If Calvinism is true....

[nobdysfool]

I've told you where I stand.

Feel free to challenge Catholic Doctrine, or point out that Catholics are sinners.

I welcome challenges.

You just don't get it, do you?

 

[chestertonrules]

You just don't get it, do you?

If you can't defend your beliefs, perhaps they should be reevaluated.

Your frustration and anger are understandable.

 

[nobdysfool]

If you can't defend your beliefs, perhaps they should be reevaluated.

Your frustration and anger are understandable.

No frustration and anger here, friend. You're projecting your own. I can answer for what I believe, but as I have clearly stated, I will not waste my time with someone who clearly has no ears to hear. Pearls are too valuable to just be cast about, willy-nilly.

You cover your own frustration and anger at not being taken seriously by projecting those onto others, and accusing them of that which you yourself experience. You thought you were going to ride in here and dazzle us with your brilliance, and it turns out you're carrying a pocket flashlight with a low battery, not the searchlight you fantasized carrying. Now you're trying to baffle with byproducts of uncertain and rather unpleasant origin.

Sorry about your luck. I'm quite happy and light-hearted, actually. Life is good, and God has blessed, and is continuing to bless.

 

[heymikey80]

I have been very careful to quote multiple and respected Calvinist sources when refuting the doctrines of Calvinism.

cr, you haven't been careful at all to quote respected sources when attempting to contradict the doctrines of Calvinism. That's been demonstrated a number of times when you've quoted patently hypercalvinist sources as if they're all Calvinists; when you shift "regeneration" to mean "salvation"; and when you make patently errant assertions like:

Calvinists are ashamed of much of their doctrinal baggage, apparently, so they insist that those who disagree with Calvinism are distorting their beliefs.

Calvinists don't believe that God loves the world, even though this is what the bible tells us. Calvinists don't believe that Jesus died to bring life to all men, even though this is what the bible says. Calvinists don't believe that our actions and deeds impact our salvation, even though this is what the bible teaches us and warns us about.

If at some point you'd actually like to talk about Calvinism instead of a warped view of it, maybe you'd get a better reputation for it.

But you haven't, yet.

Hence it clearly appears that those of whom one could hardly expect it have shown no truth, equity, and charity at all in wishing to make the public believe:

• --that the teaching of the Reformed churches on predestination and on the points associated with it by its very nature and tendency draws the minds of people away from all godliness and religion, is an opiate of the flesh and the devil, and is a stronghold of Satan where he lies in wait for all people, wounds most of them, and fatally pierces many of them with the arrows of both despair and self-assurance;
  --that this teaching makes God the author of sin, unjust, a tyrant, and a hypocrite; and is nothing but a refurbished Stoicism, Manicheism, Libertinism, and Mohammedanism;
  --that this teaching makes people carnally self-assured, since it persuades them that nothing endangers the salvation of the chosen, no matter how they live, so that they may commit the most outrageous crimes with self-assurance; and that on the other hand nothing is of use to the reprobate for salvation even if they have truly performed all the works of the saints;
  --that this teaching means that God predestined and created, by the bare and unqualified choice of his will, without the least regard or consideration of any sin, the greatest part of the world to eternal condemnation; that in the same manner in which election is the source and cause of faith and good works, reprobation is the cause of unbelief and ungodliness; that many infant children of believers are snatched in their innocence from their mothers' breasts and cruelly cast into hell so that neither the blood of Christ nor their baptism nor the prayers of the church at their baptism can be of any use to them; and very many other slanderous accusations of this kind which the Reformed churches not only disavow but even denounce with their whole heart.

Therefore this Synod of Dordt in the name of the Lord pleads with all who devoutly call on the name of our Savior Jesus Christ to form their judgment about the faith of the Reformed churches, not on the basis of false accusations gathered from here or there, or even on the basis of the personal statements of a number of ancient and modern authorities--statements which are also often either quoted out of context or misquoted and twisted to convey a different meaning--but on the basis of the churches' own official confessions and of the present explanation of the orthodox teaching which has been endorsed by the unanimous consent of the members of the whole Synod, one and all.


Moreover, the Synod earnestly warns the false accusers themselves to consider how heavy a judgment of God awaits those who give false testimony against so many churches and their confessions, trouble the consciences of the weak, and seek to prejudice the minds of many against the fellowship of true believers.


Finally, this Synod urges all fellow ministers in the gospel of Christ to deal with this teaching in a godly and reverent manner, in the academic institutions as well as in the churches; to do so, both in their speaking and writing, with a view to the glory of God's name, holiness of life, and the comfort of anxious souls; to think and also speak with Scripture according to the analogy of faith; and, finally, to refrain from all those ways of speaking which go beyond the bounds set for us by the genuine sense of the Holy Scriptures and which could give impertinent sophists a just occasion to scoff at the teaching of the Reformed churches or even to bring false accusations against it.


May God's Son Jesus Christ, who sits at the right hand of God and gives gifts to men, sanctify us in the truth, lead to the truth those who err, silence the mouths of those who lay false accusations against sound teaching, and equip faithful ministers of his Word with a spirit of wisdom and discretion, that all they say may be to the glory of God and the building up of their hearers. Amen.

 

[MamaZ]

I will continue to consitently expose and explain the dogmas of Calvinism which I believe are false, unbiblical, and potentially dangerous for the world.
The only problem with this Chestor is that you want to believe in the tradtions of your church and play churchianity. A system set up by man and ruled by man claiming it is truth when it can be refuted through scripture and has been. You want to lean on tradition of men rather than the full context of scripture.
I believe Calvinism can lead to despair. A person might turn from God if they feel separated from him at some point in their life under the false assumption that they are not one of the elect.
The Holy Spirit bears witness with the people of Gods spirit letting them know that they are indeed His where as they cry out abba Father. For it is not them in Christ that is the hope of Glory but Christ in them that is the hope of glory..

I believe that Calvinism can lead to separation from God by the false notion that our deeds and actions don't impact our salvation. I believe that a believer in Calvinist doctrine might not take their sins or inaction seriously enough and therefore they could jeopardize their salvation.
This you believe but have not understood that those whom are born of God are overcomers. For it is Christ in them at work willing them to do what it is that pleases the Father.

I believe that Calvinists reject the Church founded by Jesus to be our guide on earth.
We reject an organization that is built up on tradtion of man instead of the truth of scripture. Never was the church to be the guide on earth. The Holy Spirit is to be our guide. He will lead us to all truth. For HE is truth. One must understand what the scriptures say about the church and not what the church says about the scriptures..

This doesn't mean Calvinists as individuals are bad people. My attacks on Calvinism are meant to help these individuals.

Help them how? By leading them away from truth? Leading them to a place that has no assurance of thier own salvation let alone the salvation of any one else?

 

[Hismessenger]

I have two things to say on this topic. First the debate over whether Calvinism is true is a moot subject . Without the province of God there would be no creation. If you cannot grasp the truth in this, then you need to seek God's face and ask Him for the truth an He will give you what you can handle. There would be no choices, there would be no thought, there would be no life for us to debate about it's purpose. There would be no ................. You fill in the blanks. Get the picture. God has set the creation in motion for His purpose and only He knows what His purpose is in creating us and setting our lifes in motion. He said that everything that He created was good. Evil is good for the purpose he created it for because there is nothing that can spring forth in His creation without His province in it. Is that so hard to understand. You have NO life to do anything without the presence of God in it for He is life and breath and sky and wind and earth and animal and grass and thought and emotion. I could go on all night. There is no thing, absolutely no thing that exsists in this creation that He doesn't have purpose for. If He didn't, it wouldn't be here.

hismessenger