Hi Fred,

Nice to hear from you again.

Regarding your first disagreement:

It is true that we act according to our nature, but not all of our choices have been determined beforehand. There may be outside forces influencing us to make a certain choice, but we can still choose otherwise. (Temptation is a good example.) The people of Israel really could have chosen not to have sacrificed their children. Yes, they acted according to their sinful nature, but not everyone sacrifices their children because they have a sinful nature.

As to your second disagreement: No, nothing surprises God - not even the rebellious actions of men which are contrary to His will. God is in full control of the situation as he pronounces judgement on the people (Jer. 7:34). However, this does not mean that God caused the sinful actions by an unconditional, efficacious decree.

Thirdly, I would have thought that the DVD illustration best fits the deterministic view of Calvinism: God creates the DVD (all future events, actions, choices of men, etc.) and then plays it at the beginning of the world so that everything which will happens has been set in eternity past. The Bible, however, portrays God as acting with (and reacting to) his creatures. Please read "God's purposive will" in Section 3 of my paper on determinism and freedom.

Yes, God foreknows and foreloves his people, but he also foreknows future events (Is. 44:7) and human actions (Ps. 139:1-4).

Fred, I'll get back to you on 1 John 2:2.

Yours in Christ,
Michael