Funny, but as I study more and get older (not in that order) I've come to need less choices and less adjectives and less argument to support what I consider to be the Biblical truth of God's total, complete, profound, black-and-white, unerring Predestinating hand in all His creation.
Every healthy baby born is by His specific will. Every battered body that washes ashore in Sumatra is by His will. Every punchline applauded is by His will. Every period at the end of every sentence is by His will. Because if I've been saved by God's grace through faith in the atoning work of Jesus Christ alone, which is the greatest event in all eternity, then how numbered everything else must be.
"Every healthy baby born is by His specific will. Every battered body that washes ashore in Sumatra is by His will."
Not really. Here's God's will:
Genesis 2
16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
God said the world He made was "good." He only required obedience in this one area. And, He EXPECTED it. He HOPED for it. He DESIRED it. God did not wish for Adam to fall, nor did He cause Adam to fall by some form of "mysterious" predestination. God wanted Adam to OBEY. Calvinistic doctrine assumes that God planned--and even desired!--failure, but was not/is not responsible for it.
I disagree.
:>) with regards. X.
I used to send "letters to the editor" in response to other letters written with such liberal propaganda that I just couldn't let those untruths go unquestioned. I quickly discovered that it takes a lot more paper and ink to reveal a fallacy and to explain a truth than it takes to just throw out a lie.
Over time have you learned to make a defense more succinct? or do you see the truth in simpler terms? or do you see less need to have to explain it?
I love your long posts. 8)