Monday, March 07, 2005 AD The Scripture That Left Me Legless In the comments to the previous entry, Jema asked about the post I'd written about why I wasn't a Calvinist. Though I'm reluctant to publish that, I will write about the passage that cut the legs out from under my argument.
My post had addressed what I perceived Calvinism said about the character of God -- that it made Him less loving than I thought He was or ought to be. I had wanted to make a point that it detracted from His glory, so I went looking for the passage where He reveals His glory to Moses. And what does God say when He shows Moses His glory?
"I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion."
We don't know what Moses saw when God revealed His glory, but we know what He heard -- this summation of God's glorious character that explicitly states His sovereign choice re to whom He will show His covenant love. Just a breath after He mentions His goodness -- clearly He sees no contradiction between them. And just a breath after He gives His Name -- clearly both His sovereignty and His goodness are integral to His very nature. It made me realize that it must have been my perspective that was off.
I remember praying something like, "OK, Lord. If that's the way You are, then I'm willing for You to be that way." Of course the words of that prayer were foolish -- who am I to presume to give God permission to be who He is? But I trust He forgave that wickedness and accepted the heart of my prayer: an admission of my inadequate understanding, repentance of my worship of the false image I'd made of Him, and submission to His true character.
I wasn't happy about it at first, though. I was the world's most miserable Calvinist for a few weeks. But then my friend Mark was preaching through Ephesians 1 -- a passage about predestination that had driven me bonkers for years -- and I suddenly found myself loving it (and hence writing songs about it). No doubt the sovereign goodness of God had something to do with that! Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 3/07/2005 08:30:00 AM
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