T.U.L..I.P. and why I disagree with it

Your #813: Calvinism is one massive contradiction which urges its followers not to think

Yes, indeed, and those unresolved contradictions are the evidence that Calvinism as presented here does not make any sense and is unBiblical. You can believe anything if it is okay to believe both sides of a contradiction. Time to repost my Screwtape Letter parody on the effect on a person's thinking when told he must ignore obvious contradictions:

My Dear Wormwood,

I read with interest your report on progress made with the patient, but I must stress that you do not know where you stand until you get the patient to accept contradictory information from you.

You must get the patient to mistrust his common sense, his faculties of good judgment, and his understanding of the Bible, and to consider yours to be superior to his own in each case. You can consider this accomplished when the patient accepts contradictory material from you that otherwise he would reject as nonsense.

Now, toward this end, any contradiction -- best to call it a paradox -- will do, but the most effective contradictions will be those that at the same time lead him to believe that his own good judgment is suspect, and that common sense has failed him.

It should also be a very bold contradiction. This will at first arouse indignation in the patient, which you can ascribe to hatred of the truth, giving you further leverage in undermining the patient's confidence in his good judgment.

The Doctrine of Total Depravity is ideal for this purpose. It is the very keystone of the TULIP arch. It is indeed a bold contradiction, and attacks at the same time the patient's own self-concept, killing two birds with one stone. It is in direct contradiction to the evidence of the patient's own eyes and ears (for the patient sees small acts of kindness, goodness, and generosity every day, and even acceptance of Christ, repentance, and reformation of life), causing the patient to distrust these faculties also, the more you hammer Total Depravity home. Again, I say, it is ideal.

Now combine this with the doctrine that the patient cannot do anything about his depravity, but must hope somehow that he will be snatched from the most awful fate imaginable even though he is neither better nor more deserving than the others -- in short, the patient must trust in a god whom he cannot trust to pay any attention at all to his efforts to repent and improve -- and you have locked the patient into a very agitated and troubled state, in which you hope he will turn to you for help.

Any resistance the patient offers must be immediately attributed to the patient's own depravity. A powerful image you can offer is that the patient's flesh is crawling with God-hating snakes, an image showing that the patient is dead in sins and overcome by the Tempter Himself, who spoke in the Garden of Eden by way of a serpent.

You must stress that it is impossible for the patient to choose good, or even to have righteous wants. Even though it is obvious to the patient now that he can and does do both, you must continue to hammer away with the Bible verses that seem to be favorable to us on the surface, and long, convoluted and boring arguments trying to do away with common sense and the mountain of unfavorable Bible verses, until the patient doubts his own good judgment and the evidence of his own eyes and ears.

Eventually, under all the hammering, the patient will compartmentalize, it is hoped, placing his daily walk and common sense into an airtight compartment completely divorced and separate from the theological debate that you are conducting with him. Once you have divided the patient's mind, you can then conquer the patient.

We have employed this formula with great success, and wish you well in your effort. Of course, I need not remind you of the consequences of failure.

Your Affectionate Uncle,
Screwtape

What made Christ the perfect man? He was without sin..in Him there was no sin.He was born without the depravity that marks the sons of Adam..He was made in His Fathers image and as such he desired to do his Fathers will.

Sinful man can not desire to do God's will without Gods grace.. God's grace does not force my friend it woos...it draws you to Him with love and mercy..

My friend, the reason they call it 'irresistable' is because you have no choice. God changes you first and then you believe. Your 'will' is not an issue, since according to Calvinism you have none (notwithstanding the constant mantra about being 'free')

Still this has nothing really to do with the issue of Christ's submission to God's will. If, according to Calvinism everything is decided with one Sovereign decree based on God's omnipotence, then Christ's every action were decided by the Father, Christ had no choices to make. If, on the other hand, the Father knew what decisions the Son would make in time and forordained them and then Christ did in time what the Father always knew He would then the free remains free and God's knowledge or control is not questioned.

We do in time what God always knew we would and thus, the decisions we make, for good or bad, are 'forordained' but because God knew they would happen in real time.

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