Some of you older readers might remember those cartoon shorts from the 60s called "Fractured Fairytales". They presented satirical twists which completely (and hilariously) warped the original moral message of some of our beloved traditional fairytales. The damsel is not in distress; the prince has no charm; the little girl with the red hoodie (who seems so sweet) is actually hatching a devious plot against Granny, etc.
If you've been reading this blog you know that I believe that Calvinism/Reformed theology is a corruption of the beautiful, biblical gospel message. I thought it might be interesting to occasionally look at some of Jesus's teachings/parables from a "fractured" Calvinistic understanding. The purpose, although a bit tongue-in-cheek, is to expose the serious, unresolvable conundrums in the Calvinist's understanding of the gospel--problems that, I believe, warp the character of the true God and corrupt the good news of the gospel as a sincere offer of salvation to all.
The God of Compassion
Here is the wonderful parable of the barren fig tree, told by Jesus in the thirteenth chapter of the gospel of Luke.
Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, 'For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?'
" 'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.' " (Luke 13:6-9 NIV)
Immediately prior to the telling of this parable, Jesus warns a crowd about the need for all to repent in order to avoid a disastrous eternal fate. I believe the most reasonable and clear-minded understanding of this parable is that the tree represents an unbelieving person who is not bearing the fruit of repentance which leads to eternal life.
After patiently waiting for the unproductive tree to bear fruit, the owner of the vineyard (God, the Father) finally tells the vinedresser (Jesus) to cut down the unproductive tree. In a demonstration of godly compassion, Jesus not only intercedes on behalf of the unbeliever, but offers additional grace (fertilizer) to help the unbeliever begin to bear fruit.
This is a story about compassion and mercy and hope. We have a compassionate Savior--an intercessor--who seeks the lost (Luke 15:3) and is patient, not willing to give up on those who have not yet come to faith in the Son (2 Peter 3:9).
The Parable, Fractured
Here is a fractured look at the same parable with a Calvinistic twist.
And he told this parable: "A king had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, 'Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?'
And the vinedresser answered him, 'Sir, why are you looking for figs on a tree that you know cannot bear fruit because you decreed from before the foundation of the world that this tree would be barren. How can you blame the tree and punish it when it is doing exactly as you decreed? That doesn't seem just, or merciful or compassionate.
"Don't bother me with that mercy and compassion stuff!," the king huffed. "Who are you, o man, to question me? I will blame whomever I'll blame, and I'll punish whomever I'll punish."
Then, with a thoughtful pause, he added, "Just imagine how wonderfully such a display of wrath and power will reveal my glory."
Contrary to the encouraging message of hope in Jesus's parable of the barren fig tree, those who teach a Calvinistic/Reformed view of the gospel believe that God intentionally withholds repentance and faith from all but a select few--the elect. To these few, God grants salvation. Everyone else (the many), unable to repent and unable to believe, will necessarily suffer the wrath of God and perish. Such wrath and punishment is necessary, they say, to display the complete breadth of God's glory.
The hopeless absurdity of this "fractured" parable, when contrasted with the grace and compassion of Jesus' true teaching, reveals an unresolvable problem with the Calvinistic understanding of the character of God. In the Calvinist's view of the gospel, the sinner is held responsible for repentance and faith even though God has rendered them unable to do either. This is an excruciating injustice on the part of a righteous and just God that cannot be resolved. We can call it a divine mystery, but in truth, it's simply unjust, un-God-like, unbiblical.
Final Thought
The Bible tells us that God displays his glory through compassion and mercy (Ex 33:18), not wrath and power. We could say that the true King - the God of the Bible - clothes himself in grace. Yet contrary to Scripture, the Calvinists' belief that God's glory is displayed in his wrath and power only reveals that their king has no clothes and their hopeless gospel is just a fairytale.
Next Post: Heaven - Part 1
Here's a link: https://www.bibleinsights.net/post/post-56-heaven-part-i
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