“I’d really like to meet some of these righteous people you speak of.”
“In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah,[a] of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. 6And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord.”
+++++++++++++++
“I may be wrong, but I bet your understanding of Calvinism is little more than a caricature. Despite a sound theological education from a top institution, for many years I argued against a system I did not understand.”
You are wrong. I am well versed in Reformed theology. Went to a solid PCUSA church for years. It heard from the pulpit that made me realize Reformed theology is full of holes.
+++++++++++++++
“I relied on what I had been taught and my own logic and understanding. I shudder when I think of it because it was a flippant and dangerous approach to a matter of such eternal consequence.”
What’s there to be afraid of??? What’s the danger???
You will only experience what was predestined for you.
See, you guys don’t really believe this stuff either!
That passage does not teach Zechariah and Elizabeth were righteous on their own strength. You’ll not find a passage that teaches that in the entire Book.
Also, of course I believe it. The danger was believing lies and living in accordance with lies. I believe in Divine Sovereignty, but I also believe in human responsibility. Calvinism is not rank fatalism.
The righteous folks in the Bible are righteous because they had faith in Christ.
It’s in the Bible.