Does Calvinism teach that God makes arbitrary decisions?

Let's dive in.

Am I for questioning what the Calvinists say?

Hello and welcome back to Sochiology 101.

Last year we were doing a series in response to the Cretel House Ministries on their article

on the 12 myths about Calvinism.

Now, Cretel House Ministries is obviously a Calvinistic ministry.

And Patton, who writes this article, is actually writing a defense of Calvinism by pointing out

myths that he feels are, you know, leveled against his view of Calvinism.

And what we've been doing is just going through some of those myths, acknowledging where

he is coming from in a cordial way and just saying, here's one of the reasons these accusations

are brought against Calvinism sometimes, and one of the reasons these are common, quote-unquote,

misconceptions or misunderstandings possibly about Calvinism, or maybe they're valid critiques,

depending on how you're looking at it from what perspective. So we're trying to be kind,

we're trying to be cordial with our Calvinistic brothers on these things, because we don't want to be unfair to them. But at the same time,

we do want to try to understand and unpack what is behind the scenes when it comes to some of

these accusations. For example, is Calvinism simply God arbitrarily choosing some people before

the foundation of the world? You've heard me say things like,

you know, God's making a choice for no apparent reason and sometimes Calvinist recoil against

that kind of statement. But it's true. It is no apparent reason. In other words, there's no reason

that is known. That's what apparent means. There's no known reason to us as to why he chooses person A versus person B. It's hidden within the secret counsel of his will, as a Calvinist will

oftentimes put it. So let's go back to that article, and this is, again, from Michael Patton with

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