[CCWoody]

I was trying to probe your understand of the Bible. Unfortunately for you, you are not very thoughtful with the Bible. Your beliefs need to be reconciled to the Bible and when they are shown to be in error (as I am about to do); you need to abandon them:

For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good Word of God and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance, seeing that they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put Him to open shame.

Predestination is 100% Biblical as is free will. I understand both of them very well. The Calvinists position is correct:

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Moreover, whom He predestined, those He also called; and whom He called, those He also justified; and whom He justified, those He also glorified.

Rome is 100% wrong in this area. Your freewill beliefs have to be reconciled to this verse:

But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

This verse shuts the door on your freewill understanding, but it is 100% compatible with my understanding, and the correct Biblical position, of freewill.

[Campion]

Rome is 100% wrong in this area.

Since Rome has taught very little, authoritatively, "in this area," you have absolutely no grounds for saying this.

Here's what Rome insist on:

• The salvation of the blessed is God's free gift.
• The unjustified man is, as St. Paul writes, "dead in his sins" and requires a gift of actual grace through the Holy Spirit to respond to God's calling by repentance, faith, and salvation. (NB: This was stated explicitly by both the 2nd Council of Orange and the Council of Trent. It is de fide Catholic teaching and it is material heresy for a Catholic to deny it.)
• The damnation of the reprobate is earned by their sins.
• God ardently desires the salvation of all and the damnation of none, and grants to each man sufficient (but not necessarily irresistable) grace to save his soul.
• However, God is free to desire something more than the salvation of an individual, and in many (perhaps all) cases, he does: he desires that they be saved as free agents who can refuse his offer of salvation if they so choose. Note that being "free to refuse" does not imply the converse, that the unjustified man is "free to choose" God apart from God's choice of him. He isn't; see above.

That's really it. Various Catholic theologians have speculated in different directions based on that, but their speculations remain speculations.

I can defend every one of those claims from Scripture, and I can slap down any Scripture you bring up by way of objection.

Your freewill beliefs have to be reconciled to this verse:
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

I'm not sure what you think we need to reconcile. As I stated, for the unjustified man to be brought to repentance and conversion requires a gift of grace (what theologians call "actual grace," as distinct from "sanctifying grace," which justifies). That verse is completely in agreement with Catholic teaching; in fact, a Catholic who denied it would be in a state of material heresy.

It's been my observation that most Calvinists have a very distorted idea of what the Catholic Church teaches on this issue. That's probably because most Catholics have a confused idea of what their own church teaches on it. However, the teachings are quite clear as far as they go. The whole issue is mysterious, as we should expect it to be. The kernel of Calvin's error was to try to turn a mystery into a machine, as though he could understand God! St. Paul said that God's ways were inscrutable. He was right; Calvin was wrong.

For more information, I recommend this article.