Is Matthew 22: 1 - 14 Incongruent With Calvinism?
No, not at all.
Non-Calvinist: God invites everyone else, both good and evil. They fill the wedding banquet but as you stated only one is cast out because they are not wearing the wedding clothes they should be wearing (Jesus’ righteous imparted by faith in Him).
Calvinist: There are 3 sets of people in the King’s house. The King represents the Father. The Son getting married is the Son. The servants represent the Holy Spirit not just human evangelists. The King commands the servants to go & invite. The servants do not merely invite. They also gather. The text places no emphasis on the Elect’s decision to attend.
When we see decision, the man ejected is in view. Unlike the others, he appears predisposed to attend via his commitment to works righteousness. The text implies he is an infiltrator/advocate for the people the King wrathed earlier in the story.
The text also draws a sharp contrast between those who were initially invited - people of power & influence & the 2nd group, good & bad, people from all walks of life. This draws a distinction between those who believe in works righteousness & those who do not.
If faith & repentance precede regeneration, then faith & repentance are necessary & sufficient acts that serve to merit regeneration & justification. That’s works righteousness, which the text clearly denies.
In addition, to argue that faith precedes regeneration is to argue in favor of libertarian free will. Where does the Bible teach LFW is how our decisional mechanism works? Nowhere.
James 1:14 - 15 teaches us that we follow our desires into sin & death, & in 1 Samuel 16:7, Jeremiah 17:9 - 10; & Matthew 5:27 - 28 all teach us that God judges us via His evaluation of our desires that underwrite our thoughts, words, & deeds — not the mere performance of thoughts, words, & deeds. The LORD evaluates the morality of our thoughts, words, & deeds via His knowledge, evaluation, & understanding of our internal volitional mechanism & the heighth, depth, & breadth of our love for Him first, then everyone & everything else next, & then ourselves in that order.
O LORD, Hear our prayer(s)!
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