godrulz37

Hello Cheryl, William Huget from Edmonton: I have never heard that John the Baptist was an apostate in the end?! I personally use Judas as a classic e.g. of apostasy, a true believer falling away (he was called an apostle and chosen for the inner circle after a night of prayer, then he became a son of perdition, not always predestined to be one). I agree with you that Calvinistic determinism/TULIP is not biblical and that free will theism (libertarian/incompatibilism vs compatibilism) is also more biblical, logical. In your context, Luke 7:30 (cf. Mt. 23:37) shows that God’s will can be resisted/rejected. Another key is that election is corporate, conditional, in Christ, not individual, unconditional, apart from Christ. Monergism vs synergism is also another divide in the debate. Faith is not a work, contrary to Calvinistic misrepresentations of Arminian faith. It is a condition, the manward, subjective element in appropriating God’s objective grace. Roger Olson, Arminian, has given us these readable books on the subject: http://www.amazon.com/Arminian-Theology-Realities-Roger-Olson/dp/0830828419 http://www.amazon.com/Against-Calvinism-Roger-Olson/dp/031032467X I would also add that God predestines some vs all things (two motifs). His providence is responsive, not meticulous. After over 30 years of study on Calvinism, Arminianism, Molinism, Open Theism, Process Thought, I would suggest that Open Theism (considered beyond the bounds by too many) is a more biblical, coherent free will, relational theism than Arminianism: http://www.opentheism.info It would take a similar approach to Calvinism vs Arminianism (Calvinists are as against Arminians as they are against Open Theists; some Arminians like Roger Olson welcome Open Theism dialogue as evangelical, while others are stridently against it, but usually this is the Calvinistic camp like Bruce Ware, John Piper, etc.).

http://bible.org/seriespage/question-john-baptist-matthew-111-19 I am sure the exegesis varies and is not super-simple. Sometimes it is as much a matter of paradigm as proof text (e.g. Rom. 9-11 does not have to be read from a deterministic, individualistic viewpoint). Cheryl, you sound more covenantalist than dispensationalist on redemptive history (continuity vs discontinuity)?

Cheryl, have you read of someone else who thinks along your lines with JB? I have not run across it. Is it unique to you? I suspect we have not looked at it closely and run with face value assumptions. In my reading on Calvinism vs xyz, I have also not seen this being an issue in the controversy. Perhaps you could TM it and write a book and get rich and famous?

TM=symbol for Trademark (or Transcendental Meditation)

Mild weather at the moment, but had Stormageddon recently. Can’t be too bright to live here. I imagine Ravi Zacharias and William Lane Craig do fairly well with ministry support/wages. You need to get on a global speaking tour or something. Are you still denied tax exemption status for the ministry? http://bible.cc/hebrews/6-10.htm