These are, again, just assertions and rhetorical statements, which do not address anything I have said, which actually already address these topics.
No. I have no intention of posting a few hundred pages of scholarly arguments and discussions of the meanings of Greek words. I gave a decent sample, and anyone who wants to read a 50 page discussion can follow the links and find them.
But why must we read a few hundred pages of "scholarly arguments" when I've made very specific challenges here and now? Will you or will you not address my points on the John 6 scriptures and other verses I have presented? Just pointing to some other verse, which you claim contradicts, is nothing but distraction. If the scripture cannot be broken, then you must answer my challenges already made to previous objections, not keep piling on objections without meeting challenges.
I have no intention of reading material from your websites, or anyone's website, until my challenges are respectfully met, not ignored or lost in the wilderness you are trying to plant. I'm doing this, by the way, because I remember the last time we debated, and you did not address my points back then either. I have sworn not to be distracted with an infinite number of objections, but, rather, to make my opponents address my points before moving on to anything else.
1Co_14:40 Let all things be done decently and in order.
It is true that there is no such thing as free will. However, God commands all men everywhere to repent and it is His will that all come to a knowledge of salvation. Those He foreknew He predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. Those He knew would accept His gift of salvation He chose to save instead of letting them go to hell even though they deserved it. So yes, He also showed mercy to those to whom He would show mercy, those who would believe in Him given the opportunity.
And yes, He knew there would be people who would be born and live and die and ever accept His gift offered to them, so in that case, yes, there’s no reason for Him to not use them as He sees fit, which He has the right to do anyway.
But that is different than Him picking and choosing to save some and to damn others.
It is true that He hardened people, like Pharaoh, but Pharaoh hardened his heart first, then God hardened it.
God created man for fellowship with Himself. He is love and takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. I’m sure that He would rather that every person He created in His image would be saved. That would be the Father’s heart. But we’re not robots and love is not love if it’s not freely given.
I absolutely believe that we cannot come to God without His drawing us and enlightening us. We are slaves to sin and love it, but I just don’t see that Scripture supports the kind of predestination that does not give man a choice. God draws men. Some respond and most don’t.
“Will you or will you not address my points on the John 6 scriptures and other verses I have presented?”
You have not presented any to me. However, I assume you are referring to these passages:
“37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.”
“43 Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.”
“And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
Those passage do not say anything about God having a list of names, or his choosing people as individual names to come to Christ. Nor does it discuss election.
“Ultimately the primary difference between Arminian and Calvinist readings of John 6 is that Arminians think that the drawing spoken of is God’s reaching out with grace and Calvinists believe the drawing is speaking of unconditional election.”
http://evangelicalarminians.org/proof-texting-presuppositions-with-john-644-65/
I have already said that God takes the initiative in reaching out and revealing himself to us, and that apart from God reaching out to us, none would ever be saved. Some call this prevenient grace, but I think it is simply grace - God reaching out to man, even knowing that many will reject Him. But it is certainly true that God reaches down to man, and man on his own can never reach up to God, nor will man try.
But who are the ones God gives Christ? Is it a list of names, or is it “whosoever believes”? That was answered 8 verses earlier: “Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.””
Those who believe in response to God’s initiative are those placed “in Christ”, and they are then part of the elect - in Christ. And what has the Father granted? That those who repent and believe - in response to God - will become part of the Kingdom. As Jesus says in verse 40: “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
Also:
“A person only comes to be in Christ by grace through faith. Only those whose faith is in Christ Jesus will be raised up on Resurrection Day. Faith is the requirement and condition of salvation. So if Christ is to “draw all people” to Himself (John 12.32), and the Father also “draws” people to His Son, then the determining factor of who will be in Christ and experience the resurrection is the faith of the one drawn. The old adage comes into play nicely here. You can draw a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink.
Again, Forlines writes, “When Jesus said, ‘And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw [helkuo] all men by Myself’ (12.32), He definitely did not mean that He would drag every human being to Himself. He meant that there would go out from Him a drawing power that would make it possible for any person who hears the gospel to come to Him . . .
“If a person is going to interpret helkuo in John 6.44 and 12.32 to be an irresistible drawing, he must first find a passage elsewhere that irrefutably teaches that there is such an irresistible drawing. Then, he might suggest that as the meaning in John. These verses cannot be used as a part of a person’s arsenal of irrefutable proof of an irresistible calling.”3
You write, “I have sworn not to be distracted with an infinite number of objections, but, rather, to make my opponents address my points before moving on to anything else.”
You can swear what you want, but you neither own the forum not set the rules. In a forum debate, other posters can raise any objections they like. You can answer or remain silent as you choose, but you cannot decide they cannot raise objections at all.
There are hundreds of verses contradicting the spiritual world view of Calvin, so you will have to be content on an open forum to see more than one verse discussed. I am trying to be polite and answer an objection you have never actually raised with me, but I do not concede that you set the rules for the religion forum on FR.