Is the Calvinist Armenian debate overblown?

It's a question today from a young man, a listener to the podcast who writes in to ask

us this.

Hello, Pastor John.

I've argued about predestination and free will with fellow believers for years.

I'm a five point Calvinist myself, but lately these conversations have grown tire-sum to

me.

No amount of debate seems to settle all the questions, and I recently read a letter by

C.S. Lewis, where he called the Calvinist Armenian debate pretty much pointless, because

it only answers questions about this life, answers meaningless in eternity.

Lewis wrote this quote, both the statement that our final destination is already settled

is Calvinism, and the view that it still may be either heaven or hell, it's Armenianism,

seemed to me to imply the ultimate reality of time, which I don't believe in.

The controversy is one I can't join on either side, for I think that in the real, timeless

world, it is meaningless.

End quote.

Pastor John, I think Lewis raises a fair question here.

Is this whole debate time bound?

And even within time, I find myself more and more asking, what is the real life fallout?

Is the practical and spiritual value of Calvinism for this life significantly better?

How?

Oh, Lewis, Lewis, Lewis, my friend, my mentor, let's start here.

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