Calvinism Advice from A.W. Tozer

I was preparing to go to Nyack College. Before I left there was one burning question I had in mind, and I went to Dr. Tozer and said, "Could you give me some advice concerning the problem of Calvinism versus Arminianism?"

And I'll never forget the advice he gave me. At the time I thought it was rather inconclusive and not too helpful. But I listened carefully. He said, "My son, when you get to college you're going to find that all of the boys will be gathered in a room discussing and arguing over Arminianism and Calvinism night after night after night. I'll tell you what to do, Cliff. [b]Go to your room and meet God. At the end of four years you'll be way down the line and they'll still be where they started[/b], because greater minds than yours have wrestled with this problem and have not come up with satisfactory conclusions. Instead, learn to know God." (emphasis mine)

Cliff Westergren

I thought this was great advice.

God sovereignly decreed that man should be free to exercise moral choice, and man from the beginning has fulfilled that decree by making his choice between good and evil. When he chooses to do evil, he does not thereby countervail the sovereign will of God but fulfills it, inasmuch as the eternal decree decided not which choice the man should make but that he should be free to make it....Man's will is free because God is sovereign.... A God less than sovereign...would be afraid to...bestow moral freedom upon His creatures. God moves undisturbed and unhindered toward the fulfillment of those eternal purposes which He purposed in Christ Jesus before the world began... with infinite wisdom and perfect precision of action. No one can...turn Him aside from His plans. Since He is omniscient [and] sovereign...there can be...no accidents...no breakdown in authority; and as He is omnipotent, there can be no want of power to achieve His chosen ends . . . . Within the broad field of God's sovereign, permissive will the deadly conflict of good and evil continues with increasing fury. God will yet have His way [but] as responsible beings, we must make our choice in the present moral situation."
A.W. Tozer (1897-1963), from The knowledge of the Holy