…of Protestants in general and Calvinists in particular, is exemplified by this “argument” I had several years ago via FB messenger. The screencaps below have been so his name and icon do not appear. My words are in blue and his in gray.
Please notice that the absolute arrogance of his position is literally so baked in that he feels justified in using his own subjective feelings to justify it as not being present. It really is quite the study on just how irrational, blinkered, and intellectually calcified Protestant “thinking” is.
And please realise this guy is what I would consider one of the “smart” ones. And he clearly has some level of ability and intelligence in other areas. Unsurprisingly, he was single, and I believe he still is and probably always will be, because that level of rigidity of mind when clearly in an untenable position of logical error, is not anything the female subconscious finds attractive either.
And this is a side note that is not relevant to the entire “once saved, always saved” retarded position that he is arguing for here, but it needs pointing out that a man’s unmovable position of certain true and relevant things, is a very different thing from a man’s rigidity of position based on fear, lack of intellectual ability, and ignorance. One is actually appealing to women, at least unconsciously, even when they may disagree with the man in question. The other is repulsive, instinctually, even if they might otherwise be initially fooled into mistaking this for the other version, once the discovery of the difference is made, there is usually no recovering from the instinctive repulsion almost all women feel towards such a position. Especially when you can’t even justify it at a baseline logical level (women do not “logic” very well when it’s applied to them, but you bet they are very able of applying it to others, especially if to justify their feelings of instinctive repulsion!)
At any rate, enjoy. The conversation opens with my statement that knowing anyone’s status of salvation is essentially impossible for humans, since, unlike God, we don’t know anyone’s inner heart.
Let me know what your thoughts on this are.
Update: A reader has already let me know his take by text, which I found both amusing as well as insightful.
You have to have some level of intelligence to exercise this kind of stupidity. [It’s] Midwit word magic dressed as logic to protect emotions.
My response was that personally I find this sort of thing rather frustrating, because in reality I am an eternal optimist.
I keep thinking (erroneously) “but surely… if I can just show him in baby steps that 2+2=4…”
And invariably the response even before I finish the thought is, roughly: “NOOO! Purple!! ice cream! ICE CREAM!” Just as they start flinging their own excrement at the walls.
There is a pervasive problem with so-called Calvinists trying to articulate a soteriological position they don’t have the learning and brainpower to understand. A lot of people get caught up on things like assurance of salvation, which so often devolves into a defense of antinomianism. They forget that the true assurance of the elect is matched by the false confidence of the unregenerate and which is which will only be revealed on judgment day. Any confidence a Christian has in his salvation should therefore be tempered by his knowledge of the depravity of his own heart and the deceitfulness of sin, which would cause him to fall away from God apart from the supernatural preservation God provides to his elect, which He effects through various means.