In an attempt to answer the following,

In the May 2002 issue of TBC one of your readers asked you the question, “Why did I believe in Christ and someone else didn’t?” It seemed to me that you only toe-danced around the question in your response. ...Either the difference...is in God, or in man. If the difference is in man, we have cause for boasting [and] that very assumption cannot help but permeate our theology...#1

Dave Hunt writes, in part,

I did not “toe-dance” around the issue. I explained that either God controls man’s choices and deeds, or man does. You opt for the former, thus making God the author of evil#2 and the cause of eternal suffering for untold billions in hell as Calvinism teaches. I believe that is a libel against the holy, loving God of the Bible who would never condone evil, much less cause it.

Calvinism is forced into this defamation of God by its irrational and unbiblical view that if man can choose to believe in Christ he has control of his destiny and could boast of choosing heaven instead of hell. On the contrary, the fact that man willingly receives the pardon God offers neither gives him control nor any cause for boasting. God controls the destiny of all men. This is his universe, he created us, and he makes the rules. He pronounced his righteous judgment upon man’s sin; and he also provided through Christ the full payment of the penalty his justice requires. On the basis of that payment he offers forgiveness to all who will repent of their sin and accept the pardon and eternal life his love and grace provide. Receiving the gift of forgiveness and eternal life offered in Christ Jesus involves neither payment nor merit on man’s part and thus nothing of which he can boast. Salvation is all of God. Nor does man’s ability to choose snatch his destiny from God and put it in his own hands. It is God who makes the rules and thus is in control. Whether man chooses to believe in or to reject Christ, the consequences of that choice are decided by God alone.#3

Mr. Hunt states that it is irrational to say that man can boast about choosing heaven instead of hell, if he decides to, of his own free-will, believe in Christ.

Is it really rational to tell someone that if they believe in Christ, by their free-will, they cannot boast about this? Does it really make sense to tell someone, “Just because you chose to believe in Christ doesn’t mean you can take credit for it.?”

If man cannot take credit for his believing then who can? According to Hunt’s view, God certainly cannot take any credit for those that believe. He, supposedly, wants everyone to be saved, but, it is up to each person to give Him the permission to save them.

We would also ask, is it rational to say that a man doesn’t have control of his destiny, if whether he’s saved or not, rests solely on his free-will decision?

Simply saying that God is the One Who has made the rules and is thus in control. Just doesn’t deny the assertion that man, from the free-will view, is in control of his destiny. All that is established by this kind of statement is that God is in control of making the rules.

Mr. Hunt believes that God, on the basis of Christ’s full payment for the penalty of man’s sin, offers forgiveness to all who will repent of their sin, etc,.

It is obvious to us that from his view God is only in control of offering forgiveness, but, man is in control of repenting and accepting God’s offer.

To teach that God offers salvation for man to accept or reject by his free-will and then to say that this does not put him in control of his destiny and that if he chooses to make the right decision and accept the offer of salvation gives him no cause for boasting is just simply not the case.

The only rational conclusion that we can come to concerning the free-will view of salvation is that man can indeed boast about having chosen heaven instead of hell. His salvation is not all of God. It is because of what he does that he is saved. God, supposedly, only offers salvation and the rest is up to man.

We would say to Mr. Hunt or anyone else that would say that the free-will view doesn’t give man control of his destiny or a cause for boasting if he chooses heaven instead of hell - What Nonsense Is This?

I will strengthen them in the Lord, and they shall walk up and down in his name, saith the Lord. Zechariah 10:12

My soul, mark these words, how precious they are; and mark the Speaker and Promiser, and consider how sure they are. Is not this God the Father speaking of the church, and most graciously assuring the church that he will strengthen the church in Jesus, the church's glorious Head? Is not this said with an eye to Christ, who is represented in another part of this blessed prophecy as calling upon the church to attend to him, who is come to build the temple of the Lord, and to bear all the glory, and who expressly saith that the church shall know that he, the Lord of Hosts, is sent by the Lord of Hosts unto his people? Who but the Lord of Hosts could build the temple of the Lord of Hosts; or who but him bear all the glory? Zech. vi. 12. So then, my soul, observe that Christ is the strength, as well as the righteousness of his redeemed. And do observe further, that when at any time thou art strengthened in Jesus, it is the Father's gracious hand and office which is manifested in this merciful act. If thou art drawn at any time to Jesus, it is the Father's sweet constraining love that thus works upon the soul. John vi. 44. If thou enjoyest at any time some new and delightful revelation of Jesus, which lifts thee up with a joy unspeakable, remember, my soul, from whom the blessing comes; and learn to ascribe the mercy, the distinguishing mercy, as the apostle did, to the Father's grace, when it pleased him to separate thee from thy mother's womb, and called thee by his grace to reveal his Son in thee, Gal. i. 15, 16. Yes, Almighty Father, it is thy special mercy, both to give thy Son, and with him all things, to the highly favored objects of thine everlasting love. It was he who, from all eternity, didst contrive, order, will, appoint, and prepare the great salvation of the gospel, and choose Christ as the head, and the church as the body of this stupendous work of redemption. It is thou which hast carried on and executed all the great designs; and it is thou who dost strengthen and complete the whole in the final salvation of all the members of it, in grace here, and glory hereafter. Blessed, holy compassionate Lord God! For Jesus' sake fulfill this promise daily in my soul; bear me up, carry me through, and strengthen me in the Lord my God, that I may indeed walk up and down in his name, until thou bring me in to see his face in thine eternal home, and dwell under the light of his countenance forever.