“They that make a graven image are all of them vanity; and their delectable things shall not profit; and they are their own witnesses; they see not, nor know; that they may be ashamed” (Isaiah 44:9).
The “permissive” or “passive” decree Calvinist idol’s foreknowledge is said to be based upon his decree. That is, he is said to see and know things because he has eternally decreed that these things shall come to pass. But in order to truly “see” God must truly “decree” in the Biblical sense of those words. To truly decree something is to bring it about by active omnipotent power and causation, not by a permissio efficax (or “efficacious permission”).
To truly decree from eternity that a person sin a specific sin (as in the case of Herod & Pontius Pilate) is to actively turn their hearts in time to hate His Son (cf. Psalm 105:25). The “permissive decree” Calvinists have an idol who has NO HANDS wherewith to turn anyone’s heart and has NO EYES through which he sees what he has eternally decreed to come about by virtue of his desire to demonstrate his wrath and to make his power known (cf. Isaiah 45:9). Also the Calvinist idol has NO MOUTH with which to actively decree the sins of men and angels. The Calvinists speak on behalf of their idol, saying that he speaks forth his eternal “decree” and somehow, in some allegedly “mysterious” and “inscrutable” way, men sin specific sins in a specific way apart from God unconditionally and actively hardening them toward that specific destructive end.
“Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake! And to senseless stone, Arise!” (Habakkuk 2:19)
Agrammatos 