LibertyCipher

My district. 😡 Just 281 Christians deciding to vote instead of staying home could have prevented this.

I’m trying to understand how God’s sovereignty, human choices, and responsibility fit together. I may never have a complete explanation. But I think we can make progress and treat one another fairly without first resolving every question. Reading Romans in its historical setting helps me keep my bearings. Paul is addressing God’s faithfulness, Israel and the Gentiles, salvation, and life together. Romans 9 explicitly raises objections about God’s justice and how people can remain accountable to his will. Those difficulties deserve careful attention. We should be equally careful about what we accuse one another of believing. Someone who believes in predestination does not necessarily believe God commits or approves evil. Someone who believes in a free response does not necessarily believe they earn salvation. The Westminster Confession explicitly denies that God authors sin; the early Arminian Remonstrance explicitly affirms dependence on grace. We can question whether their explanations hold together while accurately representing what they affirm. Romans gives a particularly strong reason to resist accusation. In Romans 4, Paul distinguishes believing God from working for a wage. A person’s response of faith is not automatically a claim that God owes them salvation. How grace brings about that response remains a further question; we shouldn’t settle it by simply calling the response a work. Quantum physics adds another reason for precision. Bell experiments constrain local explanations of quantum outcomes under specific assumptions; they do not eliminate every deterministic account. Bohm’s theory provides a deterministic, non-local alternative. And even if some events are fundamentally random, randomness alone would not explain responsible choice. Physics matters, but moving from a physical result to a conclusion about freedom, salvation, or God’s goodness requires additional arguments. That leaves me with questions, but it also leaves me with direction. After praising God’s unsearchable ways, Paul appeals to God’s mercies and urges his readers to offer their lives and renew their minds so they can discern what is good. His acknowledgment of limited understanding should lead us toward active, thoughtful living, not inaction or doomer-ism or license to sin. I don’t need a complete explanation of human freedom before I can take responsibility for how I treat someone who understands it differently. I can hold convictions, examine objections, and admit what I cannot explain. A disagreement may reveal an error in someone’s reasoning; it does not, by itself, establish that they are evil, that they believe God is evil, or that they trust themselves for salvation.

We Christians still desperately need God's help to describe each other fairly. A Christian who believes in predestination may be trying to honor God’s grace, while firmly denying that God does evil. A Christian who believes in a free response may believe that even that response requires grace and earns nothing. We can question whether our explanations work without assuming the "other side" of the question worship an evil God or trust themselves for salvation. We don’t have to understand everything to stop making those accusations.

Michiganistan

Republicans who disappoint you 20% of the time is 80% friend, not 20% enemy.

When Democrats win because the Republican on the ballot wasn't "godly enough" for you, you are ensuring that: 1. DC and Puerto Rico become states so Democrats gain a super majority in the Senate. 2. We will open the borders again, amnesty will be given to tens of millions of illegal aliens, and we cement a permanent majority for Democrats in the house of representatives. 3. There will be 13 justices on the Supreme Court to gain an immediate majority for Democrats. Your decision to "send a message to Republicans" and not voting will result in America becoming a permanent one-party state. It will be the end of democracy in any meaningful sense of the word. All that is needed to ensure this doesn’t happen is 51 Republican senators in 2029. That is why you should vote for Republican senators this election. Even ones you disagree with or don't like. Every excuse you have is irrelevant compared to this.