Bible Study The Fallacy of Free Will

[Drew]

Drew, why don't you and Protos be the first Arminians in the history of mankind to actually answer the scripture posted by Calvinists and give us your understanding of it? This would be a true miracle. Why do you avoid this scripture? I know, but do you?

It's never happened before. What a great way to make a case for yourself. :D

Dave, do you actually believe what you write? I have been consistently arguing effectively against post after post. Do you honestly think that an impartial observer would read all these posts and claim that I avoid dealing with scripture? As others have pointed out, I am not the one who resorts to character assassination - I will leave that to those who seem to have developed an expertise in that area....

 

[Drew]

Luke 2:1-3 And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city.

Was all the world registered? Even those little villages in Africa? Even the American Indians?

Of course this material does not refer to the whole world. But, (and I know you don't like it when people think and reason according to principles of logic and deduction) the fact that this particular use of "all" does not refer to all people in the world in no way means that the world "all" can sometimes indeed refer to all people. What is your actual point here? It seems that you may be drawing the conclusion that "all the world" can never mean literally all the world, simply because of one instance of metaphorical usage. Is this what you are doing?

To show one example of where "all" clearly does not mean "all" does not do the work of showing that it does not mean "all" in other contexts. This is just not sensible. It is (of course) the case that "all the world" is a metaphor in this context. Please explain to me how this verse supports your position

 

[Drew]

If you would put down your X+Y= stuff, and actually go to scripture to define scripture, you will see that many times God's Word will give you the answers.

I have shown very clearly how this "let scripture define scripture" can be a bit of a trap. I refer readers to the illustration of mine several posts back (the one about the yellow shirts) where I believe I have shown the pitfalls of interpreting scripture.

Dave, you seem to think that the application of common sense reasoning is not the path to take. However, there is an unavoidable act of interpretation that is performed by every reader of scripture. Do you somehow think your reading is not sullied by the very human act of interpretation? The "let scripture define scripture" argument has some merit - but it is by no means a license to abuse common sense and consistency.

Are you prepared to tell us what is specifically wrong with the "yellow shirt" argument as presented several posts back. If I am in error, presumably you will be able to point out this error to all of us.