Posted on 02/28/2010 8:30:39 AM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
John Calvin's 16th century reply to medieval Catholicism's buy-your-way-out-of-purgatory excesses is Evangelicalism's latest success story, complete with an utterly sovereign and micromanaging deity, sinful and puny humanity, and the combination's logical consequence, predestination: the belief that before time's dawn, God decided whom he would save (or not), unaffected by any subsequent human action or decision.
Calvinism, cousin to the Reformation's other pillar, Lutheranism, is a bit less dour than its critics claim: it offers a rock-steady deity who orchestrates absolutely everything, including illness (or home foreclosure!), by a logic we may not understand but don't have to second-guess. Our satisfaction and our purpose is fulfilled simply by "glorifying" him. In the 1700s, Puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards invested Calvinism with a rapturous near mysticism. Yet it was soon overtaken in the U.S. by movements like Methodism that were more impressed with human will. Calvinist-descended liberal bodies like the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) discovered other emphases, while Evangelicalism's loss of appetite for rigid doctrine and the triumph of that friendly, fuzzy Jesus seemed to relegate hard-core Reformed preaching (Reformed operates as a loose synonym for Calvinist) to a few crotchety Southern churches.
No more. Neo-Calvinist ministers and authors don't operate quite on a Rick Warren scale. But, notes Ted Olsen, a managing editor at Christianity Today, "everyone knows where the energy and the passion are in the Evangelical world" with the pioneering new-Calvinist John Piper of Minneapolis, Seattle's pugnacious Mark Driscoll and Albert Mohler, head of the Southern Seminary of the huge Southern Baptist Convention. The Calvinist-flavored ESV Study Bible sold out its first printing, and Reformed blogs like Between Two Worlds are among cyber-Christendom's hottest links.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
Well I'm glad you think so. But I have no idea what you just said.
BTW you never answered this question: Who is in control of your destiny?
Is it possible that maybe you have spent too much time in a faith that extols God measured by human reason than an inconceivable God?
While Christianity is a supernatural faith, it is not a mystical faith
So supernatural and rational is one and the same thing?
That, coupled with the good fruits of the Holy Spirit, witnessed, experienced and understood to be valid when submitted to the scrutiny of the Scriptures...
Circular reasoning. Scriptures prove God and God proves scriptures.
Yes it's sad that those who claim they kow can't say what it is they believe in.
Life is more than speculation Have some kids, Kosta. Then you'll see Him.
I have kids. Please stop making this about me and make it about my questions. I don't delve into your family, life style, etc. unless you volunteer that information. I also don't jump to silly conclusions such as "she must not have kids..."
Sure I did.
What was your answer? I musta missed it.
LOL. Exactly right.
"It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." -- Matthew 4:7
Please stop analyzing me and making this about me and see if you can just answer my questions instead.
He needs "proof" of God, because that is what constitutes "certainty" for him. If he can't get "proof" of God, then he doesn't have to take Him seriously.
More mind reading. RM, please put and end to this charade, or else I will respond in kind.
It really sounds like you are above you paygrade. Please cocnentrate on what I ask not speculate what I am.
Following up on your asking “what is God,” could you say whether or not you pray?
Maybe you can tell me, because all I see is statements like "God IS" the Bible "is true, believers are "certain of their salvation," etc. Sounds like something pretty certain, yet it's all based on faith alone, but presented as certainty.
What level of 'proof' does one use when eating food that it is not contaminated. What level of 'proof' does one use for any other day-to-day action.
Indeed, what level of proof does one use when saying that God IS? In everyday life we take chances. Being certain of one's salvation doesn't sound like a chance, yet there is no proof whatsoever that it is so; it's all based on one's personal belief, wish, desire, hope, susperstition, whatever.
Everyday life's uncertainties do not require blind faith in uncertainty. Religion does.
He got what he asked for.
If you never believe, what does that say about your salvation?
And I answered him "Salvation from what?"
If you can get K's permission, then you have my blessing.
I will offer her safe refuge in the High Council's Forest. I don't want to do it, but I feel I OWE it to her. Of course a suitable hut for her will require cashing in more beer cans, so I will get to work on that right away.
An eternity apart from God.
An eternity apart from God.
1. The doctrine that all events are predetermined by fate and are therefore unalterable. 2. Acceptance of the belief that all events are predetermined and inevitable.
Looking at the first definition it's self-referential so we need a definition of fate:
1. a. The supposed force, principle, or power that predetermines events.
b. The inevitable events predestined by this force.2. A final result or consequence; an outcome.
3. Unfavorable destiny; doom.
4. Fates Greek & Roman Mythology The three goddesses, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, who control human destiny.
Are there any biblical narratives that fit any of the above definitions and if so does the Bible teach fatalism?
Thomas got his proof. Jesus says ask and it shall be given. Seek and you shall find.
I only asked what is God.
God is the way He is even if YOU don't understand.
I am not the one who claims he can be understood. Some Christians do. You may want to direct your comments to the them.
*At least while you are alive.
And those in heaven (or hell) are not alive?
It seems to be 'open season' on Religion Forum. I get at least a couple of posts on each page about me, my motives, my being lost, not engaging or being afraid to engage life, suggesting that I "have kids," etc. Quite pathetic.
Yes and yes.
Now, who controls your destiny?
A voice of reason.
You just descirbed religion.
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