The reason I am Orthodox is because, no matter what I speculate, I believe 100% that what the Eastern Orthodox Church teaches, and has taught everywhere and always, is right. One cannot say "I am Catholic, a little bit." When you say you are Calvinist, I must assume you believe 100% of his teaching. But you deny that.
So, I am asking you again, are you a Calvinist? Or do you simply accept some of his teachinhgs, in which case you could say "I am 10% Calvinist" or "somewhat of a Calvinist" or "so-so Calvinist," etc.? If you say that you are a Calvinist then your theology is, by necessity, 100% Calivnist. I believe you would disagree.
My speculations are not always Orthodoxy. But my specilations are, admittedly, just that &$150; speculations. What I believe and trust 100% is the Orthodox Church teaching. If I state what the EOC teaches, I reference it. Otherwise, what I write is my own speculation and should be taken as such. Again, I don't ever remember any other Reformed Protestant on this Forum claiming that Adam and Eve had free will. That's why I suggested you take it up with them.
Saying that God ordained the fall does not deny the free will of the first man
Forgetting that foreknowledge is not the same as preordaining, explain how this fits into the Calvinist mindset. If God controls everything, including our will ( our ancestral parents' included), then it is not free. If He does not control our will, then He is not in control. If our fallen will always chooses evil (that's debatable), then God does not control our will and therefore is not in control. If He controls our fallen will, then we sin because God wills it.
This is not the issue in the Church. God created the world knowing what our free choices will be. We can neither enhance nor diminish His Plan. Nor can we change its course. Our will and freedom do not affect God. They only affect ourselves.
The Apostles were not baptized, so (according to your theology that we always choose evil) they could not have chosen to follow Christ. Did He compel them? Did He put a "spell" on them?
By the same logic, the OT righteous could not have chosen God, so they must have been compelled. What kind of "righteousness" is that?! Was Job not a righteous man? Was he not fallen?
And truly, Kosta, only in Christ do we have true freedom. Whom the Son sets free is free indeed
If you mean freedom from the world, and sin, on that we agree fully. But in Christ our will is not free. Those who are in heaven are not free to sin. Our ancestral parents were not free to sin either. One could speculate that not even God, Who is absolute Freedom, is free to sin (although that would be another mind-twisting topic because it's not a matter of His will but of His essence).
Calvinism is a term of convenience. I agree with Calvin on a good many things. There are some non-essentials which I disagree with him on. There are plenty of Catholics who disagree with their church teachings and are considered by Catholicism as Catholics. Take Nancy Pelosi for example.
As to your other questions, I only refer you to Scripture. NO ONE, NADA, ZILCH, comes unless the Father draws him. It is not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to His mercy He has saved us.
Signed,
Pope Blogger I
The reason I am Orthodox is because, no matter what I speculate, I believe 100% that what the Eastern Orthodox Church teaches, and has taught everywhere and always, is right. One cannot say "I am Catholic, a little bit." When you say you are Calvinist, I must assume you believe 100% of his teaching. But you deny that.
HA!, I say with a smile. :) Your system is simply different, but its structure does not make it automatically superior, IMO. (You appear to only be arguing structure here.)
You would agree with everything the EOC teaches, but they don't even come CLOSE to teaching all there is to teach, do they? What is the EOC teaching on young earth/old earth, or whether Jericho actually fell as told in scripture, or better yet, the end times? I just want to make sure that you agree with your brethren. :)
You can point to a list of core beliefs that you must adhere to, in order to consider yourself Orthodox. That's great. We cannot to such an exacting degree because we don't have the centralized authority that you do (to your degree). So what? Compared with the more senior Calvinist posters on these threads I am still a newbie, and yet it is relatively easy for me to spot a fellow Calvinist from just a few posts. I know 'em when I see 'em. Isn't it the same with you and new Orthodox posters? What does it matter to have only one handbook, in one edition, to be considered of like faith? (I'd even bet that in Orthodoxy it isn't even that cut and dried.)
Good Orthodox can disagree on anything that's not in the handbook, I presume. (The "handbook" is everything the consensus patrum, and/or a Council, has ruled upon.) I say no shame on Orthodoxy. Good Calvinists don't have a single book of interpretation, but nonetheless agree on much more than I think many others are willing to give us credit for. We do not follow the one man Calvin or the one man Luther, and everything they said. Our faith is not in them. Our faith is in God in Heaven, and scripture on earth, and we are attracted to how these men (and many others, later) explained and brought ideas together that are clearly found in scripture, as the Spirit has revealed it to us. That's all, no veneration.
So, I am asking you again, are you a Calvinist? Or do you simply accept some of his teachings, in which case you could say "I am 10% Calvinist" or "somewhat of a Calvinist" or "so-so Calvinist," etc.? If you say that you are a Calvinist then your theology is, by necessity, 100% Calvinist. I believe you would disagree.
It appears that you are trying to say, in comparison, that anyone who calls himself a "Reagan Conservative" would be required to have fully believed in every policy he ever set forth. Is that correct? I would say that I am the definition of a Reagan Conservative, and yet I disagreed with him on his amnesty for illegal aliens. Am I no longer a Reagan Conservative? :)
Now, OTOH, if I told you that my main political goals have always been to raise taxes whenever possible, and weaken our national defense because it might hurt the feelings of our enemies, then you would be correct in stripping me of my claim to being a Reagan Conservative. There is a huge difference.