Welcome to The Comment Corral!
Since I don't allow comments on my other blogs, this will be a place, a catch-all, where people can send comments or questions. I am condensing all comments to one post, regardless of which blog of mine you're commenting on. So if you want to, specify which blog/post you are commenting on. (If and when this comment page gets too long, I'll start another post.)
I have no idea if this will work or not, but we'll try. I set it up (if I did it right) so that I can review the comments before they get posted. And FYI, I am not online often, so it may take awhile for me to get around to reading, posting, or replying to comments. (I don't know if you will get a notification when I reply, so be sure to check back to see if I replied to you in the comment section.)
The Rules for Commenting:
1. I will not publish or respond to comments that I believe are spam or advertisements for other websites. I will not publish links to other websites, so please only write the name of the website/article/blog/whatever that you are sharing. If you do include a link, I will remove it and replace it with a description. And if I think the website is inappropriate, irrelevant, and/or something I cannot support, I may remove it altogether. I am sorry, but all of this necessary to weed out spam and/or people just trying to advertise their websites and/or inappropriate websites.
2. If you quote Bible verses, quote the King James Version. It can be quoted without copyright infringement. If you quote a different translation, I will either delete the verse or replace it with the KJV. [Or you can use the pre-1990 NIV too because I post this on my blogs: Regarding verses quoted from the NIV: "Scripture quotations taken from HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (registered trademark). Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House."]
3. If you disagree with me about something (particularly theology or Calvinism), that's fine... but no vague comments, quick swipes, personal attacks, or just a list of Bible verses to "prove" you win. Respectfully explain your position and what you disagree with, specifically. I am much more likely to publish and respond to respectful, thoughtful comments (even if I disagree) than to juvenile, vague, angry, self-righteous comments.
4. If you quote writings from other people, give proper credit to them (include the author's name, the book/website/source the quote is from).
5. Keep it polite and mature. I will not publish comments that I deem to be rude, insulting, ungodly, immoral, immature, harmful, pointless, preachy, know-it-all, or personal attacks, etc. And I reserve the right to block anyone I want to if I feel they are toxic or disrespectful. Savvy?
6. If you refer to specific living people (unless it's a famous person or author you are quoting), I might block out their names to keep them anonymous.
7. Do not hijack my blog to push your views on others. If you want to do that, start your own blog. I will not let people hijack my blog with their personal agendas or soapboxes.
8. If I have to edit comments for length or clarity or some other reason, I will do my best to keep the integrity and main points of your comments. And I will let it be known that I edited it.
9. Comments come to me first and will only be published after I review them. But if you don't want your comment published but just want me alone to read it, please tell me. And if you want me to publish a reply in the comment section but not your comment or name, let me know (and maybe give me a fake name that I can address my reply to). I will then do my best to reply in vague, general ways, without quoting you directly or referring to specific things you said. I have gotten some very private comments before from people (and enjoyed conversing with some people directly by email), and I would never betray someone's confidence by airing their personal things online if they don't want it online. Everyone deserves the right to their privacy! (However, if you tell me you are planning on hurting yourself or someone else, then I have every obligation to tell anyone I can who might be able to intervene.)
10. (More rules might come. I'm making these up as I go.)
Okay now, I'm hoping this works the way I think it should, so let's give it a try and see what happens. To leave a comment, click on "enter comment" at the bottom of this post or on the next post without the rules.
For reference, my other blogs are:
Iron Sharpens Iron Bible Study
Through the Refining Fire: Your "Sweetly Broken" Journey
Forget calvin or man's opinion
ReplyDeleteThe Bible says " let God be true and every man a liar " If we stay with scripture we cannot be wrong. Paul's gospel is the gospel God wants us to HEAR. Romans 16:25. Paul clearly says THAT NONE seek after God. The book of John clearly says we cannot come and we will not come. The Bible speaks of man's total depravity
Thank God in mercy HE saves some. NONE are good and ALL are dead. So in mercy God must choose to save some
Thank you, Onlyme80, for commenting. I appreciate your opinion and that you want to stay with Scripture. That's commendable. I'm going to write a reply to you soon to show briefly what I think Scripture plainly says. But if you're interested, see these posts of mine: https://anticalvinistrant.blogspot.com/2021/10/is-calvinisms-tulip-biblical.html and https://anticalvinistrant.blogspot.com/2019/10/why-is-calvinism-so-dangerous-updated.html. God bless! :)
DeleteHi again Only me80, (I'm going to break this up into two comments because there's a limit for how long each comment can be.) Having researched Calvinism deeply for years, I know there's no "gotcha" verse or point that can settle the debate once and for all, whether Calvinist or non-Calvinist. But here are a few things to consider:
DeletePaul says none seek after God, but he doesn't say we are unable to seek unless God causes us to. Calvinists insert "inability" into places it doesn't belong, such as into "depravity" and "spiritual death."
I believe depravity means we are all under the influence of and consequences of sin, that sin separates us from God with a gap we cannot bridge ourselves, and so we all need a Savior.
Depravity does not mean "inability." The point of Romans 3 is not that people are unable to seek/believe, but it's that no one deserves heaven or can earn heaven because of good works, keeping the law, or their bloodline (Jews). The point is that we are all separated from God because of sin and so we all need a Savior, and that God provided that Savior for all.
I agree that we couldn't come to God on our own, not unless God wanted to be found and made it possible to be found. And that's why He put enough of Himself in nature and in our hearts - to show everyone that He is real and to give us all the chance and ability to see Him, seek Him, believe in Him, and be saved. Acts 17:27: "God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us." But He leaves it up to us to decide how we will respond, if we will accept Him or reject Him.
(cont....) You said "let God be true and every man a liar." That's great. So (for some things to think about) do you take God at His word then when He says things like:
Delete1. “Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men.” (Romans 5:18) If "all men" means "all nations" instead of "all individual people" - as Calvinists say "Jesus died for people from all nations, not all individual people" - then "condemnation for all men" also means "people from every nation," that only some people from all nations were condemned through Adam's sin, not all individual people. Therefore, it would have to mean that some people were not condemned or affected by original sin.
2. Same with Romans 11:32: "For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all." Does "all" mean all nations or all people? And it needs to mean the same in both places. You can't say "All individual people were bound to disobedience, but God only had mercy on all nations, on all kinds of people from all over the world."
3. "... Repent and be baptized...And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." (Acts 2:38) And "And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit." (Eph. 1:13) Calvinists say we get the Holy Spirit first to cause us to repent and believe, but the Bible shows the reverse.
4. Calvinists say "dead people can't seek/choose." But God apparently believes they can because He says "Seek me and live ..." (Amos 5:4) and "See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction... Now choose life, so that you and your children may live." (Deut. 30:15,19) Clearly, God is telling people to find/choose life, which means they aren't "alive" yet, which means they are "dead," which means God is commanding "dead people" to seek and choose. Contrary to Calvinism, "dead people" can seek/choose. And God can expect "dead people" to do this because "depravity/spiritually dead" does not mean "total inability."
5. Calvinists believe our eternal destinies are what's been predestined, but the Bible shows otherwise: Romans 8:29 (KJV): “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son" God didn't predestine certain people to be saved. He predestined that those He "foreknows" will be conformed to Jesus's image.
And Ephesians 1:5, 11-12 (KJV): “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself … In him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated...”
God didn't predestine who believes. He predestined what happens to people after they believe. He predestined the inheritance believers get and that all believers will be "adopted." And according to Romans 8:23 (NIV), “adopted" means, in the end, the redemption of our bodies: “… we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” All uses of predestine are about what God's planned for anyone who believes, not about God planning who believes.
6. Calvinists say God created non-elect people so that He can punish them so that He can demonstrate His justice and get glory for it (So is God's glory dependent on sin?). But Romans 3:25-26 says that God sent Jesus to the cross to demonstrate His justice: “God presented [Jesus] as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice...” Did Jesus's death fully satisfy the requirements for justice or not? Did God need Jesus's death AND non-elect people to punish?
Just some things to think about. You seem like you really want to study and honor God's Word, and that's great. But I would humbly suggest that you pray that God helps you take off the Calvinist glasses so that you can read/understand the Word as God wrote/intended it. Give it a try. You might be surprised. God bless. And thank you for visiting. :)