A Modest Proposal

This is going to be a short one...just something that's been bouncing around in my mind for a while.

In my last post, I talked about determinism and why it REALLY bugs me the way Calvinists will talk such a big game about God's sovereignty, his meticulous control over everything that happens, the way he orders the world and everything in it for his glory...but suddenly, when it's time to talk about sin (and specifically, the first sin in all of existence), all that talk disappears, and they bail out and throw up the "mystery" smoke screen. 

They love to talk about how God orders the world according to his glorious plan...but maybe we just don't know how that first sin happened? They revel in God's all-determining hand over history, moving the wills of men to accomplish his purposes...but it somehow must not be that simple with Satan? And most annoyingly, you don't have to look hard at all to find Calvinists accusing Arminians of disbelieving in God's sovereignty or believing God is "helpless" (btw, those hyperlinks are John Piper, James White, and RC Sproul)...but when it's time to talk about Satan and his first desire for evil, man, do they sometimes start to sound Arminian! (That is, if they don't simply claim "mystery" and change the subject!)

So I have a modest proposal:

Unless a Calvinist is willing to say, clearly and explicitly, in any and all contexts, that God is the primary and ultimately only cause of sin, and that sin happens because God wills, plans, and causes it to...unless a Calvinist is willing to say that, and willing to never obfuscate, point to mystery, or smuggle in Arminian terms and theology, then they should never again say that they believe God is sovereign while Arminians do not. 

Come on, guys. Either own it or don't. Either mean what you say or don't say it. But let's stop with the big talk about sovereignty while denying the most important implication and pretending you don't know.