In response to a common argument in favour of Calvinism, Ronnie Rogers,
himself a former Calvinist, wrote:
. ..some Calvinists
maintain if God truly desires all to
be saved, and all are not saved, then failed. No! God seems perfectly capable
of creating a plan that affords everyone the magnanimous opportunity to be
saved while simultaneously desiring that such plan encompass libertarian free
will, the ability to resist. To wit, there is neither a biblical nor logical conflict
in God desiring everyone to accept his love and salvation, while concurrently
desiring that such acceptance is conditioned upon a non-deterministic free will
decision.
We see this parallel
frequently throughout Scripture. For example, God both designed and desires
marriage to be for life (Gen. 2:18-24; Mal 2:16; Matt 19:8). Yet he also quite
apparently desires to permit the freedom of those involved to choose to go
against his desire to permit the freedom of those involved to choose to go
against his desire for marriage (Matt 5:31-32; 17:7-8; 1Cor 7:10-16). Similarly,
Scripture is clear that God desires for all Christians to grow in the knowledge
and holiness of Christ (Eph 4:15; 1Pet 2:2). However, what we find in Scripture
and the local church is the clear reality that God also desired to incorporate
choice, which can result in some being unnecessarily immature and even remain
so for long periods of time (1Cor 3:1-3).
Does this mean God is
not omnipotent? No, it means God created man with otherwise choice, which
includes the God-granted freedom to actually choose between following or not
following God. With this in mind, the reality is some people freely choose to
remain immature, or they choose not to do the things that lead to maturity
(such as regular Bible study, regular evangelism, regular prayer, and regular
meetings with other believers) . . . Part of Calvinism’s difficulty in grasping
this is their commitment to decretal theology and compatibilism, which
necessitates that every event is actually a predetermined event. It is, in
fact, a necessary event because God decreed everything to be as it is, even
though they confusingly speak, write, and pray as though the events could be
otherwise due to human involvement. This determinative necessity does not
require exclusion of secondary causes, but rather that the event takes place as
only it could take place. In contrast, Extensivism recognizes that some events
are definite because they happen
necessarily due to God’s predetermination that such is the case without any
possibility the event could happen differently Such events are unaffected by
human choice. Events like creation, the second coming of Christ, and the final
judgment of God against all ungodliness are examples of this. (Ronnie W.
Rogers, Does Love All or Some? Comparing
Biblical Extensivism and Calvinism's Exclusivism [Eugene, Oreg.: Wipf and
Stock, 2019], 174, 175)
