I haven't written anything on here in a while but it's not because of a lack of thoughts, not really even because of a lack of time, but mostly because of a lack of knowing what to say and how. Over the past year I have been studying something that has been a controversy in Christian circles for hundreds of years. Christians have discussed, debated, cast out of the church, hated each other, persecuted, and in some extreme cases killed each other over these issues. So how do I write about something like that? How do I write about something knowing that other God fearing Christians could possibly hate and debate about it which would not lead the church into a closer relationship with each other and Christ but away from each other as it has done for so many years.
So the questions stands, how can I proclaim what I have learned and what could possibly be helpful to others without causing the debates and problems that have ruined Christ's name for hundreds of years? My goal is not to bring strife among other Christians but to cause them to consider what they believe and why they believe it so that when questions come they can stand strong. Not in arrogance of knowing the truth but in love of those seeking to know.
As you might have already guessed or known, my study has been of what some would call Calvinism and Arminianism, although I don't like this terminology it is the most well known. I don't like it because many that claim Calvinism do not hold to the beliefs of Calvin at all and the same could be said of Arminians. Some people like to call it God's sovereignty vs. man's free will. I also find this distasteful because it starts with the presuposition that the 2 are contrary to each other, thus making it a deductive study rather than inductive. Some would even go as far to say it is a study of Grace vs. Works salvation. I would say this person has not really put any time or effort into studying the different opinions and therefore has little to say on the subject worth listening to. If all you are ever told is that cows can fly and all you ever read are books that say that cows can fly and only hang around people and listen to speakers that say cows can fly then you will most likely believe it. But if someone else tells you they can't fly, and you never give them the time of day to explain why they think so, and consider their opinion valid then you have no place saying they are wrong. How can you say they are wrong when you don't even know what they are wrong about? If I lost you on that rampage of an analogy just skip it and forget it. I was only making a small point.
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