My Crazy Faith

10.   Lastly, here is a common way that Calvinists spin the idea of "predestination" to make it sound good… A Calvinist says:   "Because of His Love to the elect and Mercy extended to the Gentiles, He picked out some for Himself while passing [over] the rest.” My reply: Totally misleading!   Calvi-god did not “pass over the rest.”   He created them specifically so he could hate them and send them to hell.   That’s not “passing over them.” And that’s not a “loving and merciful God.” That’s a monster!   That’s a psychopathic lunatic who walks up to someone at a park, says “I am claiming you for my own because I love you so much” and then he runs around slaughtering everyone else around them, and then he tells the “chosen” person, “See how much I love you and how merciful I am to you. I spared you when I could have destroyed you too.” Any logical, rational person would call that a “...

9.   When it comes to the idea of God preplanning (predestining) everything that happens, Calvinists love to accuse non-Calvinists of being in the same boat as them. They'll say, "Well, you believe that God is omniscient, right?  That He knew everything that would happen, right?  And so since He didn't stop the bad things even though He knew they'd happen, then you also have to believe that God 'ordained' these bad things to happen, unless you are going to deny His omniscience.  If, in His omniscience, He knew it would happen and didn’t stop it, it’s the same thing as wanting it to happen and planning it to happen, right!?!   Besides, what's the difference whether God planned the bad things to happen or simply knew the bad things would happen but didn't stop them?  Due to His omniscience, the end results are still the same.   So we are in the same boat, essentially believing the same thing!" But I say … Nonsense and hogwash! And notice ho...

8.  A 10-point Calvinist (Derek) tried to say that John Calvin affirms that we freely make our own choices.  He said, " You may be surprised to learn that Calvin affirms our “innate liberty” and uses the term “voluntary” to describe the freedom of will that we exercise ... Calvin’s conceptions of human freedom cannot be flattened out into mere robotic determinism.  His views are far more nuanced and complex than he is given credit for.  Yes, Calvin believes that God determines all; yet he also clearly affirms that man’s will is genuinely free and voluntary (back to the two claims I outlined, which are attested over and over by all of the mainstream Calvinistic theologians).  Thus, Calvin and his best proponents hold to a compatibilism that is more than mere “culpability despite having been forced,” as non-Calvinists consistently misrepresent." My reply: You keep using phrases like “You may be surprised to learn …” and “assuming you have never been told, or ...