Babies have no volition, eh? Hm. That's an interesting one. So, pray tell, at what point do we humans obtain a will?
There are some adults who have no volition either. This is why the Catholic Church defines mortal sin in such a precise manner, i.e., that one must KNOW that what one is doing is wrong (sin), one must choose to do that despite this knowledge, and one must not be under coercion. Babies may be willful in their natural state (old nature) but they are not willingly choosing sin because they have no knowledge that what they are doing is wrong.
Because it seems pretty clear to me that babies are quite capable of acting willfully. Now, granted, they don't fully comprehend the actions they take, and they may be too weak to follow through, but they do act willfully.
That's the whole point, sir. They DON'T KNOW. And this is the difference between Calvinist theology, which places a great premium upon intellectual knowledge, and Catholic theology, which places a great premium upon God's overriding and awesome mercy to all mankind, not just some group of "elect sinners". God is not willing that ANY should perish. I enjoy how my Calvinist friends take that word and make it "any of the elect". My my!
And since every one of them is born post-Fall, every one of them is born with an evil will.
Nope. Everyone is born with a DAMAGED WILL that cannot do what God requires except that He give us His grace.
Augustine in his Confessions actually has quite an interesting description of the sinfulness even of babies, who are singularly selfish and jealous creatures.
An interesting side note. The Eastern Orthodox consider Augustine's writings to be heretical in many points.[/b]
Who does not choose to sin?
Matthew 9:13 But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
I find this verse very interesting. Jesus refers to a group of people called "the righteous" Who were they?
How is THIS possible.
Luke 1:6 And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.
Holy Scripture calls this couple "righteous". Very interesting. Of course, Luther would have called them "dung" but Luther had, IMHO, some serious anthropological problems.
So, I can be saved and still perish in hell. O what a salvation thy god hath provided! A salvation worth nothing.
Agrue it with God. Covenants are conditional. They can be broken. St. Paul has warnings against falling away in every one of his epistles except Philemon. I think what you should be asking yourself is this: if the Calvinist soteriological paradigm is true, how come no one "discovered" it for 1500 years? Are you insinuating that every believer, even the apostles who were taught of Jesus, were either dummies or deliberately left the Faith as soon as Jesus left the earth?
I'm a tad short on time today or I would answer your other question. Perhaps another day and another thread. [/b]
