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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Alexander_English" data-source="post: 1569118" data-attributes="member: 18147">I have never heard predestination mischaracterized so completely as I have on this forum, basically all the time.  Especially the trite sound-bite about how "God is not the author of sin!"  One of many sound-bites in the grab-bag of canned replies that just don't reach the heart of the matter.  Of course God is not the author of sin.  Listen to any of Charles Spurgeon's excellent 19th-century sermons on election and predestination if you really want to learn what Calvin taught, or more importantly than what any man taught, what God tells us about the subject in his clear Word.  I think it was about 8 months ago I went deep into arguing about topics like predestination, faith vs. works, etc. on this forum, and no good came of it.I agree this article is all about driving a wedge between Christians, in the name of "educating" the poor, unenlightened souls who do not share 100% of the author's views.  As if anyone would be convinced to change his viewpoint based on this article.  This article would cause anyone with faith in his convictions to simply dig in his heels farther, since the faith which God gave him is attacked.There is a lot I could quote from the New Testament about how we should accept fellow Christians' differences in spiritual beliefs and practices, but it would not profit, and is not allowed on this forum, so I'll leave it at that. All true Christians will be taught by God as Christ said.  As the Holy Spirit spoke through Jeremiah, "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest."  The Lord comes to weak sinners and saves them because He loves them.  Those who are already perfect and righteous don't need Him.  If you think you already know everything, and everyone else is wrong, what more do you expect God to reveal to you?  And would you even believe Him if He did, or would you need to first check with every other fallible human being in your church first to find out what He "really" meant?  If He wrote the law in your heart and everyone will be taught by God, why rely so much on the teachings of other humans beings who are not God?  The big risk I see all of you taking, is you place your faith in man higher than your faith in God and the Bible.  That's not building on the Rock.The saddest and most un-Christian part of the quicksand that is this thread, is the idea of "earning" one's salvation.  The idea that we do not earn our own salvation, but it is freely given to us by God, along with the ability and inspiration to improve ourselves, is one of the biggest things separating the true religion of Christ from every other false religion in the world.  If your religion is just one of thousands of different systems of dogma, honor code, and rituals, where you earn your way into heaven by following traditions, you're not as unique as you think you are.  If you already worked so hard and earned your own salvation, what did Christ atone for?  Do you need mercy and forgiveness, or are you already entitled to get into heaven because you are so good?  The self-righteous are the self-deceived.  Also, you ignore large portions of Scripture, which can be understood truly and independently by those who have ears to hear, and doesn't need to be condescendingly explained to us by other men.  Remember how Christ said, "But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers.  And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.  Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ."  I already know there are canned replies to explain away these verses and defend the traditions of men instead.  The Bible told me that would happen.  Scripture is written in clear language, and God taught me to read.I am not saying the Orthodox church is wrong.  The Orthodox church, as far as I can see, is the closest to the truth which God preserved on Earth, seeing as Protestantism thoroughly corrupted and emasculated itself in its modern form, and I'll just leave the Catholic-Orthodox split alone.  Yet I still consider myself a Protestant because Protestants believe in the authority of the Bible even if as humans we disagree on how to interpret it.  "You idiots have 40,000 denominations" is another one of your canned rebukes of Protestantism, but Protestants are not as obsessively concerned with agreeing perfectly about how to interpret or explain away every letter of Scripture in exactly the same way.  That's missing the point.  Christ came to free us from obsessive legal interpretations of the law so we could worship Him in spirit and truth, not obsess over legal, semantic arguments and look down our noses at others who don't share our exact views.I know your church canonized Scripture.  Who led you to choose those books and write those words?  God did.  God canonized Scripture, not you.  You take too much credit when it really belongs to God.I am not rebuking God's church.  I am rebuking Christians who think their particular church, and only that church, is God's church.  God's people are found in all churches and probably some of them are even currently worshipping elephant-gods in India in a sincere and devoted manner, or even loudly denying His existence, until God leads them to the truth.I hope I am not banned for this post, but if this forum is too fragile to handle ideas like mine, coming from a man who loves God and seeks the truth, then it would be a blessing for God to remove me from it.It's obvious this forum is meant for Orthodox only, but this article is a very poor attempt at evangelizing.  And if it's not an attempt at evangelizing, does it have any purpose beyond simply looking down on others and basking in your own self-righteousness?  Writing like this definitely won't convince anyone to change his mind.</blockquote>

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