Calvinism is a lie, and nowhere does the Bible teach that God chooses some for eternal life while choosing others for damnation. On the contrary, the Bible says that God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34). How do you square that verse with "unconditonal election?" It's simply not possible. Furthermore, John 3:18 states quite clearly that the choice of where we spend eternity is up to us. The one who is condemned is in that state because he has not believed, NOT because God has not chosen him. In fact, the Bible tells us that God has chosen before the foundation of the world to save all who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life (Rev. 22:17).
If you are a Calvinist, then you don't even know where you are going when you die. You could still end up in a literal fire-burning hell for all eternity since you have no real way of knowing whether you are among the "elect." Aren't you frightened by that? You should be. The good news is that Calvinism is a false man-made philosophy. The Bible is so much better! Forget Calvinism and simply go by the plain teaching of Scripture which says you can KNOW you have eternal life through simple faith in Jesus Christ (1 John 5:13).
The truth is that death leads to heaven or hell, and the only way to heaven is through faith in Jesus Christ.
The Bible is very clear that no one can earn their way to heaven since good works do not pay for sins. See Gal. 2:16, Rom. 3:23-28, 4:4-5, Eph. 2:8-9, Tit. 3:5. The only way to heaven is by believing in Jesus for His free gift of eternal life. Jesus shed His blood on the cross as the full payment for our sins. He did all the work; all He requires of us is that we believe in Him. Once you believe in Jesus Christ to save you, you are secure forever!
Because we have all sinned against a perfectly holy and righteous God, we all deserve eternal separation from God in hell (Rom. 6:23). However, God loves us so much that He sent His only Son Jesus to die on the cross as our Substitute so we don't have to go to hell. Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose from the grave three days later (1 Cor. 15:3-4). He gives eternal life freely to anyone who simply believes in Him for it. No one can be saved by doing good works. Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone (Eph. 2:8-9).
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life" (John 6:47).
We have freewill, and the Bible supports it. The Bible also explains that God will give people over to the lusts of their own heart, if they continue to reject Him. He will strive, but He will not strive forever. If a person keeps pushing away the Light, all that they will be left with is the darkness. God puts before us life and death, and tells us to choose life. The explanation should be a no-brainer. It is wise to choose life, and the Bible says all who hate God love death, because that is all that they can look forward to if they reject the Source of Life. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord Jesus will be saved, and whoever still means whoever... God does not lie, and He will keep His words. Those who cut the knowledge of God off from themselves, will not receive enlightenment, if their hearts never turn towards God and away from their stubbornness and rejection of Him. Really, they only hurt themselves in the end. God will live forever, regardless of their personal choice to accept or deny Him.
Maybe it's the whole Blatantly interfering with free will thing that makes mainstream christians not your biggest fans, but to an atheist?
You're just a different variation of crazy christian, that thinks your version of christian nonsense is right, and all the others are probably going to hell for not realizing what you and the other [insert cult-sized branch of christianity here] have, since diverging from [insert older and more successful branch of christianity here].
You people are awfully sure we're the ones going to hell, and yet you Aholes are the ones allowing yourselves to be used in the world's largest pyramid scheme, that also just happens to have a proclivity towards protecting pedophiles. If I was your god, the people using my words as a shield for perversion FAR worse than homosexuality would be the ones burning forever.
If your god cares so much about where I'm going, he's free to warn me himself. His human moutpieces are f*cking morons, and I'm Not going to take them at their word. An all powerful deity can do a better job than what you and the rest of christianity is doing to convert people.
Answers & Comments
Atheists simply don't believe any gods exist. That has NOTHING to do with elections.
Atheists only love FREEDOM ( if you still know what it means) ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Calvinism is a lie, and nowhere does the Bible teach that God chooses some for eternal life while choosing others for damnation. On the contrary, the Bible says that God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34). How do you square that verse with "unconditonal election?" It's simply not possible. Furthermore, John 3:18 states quite clearly that the choice of where we spend eternity is up to us. The one who is condemned is in that state because he has not believed, NOT because God has not chosen him. In fact, the Bible tells us that God has chosen before the foundation of the world to save all who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life (Rev. 22:17).
If you are a Calvinist, then you don't even know where you are going when you die. You could still end up in a literal fire-burning hell for all eternity since you have no real way of knowing whether you are among the "elect." Aren't you frightened by that? You should be. The good news is that Calvinism is a false man-made philosophy. The Bible is so much better! Forget Calvinism and simply go by the plain teaching of Scripture which says you can KNOW you have eternal life through simple faith in Jesus Christ (1 John 5:13).
The truth is that death leads to heaven or hell, and the only way to heaven is through faith in Jesus Christ.
The Bible is very clear that no one can earn their way to heaven since good works do not pay for sins. See Gal. 2:16, Rom. 3:23-28, 4:4-5, Eph. 2:8-9, Tit. 3:5. The only way to heaven is by believing in Jesus for His free gift of eternal life. Jesus shed His blood on the cross as the full payment for our sins. He did all the work; all He requires of us is that we believe in Him. Once you believe in Jesus Christ to save you, you are secure forever!
Because we have all sinned against a perfectly holy and righteous God, we all deserve eternal separation from God in hell (Rom. 6:23). However, God loves us so much that He sent His only Son Jesus to die on the cross as our Substitute so we don't have to go to hell. Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose from the grave three days later (1 Cor. 15:3-4). He gives eternal life freely to anyone who simply believes in Him for it. No one can be saved by doing good works. Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone (Eph. 2:8-9).
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life" (John 6:47).
if God decides that certain people will be tortured for eternity before they're even born, he's a psychopath.
We have freewill, and the Bible supports it. The Bible also explains that God will give people over to the lusts of their own heart, if they continue to reject Him. He will strive, but He will not strive forever. If a person keeps pushing away the Light, all that they will be left with is the darkness. God puts before us life and death, and tells us to choose life. The explanation should be a no-brainer. It is wise to choose life, and the Bible says all who hate God love death, because that is all that they can look forward to if they reject the Source of Life. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord Jesus will be saved, and whoever still means whoever... God does not lie, and He will keep His words. Those who cut the knowledge of God off from themselves, will not receive enlightenment, if their hearts never turn towards God and away from their stubbornness and rejection of Him. Really, they only hurt themselves in the end. God will live forever, regardless of their personal choice to accept or deny Him.
Calvinist BS. That flavor is rare here.
Maybe it's the whole Blatantly interfering with free will thing that makes mainstream christians not your biggest fans, but to an atheist?
You're just a different variation of crazy christian, that thinks your version of christian nonsense is right, and all the others are probably going to hell for not realizing what you and the other [insert cult-sized branch of christianity here] have, since diverging from [insert older and more successful branch of christianity here].
You people are awfully sure we're the ones going to hell, and yet you Aholes are the ones allowing yourselves to be used in the world's largest pyramid scheme, that also just happens to have a proclivity towards protecting pedophiles. If I was your god, the people using my words as a shield for perversion FAR worse than homosexuality would be the ones burning forever.
If your god cares so much about where I'm going, he's free to warn me himself. His human moutpieces are f*cking morons, and I'm Not going to take them at their word. An all powerful deity can do a better job than what you and the rest of christianity is doing to convert people.
"Unconditional Election" is forced upon non-believers too.
They're heathens.
I'm assuming that the election is supposedly made by an entity that atheists consider to be nonexistent. What about that confuses you?
That must be why.