The brand of theology I grew up in was pretty brutal. Why did God make hell, and people who were gonna go to hell? We believed in predestination, so He *knew* he was making ppl who He was actively sending to hell. Why?
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I grew up believing the same things. Even though I no longer believe and find it a bit horrifying now, I still think it's the most internally consistent version of Christianity. Calvinists are bullet-biters, and part of me respects that.
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Internally consistent yes, but is it consistent with the Bible and early church? I don’t know enough theology to answer. I’m sure Calvinist say yes, but what do other Christians say?
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iirc it's kinda unclear. lots of Bible verses support predestination (Romans 2 and 3 I think are the big ones? or around there), but there's also some that imply ppl choose their salvation (iirc a verse in James). both sides explain away the other
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but imo both sides strongly believe "not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us", and the calvinisrs consider "belief in god" to count as a work.