So, you believe the defense of, "Satan made me do it?" is valid?
Wouldn't that make Satan sovereign according to your view of sovereignty?
I see you are unwilling to just come out a acknowledge that your view teaches God is the ultimate cause for the choices of man in each and every situation, but instead divert with long nuanced description in which to bury the difficulty of this unavoidable conclusion.
Oh quite the contrary, God DID provide the means for us to keep the law...through faith in the one who fulfilled the law once and for all. :)
Right.
THUS He provided JESUS, the perfect one, making this benchmark attainable to whosoever believes.
Cals just assume faith in Christ is as equally unattainable as fulfilling the Law, but scripture never teaches this.
Then it must be that God is the origin of evil intent for there is no independent will by which evil would originate except God's...
This is just another difference between what Calvinism professes and what I believe to be true. I know there are a lot of people these days who do not place value in the life of a child. I do place a high value on every precious child because our Lord loved them very much and this is evident from scripture. How could God love little children so much and turn around and sentence them to eternal punishment? For no reason. We are not born sinners. We are not sinners until we sin. We are born in sin. There is huge difference between this and born sinners.
MB
I agree, however born sinners and born in sin are used by me (and others) I think interchangeably.
And perhaps that is an area that needs corrected.
Knowledge and awareness of sin though is not an excuse for sinning.
I haven't ever gotten out of a traffic ticket trying to make that excuse.
God holds even those we perceive as innocent as guilty.
However, that is a far crime from the pronouncement of sentence.
For we are ALL guilty.
To pronounce a sentence upon the child who has only the birthright of being born in sin is not just.
Rather, the child who not only is born in sin and as a result does knowingly sin is different and the sentence of death is upon that child.
That is called accountability.