To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them? …
I doubt Hamlet pondered over the musings of Calvinistic determinism and certainly Ophelia failed to measure the man against one man's truth versus another. "To be, or not to be" or restated as to do or not to do seems to go to a certain inquiry. Why do Calvinists pray? The question has been asked numerous times in uncountable circumstances. To do the will of God or to suffer in obedience seems to be the common reply in so many other words. How can the elect be outwardly known is another refrain. I have asked a question numerous times that never satisfies me with regard to the replies. What happens to men's souls if you refrain from prayer, from entreaties to the LORD, from seeking his favor with regard to the Gospel of Jesus Christ? One fellow replied in honest amazement "why would we not do that?". I considered his answer thinking of a coin toss. Should the coin land on its face, what would be the result? Did God determine how the coin should land and if the decision to evangelize or pray or do any of the things we consider Christian rests on the result of the toss, does it matter at all whether we evangelize or not, that decision also being a determined fate of our existence.
I thought about wearing brown socks today and having scrambled eggs but thinking the LORD had determined otherwise, I settled for no socks and fried eggs over easy. I should have flipped a coin and rolled over.
2 comments:
You ask "Why do Calvinists pray? "
I found it interesting that a devoted Calvinist concluded some recent correspondence with the statement: “Though you blaspheme in your bitterness against His Sovereign grace, I pray He may have mercy upon you.”
I am still trying to figure out what good the man’s praying would have, considering the God to whom he is praying had already predetermined whether he would have mercy upon me or not. And that decision was made before he had created anything.
Maybe it would have been more honest to say he HOPES that God will have mercy upon me – but then again, would that hope be an indication that the Calvinist has more compassion and concern for my eternal well-being than the God he worships?
If you think about it further, the poor man has constructed an idol out of his notion of Calvinist sovereignty in thinking that opposing his theological dogma would constitute some form of blasphemy. I had commented earlier that a lot of Calvinists tend to worship their perceived traits of God rather than God Himself. In this case, he has judged the state of your soul in rejecting what most of the body of Christ refuses out of hand, that of Calvinist dogmatic theology. I think such a soul falls into the realm of a hyper-Calvinist and rather than call for praying for mercy on the man, simply bless him and let him be on his way.
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