[OrthodoxPresbyterian]

Your 777. Matthew 21 15But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple area, "Hosanna to the Son of David," they were indignant. 16"Do you hear what these children are saying?" they asked him. "Yes," replied Jesus, "have you never read, " 'From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise'?" Jesus declares infants to be innocent.

No, He doesn't. If there were a verse in which Jesus declared, "infants are innocent of Sin", you would cite it. You cannot, because there is not one.

In Matthew 21, Jesus specifically identifies the Father as the deliberate causative agent of all Praise, even that from the mouths of children and infants.

The (embarassingly bad) NIV translation communicates this point rather poorly. The more rigorous NASB is a little better:

But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that He had done, and the children who were shouting in the temple, "Hosanna to the Son of David," they became indignant and said to Him, "Do You hear what these children are saying?" And Jesus said to them, "Yes; have you never read, 'OUT OF THE MOUTH OF INFANTS AND NURSING BABIES YOU HAVE PREPARED PRAISE FOR YOURSELF'?"

But that simply re-affirms a key point from my #769:

The king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the LORD; He turns it wherever He wishes.

Thanks for re-inforcing my #769, but were you going to answer my #777? Or for that matter, my #769?

Death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. The fact that all are born mortal, is juridically founded upon the fact that all have sinned. If Infants have not Sinned, they would not be born mortal. If they were not sinners, they could not die in infancy. Death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.

[xzins]

A CALVINIST CONSTRUCT

These definitions are all either offered by calvinists on this thread or are condensations of definitions on this site recommended by JerryM: Calvinist Tulip Definition Site recommended by Jerry

T - - Total Depravity means that Natural Man is totally sinful and does not ever WANT in his own spirit to know Christ.

U - - Unconditional Election means that God has elected for His own glory, in accordance with His own will and without regard for the merit of those elected, some for salvation and some to be left in their sins.

L - - Limited Atonement means that Christ died specifically and only for the sins of those who would ever truly believe in Him.

I - - Irresistible Grace means that the elect are incapable of resisting the Holy Spirit's inward call to repentance and salvation.

P - - Perseverance of the Saints means that all those who are truly saved will certainly be brought to heaven and to glorification and will never be lost.

The Five Basic Arminian Objections to Calvinism

These Arminian definitions are found in the Wycliffe Dictionary of Theology and are condensed in that work by a Calvinist, Roger Nicole(Gordon Divinity School). I will take some liberties with them for the sake of clarification. They are the views of Jacob Hermann (Armin) a former student of Calvin who came to doubt Calvin's theology.

1. - - God elects only on the basis of foreseen faith and condemns only on the basis of resistance to grace.

2. - - Christ provided a universal opportunity by dying for all men and for every man such that ALL those who turn to him as true repentant believers are saved.

3. - - Man is so depraved that foreplanned divine intervention and preceding divine grace are necessary to bring about faith or any good deed.

4. - - According to the foreplanning of God, man was created with the ability to resist Divine Grace.

5. - - It is not certain that all who are truly regenerate will necessarily persevere in the faith.