbelievable (premierchristianradio.com), April 6, 2019.

[2] John Cranman debating James White on Unbelievable (premierchristianradio.com), May 18, 2019.

-GSiV

(GSiV: Election; Unconditional election; Salvation; Evangelism and Calvinism; TULIP)