Not being a "Calvinist" ( but agreeing with them on what the Bible says in a great many areas ), I can say this:
Calvinism is false - period.
That is to say that every single belief, doctrine and practice that is
distinctively Calvinist is false. It is based on Platonic philosophy from beginning to end.
Where "logic" ( what, to God, is our human faulty understanding of Him and His ways ) ends, God's word begins.
This is literally a nonsensical statement. There can be no "end" to logic. You would need logic to determine where logic ended and something else began, whatever else that could be. It most certainly could not be the bible nor God Himself as He is Logic itself (John 1). You cannot read the bible without logic, you cannot understand a single doctrine nor even one foundational precept of a doctrine without logic. Neither could you reject or even attempt to falsify any doctrine, including doctrines that undermine the veracity of logic, without using logic to do it.
That is what faith is about, is it not?
NO! It absolutely is not about believing something in spite of it being irrational (i.e. not logical)! If that were the case then how would you ever be able to tell someone that what they believe is false? "Because the bible says so!" You might say. Well, you have to use logic to read and understand the bible, Dave. You can't even get so far as to form the "F" sound in the word "False" without using logic to do it.
Faith is just the opposite of what you suggest. Faith is one's willingness to accept and act on the substantive evidence of things hoped for but not seen. If that sounds familiar its because its simply a rewording of a famous passage in Hebrews 11.
Believing what is written, not what we as God's children have been told about it by other men;
You can neither write it nor can what is written be read without using logic to do it. Logic isn't the problem underlying bad teaching. Indeed, it is quite the opposite! If people refused to accept the irrational a truth, the church would be in far better shape than its in right now and the bible would be far easier to understand and to preach and for unbelievers to accept.
In other words, we bring nothing to the "table" when it comes to God teaching us and shaping our minds, except empty hands and empty presuppositions, do we not?
No, we do not!
That's confusing because you used a double negative there but no, it is not true that we bring nothing to the table. God calls to us and says,"Come! Let us reason together." and proclaims that He sets before us life and death, good and evil and tells us to choose life. He doesn't say that He's chosen it for us since before time began. That's a pagan idea that Aristotle taught and that Augustine imported into the Catholic church and which survived the Reformation (Luther was an Augustinian monk).
Since Paul only put to pen and paper what the Lord moved him to write, then what is written ( whether it seems "schizophrenic" to us or not ), is what is to be believed...
We know that it is, in fact, NOT schizophrenic precisely for the reason you give. If we think it is, it is our doctrine that in error and not the scripture but it is precisely sound reason that allows us to detect it. If we accept the "schizophrenic" as truth then anything goes and we've abandoned the only tool we have by which to compare a claim with the standard which is God's word.
After all, it is God's word that we trust, because God, who cannot lie, tells us to ( Proverbs 3:5-6 ).
God's word is the standard, logic is the tool we use to compare some claim to that standard. Again, you can't even read the bible without using logic to do it, much less understand it well enough to formulate a doctrine that you believe is consistent with that reading.
As
@kyredneck stated, I think that you're missing a whole lot that is in this chapter, because it seems to me as if you're seeking to summarize it, instead of following it line by line.
It is not intended to be "followed line by line". It was a letter written by Paul to the church in Rome and was and is intended to be read as just that.
I urge you to go back and read it again, and see if you pick up on the fact that Gentiles and Jews are both mentioned in detail, as well as God
making us either vessels of wrath or vessels of mercy...
Which is what
all believers are:
Vessels of mercy afore prepared unto glory.
May He bless you greatly in your studies.
I have read the chapter and the entire book of Romans dozens, perhaps hundreds, of times. Romans 9 IS talking about Israel being cut off from their covenant relationship with God and has been consigned to unbelief along with the Gentiles and why God doing that is justified in having done so. That's what the chapter is about and there isn't anyway to get anything else out of it without ignoring the context, bringing your doctrine with you and reading it into the text.
Indeed, the cutting off of Israel is a key aspect of the New Testament. Without it, the very existence of Paul's ministry makes no sense and the New Testament is full to the brim with contradictory teachings.
