Originally Posted by lost
From the page http://www.the-highway.com/compare.html

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According to Calvinism:

Salvation is accomplished by the almighty power of the Triune God. The Father chose a people, the Son died for them, the Holy Spirit makes Christ's death effective by bringing the elect to faith and repentance, thereby causing them to willingly obey the gospel. The entire process (election, redemption, regeneration) is the work of God and is by grace alone. Thus God, not man, determines who will be the recipients of the gift of salvation.

First, Please re-read this last sentence and really think about the implicit meaning.

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God, not man, determines who will be the recipients of the gift of salvation.

If God chooses certain people to save, he chooses certain people to burn in Hell forever.

Why would a loving God create an entire planet full of beautiful, humans only to condemn the majority, forcing them to spend eternity at the wicked hand of Satan?

I'm really struggling to understand how anyone could believe this. If anyone has any insight, or believes in calvinism themselves, would you mind explaining this belief to me? As hard as I'm coming down on this, I feel the conclusions I have drawn are not only implicitly stated by the quote from the main page, but are also obviously arrived at when considering calvinistic views.
Perhaps I can answer your question and at the same time interweave Newman's response as well.

1. God, being the Omnipotent God, decrees/foreordains ALL THINGS according to His most perfect eternal counsel and for His glory, including the predestination and election of those who He determined to save and the damnation of those who He determined to pass by. (Ps 33:11; 135:6; Isa 14:24,27; 43:13; 46:9,10; 55:11; Jer 327-19; Dan 4:35; Rom 8:29,30; 9:6-24; 11:33-36; Eph 1:4-13; 2Thess 2:13)

2. Therefore God ordains both election and reprobation, but NOT in the same manner. For the elect who God has predestinated unto salvation, He must work in them through the Holy Spirit to create a new nature (regeneration) and the faith necessary to embrace Christ. However, in regard to the reprobate, they are by nature already under God's judgment due to the Fall. ALL are born with Adam's guilt imputed to them and inheriting a corrupt (dead) nature; aka: Original Sin. God does not work in them so as to force them to sin and then damn them. For an excellent explanation of the historic Calvinist view, see here: Double Predestination.

3. Re: Newman's illustration, unfortunately it doesn't represent the reality of the situation. It isn't that the human race has jumped into the ocean and without a life preserver they would all surely drown. To go with the scenario, the biblical teaching is that the entire human race has already drowned and is lying on the bottom of the ocean DEAD. There is no "life preserver" in existence that could possibly save them. They are stone dead. But God, Who is rich in mercy and grace resurrects some to life (regeneration) and leaves the rest.

4. I strongly suspect that the real problem is not with the doctrine of divine predestination but rather with the doctrine of the Fall and its consequences; Total Depravity.

5. Question: If God hasn't predestinated some to salvation in Christ, then how is anyone saved?

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simul iustus et peccator

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