Discussions with a Calvinist

I regularly go to the Yahoo! Questions and Answers site for the Religion & Spirituality pages. Recently, one of the questions asked: If God gave us scissors, and told us not to run with them and we did anyway, is Hell still a possibility for disobeying Him?

I recognised it as a phishing question. Not phishing for personal information, but a question that was a set-up for some other issue he (I assume this was a "he") wanted to push.

Sure enough, a couple of days later I got a question from this guy through the double-blind email system of Yahoo!.com. His hidden agenda was Calvinism. He did not call it Calvinism or predestination, until I used those terms. He asked me if I thought God is in control, my answer to that is always Yes, God is in control. He said, Because God is in control, God chooses who is saved and who is not saved.

My answer to this is that Calvinism and Arminianism is a misreading of what the Bible teaches. Arminianism is just a variation of Calvinism; in fact Calvinism was the "official" church response to Arminius' theology of salvation (soteriology). Genesis 3 tells: Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth," Genesis 1:26.

Because we are created in the image of God, we are created like Him. Not that we are gods, but that we the characteristics of God.
God is omniscient, while we just have knowledge but not all knowledge.
God is omnipotent, while we have power but not all power.
God is everywhere, omnipresent, while we are merely present in one place at a time.
This also extends to the sovereignty of God, the "free will" of God to do as He pleases, when He pleases. The sovereignty of God is unlimited, ours is limited. I am free to swing my fist around in the air as much as I please, as hard as I please, until I come to your personal space. I cannot violate your personal sovereignty by the free exercise of my own. neither does god violate the sovereign choices we make as His creation, even when that means we sin.

Isaiah 55:8 "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Neither are your ways My ways," declares the LORD." We may not understand why God is doing what He does, but we are not capable of understanding all of God's purposes.

My Calvinist friend, who was always friendly and not acrimonious, said that God chose all the elect before the foundation of the world, and that everyone else is left alone in the sins that condemn them to Hell. To this I replied that for that to work, God choosing the people before the foundation of the world, they were elect or reprobate before creation, before sin, would mean that not only did God "elect" some to salvation, but that He also had chosen all others to "reprobation." The Calvinist demurred from the idea that God would actively send people to Hell, but that was a result of the sin of Adam, which we all inherit. But if God chose one to election, He chose the other to reprobation at the same time, by the same sovereign choice.

I have no problems with some of the teachings of Calvinism, but some of the points of the Calvinist TULIP I reject.
Total depravity of man; Yes, we are all utterly dead in sin, incapable of saving ourselves.
Unmerited favor of God; Yes, none of humanity deserves to be saved,
Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; [9] not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Limited atonement; No, the substitutionary death of Jesus on the cross did not provide salvation just for the elect. Otherwise, John 3:16 is meaningless. If God loved the world, and He does, how did He choose to send those He loves to Hell, before any sin or rebellion? He didn't.
Irresistible grace; the electing grace of God is irresistible. No, the grace of God is resistible, it's called sin; unless that is, you want to say that God causes mankind to sin as part of His irresistible will. But see James 1:13-14:
13 Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. 14 But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.
Perseverance of the saints; Yes, if by this one means one-saved-always-saved. No, if by this one means that the Christian will always persevere in Godliness, a sinless life.

I am still not a Five Point Calvinist, my conversationalist still is a convinced Calvinist. I think our conversation is over; I know I am not going to pursue it. Amazing.