Cheryl Schatz

Mark,
You said:

Cheryl,

Final point, we have been discussing many of the calvinist ‘proof’ texts, but have yet to face any of the Arminian ones. You can argue against me and that’s fine, but i need you to show me an alternative from the Bible to back up your position.

I would be happy to provide an alternative from the Bible to support my consistent reading of the text when we are finished the difficult Calvinist passages. I have seen many Calvinists say that non-Calvinists won’t go verse by verse through the Calvinist passages and this is what makes their position strong and the non-Calvinist position weak. They also say that no non-Calvinist has attempted to go verse by verse through these passages. I have no fear of looking carefully at each of the passages that are the Calvinist’s strength. I am ready and willing to do so. The problem that I have had is that Calvinists don’t seem to like to go through the passages with me verse by verse with us paying close attention to the inspired grammar, words and context. In fact I have been dumped by Calvinist apologists who really wanted to go through these passages with me at the beginning and when went through the passages, suddenly they put an end to the conversation. I sit and ponder why that is. It seems to me that when one goes through the passages without a pre-determined Calvinist mindset, the structure seems to fall apart and picking up the pieces just becomes too much for some of them. I think to myself that if I was in that situation I would carry on and either work harder to prove “the truth” or dump my false presuppositions because I love truth more than I love any position that I call my own. Honestly sometimes I wonder if I am an anomaly because so few seem to have a passion and love for truth as stubborn as mine even if the truth that needs to be embraced is outside of my own previously held views.

So yes, I am very willing to go on to other clear passages that are not Calvinist just as soon as we have hit the key Calvinist passages. Does this sound good?