Objections to Calvinism and Christian behaviour

Calvinism and Arminianism, Judaism and Christianity

Objections to Calvinism and Christian behaviour

Here are some typical questions and objections to Calvinism and Christian behaviour, with my responses. 1. “Can anyone “choose” to be a believer?” Answer: One view is that the Father looks down the corridors of time to see who will make a decision to accept the gift of salvation. On this basis, the prospective believer…

bography

October 3, 2012

4 minutes

Here are some typical questions and objections to Calvinism and Christian behaviour, with my responses.

1. “Can anyone “choose” to be a believer?”

Answer: One view is that the Father looks down the corridors of time to see who will make a decision to accept the gift of salvation. On this basis, the prospective believer is given to the Son from eternity, but if the believer does not practice his faith, he goes to hell. In theological jargon, this kind of Christian is an Arminian (someone who opens the door of her heart to Jesus. He cannot open the door from the outside because there is only one doorknob – on the inside).

2. No one knows if they are chosen by God (among his elect).

Answer: From the Calvinist perspective, no one cares about this until they are (in their deadened spiritual state) drawn (raised up) to believe. Once they believe, they either lean to the Arminian or Calvinist view. Imperfect understanding does not disqualify one from being among the “elect.”

3. “How about that puzzling quote from Christ where he tells some followers to get away, he never knew them? ”

Answer: There are hordes of “followers” of Jesus. They follow a distorted picture of Jesus. One example is “as long as you are good and kind to people and work for world peace” you’re a follower.

4. “I have seen “moral” Christian subscribers, I have seen “immoral” Christian subscribers. I have seen “moral” non-Christians, Muslims, atheists, etc. I have seen “immoral” ones.”

Answer: The central teaching of Christ is that one believe that in the shedding of his blood he took upon himself the sins of those whom the Father gave to him (the elect) and reconciled them to (made them right with) with His Father. For Christ, the crucial thing is “believe IN” him; for the world; the important thing is to try and make the world a better place. A Christian, of course, should be good and kind.

5. “I don’t get the part about if you’re a ‘true’ Christian, you will not willingly sin.”

Answer: “Willingly” is not the best way to put it. It’s more a Christian’s attitude, the desire to break bad habits.

6. “I have a bad taste in my mouth from many of the “Christians” I encounter. Most haven’t even fully read the entire book they profess to support.”

Answer: True, most haven’t; they get by on the minimum. If so, they could very well be merely professing Christians.

7. “Of those who have, many do not possess the intellectual capacity to understand, explain or question it. Not saying that should be a requirement, but it would also help to have intelligent marketers to spread your word, that being an act you are supposed to fulfill.”

Answer: All that Christ requires is that you renew the mind you’ve got. The Bible caters for all levels of mental capacity.

8. “I am hurt every time a “Christian” approaches me to attempt conversion, yet runs as fast as he/she can when it is my turn to espouse my dogma. Seems unfair and narrow-minded. Are you guys afraid to hear other viewpoints? I welcome and respect your right to speak and share, but please- afford me the same respect when it is my turn.”

Answer Christians who do this are pathetic. Most do not do this. “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15).

9. “At the end of the day, we all arrive at our personal dogma through the same untested means, and therefore, should afford one another equal respect. If I disrespect yours, I am in effect disrespecting my own.”

Answer: Most religions hold that there exists a personal God who communicates with mankind. This communication must be consistent. As religions contradict one another, only one can be right (I’m talking about hose who have a religion). You believe in “your truth my truth.” In other words, truth is subjective, it’s what you feel. Christians and most other religions teach objective truth – distinct from your heart and neurons.

Arminians who confuse and refuse: free will in coming to Christ (onedaringjew.wordpress.com)
Archibald Alexander and how we come to faith: Thank God that he never depends on human understanding to bring us to faith (onedaringjew.wordpress.com)
The Chimera of Neo-gnostic Calvinism (onedaringjew.wordpress.com)
Passive Christianity (davidstheology.wordpress.com)

6 responses to “Objections to Calvinism and Christian behaviour”

mariamaria3

October 3, 2012 at 9:40 pm

I have been writing just the opposite without reading your post on roshapina blog…isn’t funny? My heart and neurosis [neuronal*** slip? From Bography] tell me you are wrong but than we both are right in the general kind of Christian faith. The only objection then is…why are you so wrap up in this arminian not arminian topic. It is going beyond fair play of objective truth. Are you in need of some meditation that goes beyond the pure exercise of mental faith? I worry for your general well being. You are becoming an example of what can happen if you are tooo much in reading only scripture.

It’s funny because the next email in my queue read: “The Creedal Imperative: “No Creed but the Bible.”

The Creedal Imperative: “No Creed but the Bible”
POSTED BY ROB VENTURASHARETHIS
For those of us who love and use a historic confession of faith this looks like it will be a great read and that which will assist our people who make up our churches.

http://www.wtsbooks.com/product-exec/product_id/8466/nm/Creedal+Imperative+%28Paperback%29

POSTED OCTOBER 3, 2012 @ 4:14 PM BY ROB VENTURA
TOPICS:

***neuronal = brain stuff. “My heart and noggin?”

Reply
1. bography
  
  October 3, 2012 at 11:50 pm
  
  I’ve written over 370 posts. Less than 20 are on the Arminian issue. It’s one of my topics. It is a crucial issue in understanding what it means to be crucified with Christ. As for your “too much in reading scripture.” That is the greatest compliment you could pay someone who believes that all scripture is God-breathed and is sufficient for godliness. I infer that you, as a Roman Catholic, suggest I read papal bulls.
  
  Reply
mariamaria3

October 3, 2012 at 9:49 pm

Oops…..actually you are doing better in this last blog…I am soooo apt to hear always the same things from you on this topic that I didn’t catch the nuances about this blog this time…wowwww….what a concieted bad reader I can be…pardon deeply pardon…

(Please take out some of the smiling faces)

Reply
mariamaria3

October 4, 2012 at 2:21 am

No not papal bullsss…:-)
No I was speaking about be more in meditation with the praying of the Rosary…admire more the beauty of nature while speaking to the birds or the cats you have around 🙂 as Saint Francis. Be more in the old kind of monastic life of pure souls united with simplicity of mind…Be more like a child ( wowww this is part of the scripture) and less as a scribe. I don’t know I have some problem with dyslexia or I wanted to read neurosis because it was more in rime in your post with the heart…
I actually perhaps meant to write neurosis…Why not it is part of the female spectacle that we have in store in more or less wrong or right prejudice.
By the way this is what I read in your link:
“ Recent years have seen a number of high profile scholars converting to Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy while a trend in the laity expresses an eclectic hunger for tradition.”
I have to tell you I am als a witch? if not a saint 🙂 This is what I was sending you in my subliminal way…not what came to you as first headline reading . I am all for the Holy Scripture..it is the way the Scriptures are read and misused I am not. I am also for the open up of the strangeness that happens if you see how the books operates outside of the pages for people who without knowing the books so well have given more fruits than the people who knew the books so well…It is about not taking out the LIFE of The WORDS and then the words taking the life out of you? It is about simplicity in being open to possibilities that if they are from God are far beyond any open page of His own Book. And by the ways who is going to read papal bulls  If you read them it is only because you want to be certain that the pope was not for example too guilty of not defending the Jews during WWII…it is only for historical investigation that actually someone who is not working for the pope reads them…and this means it is only in controversy. I would not want you to read too many of them 🙂

Reply
1. bography
  
  October 4, 2012 at 3:18 am
  
  Maria, me mystical over cats? I’m gonna tell Misty what you said! Who needs words?
  
  Thinking about thinking mystically: the cat with at least nine Dads
  
  Thinking about thinking mystically: the cat with at least nine Dads: Water Colour version
  
  Reply
2. bography
  
  October 4, 2012 at 3:02 pm
  
  Maria, you advise me to feed my senses (nature, etc). You can’t like John of the Cross?
  
  The Night of the Senses: Belief and Understanding in John of the Cross
  
  Reply

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bography

I am a Jew. I live in South Africa. My parents immigrated to South Africa from the Russian Empire when they were children in the early 1900s. I converted to Roman Catholicism at university. I’m now of the Reformed Christian faith. (You’re, you’re, you’re not a Calvinist are you? No I’m a monergist, that is, I had zlich to do with my regeneration). I studied philosophy, French and linguistics, and taught at schools and universities. My main interests are the Jews (of course) and Reformed theology and how the latter relates to Judaism and Roman Catholicism. My favourite writer is Martyn Lloyd Jones. I also learned a great deal from Art Katz, Lewis Johnson and Paris Reidhead. My theology has been mostly influenced by Martyn Lloyd Jones, S Lewis Johnson and John Macarthur.