Can someone please make sense of this?

[ABondSlaveofChristJesus]

A guy posted this on my xanga, in reply to a girl considering calvinism, and it makes no sense, its just chaos.



"Read some of the writing of Augustine. He is somewhat of the forerunner of the Doctrine of Predestination (It is in the Bible). He is also a huge proponent of Salvation through Faith (It is also in the Bible). I'm no Armenian and I'm no Calvinist. I'll hand it to the Calvinists that TULIP is fairly crafty and well put together. However, I also believe that Calvin's notion of Double Predestination, so coined by another, is borderline Heresy. In my heart I believe it is Heresy, but I will not make dogmatic statements about it at this time. I'm just glad God brought me out of sin and set me upon a solid rock, Jesus. I was in Him before the foundation of the earth was laid. He knew. Don't limit God to our Time and His Omnipotence to our understanding. Good day."

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

Double predestination is a necessary logical understanding of the doctrine of election. Those whom God has not elected unto salvation are necessarily reprobated to damnation. God is not sovereign over the elect only; He is sovereign over the reprobate as well.

Single predestination theory is enticing because it purports to avoid attributing to God any involvement in reprobation and leave the burden of hell on the sinner alone, but it undermines the sovereignty of God and misses the fact that God is glorified in His vessels of wrath just as He is glorified in His vessels of mercy. It is also just plain illogical.

The person quoted is, in the words of the great and powerful Oz to the Tin Man, "a victim of disorganized thinking."

[Edited on 24-11-2004 by VirginiaHuguenot]

 

[ABondSlaveofChristJesus]

I replied this to him

"Craig, the result of original sin was damnation. God had the right to damn us for it. Actually, if he didn't he would of been unjust and a liar, and thus not God. However, even reprobate get common grace. Also, the Calvinist didn´t put TULIP together. It is nothing more than an acronym given to the Canons of Dort that was established by the early church to fight off heresy."

 

[RamistThomist]

Usually the more crafty non-Calvinists resort to things similary to his last line...God is above theological logic, God is not-time bound, ad nauseum. I have shown people what I like to call "Owen's Logic" on the atonement and they agree with me that it makes sense and even has biblical warrant. They usually close their case with "God cannot be bound with theological propositions." I have since learned to make them see the nonsense (I mean that in a philosophical category) of their statement. When they say that one cannot make absolute logical statements about God, then ask them kindly to never make a coherent statement about God. They can't have their cake and eat it too.