Greetings (rather late reply) ---
You're welcome for the link, Jeff and Chris.
It was DarinHouston (TNP Forum mod) who initially linked me/us to
Unbelievable!
(Thanks Darin),
Chris --
One thing I keep in mind about 'Calvinism' is that it didn't exist till the 4th century. That is, what would later become 'Calvinism' was first introduced by Augustine ('Calvinism' is essentially a 'revival' of Augustinian soteriology). The Early Church Fathers before Augustine taught 'free will'. They, of course, weren't Arminians, as neither Calvinism/Augustinianism nor Arminianism existed then. I personally view Calvinism as a belief system with roots going back to gnosticism, as Augustine brought over gnostic-like concepts into his theology (a 'layover' of his being a former gnostic/Manichean).
You wrote:I feel the God who James White presents isn't good, but scripturally, I am almost convinced that this is the accurate portrait of God. What do you do when you are convinced that the accurate image of God doesn't seem good? It makes it hard for me to want to love God.
I may know how you feel. When I carefully examined Calvinism I wondered if, if it were true, would I be a Christian? Would I
want to be a Christian? I have my doubts. To me, gnosticism would almost seem to be a better option! Gnosticism, as you may know, rejected the OT God, seeing him as the
Demiurge ("half-worker" or "half-creator"). The
Demiurge (OT Creator God) was seen as a cruel, somewhat unintelligent, lower deity (as contrasted to the highest divine essence, sometimes called the "Pleroma (fullness)" or the "All"). But alas, I didn't find Calvinism to be true (scripturally sound), nor personally appealing.
And I couldn't be gnostic for other reasons.
I don't have all the answers.
So I just keep studying....
I'm reminded of something Greg Boyd said in a lecture about Open Theism. At one time, he was a Calvinist "for exegetical reasons." He went on to comment how he understands how someone could arrive at Calvinism, how they are interpreting the scriptures, as he had done the same himself. He went on to say about Calvinism, "But what I
didn't understand, and still
don't understand, is how anyone can
like it!"
[insert audience laughter -- it was really funny
].
You might find Greg's talk interesting also.
It's on this forum board:
http://theos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=72&t=3025
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An Interesting Side-Note --
White debated the Forsters on Hell (scroll to 8 August 2009). The two debates kind of link together/overlap.
Strangely, White used argumentation from UR (Universal Reconciliation, or Universalism) to attempt to refute CI (Conditional Immortality). If I'm not mistaken, Roger Forster replied that in his research, UR was also a late coming doctrine in Church History.
Btw, I updated the OP (to the correct page 7, which will change as they have more programs).
