So, it is my fault? has it ever occurred to you that perhaps you are not explaining your dogma well enough? I will repeat: if everything is God's will then what's the point of prayer, redemption, repentance and salvation? To this day, weeks after you chose to profess this theology of yours, along with Harley D, not one of you have shown any rationale as to why are prayers efficacious, or for that matter why we need to do anything.
All you did was throw a bunch of disconnected and disjointed verses in rainbow colors on the thread with just the "right words" you were looking for on your search engine, but not one sentence that makes sense.
EXPLAIN, not by prooftexting, in your own words why why, why do you pray if God does not change His mind! Explain why we need to be redeemed if God makes us sin. Explain why Christ came to redeem us when we did nothing of our own to warrant condemnation. Explain why we need to do anything if God has already pre-choreographed everything for us, and nothing is our own doing, our own will, our own guilt, our own decision. If we are, as Harley D says, exactly the way we are because God made us exactly this way, then what is our role as intelligent beings. Why even be conscious?
So far I have seen no explanations, not one, that made any sense from either one of you.
IF you CAN explain this, then I may change my opinion of Calvinism as anything but a dooms-day cult. Until then, I will continue to ask the same questions, over and over.
If not, I will assume that you simple can't explain anything, which is what I believe now.
If you really would like to know our "dogma" I would suggest the Westminster Confession or the London Baptist Confession. While one is Presbyterian and the other Baptist they're fairly close. They'll answer all your questions.
Now if you could point me to the succinct confession of the Orthodox belief complete with scriptural references like the Westminster or Baptist confessions I would appreciate it. I've never been able to find them before.
OK, sans prooftexting then and in my own words:
We pray because God wants us to. It's also very good for us. It is how we communicate with God, which He says He wants. God does not change His mind, but we do not know how He has already made up His mind, so for us who are subject to time, it is worthwhile. We experience "answer" to prayer because we are subject to time. This is one way God has chosen to interact with us, given our limitations. While I do pray for what I "want", I also try to include a prayer for God's will, because I know that is what is ultimately going to happen. It's good for me because it reminds me of how great God is.
Explain why we need to be redeemed if God makes us sin.
You continue to be the only one on this thread to assert this. Harley never has. I never have. Show us the posts. God does not cause sin, God allows sin to happen (doesn't prevent it) for His own purposes. We need to be redeemed because we are born dead in the sin nature and are unfit for heaven. Only Christ can make us fit.
Explain why Christ came to redeem us when we did nothing of our own to warrant condemnation.
Adam doomed the entire race from the beginning. That's the bad news. The good news is that Christ loved, and came to save some from that fate. I cannot speak for God as to why He set it up that way.
Explain why we need to do anything if God has already pre-choreographed everything for us, and nothing is our own doing, our own will, our own guilt, our own decision. If we are, as Harley D says, exactly the way we are because God made us exactly this way, then what is our role as intelligent beings. Why even be conscious?
We need to "DO" things because God told us to. God wants us to experience our lives on earth to the fullest. Our lives are automatically better when we obey Him. That is a practical reason to follow His teachings. Although nothing GOOD is of our own doing, we certainly don't experience it that way. We feel good when we "make a decision" to do good. It is to our benefit as well. Our role as intelligent beings is to be God's children and follow Christ. Again, I can't explain why God set up the earth to function like this, you'd have to take that up with Management. :)