i know you said no but trust me everything you have posted shows your reformed theology aka Calvinism
Are you a Mormon or a JW because you believe YHWH is the Father or Jesus is our saviour? All theologies contain some overlap but the separation is found in the details...
I scorn the idea of
unconditional election and
unconditional reprobation especially when those who espouse unconditional election refuse to accept that this must mean unconditional reprobation also. The mental gymnastics they use to separate these corollaries is amazing.
I wrote this short pov of
election by merit and reprobation / condemnation by dismerit 5 years ago:
CrowCross;n5391898 said:
Where is your verse that states the opposite of UE?
Every verse that states or implies our GOD is loving, righteous and just.
1 Timothy 5:21 I charge thee before GOD and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the ELECT angels. Since there are elect angels we can assume that the demonic angels were passed over for election or not considered for election. Angels do not presumably have any racial solidarity, ie, they all are holy or sinful by their own choice, not by anyone else's choice. So now we have to answer the question:
were some elected before or after the fall of the Satanic rebellion?
IF they were elected / chosen before the fall then there is no stated reason for the non-election of the others. Unconditional election means ALL were just as acceptable for election as everyone but SOME did not receive it. Unmerited election then also means unmerited non-election, ie, for no lack of merit at all some were passed over for salvation and NOT chosen to be saved if they should ever sin.
What can we make of such a supposition? Can we say it is loving? Righteous? Just? The best we can say is HE is sovereign and if HE chose this way then who are you to argue, which is not a real answer at all and only serves the Calvinist pov and does nothing to further the understanding of GOD's glory but restricts it to HIS sovereignty.. Why teach us HE is loving, righteous and just if it has no meaning in the biggest question in their existence:
Why were some passed over for election!!!
It is entirely possible that the decision for some to receive unmerited election and others to receive unmerited rejection for election with no indication that this decision was loving, righteous or just could have precipitated the Satanic war in heaven for NOT BEING loving, righteous or just so they committed themselves to war, putting their faith in the belief that YHWH was a false god and a liar, unworthy of being their GOD.
This is what
'unconditional' implies.
It implies 'no reason', not just an 'unknown reason' because if there was a reason there would be merit by being on the side of the reason. Unconditional election means they were just as acceptable for election as everyone but did not receive it... that does NOT sound like my GOD at all. IF they were passed over for an evil they did then there is merit to the election of those that were not passed over but who got the promise of election because they did not do that evil!!
BUT, if election was a response to the Satanic rebellion to reward those angels who did not rebel and to pass over those angels who did rebel with the unforgivable sin and condemn them on the spot,
Jn 3:18, then merit makes sense. Their free will rebellion to the command to put their faith in the Son and to love one another which they heard in the beginning
* is the reason they were passed over to be HIS Bride. The free will choice by some to accept HIM as their GOD and to put their faith in in HIS Son was the reason they were elected based upon the merit of this choice to obey the commandment.
*[
1 John 2:24 Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.
1 John 3:8 ...for the devil sinneth from the beginning. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's commentary(#27) says: “
sinneth from the beginning - from the time that sin began; from the time that he became what he is, the devil.”
1 John 3:11 For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. I believe that John is referring to the loving purpose GOD has for each of us:
1 John 3:23 And this is His commandment, That we should believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, as He gave us commandment. ]
Thus we probably have an angelic precedent for election being based upon merit and proper free will decisions being the condition of being elected. And since unconditional election is false in the first people elected, the angels, I strongly suggest that it is wrongly used for sinful men who were also elected before the foundation of the world,
Ephesians 1:4, you know,
at the beginning, the time of the Satanic fall, perhaps, which implies that all the sons of GOD who sang HIS praise at the creation of the physical universe,
Job 38:7 ...while the morning stars sang together and ALL the sons of God shouted for joy? Berean Standard Bible, included me and thee, another definitely non-Calvinist doctrine that is the basis of my whole Christian pov.
Also I repudiate the Calvinist acceptance of the dogma of our sinfulness being inherited from Adam and NOT by our free will decision to rebel against GOD which I contend is the only way to accrue sinfulness to oneself. This evil doctrine makes GOD the creator of sin, a pov Calvinists are comfortable with but which I find to be anathema. If Calvinists see this as enough to reject me as one of their own then that is quite acceptable to me.
Thanks so much for providing this springboard for me to jump into my favourite doctrine, our pre-conception existence, our pre-earthly lives in which we all became sinners before we were sown into this world,
Matt 13:36-39.
