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What is wrong with Calvinism ?

jamiec

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The heavenly decree, from before the creation of the *kosmos*, governs what they will be, and are, all instants of their existence, and how they die; but does not necessitate or coerce any of that. Their final destruction is their own fault. This decree cannot be frustrated, because God cannot be.

Nonetheless, the offer of salvation is well-meant, IOW, is sincere; and can be embraced sincerely by the reprobate - but their living by it will ultimately be fruitless and end in their destruction, which, though from themselves is, like all things other than God, governed by God’s Providence.

They are not reprobate as though God “had it in for them”. They are not being “singled out” by God, as though God were a Transcendent Bully, forcing them against their wills to reject God. No. God loves the reprobate, & blesses them abundantly; but they refuse to be saved (whether they appreciate that they are (so to speak) “working out their own destruction”, or not.

I think (as St Matthew can be read as implying) that the reprobate will not know they are reprobate until they are judged. I think damnation is (like salvation) a state one “grows into” in this life, and that the result may be very surprising, pleasantly or not.

I suspect that the difficulty of the question arises from the genres of the Biblical texts, which in the 16th century were not adequately distinguished.
 
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Jesus is YHWH

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Amen
 
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jamiec

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What strikes me about reading the Puritans, most of them Calvinists, is their freedom from this repulsive and self-righteous nastiness.

There is a vast difference between being better off than unbelievers (& to be Christian is to be better off than those who are not, in some way, surely ?) - and, being better than unbelievers.

To say one is the former of these does not imply boasting or self-righteousness, any more than being healed from a deadly disease, unlike others who are not, is boasting, nor is it crowing over others who are not. It implies gratitude to God, not arrogance to other men.

To say one is better than others, is a vastly different thing. To say that one is better than others, implies arrogance to other men, self-righteousness towards God, and a sense of conscious merit in oneself. That these three attitudes are totally unChristian is surely self-evident. That they have no place in a healthy Calvinism, is surely no less clear.

If anything, ISTM that some Calvinists at prayer could reasonably be criticised for a tendency to concentrate so much upon their own corruption and sinfulness, as to risk leaving out of sight the excellence and glory and splendour of God Whom they are worshipping.

However, even if this criticism is in some degree justified, it is not a fault peculiar to Calvinists alone; if indeed it be a fault. Christians truly holy and devoted to God may seem extravagantly self-blaming, simply because they have the Mind of Christ - Who, being God, is “of purer eyes than to behold evil” - and therefore, have a holy and loving hatred for whatever in them is not pleasing to God Whom they love, and Whom they desire to love far better.
 
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Clare73

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Eminent Calvinists, the Puritans.

What strikes me about the post to which you are responding is the failure to see this distinction, and the self-righteous moral superiority in accusing "Calvinists" of spiritual superiority. . .and is addressed in my post #145.
 
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iwbswiaihl

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I am not a Calvinist and do not believe that John MacArthur would ever say that what you stated when you said he is taken to that believers are free to sin all they want too or such, it would have been better had you stated or showed the proof instead "he is taken to say those words you imply". Some call that slander. Nevertheless, I have heard many who believe in eternal security of the believer and I am one of those, and have heard them, in jesting, say that Christians can sin all they want to, because the Lord has changed their want to, and that is a Christian fact, we don't want to sin and one of the best scripture to demonstrates this is Phil 2:13 "for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure". He may have in jest stated something like that but not without the scripture reference. 1John2:3 Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. 6He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked. We see what the Lord inspired in these verses, some people speak out against the wording in the 2nd part of v3 which says if we keep His commandment and say no one keep them perfectly, which is right, but when we read on into the 3rd chapter we see that there its states "practice keeping" is the implied meaning also in chapter 2,
3:7 Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. 8 He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. 9 Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. 10 In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. 11 For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, 12 not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.
 
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Jesus is YHWH

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I said the opposite MacArthur does not believe that . I’ve read most all his books over the years and my library if full of them and his commentaries .
 
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iwbswiaihl

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I said the opposite MacArthur does not believe that . I’ve read most all his books over the years and my library if full of them and his commentaries .
Sorry about that; you did good. **
 
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Presbyterian Continuist

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Does this mean that you don't know whether you are elect or reprobate? So you can't trust the promises, "For those who receive Christ, they have the right to be called the children God", and, "He who comes to Me [Christ] I will in no way cast out"?
 
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Clare73

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I said the opposite MacArthur does not believe that . I’ve read most all his books over the years and my library if full of them and his commentaries .
Good for you!
 
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FutureAndAHope

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So your God is not omniscient? That He has only partial knowledge that doesn't include the future?

God can partially control the actions of man, putting constraints on their actions, these constraints allow him to control certain events in the future. I discuss this possibility here Is Predestination real? | Everybody Matters Ministry and I say it is a possibility only because we can take the word of God too far one way or the other.

But I bring to your remembrance:

Gen 6:7 And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.

Does God really know everything before it happens? If he knew how man would turn out he would not have created man.

However, there is the argument that God can not know the future until He initiates a creation, if He indeed is outside of time. Yet this seems to defeat the purpose of foreknowledge, for he is still out of control. This comes back to the constraints argument He would still need constraints on creation.
 
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misput

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This is my view also. Folks do no differentiate between collective and individual and I don't understand why, because it is so plain to see.
 
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FutureAndAHope

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As I said in the other thread:

You have put a lot of work into trying to discredit a bishop who was closer to the apostles than you or me. He is revered by the church for his work against heresy, and he starts his discourse with:

This expression [of our Lord], “How often would I have gathered thy children together, and thou wouldest not,” (Mat_23:37)
A key scripture used by all who stand for genuine free will regarding man's salvation.

You stated:


True, but who does God enable:

John 14:21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

The free will choice is a choice to receive the light that God gives, or hide it away in sins.

Joh 3:19-21 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God."

But who does God give light to?

Joh 1:9 That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.
 
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jamiec

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Author: Clare74
This sounds more like the devil than God. The compassion and mercy of God are repeatedly emphasised in both Testaments. If mere human beings are exhorted in Scripture: “Be merciful as your Father in Heaven is Merciful”, how can God not “practice what He preaches” ? How would that merciless God not be the Chief of sinners, and the very worst of hypocrites ?

God may in some sense be accurately called “sovereignly free” - but these qualities are never subordinated to God’s ethical character. Even by entering into a covenant, God in some manner limits His freedom. The wilful, capricious deity who owes no mercy to any, sounds more like an Eldritch Abomination than the Holy, Merciful, Faithful, Just, & Righteous God of the Bible.

A righteous ruler with absolute authority must be merciful, or be a tyrant. Far more is that true of God, precisely because His Power and Dominion are irresistible.
 
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jamiec

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All men go to hell no matter what (Romans 5:18), except for the mercy of God to some.
What a loathsome notion of God.
St Thomas’ account of predestination is not quite the same as that of Calvin. So I question whether that of St Anselm is.
 
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Clare73

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I am in complete agreement that all who perish, as well as all those who are saved, are so by their own choice.
 
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Clare73

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Author: Clare74

This sounds more like the devil than God.
I understand what you think.

But you must Biblically demonstrate what you think if it is to be more than just what you think.
 
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Clare73

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Heaven will be filled with those who have received the mercy of God.
 
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Clare73

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