The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum Election & the Love of God

Just a note: in general, I think Mike has behaved himself in a respectable manner. He has been honest about his dislike for Calvinism, but the questions he is asking are for the most part reasonable ones.

In addition to that, while he is asking hard questions and giving his honest opinions about what he thinks of our answers, he isn't clearly unwilling to revise his position if his position has been incorrect. I sometimes argue the same way. Simply because I defend something vociferously doesn't mean that I am unwilling to relinquish it if compelled by the arguments. I suspect MikeL is in the same boat right now. He isn't some hard-core Arminian who digs up Calvinist discussion boards for fun. His sisters became Calvinists and, although he doesn't like Calvinism, he wants to learn more about it. It appears to me that the way he wants to learn more about it is by putting it to the test to see whether it stands up to scrutiny. Calvinism does, after all, endorse some positions that aren't immediately obvious to a lot of people. We may have different explanations of why they are aren't immediately obvious, including sin. But that doesn't mean that we should scold anybody who has the audacity to not be compelled by our first few attempts to offer compelling answers to his questions.

So, chill out everybody. We're all adults here, and MikeL is not going out of his way to annoy us. Let's be careful that we don't go out of our way to get annoyed.

Your friend,
John