Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: Jerry_M
"(The fact that you can't see the insult found in your original "one book" comments is telling.)"

Sorry, but this wasn't meant as an insult even though you seem to want it to be. Besides, I thought that Calvinists being big believers in the "complete and inerrant" nature of the Bible would read the scriptures regarding "The Book of Life" and agree there is only one book in the library.

"Just how many "realities" are there?"

As I tried to explain, there is only one actual reality. I believe we can both agree on this. No matter how many multiverses there might be (and I tend to believe that there is only one single universe) these are all part of the single reality that God created, maintains, and perceives.

The past very long discussions on Calvinism and Arminianism I believed to be good forums for discussions on free will and determinism. However, it seems that most of the discussion was directed toward what some call "The Economy of Salvation" rather than on whether or not we have free will and how free it is. Most people seemed to agree that free will is a good thing and we have it, but everything the Calvinists did to describe their particular view on the Economy of Salvation suggested to me that they really didn't believe in free will, or at least a form of it that most people living in modern democracies would find acceptable.

Maybe the concept of free will as freely being able to attain one's destiny made sense in monarchical and feudalistic times, but it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense today. If it is true that we don't have free will in the sense that most people wish we had, then maybe that would be a good argument against democracy and in favor of a form of political arrangement that matched the spiritual realities more, i.e. a theocratic monarchy.

And of course I'm not saying that all Calvinists favor a theocratic monarchy, but their views on free will and predestination would seem to jibe more closely with such a political arangement.

124 posted on 11/26/2002 3:21:28 PM PST by who_would_fardels_bear
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 117 | View Replies ]


To: who_would_fardels_bear; OrthodoxPresbyterian; Matchett-PI
"And of course I'm not saying that all Calvinists favor a theocratic monarchy, but their views on free will and predestination would seem to jibe more closely with such a political arangement."

(You just make this stuff as you go along, don't you?)

We are all glad that your observations are incorrect. Otherwise, we would not live in the representative republic that we do, largely founded by Calvinists. Get a clue, John Calvin is the grandfather of America.

132 posted on 11/27/2002 7:20:03 AM PST by Jerry_M
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 124 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson