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Do you think I disagree with the quotes in your post? I don't. Every word, though extreme to our tenderized, modern ears, is Scriptural. I understand Calvin because Calvin understood Scripture. All quite foreign within our humanist world view, isn't it? Instead we want to hear that mankind was simply dropped down into creation and left to our own pursuits, surprising ourselves and God by our actions and intentions.

Of course there is always the cop-out that God foresees all things, but He chooses to stand by and let things unfold naturally, as Rome tells us.

. This is a truly frightening thought because it makes god just a very smart observer of His own creation which acts independently of God's creative will. Laughable, really. What God foresees is what God has already purposed for all mankind. As God thought at the moment of creation, so follows all history. Nothing, certainly not men's "independent" actions, precedes God's plan for His creation.

Further, in this licentious fantasy men are ultimately responsible for their own salvation because Christ on the cross didn't save anyone for certain. He just made it possible for men to save themselves by their prudent decision to do good and believe, thus earning their own favor with God through good works, fortuitously being rewarded for their cleverness with the acquitting covering of Christ. All of which is unscriptural and denies the character and sovereignty of God, as well as ignoring the fact that all men are fallen and equally incapable of pleasing God unless and until God gives them new ears, new eyes, a heart of flesh and a renewed mind in order to know the truth and believe.

"Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father." -- John 6:65

Yes, all men sin. Is it possible for a man to stop sinning completely? No. As Paul says, we will always sin. But by the indwelling Holy Spirit, given by God to whom He will, men learn to hate their sin and turn from it.

Does God not know every sin we will commit? Could He not work things differently if He did not, in some way, ordain the outcome? When a dear child is hit by a car and dies, do we feel better by saying God was impotent to prevent it? Or is our only comfort the fact that this is somehow the will of God and that we will see that child again? Romans 8:28 -- "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose" -- all things.

And yes, you can extrapolate that example into even more horrific evils, hideous things that men do to each other. And somehow, it is all according to the will of God.

If it weren't, it would be different. The fact so many people miss this truth shows how strong the power of self-deception is in our hearts.

As Paul asks, who made you, fallen and sinful, to differ from other men, and what do you have that you haven't been given by God?

Read Van Til's excellent response to an atheist who, not so coincidentally, asks the very same questions you do.

WHY I BELIEVE IN GOD

Every word, though extreme to our tenderized, modern ears, is Scriptural. I understand Calvin because Calvin understood Scripture. All quite foreign within our humanist world view, isn't it?

Every word that Calvin wrote is not scriptural. What Calvin wrote was foreign not only to a modern humanist viewpoint (though it actually isn't given his fundamental notion of determinism which underlies the modern humanist viewpoint--and probably laid the groundwork for it) but also to the preceding 1530 or so years of the Christian church. He was not a reformer but an innovator who swept everything aside and said that understanding scripture depended on knowing the secret counsel of God and that this knowledge had been made known to him.