[Forest Keeper]

Whatever the convenience of verse numbers may have provided, it also made the Scriptures seem something like a chemical compound that can be analyzed into its constituent elements or atoms. It also makes it easy to recombine those elements to form "new molecules." I think this helps to explain why some Protestants have a tendency to reduce any argument to Book, Chapter, and Verse. This is not a technique that most Protestants use. Most also want to know why they have an intellect and will.

Hello Stripes1776 -

I have been reading your posts since you joined this thread and have noted that you seem very comfortable with speaking on behalf of "most Protestants". From your posts I know for sure that you do not speak for Baptists, the largest Protestant denomination. In general, nor would I imagine that you speak for Lutherans. Nor would I imagine that you speak for Presbyterians.

I just named three of the top four most populous non-Catholic faiths in this country and none of them agree with you. I'm just wondering where is this Protestant majority that you are championing?

[stripes1776]

I have been reading your posts since you joined this thread and have noted that you seem very comfortable with speaking on behalf of "most Protestants".

Then you haven't been reading closely enought. I have stated that I cannot speak for all Protestants who believe in free will. I have also stated that most Protestants are not Calvinists. And I have stated that most Protestants today do believe in free will. I stand by that statement because it is true.

Here is an essay by a Calvinist who says "Most modern Protestants are Arminian." Althought I do not agree with his characterization of Arminianism in many of its details, that is one of the few statements made by a Calvinist that I would agree with.