re: Pope, we must avoid rigid ideologies

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You must be trolling with this. You have not understood anything I’ve said.

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No, it is you who do not understand what you have said.

You make the 6 truths that
we agree on conform to your belief system.

You do not let your belief system conform to the 6 true statements that we agree on.

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he pope needs to stop being woke and start formulating a plan to avoid future misbehaviors of priests while formulating a universal apology to all mankind for the sexual abuse of children across the globe.

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This has been done at least twice.

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He needs to be burned at the stake along with the entire RCC apparatus.

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FIFY.

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This doesn't really respond to the objection.

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I was explaining the premise of the two wills of God and how that is exemplified in the Scriptures by the actions of God.

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Again God desires all men to be saved, and none to perish. But he ordains some to perish and not be saved.

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Yes. Parents experience this all the time when we must discipline our children. We don't want them to feel pain, discomfort, or unhappiness (therefore we don't want them to be punished), while we discipline them for their good, causing them pain, discomfort, or unhappiness (there we do want them to be punished). We act against our desires or even have conflicting desires for a greater purpose. God does this too, according to His justice, for one, and mercy, for another.

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edIt: where does it say that God doesn't want his son to suffer and die?

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When God commands against murder and hatred, He was commanding against the actions of the Jews who sought to kill Jesus though He was innocent. God commanded against injustice, yet ordained that injustice by man would result in the death of His Son. He commanded against murder yet ordained that Christ be murdered for the sake of His people. God commanded against lying yet ordained the lies of the Pharisees that led to Christ's unjust death. God desires obedience to His perfect law yet ordained the disobedience that resulted in the death of Christ.

If God does not desire the death of the wicked, how much more does He hate the death of the righteous?

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Ok so let me get this straight. God loves everyone but to show us his mercy he punishes people for all eternity? How exactly is that a loving God?

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"God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" -Rom. 5:8

God is a holy and just God and He must punish sin. He either punishes sin in the sinner, or in the perfect son, Jesus Christ. Christ is loved above all by the Father and yet had the wrath of God poured out upon Him for the sake of love and justice; love of the elect and for justice against sin to be satisfied. So God's wrath is demonstrated to not be incompatible with God's love.

God has a general love for all image-bearers, but a saving love only for His people, whom are called the elect and the bride of Christ.

Love is but one of the perfect attributes of God.

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The only way we can be saved is by being born again, but this is not a free act because our desires are necessarily against God.
God moves us to salvation, we don't choose it on our own.
Some aren't moved to salvation, and will be condemned to eternal separation from God.
Yet scripture clearly states God desires all be saved and none should perish.

I see a contradiction here.

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I'd add just a bit of nuance to what you said. We must be born again (there's no dispute there as Jesus said as much) but our belief is a free act upon being born again. We freely choose to believe because God gives us a new heart with new desires, and we now want to trust Christ and believe in God's promises because we have new eyes to see and ears to hear the good news that exists through His life and death for us. God doesn't "force" us to choose one way or the other; our natures determine what we will choose. Our sinful natures shape our desires against God prior to regeneration, and our new natures given by God shape our desires to love God and trust in His promises.

There is no contradiction at all in this. God has two purposes in His will (called the two wills of God), one being revealed and commanded as perceived by humans, and one being decretive and ordained by God in secret. This is shown clearly in Abraham: God commanded that Abraham sacrifice his son Isaac but decreed or ordained that his son not be sacrificed. In one sense, God desired that Abraham go through with the act of killing his son while in another sense, He did not desire Abraham to kill his son. The only way to reconcile this is with the doctrine of the two wills, and applies as much to the salvation of God's elect as to the sacrifice of Isaac.

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God must be all good, if he predetermines that some will be cut off from him, than he is predetermining an evil. God can't act in an evil way, only good, as it is contrary to his nature.

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You assume that men being "cut off" due to the guilt of their sin is an evil, and yet it isn't; it's justice. God is not obligated in any way to save a single person, and yet He saves many precisely because He is good. God is perfectly good, but He is also perfectly just and must punish sin. That's why I said He either punishes sin in the sinner, or He punishes sin in Christ. That's the whole point of the gospel, that God gave a sacrifice for sin in Jesus.

You assume that if God is good that He must provide the opportunity for salvation for everyone, and yet the Scriptures plainly teach that some are blinded to the truth so that they will not be saved. Pharaoh is said to have had his heart hardened by God and Paul tells us that God did this very thing to show His (God's) power through Pharaoh's destruction.

What is in question is not God's love--God shows His love for us by giving us Christ to save us where He was under no obligation to do so--but God's sovereignty and justice. Can God love generally--or even hate some in some sense, like Esau--while not saving everyone? Yes.

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We are drowning and can't save ourselves, he reaches out his hand to save us, but we can refuse to take his hand.

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Except the images given in the Scriptures are more like us being dead. We have already drowned and are lying on the bottom of the ocean. Christ jumps in, swims to the bottom, and brings us back to dry land where He breathes life back into us, and we are so overwhelmed with gratitude and love for Him that we are compelled to follow Him.

Paul says as much in Ephesians 2: "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus"

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I must have missed this.

The argument is simple

God can't do evil, for God to predestine anyone to hell, he is committing an evil act.

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I already addressed this but it is worth repeating: it is not evil to give people the justice that they deserve. All are guilty due to original sin in Adam, and all are guilty of their actual sins that they commit in themselves. God is under no obligation to save anyone, yet is gracious to save many. God's justice is not evil.

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God can permit something without actively desiring it. Simply put God doesn't desire that his only son suffer and die, but he can permit it knowing that through it he will save his people from sin.

In the story of Genesis, God didn't actively will that Joseph's brothers sell him into slavery, but he permitted to happen so that he could save the Egyptian people from famine and save his brothers from famine.

God doesn't actively will that the brother's of Joseph do an evil act, but he allows it to happen so a greater good will happen.

God can desire that all be saved but he permit some to be condemned.

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I'm actually in agreement with you on this, except that "desire" is spoken of in regards to God's will. God "wills" that Joseph's brothers sell him into slavery for the good of the nation of Israel. He "wills" that Christ be unjustly treated and killed so that salvation is brought about. He "wills" that evil occur so that greater good would be brought about.

This is what I'm getting at: God has multiple intentions in His wills, one of command and one of decree.

When God permits a thing, it's because He wills that it occur. Whether you want to use the word "desire" or not is irrelevant to the end result: God ordains that "bad" things happen for "good" ends, which are for His glory and the good of His people. This is true for salvation, as well. He doesn't show mercy to some so His goodness is shown through the mercy He shows to His people. This isn't a problem but a wonderful blessing if we don't assume God owes mercy to anyone or everyone (it wouldn't be mercy otherwise).

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Do Calvinist believe the following

Total Depravity
Unconditional Election
Limited Atonement
Irresistible Grace
Perseverance of the Saints

If you need more explanation see the link I posted above.

edIt: I have issues with all of those beliefs, but I don't have the time to explain why.

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Consistent Calvinists do, yes. Some will reject "limited atonement", but shouldn't, because the atonement is limited in every view: some limit its scope (Calvinists) while others limit its efficacy (Arminians), but the Calvinistic view flows logically from the preceding biblical points.

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Yes.

Only those whom He elects unto salvation will call on His name and believe in Jesus Christ as his savior with a true and saving faith.

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Okay...

Just my feeble little baptist opinion, but that's answering both yes and no to my question.

If only those whom He elects unto salvation will call on His name, then what's the point of witnessing? Why did D. James Kennedy start Evangelism Explosion? If God elects you unto salvation, it matters not whether you get witnessed to or not, correct? You are going to call on his name. And if God doesn't elect you, then you can be witnessed to until someone is blue in the face, and you aren't going to heed the call. That takes away free will and goes against John 3:16, does it not?

Or is EE and witnessing an exercise for the believer, not the recipient?

Seems to me that ANYONE who calls on His name shall be saved, and saying "well, only the elect will call on His name" is a cop out.

Jesus Christ was pretty rigid in scripture.


Is the pope even a Christian? Seriously, it must be asked given statements like that as it pertains to “today’s reality”. What was Rome’s reality and did Paul soften the Gospel for Romans to make it more palatable to hedonism?

This reeks of fear of losing membership and wealth, and it’s not reserved solely for the Catholics either. There are plenty of Protestants who water down the Gospel and sin in order to attract large congregations with large pocket books.

It’s SICK…

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did Paul soften the Gospel for Romans to make it more palatable to hedonism

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Absolutely not.

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As long as we believe that it is faith alone in Christ alone that saves, that's all that matters in the end.

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That is without question. There is no other path other than faith alone in Christ.