Calvinist purpose of living?

[Dracula Girl]

If you are Calvinist, what is the point of living if you cannot make any difference being a witness or do anything that affects whether or not you are saved (since the elect are already chosen and we don't do anything to change that)?

[KingsGambit]

The Calvinist might answer that we are simply fulfilling the commandments of God to evangelize (which is quite a reasonable answer, though I am not a Calvinist).

[Dracula Girl]

The Calvinist might answer that we are simply fulfilling the commandments of God to evangelize (which is quite a reasonable answer, though I am not a Calvinist).

But of what value or merit is that if it changes nothing eternal?

NKJV 2 Cor. 4:7 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

[Pastors Kid]

for credit.
Somebody is going to be the one who told the not yet saved person who is going to end up saved anyway.
Whoever gets there first to tell the net yet saved person, and gets a better deal in the hereafter.

[Hebrew Student]

Dracula Girl,

If you are Calvinist, what is the point of living if you cannot make any difference being a witness or do anything that affects whether or not you are saved (since the elect are already chosen and we don't do anything to change that)?

I think you are misrepresenting Calvinism. A Calvinist would never say that a person cannot make any difference being a witness, or by living a holy life. My witnessing to others, and living a Christian life certainly *does* make a difference. The issue is *why* it makes a difference. It makes a difference *because* it is part of the plan of God who is working all things after the council of his will. I recognize that, when I witness to someone or when I do what is right, I am ultimately working for God and his glory. It is that purpose that causes me to do what I do, and gives meaning *to* what I do.

God Bless,
Adam

[Jedidiah]

Free will and predestination are not mutually exclusive.

[RBerman]

for credit.
Somebody is going to be the one who told the not yet saved person who is going to end up saved anyway.
Whoever gets there first to tell the net yet saved person, and gets a better deal in the hereafter.

You are making this up.

[Pastors Kid]

You are making this up.

you don't think there are rewards in heaven?

Michelle

[Dracula Girl]

you don't think there are rewards in heaven?

Michelle

Real love for others isn't about getting your reward in heaven, it is about what happens to the others.

Matthew 22:36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” 37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’[d] 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’[e] 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

1 Corinthians 13:4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Romans 9:1 I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, 2 that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, 4 who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; 5 of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.

If Paul after his conversion is any sort of example to us, he would rather give up his soul for others to be saved, not just gain for his soul for others to be saved. There are rewards in heaven, but that can't be the only reason to share.

All scripture references are NKJV.

[Pastors Kid]

Real love for others isn't about getting your reward in heaven, it is about what happens to the others.


All scripture references are NKJV.

Well, yes. That would be for the "whosoever will" Christians.

But the question was for the motivation of Calvinists who believe the elect are already chosen and we don't do anything to change that.

Michelle

[Dracula Girl]

Dracula Girl,

I think you are misrepresenting Calvinism. A Calvinist would never say that a person cannot make any difference being a witness, or by living a holy life. My witnessing to others, and living a Christian life certainly *does* make a difference. The issue is *why* it makes a difference. It makes a difference *because* it is part of the plan of God who is working all things after the council of his will. I recognize that, when I witness to someone or when I do what is right, I am ultimately working for God and his glory. It is that purpose that causes me to do what I do, and gives meaning *to* what I do.

God Bless,
Adam

I was originally going to ask if I am misrepresenting limited atonement or unconditional election, but after reading this, it sounds like everyone who obeys God is a cog in a giant machine of God's plan for the world. Is there something still wrong with that?

[KingsGambit]

you don't think there are rewards in heaven?

Michelle

Of course there are levels of rewards in heaven, but they are hardly our only motivation for doing things. What about simply doing things out of gratitude for what God has done for us?

[RBerman]

I was originally going to ask if I am misrepresenting limited atonement or unconditional election, but after reading this, it sounds like everyone who obeys God is a cog in a giant machine of God's plan for the world. Is there something still wrong with that?

You can use a machine metaphor if you like. But how about parts of a human body instead? That's a more biblical metaphor.

[Phat8594]

You can use a machine metaphor if you like. But how about parts of a human body instead? That's a more biblical metaphor.

Granted, its a metaphor used of the Church and not of the world in general or 'God's plan for the world.'

[Phat8594]

I was originally going to ask if I am misrepresenting limited atonement or unconditional election, but after reading this, it sounds like everyone who obeys God is a cog in a giant machine of God's plan for the world. Is there something still wrong with that?

Well I wouldn't just limit Christians as being a part of God's plan. God uses both the obedient and the disobedient for His purposes (see pharaoh / the Jews [fleshly Israel] in Romans 9). But that idea is held both by the Calvinist and the non-Calvinist. Where they disagree is on how a person becomes one of the obedient or disobedient.