Luke 10:30
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.”
One Calvinist concludes: “The thrust of the entire passage of Luke 10:30-37, in context, is how a man should treat his neighbor.”
So for God to do it, it’s completely legit? That’s not a good answer, and God Himself would not approve, since He hates hypocrisy. God is not going to say that X is wrong, and then do X Himself.
Dave Hunt asks: “God is not as kind as the Samaritan?” (Debating Calvinism, p.262, emphasis mine)
That’s exactly the kind of problem that the Calvinist explanation creates.
Non-Calvinist, Laurence Vance, explains: “The God of the Calvinist is like the priest and the Levite who ‘passed by’ the ‘half dead’ man in the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:31-32). And worse yet, God would also be like the thieves who ‘stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead’ (Luke 10:30). To say that because God came back and ‘had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds’ (Luke 10:33-34) that he should be praised for his grace and mercy is absurd. Concerning the Samaritan who ‘went to him’ (Luke 10:34), the Lord enjoined: ‘Go, and do thou likewise’ (Luke 10:37). Certainly the Lord practices what he preaches.” (The Other Side of Calvinism, p.300)
Arminian, Robert Shank, comments: “But we must protest that a god who, while rescuing some, simply ‘passes by’ others in the same lost circumstance is so little like the Good Samaritan in our Lord’s parable and so much like the priest and the Levite that he cannot be the God who desires to have all men saved and none perish.” (Elect in the Son, p.193)
According to the Calvinist doctrine of Preterition, God has chosen certain people unto salvation and the rest He has, allegedly, “passed by.” Since this phrase appears in the Westminster Confession of Faith, it is countlessly repeated by Calvinists. Nevertheless, and perhaps unintentionally, it has a rather ominous familiarity to the “pass by” indifference of the priest and Levite of Luke 10:30-37, whom Jesus scorned. The fact that God has the sovereign right to pass by people, is not the question. The issue up for debate is whether “pass by” Preterition is consistent with what is revealed about God in His Word. The fact that this is the true testimony of Calvinism, is made evident in the following quotes:
The Calvinistic, Westminster Confession of Faith, states: “III. By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life; and others foreordained to everlasting death.” Additionally, it states: “VII. 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.” (Westminster Confession of Faith, III. Of God’s Eternal Decree, emphasis mine)
John Calvin writes: “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.” (Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries: Romans and Thessalonians, p.200, emphasis mine)
Calvin writes: “When predestination is discussed, it is from the start to be constantly maintained, as I today teach, that all the reprobate are justly left in death, for in Adam they are dead and condemned.” (Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God, p.121, emphasis mine)
Calvin writes: “But since his purpose is to show how much more powerful in the faithful is the grace of Christ than the curse contracted in Adam, what is there here to shake the election of those whom Christ restores to life, leaving the others to perish?” (Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God, p.152, emphasis mine)
Calvin writes: “Those therefore whom God passes by he reprobates, and that for no other cause but because he is pleased to exclude them from the inheritance which he predestines to his children.” (Institutes, Book 3, Chapter 23, Section 1, emphasis mine)
Charles Spurgeon cites the Waldensian creed: “That God saves from corruption and damnation those whom he has chosen from the foundations of the world, not for any disposition, faith, or holiness that he foresaw in them, but of his mere mercy in Christ Jesus his Son, passing by all the rest according to the irreprehensible reason of his own free-will and justice.” (Election, emphasis mine)
Calvinist, James White, writes: “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.” (Debating Calvinism, p.152, emphasis mine)
The Canons of Dordt states: “According to which decree, he graciously softens the hearts of the elect, however obstinate, and inclines them to believe, while he leaves the non-elect in his just judgment to their own wickedness and obduracy.” (The Canons of Dordt, I. Of Divine Predestination, Article 6, emphasis mine)
Calvinist, R.C. Sproul, writes: “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.” (Chosen By God, p.22, emphasis mine)
Sproul also writes: “In the Reformed view God from all eternity decrees some to election and positively intervenes in their lives to work regeneration and faith by a monergistic work of grace. To the non-elect God withholds this monergistic work of grace, passing them by and leaving them to themselves.” (Double Predestination, emphasis mine)
Calvinists argue that IF God didn’t “pass by” people, then everyone would be saved. However, people remain unsaved because they pass by the Lord, rather than the Lord passing by them. For His part, He seeks (Luke 19:10), draws (Jon 12:32) and knocks. (Revelation 3:20) God wants everyone saved, and supplies the necessary Prevenient Grace to become saved. God does not pass by people. He gives the power of the living and active (Hebrews 4:12), faith-producing Gospel (Romans 10:17), together with the Holy Spirit who convicts the world of its sin (John 16:8), pricks (Acts 26:14), pierces (Acts 2:37) and opens hearts to respond to the Gospel. (Acts 16:14) So it does not appear that God is leaving anyone behind, so to speak.
Realize that, to God, all mankind are His “offspring” or “children” (Acts 17:28-29), and God’s opinion of those who abandon their own children are as worse than heretics. 1st Timothy 5:8 states: “But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” In other words, if God passed by His own offspring, denying them the Prevenient Grace to repent, believe and become saved, or if He even predestined them for the Lake of Fire, then what would 1st Timothy 5:8 say about God? And that’s why it should be of no surprise to find in the Bible, that God is willing that “none perish” and that all come to “repentance” (2nd Peter 3:9), desiring that all men become “saved.” (1st Timothy 2:3-4) And that’s just God providing for His own “offspring,” that is, the means by which to become saved, which is the universal draw of Christ (John 12:32; Luke 19:10), the universal conviction of the Holy Spirit (John 16:8) and the Gospel which produces “faith” in its hearers. (Romans 10:17) This is the greater intervening law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus which enables anyone to repent, believe and be saved. Although Calvinists may deny it, John 3:16 teaches that God so loved the world (John 3:16), and that Jesus died for the sins of the world. (John 1:29) Therefore, if that is true, it would certainly explain the Arminian rejection of Pass-By Calvinism.
Matthew 9:36: “Seeing the people, He [Jesus] felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.”
Luke 10:33: “But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion.”
Again, you see more corroborating evidence of an indiscriminately compassionate God who does not pass by. It is clear that the Good Samaritan bears more resemblance to the Good Shepard.
Calvinist, William MacDonald, comments: “The robbery victim (almost certainly a Jew) lay half dead on the road to Jericho. The Jewish priest and Levite refused to help; perhaps they feared it was a plot, or were afraid that they too might be robbed if they tarried. It was a hated Samaritan who came to the rescue, who applied first aid, who took the victim to an inn, and who made provision for his care. To the Samaritan, a Jew in need was his neighbor.” (Believer’s Bible Commentary, p.1410)
This was Jesus’ answer as to who the lawyer’s “neighbor” was. (v.29) But that’s not all that it was. Jesus also issued a command to “do” like the Samaritan. (Luke 10:37) Therefore, this was also Jesus’ explanation of how we are to “love” our neighbor. God wants us to show mercy and to have compassion toward one another. But is God asking man to do what He Himself refuses to do, if God “passes by” men? Because of sin, mankind is like the wounded man beside the road. Are there people that God sees lying wounded in the ravages of sin, and like the priest and Levite, passes by?
Calvinist, Erwin Lutzer, writes: “Calvinists believe that election makes the success of God’s plan certain. God has committed himself to save a certain number, and they will be saved, despite the rebellion of mankind. The unbelief and failure of man can never thwart the intended plan of God.” (The Doctrines That Divide, p.213, emphasis mine)
Calvinist, George Whitefield, writes: “I believe the doctrine of reprobation, in this view, that God intends to give saving grace, through Jesus Christ, only to a certain number, and that the rest of mankind, after the fall of Adam, being justly left of God to continue in sin, will at last suffer that eternal death which is its proper wages.” (Letter from George Whitefield to the Rev. Mr. John Wesley, emphasis mine)
Mankind lies wounded and in need because of the ravages of sin. Seeing this need, what do Calvinists say that God does? They insist that God has compassion only on a “certain number” while “the rest of mankind” is “passed by” to be “justly left of God to continue in sin.” It would appear, then, that the doctrines of Calvinism are reflected in the casual indifference of the priest and Levite.
Adrian Rogers comments: “You have, my dear friend, criminal inhumanity. Secondly, you have casual indifference. And now come to the third and final movement of the story. You have compassionate involvement.” (Compassion: Luke 10:26-37; Galatians 2:21, emphasis mine)
My question is this: If you believe that God eternally had the “casual indifference” of the priest and Levite, toward the vast majority of mankind by predetermining them for Preterition, that is, to be excluded from the grace of God, being eternally “left of God,” and if God was instead like the Samaritan with “compassionate involvement,” wouldn’t you be worshiping the wrong God, that is, a God according to the theological “casual indifference” of the priest and the Levite? Seriously, how can the Calvinists truly know God, if their theology lines up with the casual indifference of the priest and Levite, rather than the compassionate involvement of the Samaritan?
There are four ways. Let’s discuss each in detail:
1) The first involves that instance that this parable only addresses the Lawyer’s question of who our “neighbor” is. However, Luke 10:37 also contains a command from the Lord in terms of what we are to “do” and not to do. Jesus commanded: “Go and do the same.” (v.37) So while focusing on the “neighbor” issue, they ignore the fact that Jesus also gave a command. What did the “priest” and the “Levite” do something that we are not to emulate? They “passed by” their neighbor without compassion. And what did the Samaritan do that were are commanded to follow? He did not “pass by” his neighbor, but had compassion on him, just like the Lord Himself. (Matthew 9:36) Now if the Lord rebuked the priest and Levite for their heartless “pass by” of their neighbor, how much more does the Lord detest the idea that someone teaches that He, of all people, coldly “passed by” His own “offspring” (Acts 17:28-29) whom He loves? (John 3:16; Titus 3:4) That is a tough question for Calvinists to have to answer, because it reveals that their theology lines up with those whom God detests. We are not to “pass by” our neighbor, and God will not “pass by” His own offspring. So it’s clearly more than just a matter of who our neighbor is.
2) Sometimes whenever Calvinists are cornered, they will turn to the red herring of Universalism. Obviously, God will “pass by” people on Judgment Day. However, while they were alive on earth, God hands were spread open (Isaiah 45:22; Isaiah 65:2), rather than folded and unconcerned.
3) Another, more direct, explanation from a Calvinist is this: God is not obligated to follow the commands that He sets down for us. In other words, if God commands us not to “pass by” our neighbor, then that does not necessarily prevent Him from passing by people. However, that creates a crisis of hypocrisy, and God hates hypocrisy. If Jesus commands us to go and “do” like the Samaritan did (Luke 10:37), while He Himself, from eternity past, does exactly what the priest and Levite did, which is to allegedly, eternally “pass by” people, then how would that not be hypocrisy? In the Calvinistic model, you would have God acting like the priest and Levite, turning His nose up to certain people. Furthermore, we have a clear picture from Jesus at Matthew 9:36 where He does not coldly “pass by” people. Also consider the Syrophoenician woman and her demon-possessed daughter. (Matthew 15:22-28) Jesus was so full of indiscriminate compassion, that in His heart, He simply could not and would not, “pass by” her. To suggest that God gives some the grace to believe while “passing by” others, is just incompatible with the revealed heart of God.
4) Some Calvinists cite Romans 9:18:-21 as proof that God is perfectly entitled by divine sovereign right to “pass by” whomever He wishes. Certainly, God has the sovereign right to pass by every person who ever lived. However, is that consistent with what God has explicitly stated? This is not a question of sovereignty, but a question of what the Bible reveals about God. It would certainly suit the interests of Calvinists to detour the dialogue into the direction, but it would not be an honest evaluation of whether the Bible has shown that God is committed to a course of not coldly passing by people.
Question: Is Jesus endorsing the casual indifference of the priest and Levite?
Answer: Rather, Jesus holds them up for scorn.
Question: Has God “passed by” people, just like the priest and Levite?
Answer: To a Calvinist, no, because when God does it, He is perfectly just, in contrast to the priest and Levite, who when they do it, are in violation of God’s commandment to love their neighbor.
The debate is not whether God may justly “pass by” people. He certainly has the sovereign right to do so. The debate is whether God has committed Himself, by His stated word, not to abandon, “leave” or “pass over” His children by creation.
So how do Calvinists specifically respond to this allegation from Luke 10:30-37?
Calvinists do not like people using this parable to compare the Pass-By actions of the priest and Levite to the Pass-By theology of Calvinism, and the reason why is very apparent.
One Calvinist points out: “You’ve suggested that God is required to take care of everyone based on the parable of the Good Samaritan, leaving off that God is not our ‘neighbor’, and leaving off that God is not obligated to anyone for anything, I was wondering, as I read Jeremiah 7:16, 11:14, 14:11-12, how they fit in your scheme of things.”
Answer: I did not say what God is required to do. I’m saying that, according to Matthew 9:36 and Luke 10:30-37, this is the way that God is. As for the Jeremiah verses, God gets righteously indignant with the unrepentant wicked. But what has this to do with the Westminster quote that God allegedly passed by people from eternity past, unconditionally so, by predetermining to pass by to the other side of the road when dealing out grace? If you think that God does that, and yet commands you not to (Luke 10:37), then is that not hypocrisy: “Do as I say, but not as I do”? Jesus said of the Pharisees: “Therefore all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things and do not do them.” (Matthew 23:3) So does Calvinism portray God as something that He hates?
