Calvinist Kitchen...stirring the pot

I am very conservative in how I 'receive' so I don't think we quite agree on the use of the word 'open' in the sense you mean it if I understand you correctly.

I take Jesus warnings about deception to be one of the most important things He says to us.

We are not to turn off our minds, we are to renew our minds by the Bible and then we are able to prove what is God's will. We do not have to chase around looking for the will of God. God's will does not change and if a person has the bedrock of the word upon which to stand, they will not be easily swayed or fooled.

That is what I think, believe and try to live by.

Sorry, I'm going to have to call this what it really is....total BS. No one believes this BS. God calls and draws all, we don't force his hand or demand him to do anything. He offers a gift of salvation to anyone and all that believe upon his Son...We either accept or not....How is this so hard to comprehend? Why twist all the scriptures to try to make it fit a fatalistic view of some man?

but the Bible can be a very confusing book. look at CC, look at all the denominations. ☺

This is part of the free will’ers problem, they truly believe man is autonomous: self governing or without outside governance, acting without ANY outside influence or limitation. This is an unbiblical, pagan view of the will of man. One only needs to read the Bible to see the will of man is fallen after Adam and Eve, like a disease that plagues all mankind. His will, his reason and his logic, his heart mind and soul, is evil continuously in need of cleansing. Cleansing offered only by God the Spirit who comes to whom he wills, when he wills and why he wills, for his own glory that no man may boast.
Sorry free will’ers, you’re not autonomous, you’re not gods who resurrect yourselves from the dead, who remove your own hearts of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh, who summon God the Spirit and command Him to dwell within...

It is high time to admit that BOTH free will and God's will are indicated in the Scripture, one not contradicting the other.

but the Bible can be a very confusing book. look at CC, look at all the denominations. ☺

Some of that comes from diversity in personal convictions because of varying degrees of faith, and was foretold in Romans 14.

I prefer the term self will, since man's will is constrained by many factors...

To be fair, some of them believe God in a sense drove them to the voting booth, and there they cast their vote. In fact, every single person who has ever lived has voted there, have gotten their "I Voted Today" sticker and have gone on their merry way.

Yes, they have reduced the Gospel down to this utter nonsense, even to the point of teaching they chose God out their will a complete denial of John 1:13, and at the same time God saw they would choose Him so he reacted to their work, and saw they merited Him giving them eternal life.

Some teach God saw them vote for Him, and then based on that gave them eternal life, because God saw in time they would in fact do this.

But then they teach at the very same instance "Well, I coulda not chose Him too."

Ummm. Hmmm.

Bottom line is that none of those things represent the true Gospel, nor a solid understanding of the grace of God which is neither willed by man, merited, or owed.

God being Sovereign is not ungodly or distorted.

It is those who continue to worship their own will that have the distorted view that comes from an ungodly place.

And yet what we have seen throughout history is separation between those saved and those not.

God is not strong enough to make His Desires come to pass?

We know God is strong enough to make his desires come to pass. We know it is his will that all be saved. So there has to be an explanation as to why some wont be saved....And that is because they choose not to accept the free gift that has come upon all men.
Romans 5:18
Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.

ALL means ALL...just saying

Well, if God has decided against granting it one has NO choice so why even bring it up, except to gloat of your exceptional status?

The bible explains the reasons why a person will not be saved but I don't believe that the bible actually mentions a particular person who is indeed condemned for all eternity.

Just because one hasn’t been granted repentance yet, doesn’t mean he won’t in the future. Perhaps the first step in realizing his repentance is worldly, not unto salvation, is being informed that such a thing exists, that there is a difference between God granted repentance and worldly repentance.

God being Sovereign is not ungodly or distorted.

It is those who continue to worship their own will that have the distorted view that comes from an ungodly place.

boggles the mind it does

if, as tulip states, one cannot be saved unless first regenerated, then why do you now state a person can think for themself if presented with the option of God granted or worldy repentance

I don't suppose you saw that you did that though. The truth still manages to escape through the well groomed tulip gardens

“But the objection is not yet resolved, that if all things are done by the will of God, and men contrive nothing except by His will and ordination, then God is the author of all evils.”
John Calvin

God's sovereignty is not properly understood within the Calvinist dogma... rather than correctly understand how God works in the affairs of men... and brings His to pass without direct control Calvin makes God responsible for all evil.... Calvin has issues with his own will, and the will of others as did Augustine.

There is some irony in that Calvin who preached the "bondage of the will" had no problem putting other people's will under his bondage.

God in the end did give us "a will" and the ability to choose and this evidenced throughout scripture.

To be fair, some of them believe God in a sense drove them to the voting booth, and there they cast their vote. In fact, every single person who has ever lived has voted there, have gotten their "I Voted Today" sticker and have gone on their merry way.

Yes, they have reduced the Gospel down to this utter nonsense, even to the point of teaching they chose God out their will a complete denial of John 1:13, and at the same time God saw they would choose Him so he reacted to their work, and saw they merited Him giving them eternal life.

Some teach God saw them vote for Him, and then based on that gave them eternal life, because God saw in time they would in fact do this.

But then they teach at the very same instance "Well, I coulda not chose Him too."

Ummm. Hmmm.

Bottom line is that none of those things represent the true Gospel, nor a solid understanding of the grace of God which is neither willed by man, merited, or owed.