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What is wrong with Calvinism ?

ReverendRV

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It happens a lot on Matt Slick's CARM Forums...

But I wouldn't say that any Calvinist there defends it as their Antinomian Right. I'd say they defend the truth Christians do indeed still Sin after being Born Again. If we Sin we have an Advocate with the Father; and Saint Peter did Sin when he was called out by Saint Paul for his discrimination of the Gentiles...
 
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Mark Quayle

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Unacceptable...it must mean to predict the outcome of a person's free will decision will indeed be fulfilled.

Iow, predestination refers to prediction, not to causation.
I'm not sure I understand the strange construction of your first sentence there, but from what I can make of it, you are reworking the passage to fit your theology, and ignoring the plain meaning of the greek word translated pre-destine or pre-determine, or pre-appoint or fore-ordain.

Eisegesis.
 
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Clare73

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Unacceptable...it must mean
Who made that rule?
to predict the outcome of a person's free will decision will indeed be fulfilled.

Iow, predestination refers to prediction, not to causation.
Nope. . .not according to the meaning of the word in either English or Greek (proorizo),
where it is "to decree, to predetermine, to foreordain."

Seems Mark has in right in the post above, #1083.
 
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Mark Quayle

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I’m talking about Calvinists on that forum I’ve been on for the past 20 years . And I know a few on my personal life as well .
I've heard of John MacArthur being accused of believing this, with quotes taken out of context. I know him well enough to know he believes no such thing, nor does he wish to be taken that way. I'm guessing your distaste for Calvinism is why you take them to believe that. But what you describe is not Calvinism.
 
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Jesus is YHWH

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No Mac doesn’t believe that at all far from it. I’ve followed his ministry for 45 years .
 
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Clare73

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TedT said:
Unacceptable...it must mean
Clare73 said:
Who made that rule?
It is not a rule...it is working within the logic of the self revealed nature of GOD as LOVE.
One's own working "within the logic" is eisegesis.

One working "according to the Scripture," is exegesis,
and in which Scripture the word is proorizo, which is "to decree, to predetermine, to foreordain."

So Mark did get it right.
 
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Mark Quayle

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I'm not sure what you are saying now. If they are not defending it as their Antinomian right, but merely saying that believers do still sin, even after regeneration, then they are not saying what @Jesus is YHWH attributes to many so-called 'Calvinists'. I'm guessing it is like with John MacArthur, who is so adamant about eternal security that he is is taken to say that the believer is free to sin all he wants, and such.

I haven't read Matt Slick except for some exerpts. I'm not sure, from what you are saying, whether it is Matt himself, or someone from his organization, or just others in the forums commenting.

There are many who say, and I agree, that Protestant Christianity in general is Calvinistic; I know personally several free-willers who abhor being called Arminian. They call themselves four-pointers, (or less). But I don't call them Calvinists.
 
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Mark Quayle

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TedT said:
Unacceptable...it must mean



It is not a rule...it is working within the logic of the self revealed nature of GOD as LOVE.
In other words, eisegesis
 
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ReverendRV

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That is my opinion, that some Calvinists on Slick's Forum do seem to be Antinomian; but most of the Calvinists are not. I also am a long time Poster there; I think it's wrong to paint us all with that brush...
 
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Jesus is YHWH

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No it’s posters on the forum I deal with on a daily basis who claim the sin by the minute, hour , day, week , month , year habitually and it never stops when scripture says the opposite that those who practice sin , make it a habit will not enter the kingdom of God . That’s the issue
 
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jamiec

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I thought that last paragraph was the very best part of the entire post. If the Gospel were meant to be reasonable, we would not have the God-man, the Incarnation, or the Passion. The Gospel is a tissue of follies and scandalousness. How anything so offensive & foolish could have become the foundation of this-worldly societies, is anyone’s guess.
 
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That is my opinion, that some Calvinists on Slick's Forum do seem to be Antinomian; but most of the Calvinists are not. I also am a long time Poster there; I think it's wrong to paint us all with that brush...
And you are not one of them as you know just like David , clay are not as well . But you guys are the exception
 
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jamiec

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That sounds uncommonly like what in England was called Hyper-Calvinism, and was rejected by UK Calvinism (one of its opponents being Spurgeon).

The great flaw of Hyper-Calvinism, is that it is not evangelical. The “well-meant offer of salvation” is essential to Calvinism, for it makes evangelism a duty, in agreement with the Great Commission. This agrees well with Irresistible Grace, though it does return attention to the doctrine of two Wills in God, which risks undermining the “sincerity” of God.
 
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jamiec

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I think it was an extreme form of Calvinism, and many of the atrocities that American Calvinists did (Witches of Salem, and evicting people out of communities to starve to death in the wilderness) were things that Calvin never would have approved of.
The “villain” may be Scots Calvinism, specifically as mediated by Samuel Rutherford in “Lex Rex”. But that is my guess only. Calvin was not mild towards heresy. Most of the Reformers (those whose positions are known) were not. I think that is partly because they were formed in a Catholicism that was not.
 
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Clare73

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Then the absurdity of

the absolute inability of unregenerate man to come to God (Romans 8:7-8),
free grace (Ephesians 2:8-9),
Jesus' atonement for those who believe in him (Romans 3:25),
power of God working in the heart of the unregenerate (John 6:65), and
guarantee of the believer's inheritance (2 Corinthians 1:22, 5:5; Ephesians 1:14)

shouldn't be a problem for you, right?
 
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ViaCrucis

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None of those are a problem for me, correct.
Neither is Jesus' atonement for the whole world (Romans 5:18, 1 John 2:2, Hebrews 2:9) a problem for me.
or God's unconditional love for everyone (John 3:16, Romans 11:32)
or that God is the Savior of all men (1 Timothy 4:10)
or that God wills that none should perish and to save all (2 Peter 3:9)

Is any of this a problem for you?

-CryptoLutheran
 
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Clare73

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Nope. . .all is one and the same.
 
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