2nd Corinthians 8:16
2nd Corinthians 8:16-17
But thanks be to God who puts the same earnestness on your behalf in the heart of Titus. For he not only accepted our appeal, but being himself very earnest, he has gone to you of his own accord.
John Calvin comments: “Titus...stirred up by God. ...had come at the prompting of God. From this passage, as from countless others, we infer that all godly affections proceed from the Spirit of God, and further that it is a proof of God’s care for His people that He rouses ministers and guardians to try to relive their necessities.” (Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries: II Corinthians, Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, pp.114-115 emphasis mine)
Paul credits God for Titus’ like-mindedness in helping the Corinthians, insomuch as God “puts the same earnestness on your behalf” as with myself, and yet it being fully of his “own accord.” In other words, the influence comes from the Holy Spirit, which Titus was in agreement with, but Calvinists infer that the Holy Spirit was not just merely influencing, but also making it irresistible:
One Calvinist comments: “Here, we see that Got put the earnestness in the heart of Titus, which resulted in him going of his own accord. I think this is a beautiful picture of how God can cause somebody to come of their own accord. It is not contradictory. It did not make Titus a robot. And God didn’t send him kicking and screaming. For those of you who have a hard time understanding this concept that Calvinists espouse as the Biblical method of salvation, does this passage clear anything up?” (CARM.org, emphasis mine)
Why should we assume that when God put the earnestness in the heart of Titus that it was irresistible? So using Circular Logic, Calvinists have assumed the very thing that they have set out to prove, in order to develop an argument for Compatibilism. Hence, with the presumption of Irresistible Grace, it is argued that since Titus also came freely of his own accord, it therefore cannot be be held that Irresistible Grace and Free Will are logically in contradiction to one another, and also since Titus was evidently not a robot, it cannot be inferred that Irresistible Grace makes one a robot. Circular Logic!
Question: How would the Calvinist interpretation of this verse not result in making Titus into a “robot”?
Answer: If these people received programming from another source, and then executed their programmed task as if by their own free will, then how would their “own accord” truly be their own accord?
Question: To what do Calvinists wish to attribute God’s influence of “earnestness” upon Titus?
Answer: Since by this point, Titus was already a Born Again Christian, Calvinists must rule out Regeneration and attribute this solely to the Holy Spirit having prompted Titus to do God’s will.
