More from Boettner:
GOD CONTROLS THE MINDS OF MEN AND GIVES HIS PEOPLE THE WILL TO COME
God so governs the inward feelings, external environment, habits, desires, motives, etc., of men that they freely do what He purposes. This operation is inscrutable, but none the less real; and the mere fact that in our present state of knowledge we are not able fully to explain how this influence is exerted without destroying the free agency of man, certainly does not prove that it cannot be so exerted. We do have enough knowledge, however, to know that God’s sovereignty and man’s freedom are realities, and that they work together in perfect harmony” (p. 214).
God is SO sovereign that He isn’t sovereign. God SO controls the minds of men that He doesn’t control the minds of men. God SO “governs” that He doesn’t actually govern, but His creatures govern themselves. God SO exerts “this inscrutable, governing, and controlling influence” without actually “destroying the free agency of man” — and why’s that Boettner? Here, let me spell it out for you: Because according to your scheme God is NOT actually exerting any “controlling influence” at all you nitwit!
Boettner continues:
“In Isaiah 10:5-15 we have a very remarkable illustration of the way in which divine sovereignty and human freedom work together in perfect harmony” (p. 223).
Besides me, who else needs help picking their jaw from off the floor? Are you serious Boettner? That passage illustrates human freedom? I’m flabbergasted. Wow. Of all the passages Boettner could have picked to violently wrest to his own destruction, he picks this one. The “perfect harmony” in Isaiah 10:5-15 is the harmony of the woodsman’s swinging arms and the axe’s corresponding motion. There is no harmony and there is no compatibility between the sovereign arms of the woodsman and the freedom of the axe. Freedom of the axe you say? What freedom? Exactly. No freedom whatsoever. And thus, in Isaiah 10:5-15 we have a very remarkable illustration, NOT of how divine sovereignty and (presumed) human freedom work together, but how divine sovereignty, human actions, and human responsibility for their actions work together.
I could have a little fun with these idolatrous Calvinists and point out that just as the woodsman’s swinging of the axe is compatible with the axe’s swinging, so is God’s actively causing the Assyrian king to sin compatible with the Assyrian king’s sinning (and the Assyrian king is not being coerced!). Next Page (36)
Agrammatos 