What's Wrong with Calvinism?

"I" is a problem, because it REMOVES "Free Will" and makes people mindless robots. "P" may not be accurate.
Which to me means that we do not chose... one way or another... the decision is made for us.= mindless robots =Stepford people.
First, feel free to reject “I” with my blessings (the good part about the belief in the sovereign Monergism is that I am under no obligation to convince anyone of anything). That said, I would offer another possibility for your consideration:

Irresistible Grace (I) is first and foremost “GRACE” (unmerited favor). Thus it is a gift from God to people (like salvation).
  • There are people (Methodists) that believe in Prevenient Grace … the idea that God grants all people a special blessing of grace that frees them from the bondage to sin just enough to allow them the genuine Free Will to hear the gospel and choose for themselves to accept or reject it.
  • There are people that believe that “the gospel is the power unto salvation” means that HEARING the Gospel bestows within itself the grace that enables people to freely believe (overcoming the curse and sin and world we live in).
  • Neither of these groups of people are “Calvinists” or embrace “TULIP”.
I only mention them to posit another view: what if God were to grant a gift (GRACE: unmerited favor) that EMPOWERED people to believe? A gift that transformed a mind naturally hostile to God to a mind that naturally desired the things of God. What YOU call “a mindless robot” is a soul freed from bondage to sin and death. What you call “Stepford people” are really people that have their “heart of stone” (dead heart) replaced with a “heart of flesh” (living heart) … they have been granted “eyes to see and ears to hear”.

The issue is not that they now MUST follow God, but that now they CAN follow God. One does not need to force a freed slave to desire freedom, they only needed the opportunity to embrace it.
 
Not so sure about that.
Humans ARE depraved Spiritually, and ARE UNABLE to repent or dry out IN FAITH without God's intervention (Rom 10:7). "U" is problematic, since there DOES appear to be a condition / motivation involved in God's application of "Conviction of SIN - (Rom 9:14-18)
"L" is a simple FACT atonement, while SUFFICIENT to be all inclusive is limited to those who repent and call upon God in FAITH.

Sin has been dealt with in Christ. That "Sin" isn't at your discretion to insist still applies to anyone.

God forgave this world in Christ. He has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

US. Not Him. US.

So don't take this responsibility that God has given to US and place it on God.
 
Not so sure about that.
Humans ARE depraved Spiritually, and ARE UNABLE to repent or dry out IN FAITH without God's intervention (Rom 10:7). "U" is problematic, since there DOES appear to be a condition / motivation involved in God's application of "Conviction of SIN - (Rom 9:14-18)
"L" is a simple FACT atonement, while SUFFICIENT to be all inclusive is limited to those who repent and call upon God in FAITH.
What man may do



Man may repent

Jeremiah 31:18-19
I have surely heard Ephraim’s moaning: ‘You disciplined me severely, like an untrained calf. Restore me, that I may return, for You are the LORD my God. / After I returned, I repented; and after I was instructed, I struck my thigh in grief. I was ashamed and humiliated because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’

Revelation 2:21–22 (LEB) — 21 And I have given her time in order to repent, and she did not want to repent from her sexual immorality. 22 Behold, I am throwing her into a sickbed and those who committed adultery with her into great affliction, unless they repent from her deeds.

Luke 11:32 (LEB) — 32 The people of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here!

Ezekiel 18:30–32 (LEB) — 30 “Therefore I will judge you, house of Israel, each one according to his ways,” declares the Lord Yahweh. “Repent and turn around from all of your transgression, and it will not be as a stumbling block of iniquity to you.

Draw near to God

James 4:8-10
Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. / Grieve, mourn, and weep. Turn your laughter to mourning, and your joy to gloom. / Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.

return to the Lord

Isa 55:6–7Seek Yahweh while he lets himself be found; call him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the man of sin his thoughts. And let him return to Yahweh, that he may take pity on him, and to our God, for he will forgive manifold.

Jeremiah 3:12–14 (LEB) — 12 Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, ‘Return, apostate Israel,’ declares Yahweh. ‘I will not cause my anger to fall on you. For I am loyal,’ declares Yahweh. ‘I will not be angry forever. 13 Only acknowledge your guilt, that against Yahweh your God you have rebelled, and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every leafy tree, and you have not obeyed my voice,’ declares Yahweh.” 14 “Return, apostate children,” declares Yahweh. “For I am your master, and I will take you one from a city and two from a clan, and I will bring you to Zion.



Choose to serve God



Joshua 24:15–22 (LEB) — 15 But if it is bad in your eyes to serve Yahweh, choose for yourselves today whom you want to serve, whether it is the gods that your ancestors served beyond the river, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve Yahweh.” 16 And the people answered and said, “Far be it from us that we would forsake Yahweh to serve other gods, 17 for Yahweh our God brought us and our ancestors from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery, and did these great signs before our eyes. He protected us along the entire way that we went, and among all the peoples through whose midst we passed. 18 And Yahweh drove out all the people before us, the Amorites who live in the land. We will serve Yahweh, for he is our God.” 19 But Joshua said to the people, “You cannot serve Yahweh, for he is a holy and jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. 20 If you forsake Yahweh and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster to you; he will destroy you after he has done good to you.” 21 And the people said to Joshua, “No, we will serve Yahweh.” 22 And Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen for yourselves to serve Yahweh.” And they said, “We are witnesses.”


Choose life

Deuteronomy 30:11–20 (LEB) — 11 “For this commandment that I am commanding you today is not too wonderful for you, and it is not too far from you. 12 It is not in the heavens so that you might say, ‘Who will go up for us to the heavens and get it for us and cause us to hear it, so that we may do it?’ 13 And it is not beyond the sea, so that you might say, ‘Who will cross for us to the other side of the sea and take it for us and cause us to hear it, so that we may do it?’ 14 But the word is very near you, even in your mouth and in your heart, so that you may do it. 15 “See, I am setting before you today life and prosperity and death and disaster; 16 what I am commanding you today is to love Yahweh your God by going in his ways and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his regulations, and then you will live, and you will become numerous, and Yahweh your God will bless you in the land where you are going. 17 However, if your heart turns aside and you do not listen and you are lured away and you bow down to other gods and you serve them, 18 I declare to you today that you will certainly perish; you will not extend your time on the land that you are crossing the Jordan to go there to take possession of it. 19 I invoke as a witness against you today the heaven and the earth: life and death I have set before you, blessing and curse. So choose life, so that you may live, you and your offspring, 20 by loving Yahweh your God by listening to his voice and by clinging to him, for he is your life and the length of your days in order for you to live on the land that Yahweh swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them.”

Isaiah 55:3 (LEB) — 3 Extend your ear, and come to me! Listen so that your soul may live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the enduring proofs of the mercies shown to David.

That addresses the issue of total inability.

Limited atonement simply discusses those for whom Christ has died

Christ died for all.

Hebrews 2:9 (LEB) — 9 but we see Jesus, for a short time made lower than the angels, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that apart from God he might taste death on behalf of everyone.

2 Corinthians 5:14–15 (KJV 1900) — 14 For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: 15 And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.

A ransom for all, as God desires the salvation of all people

1 Timothy 2:3–6 (LEB) — 3 This is good and acceptable before God our Savior, 4 who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and human beings, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself a ransom for all, the testimony at the proper time,

He was therefore making propitiation for all the world's sin

1 John 2:2 (LEB) — 2 and he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Christ is therefore a savior for all the world

1 John 4:14 (LEB) — 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

Titus 2:11 (LEB) — 11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people,

1 Timothy 4:10 (LEB) — 10 For to this end we labor and suffer reproach, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of believers.

Unlimited atonement is not an argument that all are saved but that salvation is available for all.

The verses showing Christ died for all are evidence for unlimited atonement.
 
Back
Top Bottom