I fully agree on both statements!
I posted this over on the Predestination thread, but I would like your answer as a thoughtful Calvinist [I will omit the comment on the apparent oxymoron :-)].
Having just finished several hours of research and work in writing #963 above, I am more than a little frustrated with the (apparently) purposeful twisting of Scripture and even human reason by a Mormon in attacking the Bible. So, it is hard to credit me right now with 'sympathy' for the Mormon cause (which will be the undoubted response from the knee-jerk Calvinist defenders here to this post).Yet WM (who as we all know is an extraordinarily thoughtful Mormon) has taken aim at precisely the thought that has been troubling me for the last several days: What motivates the assembled Calvinist throng to the fever-pitch of mean-spirited argumentation here day after day? That is, what is its aim? What can it possibly accomplish (from their point of view)?
Is it to promote a Christ-like life in other believers? Clearly (as WM's thoughtful rhetorical question so clearly evidences), it is not. There is no discussion of what constitutes a Christ-like life. None. [Although the early Calvinists (such as Edwards) whom the Calvinist protagonists here purport to revere, spent much time and effort on precisely that.]
Moreover, there is no discussion whatever on the role of the Holy Spirit in impelling such a Christ-like life (which was the common ground shared so fully by Wesley and Whitefield). There is seemingly no interest whatever in that topic.
Is it to encourage others to gain salvation? Clearly not. For the Calvinist world view precludes any role for man in that process. It has been (by their lights) foreordained, so it would be a waste of time urging others to accept Christ. And to the credit of (at least) their consistency, they do not do so. For reasons of their theology, they have no interest in pointing others to Christ.
Well, then, why spit and fight and denigrate others whose "sin" in their eyes is to believe that they must make some affirmative decision to accept Christ and believe in Him and upon the New Birth seek after Him and His direction in all of life's decisions?
All I can posit is that it is somehow thought necessary to be proven "right". There seems to be an over-arching concern with bending our reason to their theological judgment. But I ask "why"? What sense does that make from their theological position?
What sense does it make for them to get so mad and rhetorically jump up and down about the structure of our theological formulations versus theirs? It would seem that, if they believed their formulations, they should have even more equanimity than we about whether we accept the others' formulations. After all, they understand that it makes no difference whatever in the 'final outcome' while we are concerned that we effectively communicate to others what we understand to be the supremely critical decision of life.
So, why do the assembled Calvinists not just ignore (what from their standpoint is viewed as) our theological failings? The only hypothesis I can devise is that they feel they will obtain some 'rewards' for "setting our formulations 'right'" (just before we go to Hell).
So, tell me. [No need to shout or hurl invective, etc.] From your eternal standpoint (or ours) what possible difference does it make whether we agree with you or not?"
Well, that's the question. What purpose is served, from the Calvinist theological perspective, by the continued agressive pursuit of the bending of our poor, over-worked Arminian wills?