Churchwork
02-26-2009, 04:07 PM
I am fascinated by the human condition. I am not going to use any verses in this particular talk because I think we can agree a Calvinist can make any verse agree with himself. I can easily imagine a young child growing up reading the Bible, encouraging you to come to Christ and some children accepting the Lord by repenting to cross. Others as teenagers receive Christ into their lives later on. But all the while the Holy Spirit convicts, convinces and pleads and is able to do so because Jesus died for the sins of the whole world. The Holy Spirit works on the basis of the cross. Very few if any children, teenagers and young adults would read the Bible in such a way as to think mankind is totally depraved (nobody can do anything good or if they can, there is one thing they can't do which is believe) so that nobody could of their own free will accept what Jesus did for them by the grace of God. I don't know any youngsters that claim that Jesus didn't die for all, that He doesn't plead with all, that He sends many to Hell without any opportunity to be saved and coerces people into a salvation without any way to reject Christ. All this is so forced like Calvin's murderous control over Geneva. Man's flesh is great; it can fathom all kinds of strange and new teachings (or rehashing old heresies), twist even the most clear and precise words. What makes a person, if not the evil spirit, believe it is not just God by His Spirit working in men's hearts, but would need to dictate your salvation without any consideration for your choice as though you are some robot, and any initial salvation would be so forced and imposed that you could not truly be a sentient being who can receive the free gift with free will nor are made in God's image to be able to do so? This seems to me to be an impotent god, because He can't do what God of the Bible can do, that is, give us authentic choice, so that though we are fallen, born into sin, we are not zombies--meaning, totally depraved. The god of calvinism either doesn't care, or he sadistically gets off on coercion and sending people to Hell without recourse. Exactly, what kind of love is this?
A Christian is left dumbfounded by how someone can propose such a teaching, for a young child, teenager or young adult would almost never contrive such a concoction from Scripture. But as some men get older they enter into this realm of robots, for lack of a better term, as their hearts harden and their minds darken as though, and quite likely, they were never born-again to begin with. How else could they contrive such a pet teaching that puffs up their flesh, self-exalts them and prides themselves over others and most certainly turns people away from the true Christ by misrepresenting the Word of God? William Lane Craig has easily denounced the need for being robots (http://biblocality.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2750&highlight=molinism">William) where all things are caused without free will. Though Craig mistakenly is a non-OSASer. Molinism expands on OSAS Arminian. It is the simple belief that God can foresee all possible worlds, but only actualizes the one that saves the most and damns the least to fill the size of the New City. That happens to be our world. In so doing, free will is preserved because the causes by God that take place in man's choices are saving the most and damning the least. Only under that refined qualification is free will really truly free will. Anything less is inadequate. It is truly free, and those who are unsaved would actually be unsaved under all possible world conditions. You could say a Calvinist who is unsaved would reject God under all possible scenarios or world ensembles. You may wonder why it is hard to convince a Calvinist to receive the true Jesus. It's because nothing will convince them. Which brings me to my next point...
What is going on is after discussing scores and scores of passages, nobody doubts how a Calvinist can twist the Scriptures to his way of thinking, for I believe the flesh can rationalize anything. Obviously a Calvinist believes what he believes because he is convinced he can somehow do just that, make those verses agree with Calvinism. But Christians see the evil in such twistings which make the Word of God not what it is at all. But that doesn't convince a Calvinist. So this is what leads me to this conclusion I am about to mention. There have been psychological studies done on whether people think in terms of rationalizing a preconceived view or they let the evidence lead us where it may and accept it no matter the consequence. Those studies almost universally conclude the human being more than 90% of the time already has it made up within his mind what he believes (if I recall the exact percentage is 93+% of the time from combined studies), so he is just going through the motions trying to rationalize that preexisting view. I believe this is Satan working in the heart of Calvinists by playing on man's creaturely habitual nature to lock people into Calvinism. They are locked in because of the structure of the 5 points of TULIP. The Calvinist believes he believes in a Christ. That's what he believes. But he doesn't recall repenting to that Christ, but just somehow having believed in that Christ. Hence, he concludes he must have been preselected, regenerated without having to repent or even believe, but it was just imposed on him. And so he remains in that mentality and baptism of the evil spirit, experiencing what may be called Satanic grace (for it is certainly not God's grace); whereas God of the Bible tells us we are saved by repenting to the cross in believing to then be regenerated by grace through faith. Our faith is obtained as a grace of God because of the condition we fulfill, that God enjoys seeing us fulfill, and whom He wants fellowship with. A Calvinist can never know this wonderful authentic salvation, because under no world ensemble will he accept the Lord Jesus Christ that most children and teenagers who are saved would convey to you.
So Calvinism in man's headiness, teaches that you have to worship a god, through the assumption of Total Depravity which brings in other assumptions which follow such as your god lets or causes billions go to Hell and never giving them any opportunity to be saved. Should we accept this claim the fall of man made you totally deprave or that the fall caused you to have propensity to sin? At the same time, he claims to regenerate people promising them they don't need to believe Jesus is God or even repent to the cross. All you need to do for this salvation purported by Calvinism to take place is to assume it is true about you. It is that act of assuming without repenting that causes so many people to enter pridefully into a false salvation which keeps them unsaved, that being the nasty nature of assumptions. I can thing of no greater deception in the history of Christendom or the world for that matter.
The source of the problem inevitability is man's own bad memory that is taken advantage of. Lots of Calvinists don't remember how they came to believe in their Christ. So they assume no repentance was needed. Perhaps they, like Mormons brainwashed at the earliest of ages, were raised in a Calvinist family, so it becomes a generational deception. Or they came to believe in something blindly, but can't remember the details so morphs into Calvinism. They are not humble enough to repent let alone remember a repentance prior to regeneration. Surely such remembrance before regeneration should be there, for it is the greatest moment in their lives in repenting to the cross as helpless sinners to receive the Lord Jesus as Savior, having all their sins forgiven and receiving eternal life, an ability to know God and know they were chosen before the foundations of the world and promised eternal blessings. When a person is truly saved, they have their wits about them, so they know when they were born again. The very nature of a blank mind and passive will are Satan's working condition. Whereas God's working condition is that of a thinking mind, active will and empathetic emotion. I was born again January, 2001 at the age of 33. I had no Christian family members or history of Christianity in family, no influences really at all. It just happened by reflection upon all things summing up in Christ. And this is how most people are born again.
Basically, this is how I sum up by the Holy Spirit my analysis about Calvinism.
A Christian is left dumbfounded by how someone can propose such a teaching, for a young child, teenager or young adult would almost never contrive such a concoction from Scripture. But as some men get older they enter into this realm of robots, for lack of a better term, as their hearts harden and their minds darken as though, and quite likely, they were never born-again to begin with. How else could they contrive such a pet teaching that puffs up their flesh, self-exalts them and prides themselves over others and most certainly turns people away from the true Christ by misrepresenting the Word of God? William Lane Craig has easily denounced the need for being robots (http://biblocality.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2750&highlight=molinism">William) where all things are caused without free will. Though Craig mistakenly is a non-OSASer. Molinism expands on OSAS Arminian. It is the simple belief that God can foresee all possible worlds, but only actualizes the one that saves the most and damns the least to fill the size of the New City. That happens to be our world. In so doing, free will is preserved because the causes by God that take place in man's choices are saving the most and damning the least. Only under that refined qualification is free will really truly free will. Anything less is inadequate. It is truly free, and those who are unsaved would actually be unsaved under all possible world conditions. You could say a Calvinist who is unsaved would reject God under all possible scenarios or world ensembles. You may wonder why it is hard to convince a Calvinist to receive the true Jesus. It's because nothing will convince them. Which brings me to my next point...
What is going on is after discussing scores and scores of passages, nobody doubts how a Calvinist can twist the Scriptures to his way of thinking, for I believe the flesh can rationalize anything. Obviously a Calvinist believes what he believes because he is convinced he can somehow do just that, make those verses agree with Calvinism. But Christians see the evil in such twistings which make the Word of God not what it is at all. But that doesn't convince a Calvinist. So this is what leads me to this conclusion I am about to mention. There have been psychological studies done on whether people think in terms of rationalizing a preconceived view or they let the evidence lead us where it may and accept it no matter the consequence. Those studies almost universally conclude the human being more than 90% of the time already has it made up within his mind what he believes (if I recall the exact percentage is 93+% of the time from combined studies), so he is just going through the motions trying to rationalize that preexisting view. I believe this is Satan working in the heart of Calvinists by playing on man's creaturely habitual nature to lock people into Calvinism. They are locked in because of the structure of the 5 points of TULIP. The Calvinist believes he believes in a Christ. That's what he believes. But he doesn't recall repenting to that Christ, but just somehow having believed in that Christ. Hence, he concludes he must have been preselected, regenerated without having to repent or even believe, but it was just imposed on him. And so he remains in that mentality and baptism of the evil spirit, experiencing what may be called Satanic grace (for it is certainly not God's grace); whereas God of the Bible tells us we are saved by repenting to the cross in believing to then be regenerated by grace through faith. Our faith is obtained as a grace of God because of the condition we fulfill, that God enjoys seeing us fulfill, and whom He wants fellowship with. A Calvinist can never know this wonderful authentic salvation, because under no world ensemble will he accept the Lord Jesus Christ that most children and teenagers who are saved would convey to you.
So Calvinism in man's headiness, teaches that you have to worship a god, through the assumption of Total Depravity which brings in other assumptions which follow such as your god lets or causes billions go to Hell and never giving them any opportunity to be saved. Should we accept this claim the fall of man made you totally deprave or that the fall caused you to have propensity to sin? At the same time, he claims to regenerate people promising them they don't need to believe Jesus is God or even repent to the cross. All you need to do for this salvation purported by Calvinism to take place is to assume it is true about you. It is that act of assuming without repenting that causes so many people to enter pridefully into a false salvation which keeps them unsaved, that being the nasty nature of assumptions. I can thing of no greater deception in the history of Christendom or the world for that matter.
The source of the problem inevitability is man's own bad memory that is taken advantage of. Lots of Calvinists don't remember how they came to believe in their Christ. So they assume no repentance was needed. Perhaps they, like Mormons brainwashed at the earliest of ages, were raised in a Calvinist family, so it becomes a generational deception. Or they came to believe in something blindly, but can't remember the details so morphs into Calvinism. They are not humble enough to repent let alone remember a repentance prior to regeneration. Surely such remembrance before regeneration should be there, for it is the greatest moment in their lives in repenting to the cross as helpless sinners to receive the Lord Jesus as Savior, having all their sins forgiven and receiving eternal life, an ability to know God and know they were chosen before the foundations of the world and promised eternal blessings. When a person is truly saved, they have their wits about them, so they know when they were born again. The very nature of a blank mind and passive will are Satan's working condition. Whereas God's working condition is that of a thinking mind, active will and empathetic emotion. I was born again January, 2001 at the age of 33. I had no Christian family members or history of Christianity in family, no influences really at all. It just happened by reflection upon all things summing up in Christ. And this is how most people are born again.
Basically, this is how I sum up by the Holy Spirit my analysis about Calvinism.