Over a year ago He Livesposed a question: "Arminians: Why did you choose God?" No one appears to have answered it I wonder why? Perhaps they weren't predestined to!

I have highlighted this post over on my blog.
Adrian Warnock | Homepage | 11.26.03 - 6:03 pm | #

I'm not an Armininan or a Calvinist - kind of a 3 and half pointer Calminian...but I'll take a stab...

Is it because one person just happened to have the right combination of personality, experiences and education-- that one has gifts the other does not possess? Is that not some form of natural election? Or divine election through secondary causes?....Calvinism makes God the sole moral agent and seems to me to remove all responsibility from humans; Romans 1 ("no man is without excuse") seems to contradict this. Thus, choice seems to be part of salvation - now as to why some and not others, this question has possibilities (we'll all be asking God the answes when we get to Heaven - and both Calvin and Wesley now are are in total agreement as to theology, for that matter.) Why are some born blind? Why are some with IQs of 23 and others 123? Why was I born in America and others live and die in a pagan land in another time and place? We could rephrase your question about many issues involving the will of God, chance, and choice. Did God create the mechanism and let it run? (I choose God because of random events leading me to a particualr set of convincing circumstance?) Hmmm, that seems to contradict the many verses about Gods knowing us the womb and the wooing of the Spirit (but is that wooingirresistable - sounds lake rape not romance). But I digress.
I would concede that God may "stack the deck" for his inscrutible purposes - he is, after all, sovereign. But still, the option of rejection (else there is no real responsibility) must exist; you can lead the horse to water, etc.


Is it because one person recognizes his need for God, while the other doesn't? Is that not a humble, righteous act? Is he not then dependent on his own righteousness? Does he not then have something, namely his righteous humility, of which he can boast?

Now this set of questions contains some leaps of logic and non sequiturs. Being humbled is not neccesarily a result of righteousness anymore than being able to see because someone turned on the light makes me an eye surgeon (ok, very ugly metaphor, but lets move on). So to the first question, YES. To the next three NO, NO, and NO.

Now I elect to bid you adieu
Andrew Frye | 12.04.03 - 1:51 am | #

The far more vexing question is why God would choose some for salvation and not others.
Donald Sensing | Homepage | 01.11.04 - 10:35 pm | #