YES, PEOPLE BELIEVE THIS

Last Sunday I was preaching on what it means to be God's chosen people and I mentioned that some Christians (i.e. Calvinists) believe that God chooses some people - long before their birth - to be saved and He chooses others - again, long before their birth - to be damned for eternity. 

My impression was that many in the congregation found the idea so shocking and inconceivable, that they couldn't believe that anyone really holds this as a theological doctrine.

But it's true. 

The most obvious place to find it in writing is the (in)famous Westminster Confession of Faith of 1647.

It is not at all uncommon to hear modern American preachers of the Calvinist persuasion quote the Westminster Confession with the utmost reverence. 

The issue of predestination to salvation or hell is explored in the third chapter which begins with this surprising bit of doublethink:

"God from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely, and unchangeable ordain whatsoever comes to pass; yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established."

So the first part of the paragraph claims God planned everything that happens, down to the smallest of details, long before the world was created: 

• Which leaves dropped off the tree in your backyard today and where each would land. 
• The path of the fly that was buzzing around your kitchen. 
• The volume of the burp which accidentally escaped your lips at the dinner table.

R.C. Sproul famously quipped that if there was "one rogue molecule anywhere in the universe" it would challenge God's sovereignty.

But that also means that God orchestrates the path of every drunk driver, plans out every episode of child abuse, and directs the actions of each genocidal dictator. Throughout all of history.

The Westminster Confession recognizes this problem but goes on to assure us that this does NOT mean that God is the "author of sin" or that he takes away our free will. 

And just like that - with a few carefully crafted phrases - the problem is waved away. 

Just because God plans absolutely everything doesn't mean that He's responsible for the downside of what He planned, all the intense evil and suffering. Why not? Because Westminster says so.

Problem solved. 

Two paragraphs later in the same chapter is where the Confession explicitly teaches that some are chosen for salvation and some for damnation. This particular sentence is downright evil:

"By the decree of God, for the manifestation of His glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life; and others foreordained to everlasting death."

So according to Westminster, it's OK that God creates numerous human beings for the express purpose of casting them into hell because ... it's all for God's GLORY.

As far as I'm concerned, this is nothing less than the most detestable slur against God's good character that I can imagine. 

Unbelievable that it's been taught and retaught for almost 400 years.

But it has been and still is.