I put this into bullets so that it would be easier to critique individual premises. Logically, in order for an argument to be proven to be invalid, all you have to do is show how the premises don't follow to a conclusion, which can be done through showing how one of the premises are wrong.
- According to Calvinism, man is unable to come to salvation by his own power, and can only come to salvation through irresistible grace.
- For the record,the 5 points of Calvinism was formulation to rebut the Arminian points.There are a lot of us from the Classical Reformed Calvinist position that prefer effectual grace than irresistible grace,because of the confusion it brings.
In historic Reformation thought, the notion is this: regeneration precedes faith. We also believe that regeneration is monergistic. Now that’s a three-dollar word. It means essentially that the divine operation called rebirth or regeneration is the work of God alone. An erg is a unit of labor, a unit of work. The word
energycomes from that idea. The prefix
mono- means “one.” So
monergism means “one working.” It means that the work of regeneration in the human heart is something that God does by His power alone—not by 50 percent His power and 50 percent man’s power, or even 99 percent His power and 1 percent man’s power. It is 100 percent the work of God. He, and He alone, has the power to change the disposition of the soul and the human heart to bring us to faith.
In addition, when He exercises this grace in the soul, He brings about the effect that He intends to bring about. When God created you, He brought you into existence. You didn’t help Him. It was His sovereign work that brought you to life biologically. Likewise, it is His work, and His alone, that brings you into the state of rebirth and of renewed creation. Hence, we call this irresistible grace. It’s grace that works. It’s grace that brings about what God wants it to bring about. If, indeed, we are dead in sins and trespasses, if, indeed, our wills are held captive by the lusts of our flesh and we need to be liberated from our flesh in order to be saved, then in the final analysis, salvation must be something that God does in us and for us, not something that we in any way do for ourselves.
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GOD’S GRACE IS SO POWERFUL THAT IT HAS THE CAPACITY TO OVERCOME OUR NATURAL RESISTANCE TO IT. —R.C. SPROUL
However, the idea of irresistibility conjures up the idea that one cannot possibly offer any resistance to the grace of God. However, the history of the human race is the history of relentless resistance to the sweetness of the grace of God. Irresistible grace does not mean that God’s grace is incapable of being resisted. Indeed, we are capable of resisting God’s grace, and we do resist it. The idea is that God’s grace is so powerful that it has the capacity to overcome our natural resistance to it. It is not that the Holy Spirit drags people kicking and screaming to Christ against their wills. The Holy Spirit changes the inclination and disposition of our wills, so that whereas we were previously unwilling to embrace Christ, now we are willing, and more than willing. Indeed, we aren’t dragged to Christ, we run to Christ, and we embrace Him joyfully because the Spirit has changed our hearts. They are no longer hearts of stone that are impervious to the commands of God and to the invitations of the gospel. God melts the hardness of our hearts when He makes us new creatures. The Holy Spirit resurrects us from spiritual death, so that we come to Christ because we want to come to Christ. The reason we want to come to Christ is because God has already done a work of grace in our souls. Without that work, we would never have any desire to come to Christ. That’s why we say that regeneration precedes faith.
I have a little bit of a problem using the term
irresistible grace, not because I don’t believe this classical doctrine, but because it is misleading to many people. Therefore, I prefer the term
effectual grace, because the irresistible grace of God effects what God intends it to effect.
If man is unable to come to salvation by his own power, then he can't help but sin (there is no middle ground between faith and sin).
Well understand that sinners do choose what they want.Nobody is forcing them to sin.You want to assume something without understanding that the current situation is our fault,not God's.Which seems to be the case among a lot of people who do not understand Calvinism.If you do not understand how great the Fall was and is.Then you will not understand how amazing God's grace really is.Sinners HATE the light,and LOVE the darkness.So here it is.What do sinners desire for? What do they crave for? What pleasures do they seek? Do they seek the things of God? Do they seek after God?
Therefore, according to Calvinism, man can't help but sin.
This is the fallen nature of post Fall. Do you disagree or do you think post Fall that sinners CAN OBEY the Law without a single blemish and EARN Salvation,without Christ? And why did Christ have to die in the first place,if there are innocent people?
Blame implies freedom, such that a person can only be blamed for what he's free to accept or reject. I.e., you can't blame a person for doing that which he can't help but do.
So its okay for a alcoholic to drunk drive and kill people on the road because they cannot help themselves,so they get a pass? Or a serial killer is pardon because of they addiction to killing?
Or child abused kids SHOULD stay in their homes,because their parents have some type of disorder? Child molesters should be allowed in our society because they are just sick people? Where is the Law here!!!!!!!! When do you hold people accountable for what they do???? That's the problem I see with other religions that do not put any emphasis on the sinful condition of sinners! Its all God's fault and not ours.So we put God on trail because its not fair for us? Why don't you look at the passages to see how God is merciful to keep putting up with us!
Calvinism holds that the individual isn't free to accept or reject God except through irresistible grace.
Its caricatures of this type that demonstrates that people just don't get it.Sinners have a free-will,and Calvin affirmed this.Because nobody forces them to sin.They sin willingly,because they do what they desire to do,which is to sin.They HATE the light (John 3).
Therefore, Calvinism shouldn't place blame on sinners, given that blame implies a freedom to accept or reject God that isn't possible without irresistible grace.
If God did not provide his Grace,we would get what we want,which is to sin. Romans 3 depicts our fallen nature as well in Ephesians 2.
No One Is Righteous
9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No,not at all? For we have already charged that all,both Jews and Greeks,are under sin,10 as it written:
"None is righteous,no,not one;
11 no one understand;
no on seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside;together they have become worthless;
no does good,not even one."
13 "Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive."
"The venom of asps is under their lips.'
14 "Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness."
15 "Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 in their paths are ruin and misery,
17 and the way of peace they have not known.'
18 "There is no fear of God before their eyes."
19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law,so that every mouth may be stopped,and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight,since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
By Grace Through Faith
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins,in which you once walked,following the course of this world,following the prince of the power of the air,the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience--among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh,carrying out the desires of the body and the mind,and were by nature the children of wrath,like the rest of mankind.But God,being rich in mercy,because of the great love with which he loved us,even when we were dead in our trespasses,made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved--and raised us up with him and seated us with him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus,so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.For by grace you have been saved through faith.And this is
NOT YOUR OWN DOING;IT IS THE GIFT OF GOD,not a result of works,so that no me may boast.For we are his workmanship,created in Christ Jesus for good works,which God prepared beforehand,that we should walk in them.
Amen!!!! Now this is good news for sinners!
However, Calvinism
does place blame on sinners; therefore Calvinism is logically inconsistent.
The only way out of this inconsistency:
- Hold that individuals are free to reject grace, which would allow them to be blameworthy, given that blame implies freedom to accept or reject -- but here you don't have Calvinism.
- You need to study it for yourself,because bu this whole post I know for sure you have no clue to what Calvinism is about.
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[*]Hold that individuals are born in a state of innocence, not in sin, and that they're blameworthy in the sense of sinning first -- but here you have an unorthodox position that rejects original sin.
Please show me where we say that individuals are born in a state of innocence? We believe that we are born in sin.(Psalms 51:5,5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.)
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Hold that theology doesn't need to be logically consistent -- but here you can believe anything about God given the lack of logic with exegesis.
Wow! This is worse than I thought. Sinners are already condemned. Sinners are not innocent people who are held in captivity by force! This is their nature.And they do not want to see what they do,because the Light will expose they evil deeds,which they Love to do in the dark! Sorry but this premise of yours is not in realm of what Calvinism teaches. Go back to the drawing board and study it really hard,then you can have some insights to what we hold too.
