If God did not want us to understand His sovereign saving purposes, He would not have given such extensive instruction in His Word. “Therefore,” says Calvin, “We must guard against depriving believers of anything disclosed about predestination in Scripture, lest we seem either wickedly to defraud them of the blessing of their God or to accuse and scoff at the Holy Spirit for having published what it is in any way profitable to suppress” (Institutes, III.21.3).