Forum Criticism concerning Anti-Calvinists

[fmichaeldw]

Praise God, brothers and sisters that civility, good humor, respect, and friendship prevails…may the Lord make us truly grateful!

Michael in Barcelona

[jaxxen]

I’d be happy with just one adoring female I could adore and chest-thump for.

In that regard, Jaxxen is certainly far ahead of where I am!

We Calvinists got it goin’ on like that! It’s that whole “being chosen by God” thing that makes the women putty in our hands

Matt

[jaxxen]

Of course we have a clue.

Who had the best clue during the Reformation? Was it Calvin, Luther, Zwingli, Knox, Erasmus or the Pope? If you can judge between them, you’re a better man than I. Which of the 20000 Christian denominations is closest to the truth in our own time? If the Bible is unified and perspicacious, and if the Holy Spirit is really, really interested in getting our doctrines correct, how can you explain the fact that every man and his dog keep seeing things differently?

Again, are we Gnostic or are we Christian? Are we saved by the purity of our belief, or are we saved by the grace of God?

There’s nothing flippant about my solution to this impasse. I begin with my intuition of the good. I can only love a God whom I find lovable. I only can respect a sacred text that reveals a God who is lovable. The Calvinist God might well be real, but I could not love him, and I’m always surprised by people who say they can. Certainly, if my human father acted in a similar way, I would find it very hard indeed to love him, and if I did, it would only be by first forgiving his manifest, eccentric and destructive faults.

I speak from long experience here. My mother is a staunch Calvinist who believes God picks and chooses, and discards whomsoever he will. It’s all our fault anyway, you see, and it’s a mercy that He condescends to save anyone etc. Yet she herself is the sweetest of souls who literally wouldn’t hurt a fly. The contrast between God and worshiper is both comic and tragic. It has brought us all much grief over the years. Were she more godly, she would act like her God, electing some of her children to her favor, rejecting others for no reason etc. But she doesn’t act like her God. In her heart, by the true God’s grace, she intuitively knows better.

Allan, as far as your first question goes regarding who had the best clue during the Reformation…You answered your own question in the order of the list provided

Matt

[AllanS]

You answered your own question in the order of the list provided

A certain lifesaver erects a big sign.

DO NOT SWIM.

Some time later, 10 girls can be seen drowning in the surf.

“Well,” said the lifesaver. “Can’t say I didn’t warn them. They all deserve to drown.”

“Surely you don’t mean that!” said his friend, horrified.

“I can save them all, if I choose. My mercies never end, you know. Let’s see now. Eeny meeny myni mo… I’ll save the blonde.”

“Why her?”

“No reason.”

The lifesaver swims out, saves the blonde and brings her to shore. (The others all drown.)

“My hero!” she cries, kissing his feet.

“I know,” he replies modestly. “I am wonderful. Has anyone called the press?”