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“If you are self-appointed as one of the selected elite elect, making God beholden to you, then what need of street cred have you?”

There are so many assumptions in that sentence, I was stunned that you continue to read these threads, and yet continue to intentionally misunderstand what is written on them by the Calvinists, (who remain the object of your evident scorn).

Please note that:

1. Calvinists are not self appointed to anything.
2. The term is not ‘select,’ but ‘elect.’
3. The term ‘elite’ has nothing to do with ‘elect.’
4. The conclusion that God is beholden to anyone is ludicrous.

Mischaracterization is a lie, is it not?

Name me one Calvinist poster on this thread that does not believe that he or she is of the Scriptural elect. How does that belief occur? Who told each of them individually? Where is it written that, for example, the poster known as esquirette knows that he or she is of the elect? If there is no direct message from God - a blinding light on the road to Damascus in the companionship of several friends might do - that you (the individual) are of that elect now, then either one must contradict the Calvinist teaching that the elect is not all of mankind, or else that Calvinists are Gnostic and not Christian at all. Therefore, that belief is actually self-appointment and makes God beholden to the individual, rather than vice versa. The Christian belief is diametrically opposite to that.

Luke 18: 9 He then addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else. 10 "Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, 'O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity--greedy, dishonest, adulterous--or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.' 13 But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, 'O God, be merciful to me a sinner.' 14 I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted."

Calvinists and the OSAS crowd tell us of the certainty of their own salvation and excoriate Catholics who have only the hope of salvation. Catholics pray several times during each Mass variations of the prayer that the tax collector prayed and that is a deeply held and fundamental part of Christianity. The various anti Catholics on FR regularly say that they thank God that they are not like the Catholics and that they are indeed of the elect.

Am I really mischaracterizing?