An amazing story

I'll agree with Faith that it is too verbose. I did get to the end, but with some skimming in the middle. As Faith said, it does read as if the author is writing a drama. Note that I am not questioning its authenticity. It seemed to me that she had made a poor choice of whom to marry. He never did have the warmth of feeling toward her that her grandparents had.To be fair, I have only seen her side of the story. Her husband might have described it differently.

You have to look at the context, the thesis that "once saved, always saved", which I think is from Calvin. She is documenting that she was once genuinely saved.

In my opinion, Faith is correct about what most Calvinists would say. It is simple logic. According to the theology, once saved, always saved. That only leaves three possibilities:

she is still saved, even though an atheist;

the theology is wrong;

she was never saved.

​

Most Calvinists would be reluctant to say that an atheist could nevertheless be saved, and would be reluctant to say that the theology is wrong. That leaves only the last option.

​

It is, of course, a use of the No True Scotsman evasion. The story (referenced in the OP) begins with a comment about the possibility of "No True Scotsman" being used.

​

(edit: fix typo)

​

This message has been edited by nwr, 01-05-2006 01:26 PM

I didn't call it a fallacy (although Wikipedia does), I called it an evasion. You probably don't like "evasion" any better. I don't think it is properly a fallacy, but let's not go off-topic in that direction.There is a bit of a problem, I think, that Calvinist theology on the issue deals with backsliding, but it doesn't adequately deal with what happened this "amazing story". This sort of "deconversion" would have been pretty rare in Calvin's time, but is more common today.

I'm not sure what constitutes a mythical "true calvinist". My comment was about what most actual Calvinists would say. Her break with Christianity looks pretty complete and rather final. It goes a lot further than simple backsliding, or ceasing involvement in the Church. She is actively atheist. It would be difficult for any actual Calvinists to consider that she is still a saved Christian. It is far easier to conclude that they were mistaken in their prior belief that she was saved. I studied it for many years too.What was being discussed was not Calvinist doctrine, but behavior of typical Calvinist people. You asked it in such a way that it sounded like "You're wrong, now tell me your Church so I can gloat over it". You probably didn't intend to come across that way. See above. I was commenting on likely behavior, not on doctrine. I think Faith was doing the same.