Derek Vester

Cheryl, 1. Pretty much. I think we are still deceived in a sense but we absolutely know we are doing wrong. 2. Don’t like the chess player analogy. I don’t pretend to know how this works but I think our choices are ours and that God doesn’t just use them or know an infinite number of things we might do but that He is actually Sovereign over them (our choices). Don’t know how this works out, I admit. 3. I agree w/most but I don’t think God allows or prevents necessarily, I think He simply does. His decreed will cannot be thwarted. His desired will can obviously or everyone would go to heaven. 4. I don’t see anything here I disagree with. 5. Kind of. Anything good we do is from God as no one does good and our “good” works are filthy rags. So yes, hardening in my opinion is God removing more of His goodness. If He does remove Himself we would actually become “totally depraved”. Right now I think we are “radically depraved” and not as depraved as much as we possibly could be. 6. Not really. I know we all sin. I know the penalty for sin is death. I know apart from coming to God we will go to hell. I know we are dead in our trespasses and cannot come to God as no one seeks God. I know God chose us before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless (those chosen obviously). I know everyone not chosen will go to hell because they willfully sin against their creator. Their throats are open graves. I know God is and does what He wills. I know God’s decreed will cannot be thwarted. That is it. I don’t know everything obviously and I am always willing to change my view if corrected from Scripture. Also, I am not chained to Calvinism. I am a Christian who agrees with the Calvinistic doctrines I have been exposed to thus far. I listen to many different types of people and I especially do not just read from Calvinist. I know you don’t think all Calvinist do that stuff but I did want to clarify. I hope this helps. I am sorry. I just don’t have all of my thoughts worked out completely on this side of heaven and I suspect God will continue to teach me. 🙂