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OPie, by your own admission you keep copying and pasting the same Chorazin/Bethsaida stuff over and over (expecting a different result :-). You should post it once and link to it to save bandwidth.

People point out flaws in your argument, though, and you need to address them by modifying it. "This is what you are desperately trying to avoid... and you can't" avoid modifying it. Of course, you may not have anything left when you do, but at least you will be responsive to your feedback. 8o)

God grants us all the grace to repent.
God is just. He takes into account the light each person has been given. In Luke 12:48 He says, "But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more."
God has foreknowledge of all things, but He does not share that foreknowledge with us, especially with Calvinists who think they know what He knows.
The Bible does not tell us the final outcome of anyone. Augustine and Calvin may think they know those inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon are in hell now, but they don't. Neither do you. God in His mercy may have sent opportunities their way. Plus, He judges them individually.
The people of Chorazin and Bethsaida (and only those who rejected His ministry of their own free will) will be worse off in the Day of Judgment than the people of Tyre and Sidon. How can that be if the result is eternity in hell for both? Are we to invent "hotter parts of hell" for this purpose? As I said, you do not know their outcome.
You miss the point of what our Savior was teaching. Not that God withholds the grace to repent, but rather the consequences of rejecting the Greater Light.
And so forth. Many more excellent points have been made.

In short, there are many flaws in your argument, and you have not proved your case.

In short, there are many flaws in your argument, and you have not proved your case. 924 posted on 1/24/02 8:17 AM Pacific by White Mountain

Nope. 'Fraid you're mistaken.

In your 7 points, only one would be fatal to my case, as I think you will yourself see (and I certainly do understand well enough the proper construction of a valid logical argument to submit this analysis): the idea that Tyre and Sidon, and Sodom, did not end up in Hell Everlasting for their Non-Repentance. For it cannot be denied that God did withhold from them the Grace of miracles which He foreknew with perfect clarity would most certainly have brought about their free choice to Repent; the anti-predestinarian can see this in Matthew 11, and knows it to be utterly destructive to his position.

Thus to avoid the doctrine of Absolute Reprobation (for God's free choice in this matter did pre-destine them to Not Repent), we would have to suppose that these verses are "not the end of the story" for Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom, and that they were offered a "second chance" after Death, or in Hell itself, etc.

The Mormons do make this supposition, a heresy on top of other heresies, which allows them to escape Absolute Reprobation in this passage. But for a Christian who affirms that those who die in their iniquities go to Hell, and that the sentence of Hell is everlasting without exception, we combine the decision of God in Matthew 11 to withhold miraculous Grace of Penitence from Sodom, combine it with Jude 6-7:

Even as Sodom and Gomorrha,

are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

And are left with Absolute Reprobation, no exceptions, no escape clause.

I will readily admit that the Mormon heresy of completely re-working the orthodox Christian doctrine of Hell allows them to escape Absolute Reprobation in Matthew 11, but for Non-Mormons, this is not an option. And it is the only logical option which would "work" to escape Absolute Reprobation in this passage.