Does Romans 9 Teach Calvinism? Part 4: The 'Seed' Of Abraham

This is a series where I use the book of Galatians to help understand Paul's argument in Romans 9 and give a non-Calvinist interpretation of this difficult and often confused chapter of scripture. In this video I look at Galatians 3:16 which I think helps bring a lot of insight into Paul's argumentation in Romans 9:6-8.

WATCH THE FULL SERIES COMPARING AND INTERPRETING ROMANS 9 WITH GALATIANS:

The topic of Calvinism is something that I have personally spent a lot of time studying and thinking about for the past decade. In recent years this theology has grown a lot in popularity, being propagated by popular and prominent pastors and christian leaders like John Piper, John Macarthur, RC Sproul and ministry organizations like the Gospel Coalition, Desiring God, Ligonier Ministries and Apologia Studios.

This theology is based on a particular understanding of passages like Romans 9, John 6 and Ephesians 1, which are interpreted by Calvinists in a way that results in the conclusion that God has determined before the foundation of the world which individuals he will save and has ultimately created a countless mass of humanity throughout history for the purpose of condemning them to eternal torment in hell for committing sins that he himself determined that they commit. This may be a bit more of an abrasive and pointed way of putting it, but I think if you come to understand the claims and beliefs of the theologians mentioned above who teach these doctrines, you will see that this is an accurate and honest representation of their ultimate conclusions.

I personally find the view of God that is communicated in Calvinism to be immoral and a gross misrepresentation of what the bible actually describes God to be like. Although I do have moral and emotional apprehensions toward this theology, that is not ultimately the reason why I came to reject it. I came to reject it on biblical grounds. After examining the many Calvinistic proof texts like Romans 9 and Ephesians 1, I became convinced that Calvinists are simply misunderstanding and misinterpreting these texts.

I make videos about this topic because I believe that bad theology is harmful to people - emotionally, mentally and spiritually. My goal in making videos like this is not to demonize Calvinists who teach these things or to say they are evil heretics or anything of the sort, but to simply explain why I strongly disagree with their conclusions and offer what I consider to be a better way of understanding the many biblical texts that are often used to support these views.

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#calvinism #apologiastudios #noncalvinist #calvinist #soteriology #Predestination #Calvinism #Provisionism #Calvinist #Salvation #calvinismdebate #christianity

[gracemercywrath]

I call this the covenant of the seed. Going back to Genesis. Great video brother. Would love to chat sometime.

[Christ-or-Chaos]

It's a nice narrative your building brother, definitely a lot of parallels between Romans and Galatians. Does your understanding of R9 take into account Paul"s discourse on the "elect of God" in Romans 8, and how that seamlessly flows into Romans 9?

[jeffreybomba]

Side note: In that passage Paul is defining doctrine by picking apart small details of hammer. How many times is a passage interpreted in a way that ignore even bigger details? How often are people criticized for examining details like that?

[kennethgreene]

Paul is not saying what you are saying because there is other scriptures where Jesus is telling those appointed to eternal life that God chose them and they did not choose Him so you are in error

[davevandervelde]

I think that's abit of a stretch. Offspring is a " mass noun" . Its plural is the same as its singular. Beside that God was promising his descendants to be as many as the sand on the seashore. That includes you and me. We are grafted to the vine as adopted children not the Jews who are the children by birth. 🌅

[davidbarker]

Where does faith come from? It is not something we possess in and of ourselves. No, on the contrary, Eph.2:8-9 says it is the gift of God!
Rom.9, in its context, the passage is clearly teaching God's sovereignty in salvation, i.e., election.
This is the proper exegesis of the text. I would not go to Gal. to try to interpret Rom. 9.
With all due respect, that is not exercising proper hermeneutics.
TGBTG

[mikelyons]

Good overview & perspectives Brother. Something I teach Calvinists whom tend to isolate Romans 9:18-24 so as to prove the Elect will arbitrarily be saved, are the audience/intendees of the letter. I highlight the following.

1:7 Believers in Rome. 1:16-17, 2:9-11, 3:9, 22, 29-30, 4:11-13 (Abraham was a Gentile made/turned Jew...Born Again of sorts) 23-24, 5:18, 10:1, 12, 19-21, 11:1, 7, 11 & 32.

It has helped them. As Calvinist Pastors tend to focus on the passages that they think supports & bulsters Calvinism (i.e., their big on John 6:44 & 6:65, & don't bother much with John 3:16-17, 6:28-28, 12:32, etc.)