Let us concentrate on you and me as individuals. Our church calls for volunteers for the soup kitchen that Friday night. Does it matter in a Reformed way if you or I serve the poor? It most certainly does according to original Christian and current Catholic belief.
Yes, it matters if we serve the poor because that is an obedience to God. God called us to do such things and it is in accordance with His will. So it matters. One could also say that it is a part of perseverance, so it matters that way too. However, it does not bring us any closer to salvation in a similar way that running around the bases brings one no closer to having just hit a home run.
FK, it happens every day on Earth in every city and in every jurisdiction. I spent 10 glorious years in Dearborn, Michigan, which borders on two sides with Detroit. Every day innocents were killed and raped and beaten and mugged. I agree that it takes great sin; I disagree that it is remarkable now (or then) to kill an innocent man (remember that you brought up the term innocent MAN).
I live right across the river from East St. Louis, which makes Detroit look like Pleasantville. :) In any event, the point of my statement was to illustrate that the sin necessary for the crucifixion was no accident. God left the necessary players to their own devices to insure that it would happen.
FK: ***So, how did God guarantee that His will would be accomplished through Christ dying on the cross? He withdrew from the key players who were necessary, such as Judas, Pilate, Caiaphus, Herod, the lost Jews, the Romans, and others.***
Not so fast, my friend. According to Reformed theology, God was never with them since they were obviously of the unelect and were all doomed to hell, right? So how could He withdraw from them?
Yes, God was never with them, but that doesn't mean that God leaves all the unelect at "zero". Just as God gives the rain to all men, He also gives some protection to all men who are totally depraved (all of us at birth). Otherwise, we'd all be raving murderers etc. And whatever that level of protection is, is what allows no man to have an excuse.
Are you saying that God withdraws from people in stages or different amounts? What in Calvin are you talking about? I thought that the Reformed unelect were deprived completely of God (or rather never had Him) and that the elect were full of Him. This is getting rather interesting.
YES, it's in the Bible. :) For example:
Rom 1:26-32 : 26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts . Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
Since we know that God does not author sin, we know that He did not hit them with a "gay beam". :) He withdrew from these lost people and they started doing things that not all lost people do. We all know lost people who do not look like this. So, the "T" in TULIP does NOT equal full satanic evil. We don't see that in our world. However, if God does fully turn His back, then we DO see that result.
The Reformed God’s love for the elect must only be exceeded by His hate for the unelect.
That can't be right since we all start out unsaved. God's love overcomes that and some are saved. If we started out saved, and then hatred overcame THAT, then you would be right.
God waited until conditions were right before He sent the flood. He waited until conditions were right to create the tongues at the Tower of Babel. He parted the Red Sea at the right moment. He stopped the Earth from spinning until the Israelites won. He sent His Son to be crucified when the conditions were right. Not chance.
If men were behind the conditions, then you really ARE saying it was by chance. Your answer has God being a reactor, as opposed to an actor. That has man in control, and all things are by random chance. You have God coming in later to clean up the mess.
That can't be right since we all start out unsaved
If you are predestined to be saved, you are as good as saved (I believe those are your words), so that your statement above is patently false, that is—if you consider yourself Reformed.
If you are saved from before the foundation of the world, then we all don't start unsaved.