What I believe (Calvinism)

This is mainly for Lady Adriana a friend from the Door Within Forums but also for anyone else who wishes to read it. This is why I believe that Calvinism is true.

The Bible has a lot to say about predestination and how we are dead in sin. Take for example these verses:

Ephesians 2:4-10

^"4But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
⁵even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
⁶and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
⁷so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
⁸For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
⁹not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
¹⁰For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them."
Those verses are saying that it was God who saved us, while we were still DEAD in our Transgressions or sins. If someone is dead, they have no way to respond to anything, so God raised us up out of this death of sin into His life. it was by the grace and mercy of God that we were saved. In Verse eight it says that we were not saved by ourselves, but by the gift of God.

Colossians 2:13-14
^"13When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions,
¹⁴having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross."
While we were dead in our transgressions He made us alive with Him and forgave us our debt. A debt that we could never have repaid on our own.

John 6:37 & 44
"³⁷"All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.
⁴⁴"No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day."
Notice the words there, "All that the FATHER GIVES ME..." and "NO ONE can come to Me unless the FATHER WHO SENT ME DRAWS HIM..." God is the one who chose us, and we will go to Him if we are among the chosen.

Romans 8:29-30
"²⁹For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;
³⁰and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified."
Notice the words predestined and foreknew in there. God chose us even before time began. He chose who would go and who wouldn't.

Ephesians 1:5-7 & 11
"⁵He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,
⁶to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
⁷In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace
¹¹also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will,"
Again He predestined us and gave us life through his blood.

Those verses (and there may be more) make me believe, with my whole heart, that God predestined us from before time began. That He chose us and we did not choose Him. I have more to say on this subject, but that is all I will say for now.

let us speak about God in school!!!

here's something I want to share with everyone.

http://www.rutherford.org/KeyCases/McComb.asp

http://www.rutherford.org/articles_db/press_release.asp?article_id=793

enjoy...and don't get too angry

Rocky Mountain

Alright, I cant remember everything that happened so I wont be posting about everything. Here's what I will will blog about though, and in this order, HI (humorous interp), in between rounds, and my final debate round.

First I'd like to say that I made it to finals in HI, I didn't win a trophy, but I still made it to finals!!! My HI was called, "Bonnie and Clyde Agency For the Unemployed Underworld" By Bill Majeski. It was such a fun one to do, although not the funniest. The thing I did best with it was the voices. Everyone loved how I could change my voices in different ways. I don't know which voice they liked best, Bonnie or Clyde. At the end of one of my rounds one judge asked me what my real voice sounded like! I thought it was kind of funny. To close my HI part of the post I'd like to say if anyone that I know is reading this blog, ask me to do my HI for you sometime and I will, it's so fun to do.

In between rounds, when the debaters can have a break from debating...
We never stop debating, in between rounds, we find random topics to debate about. The most debating started when me and my partner had a bye.
First I'll explain what a bye is. A bye is when you and you're partner don't have to debate because your opponent didn't show up. Now to continue.
When we have a bye...
Me and my partner got very, very, very bored. So we started talking. What did we talk about? Who's last name is more awesome. We argued until some of our other fellow debaters came bye. Then one of the guys got a piece of paper and went around asking random people what they thought. My name won! :D Then we made some new topics, Batman or spider-man, ninja or samurai, coke or pepsi, and finally which color is more manly pink or purple? the winners were, batman, ninja, pepsi, and purple!!!!

During our last round the judge gave us an oral critique. Which was really good, because i learned something new. I learned that Contention 1: topicality is the most important one to defend. It is what most judges judge on. SO if you dont have topicality then you basically LOSE. Scary, huh?

That's all I have for now, come back for more, later.