Customer Reviews

Sinners in the Hands of a Good God: Reconciling Divine Judgment and Mercy

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Highly recommended as an essential guide to understanding God's judgment and mercy. Clotfelter presents the differing views of serious Christian theologians, past and present and holds them up to the light of Scriptural evidence. This is a well-referenced work which offers a fair-minded, compassionate analysis of the concepts of heaven and hell from different schools of thought, always bringing the authority of the Bible to bear in the end.

This is a scholarly, yet engaging and very readible treatise on the doctrine of heaven and hell, reconciling God's justice with his mercy.

Can a discussion on this knotty theological issue be anything but tedious? In fact, this is one of the most encouraging books you will read in your spiritual journey. It will engage your heart as much as your mind as you read and inevitably will jump-start you forward in your spiritual journey.

In the end, Clotfelter wisely notes that "to be a good theologian, you have to want even more to be a good Christian" How true.

How can God be good, yet send people to hell, and leave them there eternally? If he is omnipotent, why doesn't he save everyone? These are questions every thinking Christian has to face. The author, with graduate degrees from Yale, Fuller Theological Seminary, and Claremont Graduate University (Ph.D.), writes out of a personal struggle with such questions and traces his own journey from atheism to the view of George MacDonald, mentor of C. S. Lewis, who argued that a loving Father would never condemn his children to endless punishment, to what he insists is the more biblical view of Jonathan Edwards. This is not a book for professional theologians but for the ordinary reader who wants to see how the Bible's teaching on divine justice and divine mercy may be brought together and harmonized. Each of the three parts of this book consists of three chapters. The first, "Under Judgment," argues that God regards all human beings as guilty sinners and defends eternal punishment against universal salvation and annihilation of the lost. The second, "At His Mercy," argues for the Calvinistic view of predestination and election as the view most consistent with the Bible. The third, "Within His Embrace," argues that by his life and death Jesus fully satisfied the justice of God for his chosen people who are not only forgiven but given a title to eternal joy. In a final chapter the author attempts to draw all the threads of the discussion together. Each chapter ends with a prayer that reflects the author's personal struggle with the subject and the reasons for his conclusions. Every church library in the country would profit from the possession of this book, and hopefully every church librarian will be able to recommend it to every member. And all readers who want to think about this issue with an expert should consider buying this book.

I was thoroughly impressed with Mr. Clotfelter's treatment of this controversial subject. I believe he handled himself with true humility and with a strong conviction to adhere to the Scriptures as the final authority on any given question related to the subject. His style was likeable and he wrote with clarity, avoiding deep intellectual arguments that seem to characterize many other works that deal with the "Calvinism versus Arminianism" debate. And finally, it was refreshing to see one with the keen desire to bring out the true nature of God and to glorify Him in the process.

I must confess that I have been a strong believer in God's sovereign grace in election for many years, so I was biased from the start. But I had never read a work that was so convincing in clarifying this truth. His handling of various teachings ("Universalism," "Annihilationism," and "Open Theism") was masterful, and should serve to silence any advocates of these erroneous doctrines.

It was also impressive to see him tackle some of the real hard questions, such as "Why will God confine some of His creatures to eternal punishment?" and "If God had the power to elect all to salvation, why didn't He?" I believe he did so with a compassion for man, yet also, as intimated above, with a strong desire to glorify God. I believe you will find his answers to these questions compelling, even though they might not completely satisfy your logic and human reasoning.

In closing, I have recommended this book to many of my brothers and sisters in Christ, and I would highly recommend it to you. If you are a true believer in Christ, I hope you walk away from it with a deeper appreciation for the grace of God that "chose you in Him [Christ] before the foundation of the world," and for the tremendous cost that Christ paid to deliver you from the eternal destruction that you (we all) richly deserved. I also hope your thoughts of God will be raised to a higher level as you come to see more of His glories and excellencies, and that you will long for the day when we shall be in His presence forever where God will throughout eternity "show [us] the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:7).

David Clotfelter has dealt effectively and Biblically with some of the hard questions that Christians are confronted with regarding the justice of God and the sovereignty of God in salvation. In the final analysis, the author encourages us to trust the Holy Scriptures as the Word of God on these difficult questions, rather than to rely upon human reasoning and logic. I heartily agree!

My only reservation is that Clotfelter was too charitable in the book to George MacDonald, a well-known and famous author of the 19th century who believed and taught universal salvation, denied eternal punishment, denied the substitutionary atonement of Christ for believers, and denied the imputed righteousness of Christ to believers. In my view, heretics should labeled as such, not spoken of favorably, as though they are somehow redeemed in spite of their heresy!

THE GOOD: A lot of "bang for your buck". Per the "text stats" on Amazon, you get 7327 words per dollar. (compare that to other books. It's pretty good value) The author covers a number of areas, and thinks of a number of objections, and I give him major points for even putting the book as a juxtaposition between John Edwards and George MacDonald. As a huge fan of MacDonald, I'm glad the author devoted time and space to him. I was also happy to hear that at least he thinks MacDonald is in heaven with Edwards. I thought for sure, he would consider all Universalists as heretics who end up in hell.

THE BAD: Pretty much everything else. (btw, I had to cut a number of items from this review to make it under the review limit of 1000 words. These issues I mention are just the tip of the iceberg. I wish I had 2000 word limit, as I could mention many other problems). The problem is well summed up on pg 17 "MacDonald told me to trust my instincts about God; Edwards told me to distrust those instincts and cast myself on the Bible". I'll admit, I don't believe in the inerrancy of the Bible ( btw, kudos for the author in mentioning there are Universalists who DO believe the Bible is inerrant. I just wish he had read those authors! It appears he did not). One problem with "Bible innerency" right off the bat, is what the author does in the book. He states on opening page, that he uses THREE different versions of the Bible for his quotes. Isn't that convenient! Use the version which best makes your point. It should give Christians great concern that there are so many translations of the Bible, and they are possibly quite far removed from the original Greek texts. By admitting he uses 3 versions, hes basically conceding "You know what..this version doesn't quite do a good job of translating what was meant in this verse, so I'll use the other version here". That's a huge problem. It means that even if the original texts written by the original authors were "divine" in nature, the translations we now have are mistranslated in some fashion. But i digress. MacDonald is completely logical I believe to compare God to an earthly father. Honestly, any parent can understand this idea, and see God in that role as well. You've seen parents on that show "Intervention". Their kids have become hooked on drugs and are no longer "themselves". Something is separating them from their parents. A parent will do anything to get their child back and healthy...even tough love. Prison, clinics, going cold turkey, whatever it takes. But no parent would torture their child forever, because the drugs ( or "sin" in this case) is causing a separation. The parents goal is reconciliation...not permanent torture and separation. Every Christian knows in their heart right from wrong (although Calvinists may disagree). You know that hurting a defenseless animal, or murder, or rape, or theft is wrong. You know helping someone across the street, or feeding someone hungry is right. And you know that what this internal barometer is...it's God mark on you. We are made in his image after all. Yet, when it comes to getting a sick feeling in your gut that God would torture a person for eternity, for simply being born into sin of no fault of their own, the author tells you to repress that feeling and "throw yourself at the Bible". Sorry, but when it comes to eternal torment, I'm going to trust my God given instincts on that.

The author asks a number of good rhetorical questions. The problem is that his answers are awful. On pg 40, he rightly asks "Isn't it unfair we were brought into this miserable state due to the sin of one man? Why didn't each human get a chance at remaining righteous like Adam was given? Why did he ordain it that we should come into this world incapable of pleasing him?" Good questions! His answer? "I haven't found a satisfying answer to that question and don't expect to in this lifetime." Talk about a cop out! At least David is being honest. There's no real good answer to it. He just figures God is good, and it will be explained in heaven. I agree...God is good. And that's why the Calvinist approach makes no sense. MacDonald was right when he said that we should not attribute evil characteristics to God. Along these lines, some more mind bending nonsense. Pg 181: "God did not force Adam and Eve to sin (though he certainly did ordain this should happen)". What the?! God who controls everything, has absolute power, and is omnipotent, didn't force them...but he ordained it should happen? Look up ordain in the dictionary. "To issue an order". What is the difference man?! If God ordains that Adam and Eve will sin, how on earth would they prevent him from doing that?

His attacks on Universalism and Annihationalism are broken into two parts: Logical and Scriptural/Biblical. And yet, he only devotes 2 pages each for his "logical" attacks, and even then has to refer to scripture in those logical attacks. So much for sticking purely to logic even where he said he would.

At times the author seems unsure whether he is a Calvinist or Armenian. Pg 46: "behind his (Gods) rage there is love towards the people themselves...it is not strange at all to say that God loves people yet hates their lawbreaking". Exactly! MacDonald couldn't have said it better. And yet the idol of the author, John Edwards, says in the sermon of which this book is referring to ("Sinners in the hands..") that God hates you personally. Not your sin...YOU. Just more contradictions and poor logic from the author.

Nothing has been as destructive and maligning to the cause of Christ than the disgusting doctrine of eternal torment. I read this book a number of years ago while struggling with this issue hoping to be comforted, and what this book did was cause me to be so distrurbed by this so-called "loving" god of Calvinism that I actually did consider suicide for a number of years because I was so psychologically disturbed by trying to worship such an evil version of God.

The notion that God will hand select a certain number of individuals that he has "predestined" to save while condemning the rest of humanity to hell without even giving them the CAPACITY to believe is PURE EVIL. Calvin -- Clotfelter's predecessor who championed this sick doctrine-- was in fact a vile and filthy man who was NOT filled with the Holy Spirit, otherwise he wouldn't have those who opposed his ideas EXECUTED. (Yes, this really happened! Do some research!)

I have since discovered the doctrine of univeral reconciliation as expressed by Tom Talbott in his book "The Inescapable Love of God" and this has changed my life entirely. Please buy Talbott's book instead of this one if you are questioning the concept of eternal hell.