“God does not (as we have been slanderously reported to affirm) compel the wicked to sin, as the rider spurs on an unwilling horse. God only says in effect that awful word, ‘Let them alone’ (Matt. 15:14). He needs only to slacken the reins of providential restraint, and withhold the influence of saving grace, and apostate man will only too soon and too surely, of his own accord, fall by his iniquities. Thus the decree of reprobation neither interferes with the bent of man’s own fallen nature, nor serves to render him the less inexcusable” (A.W. Pink, The Sovereignty of God).
This is not a Biblical articulation of the sovereignty of God, but a benighted boastful bubbling from Pink’s blackened brain. Yet again, the analogies (e.g., horse and rider) that certain idolatrous Calvinists use are much too weak. When God actively causes a man to sin (e.g., Pharaoh; King of Assyria) the man certainly IS willing to sin. Peer through the lens of Isaiah 10:5-15 and consider how absurd Pink’s “horse and rider” really is. Also, think about God’s eternal decree to swing the axe coupled with the actual swinging of the axe in time. And then think about Pink’s assertion that God’s reprobating decree “neither interferes with the bent of man’s own fallen nature.” It appears that Pink is experiencing risible reveries of axes swinging themselves and of rods lifting themselves.
“Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger! And My fury is the staff in their hand. I will send him against an ungodly nation, and against the people of My wrath. I will command him to plunder, and to strip off spoil, and to trample them like the mud of the streets. Yet he does not purpose this, nor does his heart think so. For it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off not a few nations. For he says, Are not my commanders all like kings? Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is Hamath not like Arpad? Is Samaria not like Damascus? As my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols (for their carved images excelled Jerusalem’s and Samaria’s); shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols as I have done to Samaria and her idols? And it will be, when the Lord has broken off all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will visit on the fruit of the proud heart of the king of Assyria, and on the glory of his lofty eyes. For he says, I have worked by the strength of my hand and by my wisdom; for I am wise. And I take away the borders of peoples, and have robbed their treasures. And like a mighty one, I put down ones living in it. And my hand has found the riches of the people. Like a nest, I also have gathered all the earth, as forsaken eggs are gathered. And there was not one moving a wing, or opening a mouth, or one chirping. Shall the axe glorify itself over him chopping with it? Or shall the saw magnify itself over him moving it? As if a rod could wave those who lift it. As if a staff could raise what is not wood!” (Isaiah 10:5-15).
In stark contrast to the stupefied, partially-sovereign-idol-worshipping Calvinists, we remain alert and sober (cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:6). There are swarms of Calvinists who have given their nod to pseudo-sovereignty. But we refuse to follow this multitude to do evil. We will not be hood-Pinked.
Agrammatos 