Friday, October 17, 2008

Why Arminians (Like "Robert") hate Steve Hays and the Apostle Paul

Robert the Pelagian never misses a chance to slam Calvinists. He thinks he's doing the Lord's work.

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=10584495&postID=6570720289192239779

His comments are a window into the psyche of an Arminian and help explain why he hates both Steve Hays and the apostle Paul, teacher of Calvinism. Let's note the nature of his attacks on Hays:

"Coming from Steve Hays who repeatedly engages in this kind of intentionally offensive rhetoric." - Bob

"As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!" - Apostle Paul

Bob says, "I think part of the problem, part of his bitterness, comes from his life circumstances:" (not very libertarian of him, by the way):

Of course Paul notes that God gives us these thorns in the flesh (which is what Bob is implying Steve has):

"To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me." - Apostle Paul

Now, what are these "circumstances"?

"If I were ... unmarried and without children" - Bob

"Now for the matters you wrote about: It is good for a man not to marry. ... I wish that all men were as I am. - Apostle Paul

"living with my ailing mother" - Bob

"Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God." - Apostle Paul

See, Robert just hates what the apostle Paul has to say and that's why he hates Calvinism.

He's also ignorant:

"He fancies himself a writer but his stuff lacks quality and so likely will only appear on his own blog." - Bob

Steve has published in Evangelical Quarterly. John Frame also heavily footnotes his well-respected Doctrine of God book with some of Hays's thoughts and comments on matters. His stuff has also appeared on Chalcedon. And hundreds of blogs have linked to thousands of his posts. What's "Bob's" CV?

It's also funny that Bob engages in gossiping about Steve's private family life. His love to make ears itch possibly explains further his hatred of the apostle Paul since Paul says things like: "And not only do they become idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying things they ought not to."

And it is quite ironic that Bob complains about Hays's personal attacks (Bob doesn't substantiate, though, he just emotes) by personally attacking and mocking Hays. Bob's hypocrisy possibly further explains his hatred of all things Paul for Paul says, "The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray," clearly indicating his disdain for hypocrites.

At the end of the day I think we can thank Bobby for giving us a window into his psyche. His hatred of Calvinism is all the more clear now.

See, Bob has nothing left in the intellectual gas tank, so all he can do now is try his hardest to turn the tide of public opinion against Hays. We should be thankful for Bob’s anti-intellectualism, though. At the end of the day all he’s doing is showing that he’s the paradigmatic internet Arminian warrior. Pure, raw emotionalism drives his comments and thoughts. His hatred for the Bible and Paul’s teachings are suppressed to him, but every once and awhile they pop to the surface with examples like these.

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