Num 13-14
Topic or Scripture
Claim
Num 13-14 refutes Calvinism.
Refuting Calvinism
They said, We're all gonna die! 1
Israel said that God brought them out of Egypt to die in the wilderness:
And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness!
And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt? - Num 14:2-3
And it happened!
This is precisely what actually happened:
I the Lord have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die. - Num 14:35
Calvinism says ...
Since this (Israel dying in the wilderness) happened, per Calvinism, this was God's plan all along; it was the ordained will of God. We shall refer to this as the Calvinistic truth.
So, those who said that God brought them out to kill them were - per Calvinism - correct! (NOTE: correct per Calvinism, not necessarily correct per God!) God's will was not what happened, nor was it what God planned.
The reward for proclaiming the "Calvinistic Truth" ...
Was God pleased with the Calvinistic truth being proclaimed?
And the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them? - Num 14:11
Whoa! God seemed not too pleased with what they were saying - the Calvinistic truth.
Calvinism says, "But they were telling the truth! God even confirmed it by saying He would do what they said. Since this happened, it must have been God's plan. It happened! They just told the truth, that it was God's plan, since that was what happened, and everything that happens has to be God's plan!"
How did God reward those who spoke the Calvinistic truth of God's plan for Israel?
Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the Lord. - Num 14:35
Obviously God was not pleased with what they said, even though it was true - per Calvinism - that God's plan or will was for them to die. It is equally obvious that it was NOT God's plan and will for them to die. God was upset that they believed the Calvinistic truth regarding His plan. (Apparently, God is not a Calvinist, and the Calvinistic truth is not true.)
Hebrews tells us their unbelief was what kept them out of the promised land, and was why they fell in the wilderness. They missed the promised land because of believing the Calvinistic truth instead of what God said. 2
- 1See also https://godisopen.com/2018/02/08/apologetics-thursday-bad-report/
- 2And it shall be when the Lord shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee, a land flowing with milk and honey, that thou shalt keep this service in this month. - Ex 13:5
Supporting Calvinism
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THE BAD REPORT
For-Against
This is simple. Calvinism is the bad report.
Calvinism says, that every sin and problem was ordained by God.
The bad report was that the problems (dying in the wilderness, being defeated by giants) were intended by God; the bad report says that is why Israel was brought to the wilderness.
Calvinism says the same thing.
They did die in the wilderness, the bible tells us.
Because this did happen, Calvinism tells us this was ordained by God before time began.
The Bible tells us this was not God’s plan, but happened because the people believed the bad report.
Calvinism tells us this was God’s plan – precisely what the 10 spies told Israel.
Thus the bad report is the same as Calvinism.
Is that good?
Look at God’s reaction to the bad report.
Read the book of Hebrews and Numbers 14.
You will then see that the bad report is not only not blessed, but it is the opposite of the faith.
The Bad Report Analyzed
The short version:
Calvinism is the bad report of Heb. 14.
Proof
Ten spies reported that God brought Israel out to the wilderness to kill them.
That is what actually happened – they died in the wilderness.
So those spies told the truth – what actually did happen is that their carcasses did fall in the wilderness, and per Calvinism, what actually happened is what was ordained by God, so the spies told the truth when they said God brought Israel to the Wilderness to die there.
Analysis
Yet God was not pleased.
Is it good to propagate this “truth” of Calvinistic nature? or other similar “truths”?
What reward did God provide to those who propagated the Calvinistic-like “truth” that God would destroy Israel in the wilderness? (actually, modern Calvinist go beyond this – God had planned to destroy them in the wilderness from all eternity)
Well, from the Calvinistic point of view, those spies told the truth – because it happened. That it happened proves that it was ordained to happen, by God, so saying that God brought Israel into the wilderness to kill them there would be telling the (Calvinistic) truth. It did happen, so it was ordained.
But God did not like what the 10 spies said.
God punished Israel for believing it. Why? It was the truth, per Calvinism.
God punished even more the men that told this “truth” – they “died by the plague before the LORD” while the rest of Israel took up to 40 years to perish.
This “bad report” aspect is a big issue for Calvinism.
Why? This “bad report” exemplifies something that God warns against in Hebrews, yet which Calvinism espouses: the belief that God ordained what happened to Israel, as described in Numbers 14.
The example of the bad report from Numbers above is referenced in Hebrews as the “anti-prototypical” example of faith – of what NOT to do to have faith. To have faith, we must do the opposite.
And faith – is key. This is indicated by the list below:
We…
So… if faith is this important, … and it is …, and if what those spies and Israel did is in a (very real) sense the opposite of faith, and if what they did is also in a (very real) sense the essence of Calvinism – then we might do well to stop and consider before promoting this type of doctrine, which the spies who brought the evil report and modern day Calvinists teach.