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God did not create sin, that is beyond His creative power since that would contradict His holy essence. The Arminian rationalization seems to take one step forward and two steps back. Reread what you wrote, FTD. "...beyond His creative power." Do you not see how you limit God? It doesn't take a Calvinist to believe that nothing is beyond God's power. It only appears as a contradiction to our human minds. It is God's will. We shouldn't fear it. It is all there is. And it is everything.

I know that God cannot contradict His own essence.

Thus, God's Omnipotence is limited in only doing what is consistent with those perfect attributes.

God cannot be unfair, He cannot be cruel, He cannot be the author of sin.

The fact is that what 'appears' to be a contradiction to us is one because it is one in Scripture.

Abraham appealed to God's justice and fairness because he understood God's character.

Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?

God would not create that which He states He hates (Prov.6:16, Zech.8:17)

God would not create that which He state He hates.

But he did just that. God set in motion Christ's agonizing death on the cross so that you and I might know eternal salvation.

God created everything; He is without limits.

God cannot be unfair.

But God can certainly seem unfair, i.e. Matthew 20 in the parable of the field workers who toiled different amounts but were paid the same.

Matthew 20:16 - So the last shall be first, and the first last; for many be called, but few chosen.

ftd, DrE is the one who proposed the idea of the film preview by God before He created. Her view of God's foreknowledge and your view of God's foreknowledge are very similar. Both of you affirm that before creation (before time?) God KNEW all that would transpire and then set it in motion.

This is certainly a predestining things to definitely occur IN THAT God's foreknowledge would certainly without fail NEVER be wrong. It is predestination premised in foreknowledge. "Those he foreknew he predestined" is just as certainly unchangeable as is predetermination.

We must admit and deal with that truth. We are not far from DrE's position. The only real question is which came first: God's plan or God's foreknowledge. That is a distinction that is nigh onto impossible to untangle.

Therefore, I have decided that calvinism is NOT heretical. Calvinists are my brothers and sisters in Christ.