The Calvinist-Arminian debate

[alanmolstad]

Originally Posted by TheSword99

You can go back to playing with Alan.

See, I was hopeful to "tap out' and watch you ...

Im not sure I have much interest left to add to this topic.
and the fact that I have now BLOCKED forever Billy seems to be a sign that this topic has run along as far as its going.

I dont have any of the notes I made on this topic left over from 25 years ago and the other side of the country...and my memory is not that great at topics like this that I dont have any real interest in.

But then again....

Perhaps that "indifference" to this topic is why i don't get swept up very easy in the debates over it?

one of the things i do remember from my cl*** is that we had this one guy in the cl*** who was dead serious that the Calvinist position was the only correct one.
He was so sure of this that he went so far as to even question the christian faith of people that disagreed with him.

Well, if you know me at all, you know that is like ringing the dinner bell to me..."I GOT TO MESS WITH THAT GUY'S MIND"

I raised my hand after one of his long-winded answers about the depravity of man, and asked..."Whats the difference?"

at first he didnt catch the meaning of my question, but I went on to ask,,"Whats the real final difference between the Calvinist-Arminian positions?

Before he answered, i interrupted him with the answer "NONE!
There is no difference between if one is right and the other is wrong.
There is nothing different about these answers in the long run.
They change nothing.
They add nothing to the christian faith.
It doesn't matter squat if one is right and the other is wrong, because nothing changes no matter what answer is correct.
I mean, what changes even if they are both wrong?.....
ZIP!
Nothing!
in fact if both are wrong.....Nothing changes about anything.
Life goes on, and I still have to mow the gr*** today"

Over the years I have come to see the whole Calvinist-Arminian debate as academic only.

Its a minor concern for guys who study things like this , but for the vast majority of Christians this is a meaningless debate over details that offer no comfort to anyone.

in other words, it doesn't matter who is right, because in the end nothing changes no matter what anybody says...

There is however a danger present whenever this topic pops up.
The danger is that there are some Christians who lean to the extremes, and do their best to represent the Lunatic Fringe, and seem to use this debate as a way to attack other Christians to the point of calling into question each other's faith.

That is really my only interest in this debate.
I just seek to make sure that guys like the one in my cl*** that felt so smug in their views dont have a chance to burden others with this same smugness.....