I’m amazed that the Johnny-come-latelies who attack this statement on internet forums really think they are adding some new insight to what the 150+ Westminster Divines considered for over 5 years when dealing with these concepts.
The WCF isn’t infallible nor does it claim to be. I have some issues with a few of the conclusions the WCF myself.
But these are some of the weightier sections of the WCF and I’m quite sure they spent a great percentage of their time kicking these very things around in order to cover all the bases and leave no stone unturned. I doubt there will be a single “insight” by a critic here that wasn’t thoroughly aired during their deliberations.
I would like to have been a fly on the wall as they bantered these ideas back and forth.
“But – what about????” “But -- that would mean” “Doesn’t that statement make God???” “How can God decree all things without it making Him???” “If we say that, it might leave people thinking???”
Argument and counter argument went on for a solid 5 years until they had finally hammered out statements which covered all the bases and which, it turns out, have stood the test of time for some 400 years and served as the primary confessions of some of the most evangelically prolific groups of believer ever to cover the globe with the gospel of Jesus Christ..
What they came up with in this case was an extremely useful statement which honored the concepts of God’s sovereignty, His omniscience, His omnipresence, and all of the other things which came to mind as they poured over the scriptures day and night for year after year. What they came up with was an extremely useful statement which honored the concepts of the free will and the culpability of men while affirming the non-culpability of God Himself regarding any free choices made by men – particularly sinful ones.
To tear their carefully crafted statements apart and take certain sentences out of context in order to attack and misrepresent the teachings of some of the most Godly men who ever graced the halls of Christendom is unconscionable and I’m not sure how much more I’ll take before I vomit this thread out of my mind..
A certain player here has long ago and forum wide shown himself to be a player of word games and a person who purposefully misrepresents the beliefs of others and argues for the sake of arguing.
But I have tried hard to give others the benefit of the doubt and provide for them insights they had not likely considered because of their animosity toward so called Calvinism.
It has now become apparent that any further patience on my part would amount to casting my pearls. Not only that – but my continued participation here would give those who really shouldn’t be teaching about these things the platform to sin. Also – so long as this thread is in play – weaker brothers and sisters may be led astray and either misunderstand what is firm doctrine and or stumble in some other way by becoming one who rails against what they think people like myself believe..
The time has come, from my viewpoint, when I will try to let this thread die a well deserved death.
It’s a shame really. These discussions could have been so much more productive had some not continued to misrepresent others after they were corrected time after time.