Our Father Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come: Thy Will be done on earth as it is in heaven. (See Matthew 6 verse 9 thru 15.)
Let me be bold to contend for a moment with some philosophical confusion. I will present arguments that illustrate that there could not have been any preexisting decree or command of God, before scripture or in scripture, concerning any aspect of the will of God, which sees fit to proclaim the total catastrophic failure of His creation of man. John Calvin attributes more to the will of God than what is lawful, for he writes: "I admit that by the will of God all the sons of Adam fell into that state of wretchedness in which they are now involved;" Book 3, Chapter 23, section 4. "The decree, I admit is dreadful; and yet it is impossible to deny that God foreknow what the end of man was to be before he made him, and foreknew, because he had so ordained by his decree." Book 3, Chapter 23, section 7.
The Holy Lord God Almighty, within His timeless Holiness, would not decree the fall and ruination of mankind, nor that of Lucifer! Understand that in the beginning, God created free flowing time before He created the heavens and the earth within His creation of time. (See Genesis 1 verse 1.) The Almighty God of creation is timelessness in His Infinity, and from Eternity, He sees the full developing expanse of His created space-time continuum from its beginning to its end, In God's creation of free flowing time, the inevitability of spiritual sin would happen within the free wills of God's created higher creatures, in spite of the good will of God. Therefore, dwelling in Eternity, the Infinite God of the creation of all things, could see in His creation of time, the when and where of Adam and Eve's treasonous rebellion against their Creator, and the sin's consequences that brought corruption and death to them, as well as their entire prodigy.
Any such agreement with the supposition that maintains this false doctrine of God's preordained decrees, is the result of the sin of Adam, again falsely placing blame on the Creator, and making Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty the author of sin and death. Jesus declares: For Yahweh is the God of the living, and not the god of the dead. The nature of sin always brings suffering and death, and that defiling nature is a total contradiction to the Infinite Holy God of the living. The very WORD of Yahweh's Son, Jesus Christ, being in the Person of the Will and Salvation of God on earth, tells us to pray that our Holy Father's Will would be done in earth as it is done in heaven. There should be no question that because of sin, God's perfect Will is not done in the earth as it is done in heaven, other wise why would Jesus, the Truth, teach us to pray in this manner? (See the Lord's Prayer.)
If on the other hand, God had preordained the fall of man, then how foolish for man to pray that God's will would be done on earth, seeing that God had decreed mankind's failure and defilement in the first place, even before man ever existed. Calvin's doctrine on this matter is illogical and laden with ignorant heresy. We would be praying for our own catastrophic failure, because the Creator had preordained the whole of mankind to be in the corruption of sin and death: And as John Calvin resolutely pontificates, that all this is for God's own good will and pleasure: "Nor ought it to seem absurd when I (John Calvin) say, that God not only foresaw the fall of the first man, and in him the ruin of his posterity; but also at his own pleasure arranged it." Book 3, Chapter 23, Section 7. To my free thinking mind, the "but" of this supposition is absolutely absurd; for God has made it abundantly clear in scripture that He has no pleasure in the death of mankind. For thus says the Lord GOD: Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die; and not that he should return from his ways, and live? (Ezekiel 18 verse 23.)
The God of the living calls for the wicked to return from his ways of death. If God sees the repentance of the wicked then it remains for the person to choose within the searching of his own heart, the Almighty God of the living. The principle example would be, when God speaking through Jeremiah says to Israel: For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall you call upon Me, and you shall go and pray unto Me, and I will hearken unto you. And you shall seek Me, and find Me, when you shall search for Me with all your heart. Then I will be found of you, says the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity. (Jeremiah 29 verse 11 thru 14.) Although Jeremiah was prophesying about Israel's captivity and God's heart instructions for Israel, nevertheless God's heart remains the same, and He knows the heart of every person, Jew or Gentile. The heart of any person seeking after the heart of God, is always the primary issue with God, and God through His WORD and Son, Jesus Christ will always contend for that seeking heart. For the Lord is not slack concerning His Promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. (2nd Peter 3 verse 9.)
Furthermore, when we scrutinize Calvin's understanding and this teachings, then his students would have to deduct that God would have had pleasure in sending His only begotten and beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to the cross to be crucified and die, as a sacrifice for the same sins of the world, which according to Calvin, God had so decreed or had previously arranged for His own good pleasure. John Calvin, a man of the flesh in a fallen world, has not understood the depths of the deception of the satanic liar, who accuses the Almighty of lying. The Truth has spoken, for the sacrificial Love of God through the self sacrificing Love of His only begotten Son, provides the only Way for the return of the children of man back to the Love of the Father's Heart. We, the imprisoned sons of Adam, fail to understand that our own sins, even as Christians, has separated us from receiving the love and fellowship of Holy, Holy, Holy God's presence. Also, in seeking to be a good and righteous person, we fail to comprehend that true righteousness, is tied intrinsically to that perfect sacrificing Love of God and His Son Yeshua (The Salvation of God), the Lord our Righteousness. Righteousness is a gift of God, but begins to be established within the heart of a person, who begins to love God above all things. We choose from the familiarity of the flesh of sin, and its self justification, rather than knowing the spiritual Truth in the Heart of God, Who leads us to humility and repentance from sin, with the renewal of a heart after God.
By nature, sin is a destructive force and not a creative force. Although it is true that God from the infinite power within Himself, created all things of substance, seen and unseen, however, His Infinite Holy Nature would preclude the possibility for Him to be the author and mastermind of spiritual sin. It is preposterous to think that the God of the living would have pleasure in spiritual sin's destructive course, bringing death within His own creation. If the opposite were true of God's character, then God would also have had pleasure in initiating the angelic insurrections that have taken place against Him directly thus making Him a God of confusion and folly and no less than an accomplice, if not the instigator of the warfare and confusion within the realm of His Majesty. John Calvin, in his fallen humanity, is illogical and unjust in his accusations against Holy, Holy, Holy Yahweh God, and he has no conception in his writings or actions, of the Righteousness of God's Perfect Love.
Everything about sin is the antithesis of the Holy Righteous God, for God is declared, by an enlightened and knowing apostle, to be the Personification of Love and Light with no shadow of darkness emitted from His Being: (See 1st John 1 verse 5.) For He is long suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. (2nd Peter 3 verse 9.) Even so, in His Eternal Righteousness, He remains the Sovereign righteous Judge of the insurrectionist within His universal kingdom. For this is what the Sovereign LORD says to Lucifer the Star of the Morning: "You were the model of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till wickedness was found in you. Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. (For full account see Ezekiel 28 verse 11 thru 19.)
Now with Lucifer's free choice, he alone began to initiate the spiritual rebellion against God. With a little deduction, we can see that spiritual sin had already preexisted within the realm of God, even before His creation of man: And certainly the alien nature of sin did not come forth from a defiling decree by Holy God, for God is the True Purity of LOVE. Neither was the corruption of sin created or decreed in Lucifer, for when God created the angelic being, Lucifer was made the model of perfection, and was blameless from the moment of his beginning. The scriptures in Ezekiel and Isaiah 14 verse 12 thru 20 provide evidence that Lucifer freely authored his own iniquity within himself, and then cultivated its impactful developments within his own free mind. It was his own lustful and wicked internal desires, which would separate himself and his followers from providing service to God, their Creator. Therefore, proclaims the Creator God in judgment: "I made a fire come out from you, and it consumed you, and I reduced you to ashes on the ground in the sight of all who were watching. All the nations who knew you are appalled at you: You have come to a horrible end, and will be no more". Revelation declares that at a future point in time during the seventh trumpet and the third Woe of judgment that; "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ and He shall reign forever and ever". In the end, because of the righteous Love and Obedience of the Son of Man, the Incarnate Word of God, we are foretold that the perfect Will of the God of Love and Eternal Light, will reign in the earth for ever and ever.
Make it your free choice.
Turn from your destructive ways.
Say to them, `As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel, (and of uncircumcised hearts)?' (Ezekiel 33 verse 11. (NIV.)
Nevertheless, God's solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: "The Lord knows those who are His," and, "Everyone who confesses the Name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness." (2nd Timothy 2 verse 19.(NIV.) Do your thoughts and actions blaspheme the Name of the Lord, Whom you call upon?
and accept God's provision of Life in Jesus Christ.
If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of Truth; Whom the world cannot receive, because it sees Him not, neither knows Him: but you know Him; for He dwells with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world sees Me no more; but you see Me: Because I live, you shall live also. At that day you shall know that I AM in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He that hath My Commandments, and keeps them, he it is that loves Me: And he that loves Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him. (John 14 verse 15 thru 21.)
The following section Lamentations continues to illustrate the depths of sin and man's helplessness to its onslaught.
Robert Glenn Pratten