Dear Rockson:
I greatly appreciate your valiant and patient effort explaining, in the clearest of terms, scriptural truth.
Though those to whom our responses were directed refuse to ‘hear,’ our Lord promises His Word will not return void, but will accomplish all that He pleases.
I am certain many who read this thread will be challenged enough to investigate the truth of our arguments for themselves.
The notion that God predestined all people’s choices and sends most that He created to eternal burning torment doesn’t meet the ‘smell test,’ such is an argument that is shared by unbelievers who claim God is a tyrant and responsible for evil.
A few years ago while doing my internship for Physical Therapy, my supervisor was on the computer next to me as I did my patient documentation and I noticed him working on Bible verses, I told him I was also a Christian and asked him about it.
He explained that he was preparing and has been leading a very interesting home Bible study group of 7 people and he mentioned their lesson tonight was about predestination. He seemed pretty excited about all they were learning in their studies and I quickly discovered they were learning about Calvinism.
He was surprised to find out that I understood the TULIP and even more surprised when I explained to him about the origins of Calvinism, the consequences of Limited Atonement, and I addressed the Problem of Evil when it came to Determinism and how it related to all the points of the TULIP.
He was very interested and we stayed an hour or so after work talking about this and he relayed what I had said to his group. The next day he told me they had a really good study and were taking much of Calvinism for granted but now had a lot more questions.
We talked a few more times over the next couple weeks and then he told me again that he’d been relaying what I said to his study group and they seemed to be having more questions than answers. He said they thought they were on to something but now weren’t so sure and he asked me if I would come to his Bible study and help him out and I told him next week I would.
So I went by and we had a nice in-depth discussion about Calvinism and my reasoning for opposition to it and at the end it was pretty clear that most all of them were rejecting the teachings of Determinism. In fact, apparently all but one guy who was pretty excited about learning how to proof-text the soteriological view of Determinism, much could be said about thrill of suddenly becoming a “skilled theologian” through the simplistic systematic studies of Calvinism.
Fortunately, he too came to see the contradictions to God’s true loving attributes and Omnibenevolence and rejected it a couple weeks later.
Rockson, our detractors have their answer to this question:
“When you put your children in bed at night did you lie to them and tell they them Jesus loves them or did you tell them your “scriptural truth” that that you hope they are one of the lucky pre-selected few?”
All Hyper Determinists will make excuses for their lack of transparency in their delivery of the gospel and hope to rely on half-truths until, as they say for example: “
After preaching the Gospel to people, that is when the believer should be slowly, carefully and soberly told what you might call "Calvinism" ( which is in the fine print ) and comes later, when doctrine gets laid down.” Then they are lead to believe they came up with this soteriological view merely by studying the scriptures and with great enthusiasm tell others of their special spiritual knowledge and God’s limited love.
All Hyper Determinists on this Board will agree God created most people to condemn to eternal torment for His glory.
Hell’s existence then must deny God’s love.
I doubt there is a more blasphemous definition of love than that.
Our Hyper Determinists detractors refuse to consider several biblical truths which, if understood correctly, would be quite beneficial to exposing their steadfast God-dishonoring views.
(1) Adam had true free will, and chose to have the knowledge of good and evil. God did not then recreate mankind to not have free will as Determinists posit. Our Hyper Determinist detractors “make God an idiot” who must have messed up to give man sense, reason and intellectual ability to make a choice and has to force them to love Him back after the Garden.
(2) If God is infinitely wise, Omnipotent, Omnibenevolent and Truth as clearly stated in the Bible, then isn’t He wise enough to have the kind of knowledge needed to allow man human volition and powerful enough to truly and justly judge them without having predetermined their every action and response to His loving persuasions?
(3) If God creating evil is so, how can He judge what He’s predetermined and yet be Only Good?
(4) The Hyper Determinist detractors put God’s knowledge in a box, saying “If God foreknows all things since He is omniscient, God must foreknow who would reject Jesus Christ.” Then they “logically” conclude, “Yet He chose to bring them into this world, only to face eternal damnation.” Giving their reasoning how it must be true that God created most to suffer in hell. Would it not be possible that God is powerful and loving enough to give every man the true hope of receiving His mercy and grace as per His promise made before the foundation of the world, and that all understand and have no excuse when it comes to God’s judgment of their response?
Rockson, I leave this thread with these common sense questions for our detractors, of whom there are many, to ponder.
I have biblical answers to all these questions as, I am sure, you do also.
To God be the glory forever and ever, brother!
