"Silly boy, it's all about trust."

[Ninurta]

Well, one of the side-effects of being a former non-believer is that I feel no need to be aggressive towards current non-believers. (Also, I learned at first-hand that the aggressive approach doesn't work). I regard myself as a teacher, with a built-in "mission to explain", rather than an evangelist.

I'm pretty much a Calvinist, all 5 points. One of the advantages to that doctrine (especially the predestination point) is that I also have no need to be aggressive towards non-believers, or anyone else for that matter regarding their faith or lack thereof. Calvinism gives a perfectly logical explanation for why they do not believe, and why there is no point in trying to argue them into believing. Let people believe as they will, and enjoy what life they have.

Now, I understand that you have misgivings regarding Calvinist doctrines, and that's fine by me. it's not for everyone, and all these doctrinal divisions and disputes, to my way of thinking, serve only to mask the one salient and important message of the entire gospel - the means to salvation. Everything else is just window dressing, and doctrinal disputes not only fracture churches into the 400 odd splinter factions we have today, they also draw attention away from that one main thrust of the entire message.

So to each his own. In the end, we are each of us only responsible to God for ourselves and what we ourselves believe.

I do admire your "mission to explain" rather than evangelize. I'm a lot like that. I just live my life, and if anyone has questions, they can ask and I'll tell - but otherwise I don't go out hunting for them to "spread the gospel", I instead let them come to me if they are so inclined. It makes for a far more peaceful existence. When I married Grace, she was a Muslim... but in a year and a half or two years, she came around to converting to Christianity, and I never once preached to or at her about it. Matter of fact, I studiously avoided that, as it was a point of the marriage contract. She actually had to drag it out of me, so reluctant was I to discuss such matters with her for fear of breaching that contract.

So that approach works, and works pretty well, with fewer false starts. As it is said, you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar, so why run out and track folks down just to toss vinegar on them that they don't want to hear? That only alienates them and makes matters worse. If they want to hear, they will come to you, in my experience.


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