Replies

***Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart***

This according to Romans 3:10-12 is a NULL SET. That is precisely the point, SD.

I gotta run. I'll tag wrigley to continue the dialogue. Watch out. He's one of those Calvinists who regularly reads his Bible.

This according to Romans 3:10-12 is a NULL SET. That is precisely the point, SD.

Sorry, that is only your Calvinistic interpretation. Just because there is none "good," none "righteous," does not imply that there are none who seek after God with a sincere heart.

Your Calvinism tells you so, but it isn't.

If I behave in a "good" or a "righteous" manner, striving to follow God with a sincere heart, even 99% of the time, I am still a sinner. I am still, in God's eyes, "not good" and "not righteous."

This is what Romans is telling us. In God's view, none of us is good. Not that we can't ever strive to be good, but that we can not be perfectly good all of the time. This is impossible.

Being Calvinist, you take this idea that God find none of us "good" and marry it to your incorrect ideas of all of us being spiritually "dead" to reach your conclusion.

It is for this reason, that I already identified, that I insist to you that it is Calvinism with which I have a problem, and not the Scripture.

I should also note that you are making the assumption that a person who is truly ignorant of Jesus is by definition a reprobate.

If he were elect, God would make him truly desire to follow God with a sincere heart. Now, if he happened to be stuck on a backwards Pacific island with no missionaries and no contact with civilzation, he could very well remain ignorant of Jesus.