In the few years I’ve been studying Calvinism, I’ve come across four major questions that are the hard ones for Calvinism to answer:
1. Did God create sin?
2. Does God choose some men to be damned? (or the reverse: Is unconditional election for salvation true?)
3. Does God ordain each moment, thought, and action (not just “big” things, “sacred” things, or salvation)?
4. Am I responsible to seek God’s one will for my life, instead of just seeking and choosing ‘good’ options?
Here are some of my response questions:
1. What is goodness, and where does it come from?
2. What is life, and where does it come from?
3. What is love, and where does it come from?
To God be all glory,
Lisa of Longbourn
Lisa of Longbourn 
I won’t try to tackle all four of your questions in one comment! lol But I don’t think the first one is a hard question. God created sin like He created darkness – by creating its opposite. Darkness is the absence of light, therefore, when light comes into being, so does the concept of darkness. Sin is a very similar thing. Sin is not something that is; it’s something that is not. Sin is a falling short of God’s glory.
Lisa –
I don’t understand point 4, how does that relate to calvinism or freewill or whatever?
I humbly ask for clarification
thank you
4. Am I responsible to seek God’s one will for my life, instead of just seeking and choosing ‘good’ options?
If God is sovereign over more than salvation, does He have a will for the details of our lives – like what shirt I should wear today, or will wear today?
I know lots of people who say that God gives us “freedom” in major life decisions. He will equally bless us whether we are missionaries in Peru or South Africa, because both are good choices. These people say that as long as we’re obeying the instructions of Scripture (and not disobeying any), in this case, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel,” then we are making wise choices and we’re ok.
I believe God knows in advance which choice we will make. I also believe that God desires us to walk by faith, and that when we don’t, we are going to suffer consequences just as if we lied on our income tax return and got penalized by the IRS. I think God wants our lives to be about more than staying in the boundaries, that He wants us to know that He has plans for us, that He’s going before and eager for what we will meet on a certain course.
So I guess it’s a question about free will. Does God want me to be either an accountant or a history professor, whichever? Red shirt or blue? See a movie with one set of friends or dinner with the others? Should I spend money on a vacation, which is permissible, or pursue God’s will of something ‘beneficial’? (Paul went into this in 1 Corinthians 6:12)
Thanks for the question, Manny.
To God be all glory,
Lisa of Longbourn
Number 4 is a good question, Lisa of Longbourn.
I am a Calvinist existentialist, and think that misuse of the idea of “God’s will” can often lead to “bad faith”. There is a plan for our lives, but it is knowable only to the extent that it is revealed to us, primarily through scripture. And the jist of the plan is as follows: we are elect, a called people, who are required to be the salt of the earth, to love one another, and to witness to the good news of Jesus Christ.
If God has a special calling for us, then He will not be shy in making it known to us, and no amount of introspection and prayer, or opening up the Bible at a random page, or leaving bits of bread out and seeing if birds eat them within a given time period, will provide us with Gnostic insight (though God, in His graciousness, may answer).
Apart from what is revealed in scripture, how can you conjecture God’s will except through what you see as “good options”? Why is it “instead of”?