And the pursuit of happiness

I have just received an email, out of the blue and with no explanation, which consists of a list of Scripture verses to demonstrate that Arminianism is bad and wrong and we don't actually have free will. Several thoughts on this bizarre occurrence:

• "To list Scripture verses" is another one of those irregular verbs of which I am so fond. It conjugates like this: "I demonstrate the whole tenor of Scripture"; "you are taking verses out of context"; "he is proof-texting".
• In the fight between Calvin and Arminius, back Jesus. He was not a systematic theologian, and I consider this to be a feature, not a bug.
• Theology without missiology is dead. Free will or lack thereof is one of those doctrines that doesn't make a blind bit of difference to the way we do mission, and so fighting over it is pointless. I tend to say that such doctrines have "no cash value" because you can't actually do anything with them.
• Last time Calvinism came up on this blog, I made a throwaway comment about total depravity being obviously rubbish, but despite it being "obvious", I forgot why I thought that. Now I remember. You just apply it to itself. The idea of total depravity came from Calvin's brain. Calvin's brain is, according to Calvin, in a state of total depravity. Why, then, should I trust Calvin's brain on matters of doctrine?
• And the kicker? The person who sent me this list proving that we don't have free choice is from an institution which calls itself "Liberty University". Well, it made me laugh anyway.

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