ARGH!!! Calvinism makes me furious!!!

Nathon Detroit

LIFETIME MEMBER
LIFETIME MEMBER
Z Man said:
Why? Why is it OK to you if God gives some people cancer, but not everyone?
Because God loves us.

He doesn't want bad things to happen to us He wants good things to happen to us. Why would God give people He loves cancer?

Now we all agree that God allows things like cancer to exist for if He didn't cancer wouldn't exist!

Z Man you would have us believe that God intentionally made a man go blind just so He could later heal him! :kookoo: And then what about all the ones that aren't healed? (bummer for them!)

The Bible tells us that because of our DISOBEDIENCE sin entered the world and therefore death and disease entered the world as well, but Z Man tells us another story. Z Man tells us there is no such thing as DISOBEDIENCE towards God and only strict OBEDIENCE towards God is possible.

To Z Man Adolf Hitler and the Apostle Paul were both equally obedient towards God. Z Man your theology flies in the face of the entire message of the Bible.

So let's try again (attempt number 5 or 6)

In the verses... Le 26:16, 2 Chronicles 21:14-15, 18,De 7:15, De 28:61 which YOU brought up, is God punishing the people in these stories because they were obedient or disobedient towards God?

Just answer the question!!! What do you have to lose?
 

Nathon Detroit

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LIFETIME MEMBER
Z Man said:
Collaborate. I thought the verses I posted proved the opposite.
The verses you posted showed that God DIDN'T do a thing to Job and that David was being punished just as I explained.

Did God punish David and his family because David was OBEDIENT or DISOBEDIENT to God?

The third verse simply says God created everybody and no one is arguing against that.
 

Evee

New member
Z Man said:
What does it matter? The real question is, did God give them a disease?

Answer that, and then we can move on to a different topic, as you seem so eager to do.
I have ran into many people that believe like this.
That every little dot and tittle is ordained by God.
He is the potter we are the clay and it is his right to remold the clay or toss it.
I am pretty sure we have freewill and some of the bad things that happen just happen.
 

Nathon Detroit

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Evee said:
I have ran into many people that believe like this.
That every little dot and tittle is ordained by God.
He is the potter we are the clay and it is his right to remold the clay or toss it.
I am pretty sure we have freewill and some of the bad things that happen just happen.
It's tragic isn't it?

How could a person so carelessly destroy the simple message of the gospel?

Folks like Z Man preach that there is no such thing as being DISOBEDIENT to God. Folks like Z Man think man can ONLY BE OBEDIENT to God. :kookoo:

Yet man's DISOBEDIENCE to God and God's redemptive plan for this disobedience is the central theme of the Bible!
 
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Evee

New member
Knight said:
It's tragic isn't it?

How could a person so carelessly destroy the simple message of the gospel?

Folks like Z Man preach that there is no such thing as being DISOBEDIENT to God. Folks like Z Man think man can ONLY BE OBEDIENT to God. :kookoo:

Yet man's DISOBEDIENCE to God and God's redemptive plan for this disobedience is the central theme of the Bible!
Yes it is very tragic...Think about Hitler and all the other things Man choose to do.
This would certainly be a very cruel unloving god.
My God is fair and loving and many of the things that happen is our own doing.
I have a couple of Calvinist friends and I never talk to them about God anymore it is too frustrating.
I am fine on a message board though.
 

Nathon Detroit

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Oh........ Z Man????

Oh........ Z Man????

So let's try this again (attempt number 6 or 7)

In the verses... Le 26:16, 2 Chronicles 21:14-15, 18,De 7:15, De 28:61 which YOU brought up, is God punishing the people in these stories because they were obedient or disobedient towards God?

Just answer the question!!! What do you have to lose?
 

Z Man

New member
Knight said:
Z Man said:
Why is it OK to you if God gives some people cancer, but not everyone?
Because God loves us.

He doesn't want bad things to happen to us He wants good things to happen to us. Why would God give people He loves cancer?
Knight,

You've opened up a can of worms with this. This is the division that seperates my beliefs from yours. Several thoughts and questions come to mind when I read what you just said. The first thing that came to my mind was, what makes you think that our physical well being is a good thing that God wants us to have? Is our physical well-being important to God's will for us? Why do you believe that it is important for God to preserve our health, and that for Him to do so is a good thing? What standard are you using to judge the preservation of our health as a good thing?

All of these questions, and more, come to mind because I believe that there are way more important things that God wants us to understand or to have than our physical well-being. For starters, looking at the life of Jesus Christ, I did not see Him uphold with great importance His physical well-being. In fact, because He gave up His health and life we can claim salvation through Him. When God converted Paul, God did not hold Paul's physical well-being in high regards. In fact, God told Ananias that He had saved Paul to make him suffer (Acts 9:16). In Paul's life, he spent a great deal of time getting beat up, stoned, and rotting away in prison cells, eventually having his head cut off. Back to Job, God had Satan attack Job and strike him with boils. Job's physical well-being, along with the health of his family, was not important to God. David's firstborn son did not live past seven days. God did not hold the boy's health of upmost importance.

There are several, thousands more examples strewed through the Bible about people who have suffered and died at the will of God. It is obvious that our physical health is not an important factor in our lives. Now I'm not consenting that we all go out and trash our health - I just think it's in error for us to place our health as an important concern for God. I believe the Bible teaches us that God's glory and grace and mercy and salvation and the lessons He teaches us in life take precedent over our physical well-being.

We shouldn't become Christians thinking that doing so means we have a great healthcare plan with God. We shouldn't look forward to a happy, healthy, suffer-free life. If anything, we should expect the opposite!
Z Man you would have us believe that God intentionally made a man go blind just so He could later heal him!
Well, God did have His Son killed so He could raise Him from the dead....

What's wrong with God creating a blind man so Jesus could come along and heal him, displaying God's glory? That was Jesus's explanation in John 9.
And then what about all the ones that aren't healed? (bummer for them!)
It would be foolish of us to say God didn't or couldn't use their blind life for His glory by other means.
The Bible tells us that because of our DISOBEDIENCE sin entered the world and therefore death and disease entered the world as well, but Z Man tells us another story. Z Man tells us there is no such thing as DISOBEDIENCE towards God and only strict OBEDIENCE towards God is possible.

To Z Man Adolf Hitler and the Apostle Paul were both equally obedient towards God. Z Man your theology flies in the face of the entire message of the Bible.
Knight,

I'd really appreciate it if you would not put words in my mouth. I've never stated such a thing, nor do I believe it. I have been on this site for nearly 5 years, and I've seen several cases where you have gotten extremely defensive when others have put words in your mouth, even to the point of banning such people. I would have a lot more respect for you if you would heed your own words.
Just answer the question!!! What do you have to lose?
Your question is irrelavent to our debate. We are debating on the issue of whether God gives people diseases or not (which has been proven Biblically that He does several posts back), not whether or not people are disobediant or not to God.

Why won't you admit after being proven wrong over and over again, that God gives people diseases, despite being obedient or not? Your stubbornness is overwhelming and disheartening.
 

Z Man

New member
Knight said:
The verses you posted showed that God DIDN'T do a thing to Job and that David was being punished just as I explained.
God, through Satan, took everything away from Job and gave him boils. At least, that's what Job said ("The Lord gives and takes away; why accept His blessings and not His adversity" Job1:21-22; 2:10) and the Bible says his theology was correct.

So you're wrong there.

As for David, you failed to see the point. The people of Israel who died from the plague God administered DID NOTHING to receive the punishment, which you say God never does. The same goes for David's firstborn, who died after seven days from a disease given to him by God.

So, again and unsurprisingly, you're wrong there as well.
Did God punish David and his family because David was OBEDIENT or DISOBEDIENT to God?
Did God give the INNOCENT people of Israel, and David's firstborn, plague and disease? Answer that, and we'll move on.
The third verse simply says God created everybody and no one is arguing against that.
Actually, it says He creates the mute, deaf, and the blind. Thus, this verse coincides with John 9 perfectly. God made the guy in John 9 blind, so, as Jesus said, He could heal him and be glorified for it.
 

Nathon Detroit

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LIFETIME MEMBER
Z Man said:
Your question is irrelavent to our debate.
:Zimster:

It must suck to have a theology that is brought to it's knees with such a simple question. :chuckle:

I will now focus my efforts on other folks more deserving.
 

Z Man

New member
Knight,

Do whatever it takes to relieve yourself from the obvious truth of Scriptures that prove you wrong, even if that means changing subjects to distract others from your errors.
 

Nathon Detroit

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LIFETIME MEMBER
Urizen said:
This makes absolutely no sense to me. The only way I can see that a good God would allow evil things to happen is that he knows the outcome and therefore knows when something seemingly evil will ultimately create a greater good. Apart from that knowledge how would he not be as morally bound as any of us are to strive to always fight evil and relieve suffering wherever we find it.
So your alternative is a God that ordains every evil event for all of time??? :confused:
 

Nathon Detroit

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Hey Urizen, just to make sure I know where you stand....

Do you believe that God ordains every event that occurs?

Every movement of every molecule, every thought of every human, every action for all of history without exception?
 

Evee

New member
Knight said:
Hey Urizen, just to make sure I know where you stand....

Do you believe that God ordains every event that occurs?

Every movement of every molecule, every thought of every human, every action for all of history without exception?
If that be the case there would be no reason for punishment because it is all God's fault.
It is God's fault that little children get molested by pervs even the pervs are God's fault because he ordained that too.
There would be nothing to repent of because it is all God's fault.
See how ridiculous this all is.
Sorry I jumped in but... :confused:
 
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godrulz

Well-known member
Hall of Fame
Urizen said:
Ok, here's precisely what doesn't make sense to me, and let's take the Hitler thing as an example.

People seem to be saying here:

1) God allows the rise of Hitler and the ensuing Holocaust as a part of his pre-ordained plan knowing that as horrible as the events are, they will ultimately work towards a greater good = God is cruel and unloving.

2) God allows the rise of Hitler and the ensuing Holocaust, not as a part of any plan and in fact having no firm idea of what the consequences will, but only out of a desire to preserve "free will" = God is kind and loving.

This makes absolutely no sense to me. The only way I can see that a good God would allow evil things to happen is that he knows the outcome and therefore knows when something seemingly evil will ultimately create a greater good. Apart from that knowledge how would he not be as morally bound as any of us are to strive to always fight evil and relieve suffering wherever we find it.

Logical fallacy: false dichotomy...there are other cogent explanations/possibilities...
 

Catatumba

New member
Knight said:
OK… I gotta vent.

I try to be calm and I try to be patient with those that credit bad things to God via Calvinistic theology. But there are some times I simply can’t be patient or cordial because this twisted sick, perverted theology is sometimes too much to handle.

Today I was listening to a Christian station on the radio. And there was a public service spot which featured a woman explaining a heart wrenching story. She explained that she was diagnosed with Leukemia on her child’s first birthday. She explained that she was treated with intense chemotherapy. She went on to say that she was comforted by God (which of course is fantastic). But then she said that God have given her the cancer so God would also give her the strength to get through it.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! :shocked:

Can you imagine that?

Can you imagine a women actual thinking that God had given her cancer???

That is just plain sick!

What ever happened to understanding that it was man’s sin (our rebellion) that brought sickness and death into the world? What ever happened to placing the responsibility for bad things with mankind? So now God is a disease dispenser? :confused:

People are just plain stupid.

:dunce:
And how do do know it's John Calvin's systematic theology? :wave:
 

Nathon Detroit

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Urizen said:
Now, this conclusion can be undermined by disproving any of the following of my premises:

1. God is omnipetent.
2. God is good.
3. Failure to take action to prevent an evil, is itself an evil.

Or by providing an alternative conclusion, wherein though for a man to fail to take action to prevent evil is evil, God is somehow exempted from this in some other manner than through exhaustive foreknowledge.

So does that sum it where my thinking is at this point somewhat coherently? And I'm certainly open to comments/critiques of any of the above..
For God to not allow evil God would have to force our cooperation and therefore remove our ability to have a REAL two way relationship with Him.

Without the ability to reject God and His commands we would essentially have to be put into confinement which is the definition of hell.

Which is why God isn't always there to stop us from hitting the ground when we fall off our bikes or keep us from saying hurtful things to the ones we love.

Instead, God has opted for delegating authority to institutions i.e., Government, Church, Families etc. God has given His authority and instruction to these institutions to perform His will. Sadly (as you are well aware) many (if not most) of these institutions have failed God's instruction.

Which illustrates the point so perfectly...

If Calvinism is true these failed institutions aren't failing at all! They are instead perfectly fulfilling God's will. Yet according to the Bible governments, churches and families consistently reject God's will and grieve God.

Ultimately it all comes down to this... does there exist one single thing that is contrary to God's will? If you answer "no" the consequences are obvious, you end up like Z Man thinking that abortion, homosexuality, murder are all perfect executions of God's will.

The Bible (from cover to cover) is the story of man's DISOBEDIENCE not man's OBEDIENCE to God. But to disobey we must have been given that ability by God and apparently God wanted us to have that ability.
 
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