[Jerry_M]

Hyper Calvinism is best expressed (IMHO) by the sentiment of John Ryland who told William Carey: "Sit down, young man. When God decides to save the heathen, He will do it without your help."

Hyper-Calvinists believe what our non-Calvinist friends say when they tell us that our theology is illogical, and why would we want to witness, send missionaries, etc. if God has already determined who He will save. We recognize that God utilizes the "means" (getting back to Carey!) of our witness in order to save His elect, and that it is His desire for us that we be obedient to His commands.

[JenB]

So that whole long essay was just saying that Calvinism, like any other idea, can be taken to silly extremes? Even I can see that that's hardly logically consistent; after all, God uses us to convert others. Since we don't know which currently unsaved wretch is actually elect, we have to witness to all of them, right? Anyway thanks for the explanation. Makes more sense than that essay. Half those big words probably weren't even English.

[Gargantua]

Actually, being a "Christian believer" means a number of things, including that we are obedient to Christ's Biblical commands to us.

Among these is the active participation in God's Harvest of souls through witnessing, prayer, and evangelical works. ALL of the believers in Christ are called to be disciples of Jesus, and are commanded to spread the gospel to both the un-churched and the falsley churched.