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When Calvinists say "But predestination!" (tiny, bare-bones version)

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[Here's the tiniest version of my "But predestination!" post.  The short version with more memes and quotes and information can be  found here , and t he longest version (a series of posts full of many more Calvinist comments, my Calvinist ex-pastor's sermons, and my replies to them, written for my own amusement and for my ex-church) can be found by  starting here .  But this tiny version includes only the most basic parts you need to know, with a few memes and quotes thrown in to spice it up and prove my points.  (I know this could be much tinier, but Calvinism has so many bunny trails, so many interlocking ideas, that it's hard to address one part without addressing more.  So this is as comprehensively tiny as I dared to make it.) ] At the heart of Calvinism is predestination and God's sovereignty (among other things, like "total depravity"), which according to Calvinism essentially amounts to:  "God preplans and controls everything, even sin ...
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Feminism Nonsense (repost)

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(Oh, how we love nonsense in our country!) We women are fighting so hard to be like men, to downplay femininity, to be perceived as more masculine, to overtake any "men's realm" we find.   Because it’s “cool” and “progressive” and “strong.” But do we not realize that we are not “leveling the playing field” so much as we are destroying ourselves , the things that make women special? Women can be strong, too.   And they don’t have to be like men to do it.   Trust me, I know.  I've had four children, one by c-section and three by natural, drug-free homebirth (with over 15 hours of labor for each one).  And then I work in the home every day, all day long.  No pay.  No vacation time.  No weekends off.  No bonuses.  No overtime pay. But I do it because my family and I value my position, my role.  Even if the world doesn't. W e women can be strong and capable and accomplished in our...
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"But predestination!" (16B: sin, evil, suffering)

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In this series, I'm examining some things that Calvinists (especially my ex-pastor) say about predestination.   Here's the posts in the whole series:  the pastor's sermons  ("When Calvinists say 'But predestination!'"), and my comments  1-4 (election)  and  5-6 (Romans and sovereignty)  and  7-9 (depravity, Book of Life, predestine)  and  10-11 (shaming tactics, Feb. 2015)  and  12-14 (dead, regeneration, born again)  and  15 (total depravity, manipulation)   and  16A (God's Will, babies)  and  16B (sin, evil, suffering)  and  17 (double-speak and the gospel) . For the shorter "for everyone" version which has a lot less quotes and a lot less of my thoughts,  click here . Sixteen B (I broke #16 up into two halves, so picking up where we left off in the last post...) And now, moving on from the bulk of my comments to the bulk of the Calvinist quotes, showing you Calvinism in its ...
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Get Comfortable

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       In our country, we are told over and over again things like:        “Follow your heart.”        “Make your own way.”        “Never take ‘no’ for an answer.”        “You can be anything you want or do anything you want.”        “Apply yourself and all your dreams will come true.”        (How else could we have so many reality shows where people want to be singers?)        We are told that anything is possible.   We can make it happen by dreaming big and reaching high and wanting it badly enough.   In fact, look at all the commercials and advertisements that tell us that “We deserve it.”   It doesn’t matter what it is – a luxury car, a vacation, a break, a new phone . . . “We deserve it.”   And it doesn’t matter how little effort or hard work we put in . . . “We deserve it.”      ...
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Support for Jesus and the Bible

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Although almost every other major religion out there acknowledges that Jesus really did live, there are still people who insist He is a fairy tale, like a mythological legend from ancient history.  Or they believe that He was a real man but never claimed to be God, that His followers made it up after He died.  And many believe that the Bible, though a good book, was written just from men’s minds and wasn’t really God-inspired. When trying to reason with people like this, many Christians quote Bible verses to try to win the argument, thinking it should convince everyone of God’s Truth.  But since many people, including atheists, don’t believe the Bible is true, they don’t want to hear the Bible being used to try to prove the validity of the Bible.  That’s “circular reasoning,” using the Bible to validate the Bible.  This is why it’s important to have sources outside the Bible that confirm that Jesus really did live and that Scripture is really reli...
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Though they have eyes, they will not see

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[I originally posted this on one of my other blogs , Oct. 2021] So   according to this article , it appears that scientists have found evidence of the type of biblical destruction that happened to Sodom.  They say they found a town that was destroyed by a blast of heat so hot that it pretty much melted everything.  They say that there's no earthly natural heat source that could do this, so they speculate that it must have been an asteroid that exploded over the town, melting everything.  Oh, and they speculate that the reason no one lived there afterward was that the asteroid impact might have brought over so much salt from the nearby Dead Sea that nothing could grow.  This, they say, must be what inspired people to make up the story of Sodom in the Bible. But I say that here's your "asteroid," scientists: "The Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah - from the Lord out of the heavens.  Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, incl...
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Songs to Encourage

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I woke up this morning with that sinking feeling of "Everything's going wrong in the world.  Everything is falling apart." Falling apart? Or falling into place? I truly think we are headed towards the end times.  In fact, I have been sure for years that it's almost here, whatever "almost" meant.  And so none of what's going wrong in the world surprises me.  I would actually be more surprised if the rapture doesn't happen by the end of the year than I would be if it did.  But that's just me. Anyway, these songs were on my mind this morning, a comfort in troubling times (godly music, along with prayer and immersing yourself in God's Word, is one of the best ways to fill your heart with hope when the world offers none): Lord (I Don't Know) by Newsboys  [We don't have to know what's going on or where it's all headed ... because it's enough that  He  knows!] Fell Apart by The City Harmonic  [One of my favorite ope...
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Some Problems With Predestination/Calvinism (And What I Think The Bible Really Says)

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(Part of the "Predestination vs. Free-Will" series) Calvinists (those who believe in predestination, that we don’t have a real choice about salvation) – say that we have to evangelize and pray because God told us to and because God knew that this is how the lost would be saved.   This is a pretty flimsy reason for evangelizing, given that (according to Calvinists) no one really has a choice about where their souls end up anyway.   (And actually, they'll say that we do get a choice, that we freely, willingly choose according to our nature.  But what they don't say is that God alone determines our nature, whether we get a new "saved" one or whether we have to keep the old "sinner" nature which can do nothing but sin and reject God.  This is still God determining whether we believe or not, whether we sin or not.  Don't buy into their double-talk.)              If evangelizing didn’t really make a difference, then doing it j...
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Winning the Battle

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(Reposted from my other blog ... because I needed to be reminded of it often.) I have been in a “funk” lately.  I get in them often, comes with being a child from a broken home.  (This is a repost of something I wrote years ago, but it still strongly applies.)   Prayer has felt futile.  I’ve been wanting to pull back from people.  I am struggling to accept certain “life problems” that I wish I didn’t have.  And I constantly deal with feelings of failure and not mattering. I know it’s not proper for a Christian to expose the fact that they are dealing with depression and frustration with God and disappointment with prayer and unhappiness with life.  I know we are supposed to plaster on that “good, happy, Christian smile” and act like we are full of joy and peace and contentment.  (Or are we?)   But this is the truth about how I feel.  And if I can’t be real with God and other Christians (even anonymously on this blog), then who can I be r...
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