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Businesses often include in their advertisements for employees that they are “equal opportunity” employers. This statement means that they do not discriminate against applicants/employees based on immutable traits (race, gender, age, disability, etc.). Federal law created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 1964 to enforce this aim.
God has the quintessential “equal opportunity” policy, and it stretches back more than 2,000 years. The words of His Son state this policy explicitly: “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Mat. 11:28, emph. DM).
Please note the universality of the invitation; no applicants are excluded. John Calvin may be the ultimate discriminator relative to matters of the soul. His theological system (Calvinism) teaches that only those whom God ordained/predestined before creation (i.e., the “elect”) are able to answer Jesus’ call—“no others need apply.” It matters not how desirous one may be of answering Heaven’s call, if God did not arbitrarily select him way back there somewhere in eternity for His salvation “pool,” he cannot answer it. The Bible does not depict God as capricious and arbitrary, nor does it depict men as having no free will—both of which are cornerstones of Calvinism. In application, Calvin’s theology is nothing less than fatalistic and anti-Biblical.
Consider some of the “equal opportunity” specifics of the Bible’s “advertisements” for “employees”:
- The Gospel offers “equal opportunity.” Jesus commanded: “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation” (Mark 16:15, emph. DM). Why preach the Gospel at all if the number of the saved is set and cannot be altered? To exclude seekers of salvation on the basis of factors they cannot help or change makes God a cruel ogre.
- Jesus offers salvation based on “equal opportunity.” Paul wrote: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth…” (Rom. 1:16a, emph. DM). Peter stated: “Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is acceptable to him” (Acts 10:34b–35, emph. DM). Were Paul and Peter mistaken about the universal availability of salvation, or was John Calvin (and many millions of adherents) wrong? Clearly, they cannot both be right.
- The cross of Jesus proclaims, “equal opportunity.” Jesus “gave himself a ransom for all” (1 Tim 2:6, emph. DM). Jesus is “the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world” (1 John 2:2, DM).
[Note: I wrote this article for and it appeared in the Denton Record-Chronicle, Denton, TX, January 8, 2016.]
Attribution: From thescripturecache.com; Dub McClish, owner and administrator
