Arthur Brain
Well-known member
Again, the errors I have described earlier continue to be made.
The desire of God here, has respect solely to what ought to be done by man, not to what is to be done. It relates to the commands of God, His precepts.
So the Lord has revealed that He desires truth in the inward parts of man, Psalm 51:6, and that He desires mercy, and not sacrifice, that is, God desires (commands) that the Israelites show mercy to their brethren in need, and not simply attend to the ceremonial aspects of their religion, Hos. 6:6.
By such statements, we are to understand that God delights in requiring these things from man. Whether or not man shall perform them depends solely on whether God has decreed (volitionally willed) them to be done.
Moving the goal posts to this or that newfound verse is no replacement for actually engaging my earlier detailed response. That you do not desire to take the effort to read it because it is "wordy" does not mean you have not been responded to, GM. It means you prefer to continue to make strident and curt assertions or opinions absent any substantive rebuttals. The discussion is just one-sided at present.
I think I have proper answers for all the verses you care to toss out, and can certainly do my own homework to better inform myself if I do not, but I am not obliged to do the heavy-lifting without some evidence you are willing to do the same. These are sacred topics of importance and they deserve our very best, thorough efforts such that we do not lead others to error in our personal desire for brevity.
If you would rather not engage at the same level, why continue to mention me or implicitly lump me in your frequent anti-Calvinist opinions? After all, I suspect no one doubts where you stand on the topic. My only wish is that you make an honest attempt to substantively explain why you do so that we may all be edified.
AMR
AMR, is it not true that under Calvinism, any loved ones I may have, if not part of the "elect" are destined for eternal suffering under your belief system?
Never mind the convoluted stuff such as infralapsarianism, sublapsarianism and supralapsarianism et al, isn't that the core of Calvinism? That there's only a subset of people out of formed creation that are going to be chosen and the rest rot in essence?