skypair said:
Wow! You're breathin' fire today, aren't you! :laugh:
No. Not yet.
skypair said:
Now you know good and well that God doesn't make our decisions for us, pinoy.
No. He doesn't decide for us what pair of socks we wear, whether we fart and burp in public or not, or soil our underwear. He doesn't decide for that rattlesnake in the desert to strike at that researcher at a given minute or time, or for somebody's wife or husband to go after another flesh.
He doesn't decide for us if the loudmouth in Iran actually drops a bomb on Israel, or on America, or if Bush actually orders another war we sure can't afford.
He doesn't decide if a preacher's son or daughter he brought up in the word becomes an addict, a prostitute, a sodomite, or another preacher.
These things are all outcomes of living in a fallen world, skypair.
We live in a sin-permeated world, in a sin-dominated environment, in a sin-inclined body, with a sin-infested mind, and this is true of you as well as of me, true of Pastor Larry, Rippon, all the Calvinists you don't like, true of Calvin whom you so dislike though you've never met him, and true of Arminius whose theology you toe, even if you deny it.
And because we, Christians and non-Christians alike live in such an environment and in such a body, unless God Himself, in mercy to many, works His will on those on whom He had mercy on
from the foundation of the world, none will be saved at all.
And I thank Him He did. If you can't thank Him for that, then that is your problem, not mine, and I really don't care.
If you feel more comfortable in thinking that in some ways man reigns supreme over God because man is able to overcome God's will for his good, then bask in that "glory". You're welcome to it.
skypair said:
You know good and well that that is why most don't come to Christ.
No. I know good and well that people who don't come to Christ don't come to Christ because they never had a Savior in the first place, and therefore the Father will never draw them to Christ. The Savior Himself said, and those words are in red in your Bible, that "all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out". Go figure that one out.
skypair said:
God is sovereign ultimately ...
No. God is not sovereign
ultimately. He is
always sovereign.
To you God is like Kasparov who sits down in a chess game, not knowing the first move of the opponent and therefore having no game plan until the first move is made, after which he anticipates what the next moves would be and what countermoves he is going to make, and
ultimately comes out the winner because he is master of this game.
That is not what the Bible says about God. I gather that is what skypairism says about God.
skypair said:
but He gave us lives down here pretty much free of Him if we so choose (and most do) just as if we were gods.
Again, I disagree.
No one is free of God.
We may think we are, but we are not.
The one who knows the Scripture and chooses to sin will suffer the consequences of that sin here on earth, if he is a child of God.
Examples: King David, Samson, Solomon.
The one who does not know the Scripture and therefore lives in sin will suffer the consequences of sin both on earth, and in eternity.
Example: Nebuchadnezzar.
Example: one who is not a child of God and has no knowledge of Scripture lives a promiscous life gets either AIDS, syphillis, gonnorhea, or herpes, and suffers the effects of the disease, and dies and suffers in eternity.
No one escapes God's judgment on sin.
God has set laws in motion. Sin will result in curses, chastisement, and suffering. Obedience results in blessings, both natural, and God-given.
Example: God tells His people to work and labor, to save and be diligent like the ant.
The lazy child of God will surely experience poverty, while the industrious and diligent who may not be children of God will surely prosper.
Being a child of God is no guarantee to immediate natural blessings.
These laws are true for the child of God as well as for those who are not His children.
Therefore, no one is free of God.
God is always sovereign.
skypair said:
You know, some places in scripture the saints actually wondered if God was asleep as the reason that He didn't act? He picks His times to exercise His omnipotence and sovereignty, pinoy -- flood, Sodom, Christ, (you get the picture).
In light of my reply above your point is moot and academic.
Also, if I remember my mythologies, your description of God is a little bit closer to the Greek gods than you say about Calvinists.
skypair said:
And besides -- don't you know "Skypairisms" are ALWAYS true?! :laugh:
No. From what I've read so far, skypairisms are mostly shaky man-made suppositions and theories.
