Charge: Calvinism destroys confidence.
Arminian Complaint: Calvinism destroys Confidence.
Walls and Dongell comment: “Calvinism deprives those struggling with their faith of the single most important resource available: the confidence that God loves all of us with every kind of love we need to enable and encourage our eternal flourishng and well-being.” (Why I Am Not A Calvinist, p.201, emphasis mine)
An Arminian can say that God loves them because God loves everyone, and has a kind will for everyone, at least for God’s part. For God’s part, He is willing that you turn and live. So if God loves everyone, and I am a someone, then God must love me too. Calvinism undermines this with their doctrine of Unconditional Election and Unconditional Preterition or Reprobation.
Calvinist, D. James Kennedy, writes: “Do you know that you are elect of God, chosen of God, predestined to adoption as a child of God before the beginning of time? You can know for certain.” (Solving Bible Mysteries, p.27, emphasis mine)
But according to Calvinism, is this possible?
Calvinist, Mark Talbot, explains: “Now of course, nothing, that I, nor anyone else, can say can guarantee that anyone will continue to believe. Faith is a gift of God that we cannot produce.” (Sin and Suffering in Calvin’s World, emphasis mine)
In other words, the fact that you believe today is no guarantee that you will still believe tomorrow, or the next day, or the day after. You can only hope for the best, that your ordained fate is better than others, and that your grace is not a temporary grace, here today and gone tomorrow. Mark Talbot explicity offers no illusion for your hope of tomorrow. There is nothing that you can do, but hope for the best. It’s completely out of your hands and completely in God’s hands. If you should find yourself an unbeliever tomorrow, your gift has run out.
