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Hi Cheryl! 🙂 I’ve been away for a while. Starting to get caught up. I love your challenge to Calvinists. I’ve been using my downtime to work on a project, dealing with Calvinism’s EXTREME view of ‘SOVEREIGNTY’ . What IS Sovereignty? Power and Authority. On the other hand, HOW that Sovereignty is exercised depends on the person possessing it. Need proof? HITLER was SOVEREIGN in Germany. He had absolute power and authority. God IS sovereign, YES, but it is HIS CHARACTER that decides how He uses that power. The Bible says ‘God is Love’. (1 John 4:8) Now what kind of LOVE, even in the human world, of lost sinners, commends a parent for running into a burning building to save ONE child and let the other burn alive? (especially when both kids are in the same room?!) I also did a study on the issue of ELECTION and made a lovely discovery. Something Calvinists might want to find out about. 1) Election is NOT to SALVATION but to SERVICE and BLESSING. How do I know this? Because MESSIAH was called “My ELECT in whom My soul delights.’ *** MESSIAH Isaiah 42:1 Behold, My Servant whom I uphold. 1 Peter 2:6 Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone. Elect and precious. And he who believes in HIM will not be put to shame.” How, might I ask, can Messiah be ‘Elect’ FOR Salvation, when He is the author OF Salvation? Good Angels. 1 Tim 5:21 “ I charge you, before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ and the ELECT angels, that you observe all these things without prejudice- doing NOTHING with partiality. “ First off, these angels were already in heaven. What would they need to be saved for? 2nd, if someone would explain how this verse, as well as Acts 10:34 and Romans 2:11 jibes with four of the five petals of Calvinism’s Tulip? Most specifically Unconditional Election and LIMITED ATONEMENT. Jews/Israel Isaiah 45: 4 “Israel, My Elect. “ Elect to WHAT, exactly? Don’t think too many Jews, then or now, would be over the moon about being forced into salvation by someone they don’t acknowledge. So ‘elect’ has to have a very different connotation than Calvinists give it. In fact, they were the first, through whom God would show Himself to the world. And if you see what is going on in Israel; how they still stand, despite hostile neighbors, content on wiping them off the map. God is still working through that nation. Isaiah 65:9, 22 “I will bring forth descendants of Jacob and from Judah, and an heir of My mountains; My elect will inherit it. ….They shall not build and another inhabit….My elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.” Matt 24:31 Gathering HIS elect from the four corners of the earth. This verse eludes to Jewish and Gentile believers, who’ve survived to the end of the great tribulation, where Anti-Christ’s armies have amassed for a major slaughter. There will be a slaughter, alright, but everyone will be surprised at who the victims will be. Especially the victims. And remember, this verse is speaking of the Great Tribulation. Called, in the Old Testament, “The time of Jacob’s Trouble”. So while there will be ‘tribulation saints’ during that time, God’s main focus will be the Jewish people. The Church; Romans 8:33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s ‘elect’? It is GOD who justifies. The Church was ‘elect’ to be His witnesses, from the Apostles, to all who have believed since. Colossians 3:12 therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility and patience. Titus 1:1 Paul, a bondservant of God and an Apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect. **** As well, there are any number of verses that speak of God NOT showing partiality. IF the L (Limited Atonement) is true, then Acts 10:34, Romans 2:11, Ephesians 6:9, and 1 Tim 5:21 are all lying. In John 3:17, as if Jesus could see Calvinism coming, said, “God did not send His son into the WORLD to condemn the WORLD but that the WORLD, through Him, might be saved. If that doesn’t make the point, I don’t know what will! “So,” demands the Calvinist. “IF Christ died for the world, why isn’t everyone saved?” Because God, being TRULY sovereign, and KNOWING the end from the beginning, WITHOUT having to CREATE situations in order to know their outcome, gave us a CHOICE. It’s called FREE WILL. Joshua said, “CHOOSE this day, whom you will serve.” The Apostle Paul talked about his own battles with his fallen nature and his new man. (Romans 7:15-24) Those things I willed to do, I did not, those things I would not do, I did.” Let me ask the Calvinists on your page this question; If we do NOT have free will, and everything we do, from the Fall, to every tragedy and atrocity that has come after it, is GOD’S doing because Adam and Eve had no choice but to eat the forbidden fruit, then HOW can WE be held morally responsible for a choice we didn’t actually make? Imagine going into court, knowing that you are being tried for a crime that the JUDGE committed and then pinned on you? Would you think that was fair? If there is NO free will, and God was ultimately the author of the fall, then to try and condemn human kind for HIS actions would be THE ULTIMATE INJUSTICE of Time and Eternity, making God THE MOST UNJUST JUDGE. “For God so LOVED the WORLD…” Dear Calvinist, it is time to take your focus OFF John Calvin and put it on CHRIST. John Calvin didn’t die for you. John Calvin didn’t LOVE you. Christ did. Ooops. Sorry. 😮 Once I get going on this issue, my tongue (and fingers) have a mind of their own.