Is Predestination Fair?
II. Why this Debate Matters: A Better Foundation and Surer Hope 
It’s important to note that the Calvinist-Arminian debate isn’t merely academic – the implications for believers are of immense spiritual significance. The notion that God chose a people for Himself in eternity past, long before any one of them came to saving faith, places every aspect and event of a believer’s life – including the time prior to regeneration and faith – in the grand context of God’s particular love and purposefulness. In positing that saving faith is unilaterally imparted to the believer by God, Calvinism emphasizes believers’ utter helplessness – in that God alone awakens and fulfills each believer’s desire to be saved — and therefore, their utter dependence on God’s mercy. As the Apostle Paul notes, salvation, “does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.” (Romans 9: 16)
Moreover, in the Calvinist, or what we hold as the biblical, view, those God elects typically lack the attributes worthy of merit or favor in the minds of men: “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.” (1 Corinthians 1:27-29). Hence, the notion of God’s unilateral salvific choice precludes the pride of belief.
Yet, Arminians have reason to boast. Trusting Christ for salvation is surely wiser and morally superior to pursuing any other religious path. Therefore, if you chose this path on your own, apart from irresistible grace, you can feel satisfaction in your religious decision-making — you’ve opted for the only eternally blessed choice. If Arminian theology is true, then Christians, of all people, exercise their free will exceedingly well, and thus are justified in jutting their chins and holding their heads high. Under Arminianism, Christians necessarily are intellectually and morally superior to unbelievers. Calvinists, on the other hand, can boast of nothing but the grace and cross of Christ.
Moreover, Calvinism’s doctrines – including irresistible grace and the perseverance of the saints (which, in short, means, “once saved, always saved”) — enable believers to have complete assurance of salvation, since every aspect of salvation, from beginning to end, is guaranteed by God. (Romans 8:29-30) If God so revered human agency, as Arminians claim, He would certainly allow believers to express “buyer’s remorse,” change their minds, and abandon belief in Christ.
As a result, no person – men and women being notoriously fickle and inconstant in their convictions – could fully trust their ability to persevere in belief to the end, especially while opposed by a powerful and deceptive supernatural enemy that seeks to destroy our faith. It would be natural for those convinced of God’s deference to their own wills to lack confidence in their ability to “cross the finish line;” the result being a vulnerable faith and tentative witness.
In addition, Calvinism makes God greater and our worship consequently deeper, because – unlike in Arminianism — God doesn’t merely resuscitate the spiritually weak; rather, His resurrection power raises the spiritually dead. If our spirits are truly dead and our wills hopelessly in bondage to sin, the power God must manifest in salvation is incomparably greater than that of Arminianism. Calvinists have something bigger to praise God about and something far greater for which to thank Him — spiritually, Christians truly are “new creations.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
The foregoing reasons for biblical theology, or Calvinism, if you will, are necessarily cursory and incomplete, and yet hopefully cast some light on the relevance and importance of the ongoing debate between Calvinism and its rival school of thought, Arminianism.
