What do you think of the follow critic by probely a arminian on James White's book "potters freedom (Romans 9) ?:
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White’s book The Potter’s Freedom is said on its cover to be “A De-fense of the Reformation and a Rebuttal of Norman Geisler’s Chosen But Free.” But the cover alone is a typical Calvinistic misrepresentation, and for two reasons. The first problem is that the title is based on a twisted view of the passage in Romans 9 regarding the potter and the clay. Romans 9 is the “haven of reprobation” for all Calvinists. In Romans 9, Calvinists throughout history have seized upon three verses and made them the pillars to support their teaching of the reprobation of the non-elect. Thethree verses in question are: “Esau have I hated” (Rom 9:13), “whom he will he hardeneth” (Rom 9:18), and “vessels of wrath fitted to destruc-tion” (Rom 9:22). The third verse is part of the account of the potter and the clay in Rom 9:22-24. “What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gen-tiles?” According to one Calvinist, because the potter has power over theclay, this proves “God’s absolute sovereignty to determine the final des-5Available at Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church...Elders Don Fry, James White.
A Critique of The Potter’s Freedom by James White 31 tiny of men, either to honor or dishonor, to salvation and glory or to damnation and desolation.”6When White called his book by the seem-ingly innocuous title The Potter’s Freedom, he was actually saying that God, as the potter, has the freedom to foreordain the “elect” to heavenand the “reprobate” to hell by a sovereign, eternal decree. Does Paul’s illustration of the potter and the clay have anything to dowith the salvation of NT Christians? The potter and the clay was a com-mon illustration in the OT (Isa 29:16, 45:9, 64:8; Jer 18:1-6). Never is it a reference to anyone’s salvation. Israel is said to be the clay (Isa 64:8; Jer 18:6). The clay is formed, not created. There was no clay before the foundation of the world, and neither is anyone said to be fitted or pre-pared before the foundation of the world. And although the “vessels ofmercy” are said to be “afore prepared unto glory” by God, no agent is given in the case of those “fitted to destruction.”
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http://www.faithalone.org/journal/2003i/vance.pdf
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White’s book The Potter’s Freedom is said on its cover to be “A De-fense of the Reformation and a Rebuttal of Norman Geisler’s Chosen But Free.” But the cover alone is a typical Calvinistic misrepresentation, and for two reasons. The first problem is that the title is based on a twisted view of the passage in Romans 9 regarding the potter and the clay. Romans 9 is the “haven of reprobation” for all Calvinists. In Romans 9, Calvinists throughout history have seized upon three verses and made them the pillars to support their teaching of the reprobation of the non-elect. Thethree verses in question are: “Esau have I hated” (Rom 9:13), “whom he will he hardeneth” (Rom 9:18), and “vessels of wrath fitted to destruc-tion” (Rom 9:22). The third verse is part of the account of the potter and the clay in Rom 9:22-24. “What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gen-tiles?” According to one Calvinist, because the potter has power over theclay, this proves “God’s absolute sovereignty to determine the final des-5Available at Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church...Elders Don Fry, James White.
A Critique of The Potter’s Freedom by James White 31 tiny of men, either to honor or dishonor, to salvation and glory or to damnation and desolation.”6When White called his book by the seem-ingly innocuous title The Potter’s Freedom, he was actually saying that God, as the potter, has the freedom to foreordain the “elect” to heavenand the “reprobate” to hell by a sovereign, eternal decree. Does Paul’s illustration of the potter and the clay have anything to dowith the salvation of NT Christians? The potter and the clay was a com-mon illustration in the OT (Isa 29:16, 45:9, 64:8; Jer 18:1-6). Never is it a reference to anyone’s salvation. Israel is said to be the clay (Isa 64:8; Jer 18:6). The clay is formed, not created. There was no clay before the foundation of the world, and neither is anyone said to be fitted or pre-pared before the foundation of the world. And although the “vessels ofmercy” are said to be “afore prepared unto glory” by God, no agent is given in the case of those “fitted to destruction.”
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http://www.faithalone.org/journal/2003i/vance.pdf
