See. It's you that does not understand Calvinism.
I'm going to dismiss this too, graciously. <
smile>
God decrees everything that happens.
Right, but that doesn't mean He sanctions it or approves of it, or is the author of it. Some will think that, but, okay.
1. God ordains WHATSOEVER comes to pass.
Right, but again... well, see directly above.
2. However, God is not the creater of sin. So, IOW, God decrees the murder, but He is not responsible for it.
Right. Something decreed is not necessarily actively caused or ordered; it can merely be allowed. And in the case of God, if He allows sin to happen, can He not have a purpose ~ even a good... even a holy... ~ purpose in doing so? And this He does.
3. Then we hear of second causes. But, God is the REASON other causes exist...which means He's the cause of the 2nd cause.
What I said immediately above holds true here, too. God is the reason that anything exists, but that doesn't make him the reason that evil/sin in His Creation takes place.
You can align the above with
The Institutes of the Christian Religion
Book 1
Chapter 16
Paragraph 2
Yes. Again, what is the origin of evil? We can't possibly know. What we do know is that we cannot attribute evil or sin to God. God hates sin But some do... "Got Questions" is sometimes... questionable <chuckle> ...but is pretty good on this:
"God hates sin because it is the very antithesis of His nature. The psalmist describes God’s hatred of sin this way: “For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; no evil dwells with You” (Psalm 5:4). God hates sin because He is holy; holiness is the most exalted of all His attributes (Isaiah 6:3; Revelation 4:8). His holiness totally saturates His being. His holiness epitomizes His moral perfection and His absolute freedom from blemish of any kind (Psalm 89:35; 92:15; Romans 9:14)."
So
of course God is not the author of sin.
According to YOUR faith...God not only KNEW what people would have to be saved from..
Yes...
He CAUSED the object of the fall, the reason for the fall, and thus, the fall itself because God had, in YOUR faith...
CAUSED the fall by DECREEING it, ORDAINING it, PREDESTINATING it.
No. And John Calvin didn't believe this either. This is not the Reformed view of the Fall, or what caused it.
Please stop peddling a "soft" Calvinism....
Ah, you know what, this is an interesting comment. Because what you're attributing to John Calvin and, well, historical Calvinists, is something called hyper-Calvinism, which is not really historical Calvinism at all, but a terrible distortion of it. You can read about it at the following link (it's brief, which is good for you, because... <smile> ...it won't take much time effort or patience to read it):
Reformed Theology vs. Hyper-Calvinism
Unfortunately, hyper-Calvinism is a real thing. Calvinism, too, but the two are very different.
Actually, your theology has many MYSTERIES in it because it creates CONFLICT in scripture...
More demagoguery. And untrue. But you're not alone in thinking that.
...scripture cannot contain conflict.
Absolutely true.
Kind of silly to bring up the fact that God is infinite but we're not. Thanks for the news.
Not silly at all; I knew you'd agree, but I thought it necessary at that juncture. I mean, by the same token, I could say it's "kind of silly" that you felt it necessary to say "scripture cannot contain conflict." But yeah, good that we agree on that at least.
God allowed us to know everything we need to know about Him and the method of our salvation.
Agree.
You sure like to talk about NOTHING.
Ah, so talking about something is talking about nothing. Noted...
Calvinism does not require a devil because they make God to be the devil.
Absolutely not. But that is the perception of some, but you know what they say about perception...
Your theologians of right now attest to the fact that God creates sin: Doug Wilson, John Piper, even RC Sproul.
Good men... Well, as much as any of us can be called good, anyway... R.C. Sproul said this (emphasis mine): “The
distortion of double predestination looks like this: There is a symmetry that exists between election and reprobation. God WORKS in the same way and same manner with respect to the elect and to the reprobate. That is to say, from all eternity God decreed some to election and by divine initiative works faith in their hearts and brings them actively to salvation. By the same token, from all eternity God decrees some to sin and damnation (destinare ad peccatum) and actively intervenes to work sin in their lives, bringing them to damnation by divine initiative. In the case of the elect, regeneration is the monergistic work of God. In the case of the reprobate, sin and degeneration are the monergistic work of God. Stated another way, we can establish a parallelism of foreordination and predestination by means of a positive symmetry. We can call this a positive-positive view of predestination. This is, God positively and actively intervenes in the lives of the elect to bring them to salvation. In the same way God positively and actively intervenes in the life of the reprobate to bring him to sin. This distortion of positive-positive predestination clearly
makes God the author of sin who punishes a person for doing what God monergistically and irresistibly coerces man to do. Such a view is indeed a monstrous assault on the integrity of God.
This is not the Reformed view of predestination, but a gross and inexcusable caricature of the doctrine. Such a view may be identified with what is often loosely described as hyper-Calvinism and involves a radical form of supralapsarianism. Such a view of predestination has been virtually universally and monolithically rejected by Reformed thinkers.”
WE mainline Christians believe God ALLOWS evil....
Ah, well we're on the same page, then, which makes me (and Calvinists, and Reformed folks)... mainline Christians... at least on this subject. <
smile>
In case you haven't heard, YOUR faith believes God CREATES evil.
Ah calamity... Well, yeah, yet another hyper-Calvinist distortion of that text... And people like you falsely attribute it to Calvin and to, well, the vast majority of Reformed folks. Yeah, there are a few outliers out there...
And, again, YOU make God to be evil....
More demagoguery. Not true at all.
No need to lecture
@Lambano regarding this.
I wasn't. No need for such arrogance...
Ohhhh, if only you really meant that... And then actually stuck to it...
study up on what you believe Pin....
Sure, we all should. You included.
And I would suggest you study up on what Calvin really believed. Yes, you quoted from the Institutes, but you don't quite get it... <
smile> I mean... up to a certain point you do, maybe, but it's kind of like watching Infinity War and then thinking that's the end of the story because you never heard of Endgame and of course didn't go see it... <
smile> Spoiler alert! <
smile> Thanos didn't really win after all. Iron Man died, though. And so did Black Widow. Oh, man, Natalie... That fight between her and Clint for who got to be the sacrifice for the soul stone... greatest scene in the whole saga, in my opinion...
Grace and peace to you.