On his website, Arminian Perspectives, Ben Henshaw has a questions page at which he answers questions about Arminianism and Calvinism that visitors to his site pose in the comment section of the page. Here is a question from a man name Ralph followed by Ben’s answer:
Question:
I would dearly appreciate some help in working through the Calvinist claim that God’s sovereignty entails the fact that God does ordain evil, and is not simply passively letting it happen. I have great difficulty with this claim, in large part because I think my view of God is conditioned by the NT claim that God is love, and in the incarnation, Jesus is the definitive revelation of God’s love.
Yet I have only this Sunday had a guest preacher using Isaiah 45 argue that God not only permits but in actual fact ordains evil to his good ends. That God uses evil is qualified by the claim that His Godly and good sovereign intention and motive makes it OK – and why should the clay dictate how the potter chooses to make use of it.
He made much of texts which spoke of visiting evil etc, and even went on to imply that when evil and suffering befalls a person, it is only because God ordains it. I simply find this hard to accept, but am made to feel that I am simply trying to make excuses for wanting God to fall into line with my own view of love and goodness.
The pastoral implication of such a deterministic view also worries me. How does this bring consolation to a woman who has been repeatedly abused and raped, parents whose child is abducted and murdered etc.?
How does a relational/Arminian view respond to such deterministic claims, and how does it deal with texts which seemingly suggest God does ordain evil?
Answer:
I am surprised that guest preacher would say such things. I find it strange that Isaiah 45 was used to teach this stuff. There is nothing in that chapter that would suggest that God ordains or causes evil. The closest we could get would be verse 7 where the Lord says He brings prosperity and creates disaster. But to assume “disaster” has reference to moral evil is to read massively into the text. Indeed, God does bring disaster, but does not cause moral evil. In this context, God is making it clear that the judgment that will come upon Israel is from Him, just as the blessings they experienced were from Him.
The issue of the pots talking back to the maker has nothing to do with God causing His pots to do evil. Again, that needs to be read into the text. God is addressing Israel as a nation. It is the nation of Israel that God created, and they are about to suffer judgment. Yet, God knows that they refuse to look at themselves even in impending judgment. Rather than finding fault with themselves, they find fault with God, charging that God has been unfaithful to His promises to Israel when it is Israel that has been unfaithful to God.
The primary passage for the imagery of the Potter is in Jeremiah 18. Calvinists will often reference it as proof that God can form us however He wants and do whatever He wants with us unconditionally. It is often cited as a proof text for unconditional election alongside Romans 9:19-22. But this is not at all what is being taught in Jeremiah 18. In that passage, the imagery of the Potter is an image of judgment. God had good purposes for Israel when He formed them, but because of their hardness, they could not be formed as He intended (they were marred in His hands). So God reformed them for judgment, despite His good intentions. The imagery is entirely conditional as Jeremiah 18:7-10 makes clear,
If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I planned. And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me [as was the case with Israel], then I will reconsider the good I intended to do for it.
In the next verses, God declares that He is “preparing disaster” for Israel as a result of their sin. Sound familiar? Likewise, in Romans 9, Paul is addressing the same issue. Israel has been judged as the result of their hardness and their rejection of the Messiah while many Gentiles have found favor with God through faith in Christ. Rather than acknowledging their sin and recognizing God’s just judgment, the Jews were complaining that God was being unfaithful to His promises to Israel. So Paul references this imagery to remind them that God’s judgment is just and their favor with God is not unconditional as they imagined. But God is still merciful in that the Jews can still be reconciled to God through Christ, for Christ is God’s chosen covenant Head, the true Israel, the promised “Seed.” God’s intentions are still to have mercy on all (Romans 11:32, cf. Isaiah 45:22-25).
Hope that helps. You may also find helpful my interaction with John Piper on the claim that God ordains evil: https://arminianperspectives.wordpress.com/2012/03/13/john-piper-on-god-ordaining-all-sin-and-evil-part-1-an-arminian-response-to-pipers-first-question/.
