For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16 teaches that all who believe will be saved.
Reformed people believe this totally. The issue is, what brings about belief?
We believe that regeneration, or being born again, occurs and causes belief and repentance.
So, there is no issue with this verse and what Reformed theology teaches. The issue is what causes belief.
And, the Bible itself teaches election. You CANNOT get past this. You CANNOT get past the fact that God chooses, either.
The way you try to do it is to claim that God chooses those who choose him, but this is, in essence, a claim that God doesn't choose.
I must conclude that those who deny election are simply deceiving themselves and don't believe what the Bible says.
Or, perhaps they don't read the Bible. Take your pick.
Sarcasm does not prove your point. It actually lends to the impression you're not all that secure in it. And it is not just your behavior that is worthy of that observation. Others here , many who appear to identify with your Calvinist structure of belief, seem to resort to the same manner of speech when someone disagrees with them.
"Whosoever", precludes the one inferring its meaning, exclusive designation for salvation.
- Further, Calvinism's TULIP principle is illogical from the T. Especially as pertains to the idea of exclusive election prior to the world's creation.
When the individual to whom the principle applies, which necessarily includes those called, the Elect, is Totally depraved, they are incapable of comprehending God's call to righteousness and repentance of their depraved nature.
Depraved , adjective
corrupt, wicked, or perverted.
Totally , adverb
wholly; entirely; completely.
Actually, when God our Father is the Creator of all things as we're taught in the Book of
Colossians chapter 1 and particularly verse 16,
For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things have been created through Him and for Him, it then becomes understandable that our Omniscient Omni-Present Omnipotent Father would know for whom the Good News would resonate as divine truth. And conversely , would also know whom among the human population throughout time would not hearken to the leading unto repentance.
However, for man to interpret God predetermined and named a select number whom He would save from eternal damnation before the property leading to damnation came into the world through one man, that then makes God's Omniscient , Omni-Present, Omnipotent character appear to be incompatible with Omni-Benevolence.
Calvin's teaching as well as Augustine's , wherein Augustine went so far as to say not only did God predetermine whom He would save before something to be saved from entered the world, but he also imbued his chosen one's whom he predetermined to save with the ability to repent so as to adhere to that plan, make this life and all who are in it mindless pawns in a celestial game of bloody chess.
If one believes in the Calvinist doctrine in any form. And to do so necessarily must abdicate logic when realizing the import of the first letter of the TULIP principle that encapsulates the entire doctrine.
Now, some, because I have traveled much and engaged in discussions with many people of my faith, believe that it is God's right to create such a game because God is the Creator of all things and all things are then of God, as the Colossians passage informs. Further, many have pointed out, if we recall the trials of Job we realize that even God's adversary, ha Satan, can do nothing without God's permission. Including causing the death of the immediate family of Job. His wife and children. All so as to test the faith of one man.
However, investing the Calvinist formula in that parable of Job, which occurred under the Hebrew faith's principles, Job would have already been one of God's Elect. Therefore, he would have been impervious , according to Augstine's doctrine, to the leading to lose faith when his faith was God given and thus an innate part of his being. And of course, God's Omniscience , as ha Satan would well have known, insured ha Satan would lose the wager he proposed to God from the outset.
God's Sovereignty is real. However, Calvinism and doctrines that copy much of its template, manipulate that characteristic of my Father into one of a Sadistic Ogre that creates man, predetermines man's fall by planting one tree Omniscience knew would be eaten from, so as to have entered into the world the characteristic opposing divine law, so as to expel from paradise the first humans created that they enter into a paradigm of damnation first and foremost, to then generations later necessarily have to navigate properly according to divine laws that would permit them to return to their divine state, if they had properly navigated the fallen world so as to warrant God's forgiveness, and thus return to the innocent pure sinless condition they'd previously enjoyed briefly in life, only this would occur after they were dead.
Have you ever seen that marble game? It's a small plastic framed game wherein it looks like pinball, but it has shapes and sizes of barriers throughout the game surface. And the little silver marble must be manipulated by that one holding the small frame that is the game, so that the marble makes its way through requisite paths in order to accrue points and thus win the game.
That's the analogy Calvinism exports. Only that poor human that is the silver ball unbeknownst to them have already been determined to either navigate those pathways correctly so as to win the challenge of rolling across the board. Or, not.
Calvinism also forgets to mention one thing.
For someone to accept Calvinism for themselves as a doctrine of truth, they would necessarily have to agree that Jesus' command to his Apostles that they go forth into all the world and minister the good news was not necessary. When the sinners of the world in mass are already either saved or damned prior to this world being created, there is no need for them to come unto repentance, nor hear the Gospel. Because the greatest power in all creation anywhere has already saved them or damned them and before He then, because this is requisite for the Calvinist template to exist, has created the cause for them to first and foremost come to be damned or separated from God the Father; sin.
For without sin, there is no thing any one need to be saved from.
This means, the Book of John chapter 3: 16 is a misnomer. Whosoever, cannot apply at all ever when God has predetermined only the Good News only resonates with those designated to receive grace. And that makes grace not a free gift but rather a preconceived appointment.
John Calvin was from a paternal line that was of note and prosperous in France. It makes sense he'd create God in his image and likeness.
That does not mean God fits that framework.
And woe to those who believe God created man as a plaything for his whim of saving or damning according to His divine world before the game, life on this planet, began. Because the tenets of Calvinism make my Father out to be that which believers in Calvinism's proffer something all but its defined Elect need saving from.
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