Preterition is the Calvinist doctrine which addresses God’s relationship with the alleged “non-elect,” who are unconditionally omitted from God’s salvific will.440 These would be those who were not chosen to receive God’s “Irresistible Grace,” but instead who were left alone to receive justice for their sins (i.e. the “elect” receive grace; the “non-elect” receive justice). However, when considering the larger picture of Calvinistic teaching, it is no longer recognizable as justice, because the part that Calvinists leave out is the fact that they also teach that God decreed “whatsoever comes to pass,” including the hopelessly fallen environment in which these “non-elect” are purposely born into.
The irony is that the same “pass by” terminology is also found with respect to the priest and Levite whom Jesus denounced at Luke 10:30-37: “Jesus replied and said, ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, “Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.” Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?’ And he said, ‘The one who showed mercy toward him.’ Then Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do the same.’”
The Calvinist response is that this was what man was beholden to follow, not something that God was required to do. However, that would be a costly position since God hates hypocrisy.
Dave Hunt asks: “God is not as kind as the Samaritan?”441
What do Calvinists believe?
Westminster Confession of Faith: “The rest of mankind, God was pleased, according to the unreachable counsel of his own will, whereby he extendeth or withholdeth mercy, as he pleaseth, for the glory of his sovereign power over his creatures, to pass by;and to ordain them to dishonor and wrath for their sin, to the praise of his glorious justice.”442
John Calvin: “The Lord in His unmerited election is free and exempt from the necessity of bestowing equally the same grace on all. Rather, He passes by those whom He wills, and chooses whom He wills.”443
James White: “The wonder is not that God passes by rebel sinners and shows His justice in their condemnation; the wonder is that in eternity past He foreknew a people, chosen them in love, and decreed their eternal salvation in their perfect Savior, Jesus Christ.”444
R.C. Sproul: “God made a choice–he chose some individuals to be saved unto everlasting blessedness in heaven and others he chose to pass over, to allow them to follow the consequences of their sins into eternal torment in hell.”445
George Whitefield: “For, without doubt, the doctrine of election and reprobation must stand or fall together.”446
Our reply:
If God made a pre-temporal decision to pick only some people for Heaven, then the rest who are conversely left unpicked would seemingly be predestined for Hell, unless there was a third option, and neither Calvinists nor non-Calvinists generally believe in a third option. It would seem unavoidable, then, that in Calvinism, God would not be very loving to those whom He allegedly did not intend to spend eternity with Him in Heaven, and one leading Calvinist’s comment would seem to agree:
R.C. Sproul: “If some people are not elected unto salvation then it would seem that God is not all that loving toward them. For them it seems that it would have been more loving of God not to have allowed them to be born.”447
Greg Welty: “There is no ‘fault’ in God if He passes over some for salvation—whether by election, creation, or providence—for He did not owe salvation to any. God is not defaulting on some sort of obligation to humanity if He does not secure the salvation of all. If salvation is in fact by God’s grace, then it cannot be something God is obligated to provide.”448
Our reply:
God would be defaulting on His Word, His principles and His honor. How would Jesus be able to speak unfavorably of the priest and Levite if God essentially did the same thing, in terms of the doctrine of Preterition? Does it really glorify God to say that God is exempt from the principles that He sets forth for mankind? Does it really honor God to say that we must be forgiving toward every man but He does not? God’s Word says that Jesus was given for the world (John 3:16) and that God desires all men to become saved (1st Timothy 2:4), and therefore if, in the total plan of God, He pre-temporally intended only some of His children to be saved, then it would seem that God had either broken His promise or that He was insincere in what He stated. God actually mocks the concept of love that is empty of provision (James 2:15-16) and detests those who do not provide for their own. (1st Timothy 5:8)
From the Calvinist perspective, if God had not elected some to salvation, then no one would be saved, and therefore Unconditional Election results in the salvation of some, whereas otherwise there would have been none. However, if Calvinists naively felt this way, then they would be disregarding their teaching on absolute divine determinism, in which the total plan of God has mankind being born helpless and hopeless aside from a remedy that is only given to a predetermined, select few. So the idea that apart from Unconditional Election, none would be saved, would be a factor of divine design.
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440 See also the discussion on Reprobation.
441 Debating Calvinism (Sisters, Oregon: Multnomah Publishers, Inc., 2004), 262.
442 Westminster Confession of Faith, VII. Of God’s Eternal Decree.
443 Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries: Romans and Thessalonians, translated by Ross Mackenzie (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2000), 200.
444 Debating Calvinism (Sisters, Oregon: Multnomah Publishers, Inc., 2004), 152.
445 Chosen By God (Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1986), 22.
446 Whitefield’s Letter To Wesley On Election, Dec. 24, 1740, http://www.chapellibrary.org/files/5514/0491/7249/wltw.pdf.
447 Chosen By God (Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1986), 32.
448 A Southern Baptist Dialogue: Calvinism (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2008), 231, emphasis mine.
