Between the Bars: Comments on 'Calvinism'https://betweenthebars.org/posts/commentfeed/20722011-10-25T15:46:59ZComment2011-10-25T15:46:59Zlru/people/show/242tag:betweenthebars.org,2011-10-25:/posts/2072/calvinism/comments
<div class='comment'>
<a name='c647'></a>
<div class='commentbyline'>
<table>
<tr>
<td>
<a href='/people/show/242'>lru</a>
</td>
<td>
<span class='comment-date'>Posted 12 years, 5 months ago.</span>
</td>
<td>
<a href='/comments/comment/647/flag'
class='comment-flag'
title='Flag comment'> </a>
<span class='favorites-control'>
<a class='favorite-button'
href='/comments/mark_favorite_after_login?comment_id=647'
title='Mark as favorite'><span style='padding-left: 10px;'>Favorite</span></a>
</span>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<div class='commentbody'>
Just read your poem on Calvinism.<br /><br />It echoes my own struggle with it as well. There's a rest and a peace when I believe it, and yet the justice side, and the revulsion that others seem to show when they encounter it, make me pause.<br /><br />So far, I think the most important aspect of the "debate" is in the last line of your poem:<br /><br />"Yet our seeing or not seeing is also in the hands of God."<br /><br />I think it is important for me to remember that God has already given me a lot to "see" with. But most of the time it seems that I am like the men on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24:25, where Jesus says to them:<br /><br />"O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken..."<br /><br />That's me. And if I'm slow of heart to believe what is already in front of me (I'm not talking about the lofty things of Calvinism here, I'm talking about practical things like the Sermon on the Mount), then don't I deserve to be blinded? If I won't even believe the light I have, why should I expect more?<br /><br />So far, in my ponderings on this, it seems to me that whether I'm blind or not is more important than whether predestination is true or not. Because even if I have free will, God can still guide my paths by determining how much light I have. If I reject the light I have, He is under no obligation to give me more. And so, in either case, humbling myself seems the only logical action. I can at least pray for and work on that.<br /><br />Thanks for your poem. It was an inspiring summary.
</div>
<br style='clear: both;' />
</div>