False misrepresentation
Actually it is consistent Calvinism.
False misrepresentation
Many are called,as you insist.
Few are chosen,as Immanuel taught.
Okay, let me put it this way.
The story of Joseph beautifully illustrates the sovereignty of God. From a human perspective, every character acts out of his own motives—Joseph’s brothers driven by jealousy, Potiphar by anger, the cupbearer by forgetfulness. Yet from the divine perspective, each freely chosen action becomes a thread God weaves into His larger purpose. What looks like betrayal, slavery, and imprisonment is actually God orchestrating events so that Joseph will be in exactly the right place at the right time to preserve many lives. Human choices are real, but God’s providence is deeper; the narrative shows that He governs history without canceling human agency.
This truth is meant to be good news. Paul isn’t raising the theme of God’s sovereignty to spark fear or fatalism, but to anchor our confidence. If God could take the tangled motives and imperfect choices of human beings and still accomplish His saving purpose in Joseph’s life, then we can rest our trust in that same power at work for us. Paul wants believers to know that beneath all the shifting circumstances of life stands a God whose wisdom and strength never fail, and that is why our hope is secure.
"YOU" are a parrot that quotes scripture. The Amazon Gray has a vocabulary of 900+ words.
Why don't "YOU" take your SELF out of the equation?
"YOU" might end up sounding Reformed, let alone Calvinist.
But "YOU" will follow up and direct all attention to "YOU."
If likened to a false prophet instead of pointing to God (theology), "YOU" point to "YOU"rself.
Oh great man that "YOU" are, such knowledge and wisdom flow from "YOU."
Can anybody here shine up "YOU"r shoes?
"YOU" throw around Calvinism like the "N" word and appeal to the ignorant that "YOU," the most ignorant, are a podium queen.
How many have "YOU" chased away? How many people have "YOU" brought out the worst?
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I met my one month quota. Spent too much time addressing "YOU," a "TWA (time-wasting hole in space and time)."
That's an insightful question in my humble opinion. The Narrative Theory of God's will argues that God predestines stories. In that perspective, God not only predestines the "opportunity"; he predestines the call, the faith, the response, the life lived by faith, and the inwardness associated with God's transformative work.
Whether God is just depends on whether he wrote a good story.
Really? How does my view contradict the nature of God?
That's an insightful question in my humble opinion. The Narrative Theory of God's will argues that God predestines stories. In that perspective, God not only predestines the "opportunity"; he predestines the call, the faith, the response, the life lived by faith, and the inwardness associated with God's transformative work.
Whether God is just depends on whether he wrote a good story.
I don't know if you are married or not, but if you are: Remember when you were sending out invites to your wedding to all the people who you didn't want to show up? Oh hold on a minute.So God fails, He calls many ....but fails in that only a few are chosen.![]()
Actually it is False misrepresentationActually it is consistent Calvinism.
The worry that election leaves some willing person “unselected for redemption” rests on a scenario the Bible never presents. Scripture teaches that the human desire for salvation is itself the result of God’s prior work—“no one seeks God” apart from His drawing, and “it is God who works in you both to will and to work.” Election does not picture God refusing sincere seekers; it pictures God awakening the desire to seek Him in the first place. Those whom He chooses, He also calls, and those He calls, He makes willing. The very fact that a person longs for redemption is evidence that God has already acted in grace, not that He might refuse them.Cold comfort to the one not selected for redemption.
What about those who seek and convert to Islam? Buddhism?The worry that election leaves some willing person “unselected for redemption” rests on a scenario the Bible never presents. Scripture teaches that the human desire for salvation is itself the result of God’s prior work—“no one seeks God” apart from His drawing, and “it is God who works in you both to will and to work.” Election does not picture God refusing sincere seekers; it pictures God awakening the desire to seek Him in the first place. Those whom He chooses, He also calls, and those He calls, He makes willing. The very fact that a person longs for redemption is evidence that God has already acted in grace, not that He might refuse them.
The worry that election leaves some willing person “unselected for redemption” rests on a scenario the Bible never presents. Scripture teaches that the human desire for salvation is itself the result of God’s prior work—“no one seeks God” apart from His drawing, and “it is God who works in you both to will and to work.” Election does not picture God refusing sincere seekers; it pictures God awakening the desire to seek Him in the first place. Those whom He chooses, He also calls, and those He calls, He makes willing. The very fact that a person longs for redemption is evidence that God has already acted in grace, not that He might refuse them.
True,
but
unconditional election is not supported by scripture,
neither is God picking who He is going to save and who he going to leave in their sins
and neither is regeneration prior to faith.
That's scripture.Yes, the gospel has gone out into the whole world. But only Gods chosen few believe it.
Your objection assumes that election works like a shopper choosing a pot from a shelf—God surveys humanity, evaluates certain “conditions,” and then selects those who meet His criteria. But Paul’s argument in Romans 9 rejects that entire framework. Election is not God responding to pre‑existing qualities in people; it is God creating the people He intends to redeem. Paul’s analogy is not a woman choosing a pot but a potter forming one. The pot does not present conditions for the potter to evaluate; the pot exists because the potter shaped it. In Paul’s theology, election is a matter of divine craftsmanship—God fashioning vessels for His purposes—not divine shopping, where God waits to see what humans will do and then chooses accordingly.
Once election is understood as formation, not selection, the rest of Paul’s logic falls into place. If God is the potter, then the qualities of the vessel—including its repentance, faith, and desire for salvation—are the result of His creative work. This is why Paul consistently describes faith as something God grants, awakens, and brings about. Regeneration prior to faith is not an arbitrary theological invention; it is the natural consequence of Paul’s potter analogy. A pot does not shape itself into a vessel of honor; the potter shapes it. Likewise, a sinner does not generate saving faith from within; God creates it as part of His redemptive craftsmanship. Election, therefore, is not God picking from a lineup of self‑qualified candidates but God forming a people who will believe, repent, and be saved.
Well, I can't speak to that issue directly because there are many different reasons why someone might believe something. But I don't think they are being brainwashed.It is obvious that God predestining souls to hell without them having had the opportunity/offer/invitation to repent/be saved is a bad/evil/hateful story, so the next insightful question is "why anyone would want to believe it?" Because of being brain-washed? Because of projecting one's own hatred onto God? Because of being demonic?
Romans 1:19-21 reveals that the "non-elect" know enough about God to make them fully accountable for their sin.
Romans 1:19-21 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.
For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
I suggest what we witness in the Arminian argument is evidence they do not recognize the truth.As we can see, God has shown the non-elect enough truth to leave them without excuse. But they obviously haven't received the gift of saving faith, so the gospel message is foolishness to them.
According to Paul, the gospel teaches that mankind is foolish of heart and given over to their deluded minds. Romans 1:18-23. So election is not a neutral offer to a person capable of making a free-will choice to accept God's offer of salvation. And besides, the Bible doesn't depict God as making an offer. Paul represents salvation as a spiritual journey, a revelation of God who reveals our salvation from "faith to faith" that is, from the beginning of when we first believe and even as we put our faith into practice, Romans 1:17 God is with us the whole time.He is preferential, exclusionary. His offer of salvation is not really genuine to the non-selected.
This makes for an unreliable, not trustworthy, disingenuous god.
I understand and agree with all of that. But it doesn't defeat what I said earlier.Not good to isolate Romans 9 from Romans 10 and 11.
Best to read the letter without chapter and verse breaks.
In the next chapters Paul says Israel is responsible for its unbelief, that salvation comes through faith, and that unbelieving Jews can still be grafted in if they do not continue in unbelief.
As I already pointed out.
There might be a point behind your question, so if I didn't catch it, let me know. This reminds me of a joke that a Bible teacher once told about a man who jumped out of a high-rise building. On his way down, he could be heard saying, "So far so good. So far so good. So far so good." The point is, it doesn't matter how we start out; it matters how we end up.What about those who seek and convert to Islam? Buddhism?