A Second Attempt By Calvinists Elders To Convert Matt Damon And Draw Him Over To Their Side

Calvinism 101.

Our free-will has destroyed us.

Tatian the Assyrian, Address to the Greeks, Chapter XI.

Tulips And Tetragrams: Matt Damon Being Proselytized By A Calvinist Elder

( You may wish to turn up the volume on your computer ).


If man is made in the image of God, and God is the "I Am Who I Am",
then just how exactly are change and repentance even possible?

Darn! Poor Matt sure looks smitten by what he's hearing...
Don't think he'll be joining an Orthodox or Arminian congregation anytime soon...

Theodicy and the Problem of Evil

The gods may throw a dice
Their minds as cold as ice
And someone way down here
Loses someone dear...

ABBA, The Winner Takes It All

Protestantism, Pelagianism, and Eastern Orthodoxy

Protestantism:

John 15:5 Ye can do nothing.

Pelagianism:

Philippians 4:13 I can do all things.

Eastern Orthodoxy:

John 15:5 For without Me ye can do nothing.

Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

How The Doctrine Of Predestination Does Away With Works-Righteous Ascetic Labor

It... doesn't.

If you don't believe me, take a long hard look at the only Church Father whose views on Grace are homoousios with those of Calvin: Saint Augustine of Hippo spent his whole life in the most severe asceticism: Although he did believe in Grace Alone, or Sola Gratia, he did not believe in Faith Alone, or Sola Fide. (Nor did he believe in Sola Scriptura, for that matter). For him, the Grace of Election was not merely the forgiveness of past sins, but also the divine power bestowed upon the elect to live out a life of holiness, which included good deeds and works of righteousness: No Lutheran "cover of snow"; no Reformed-Calvinist divine 'glasses' of imputed righteousness.

Orthodoxy in a Nutshell

We must believe in free will — we have no choice.

Isaac Bashevis Singer

Synergy

Because the talents God gave us do not multiply themselves automatically.

Reformed Protestant Double Standard

Philip Schaff


History of the Christian Church, Third Volume


Chapter IX. Theological Controversies,
And Development Of The Ecumenical Orthodoxy.


§ 142. The Orthodox Christology: Analysis and Criticism.

Such considerations suggest the true position and the just value of the Creed of Chalcedon, against both exaggeration and disparagement. That symbol does not aspire to comprehend the Christological mystery, but contents itself with setting forth the facts and establishing the boundaries of orthodox doctrine. It does not mean to preclude further theological discussion, but to guard against such erroneous conceptions as would mutilate either the divine or the human in Christ, or would place the two in a false relation. It is a light-house, to point out to the ship of Christological speculation the channel between Scylla and Charybdis, and to save it from stranding upon the reefs of Nestorian dyophysitism or of Eutychian monophysitism. It contents itself with settling, in clear outlines, the eternal result of the theanthropic process of incarnation, leaving the study of the process itself to scientific theology. The dogmatic letter of Leo, it is true, takes a step beyond this, towards a theological interpretation of the doctrine; but for this very reason it cannot have the same binding and normative force as the symbol itself. As the Nicene doctrine of the Trinity stands midway between tritheism and Sabellianism, so the Chalcedonian formula strikes the true mean between Nestorianism and Eutychianism. It accepts dyophysitism; and so far it unquestionably favored and satisfied the moderate Antiochian party rather than the Egyptian. But at the same time it teaches with equal distinctness, in opposition to consistent Nestorianism, the inseparable unity of the person of Christ.

§ 159. Semi-Pelagianism.

Semi-Pelagianism is a somewhat vague and indefinite attempt at reconciliation, hovering midway between the sharply marked systems of Pelagius and Augustine, taking off the edge of each, and inclining now to the one, now to the other. The name was introduced during the scholastic age, but the system of doctrine, in all essential points, was formed in Southern France in the fifth century, during the latter years of Augustine’s life and soon after his death. It proceeded from the combined influence of the pre-Augustinian synergism and monastic legalism. Its leading idea is, that divine grace and the human will jointly accomplish the work of conversion and sanctification, and that ordinarily man must take the first step. It rejects the Pelagian doctrine of the moral roundness of man, but rejects also the Augustinian doctrine of the entire corruption and bondage of the natural man, and substitutes the idea of a diseased or crippled state of the voluntary power. It disowns the Pelagian conception of grace as a mere external auxiliary; but also, quite as decidedly, the Augustinian doctrines of the sovereignty, irresistibleness, and limitation of grace; and affirms the necessity and the internal operation of grace with and through human agency, a general atonement through Christ, and a predestination to salvation conditioned by the foreknowledge of faith. The union of the Pelagian and Augustinian elements thus attempted is not, however, an inward organic coalescence, but rather a mechanical and arbitrary combination, which really satisfies neither the one interest nor the other, but commonly leans to the Pelagian side.