Please Explain the "I" in TULIP

No, because you do...

 

Irresistible, as in: made to jump for joy in your mother's womb (John the Baptist), made to hope while on your mother's breast (David), born after the Spirit by the time you are weaned (Isaac), made alive when you were dead (Lazarus).

 

"Irresistible" grace is like "irresistible" conception. You had nothing whatever to do with your physical birth. It's the same with one's spiritual birth. It happens according to God's will and in God's time.

Scripture? "Ye must be born again."

 

3) Yes, I say you challenge the Spirit here as the One who opened her heart. You equate Lydias heart being opened by God by equating it, and attributing it to her past religious works. This is exactly what you have done here. It's plainly seen in your response, as you attribute it (God opening her heart) to her worshipping God (works) not to the Spirit of God Himself, which is plainly what text teaches, He and He alone. It's not by works, it's by His Spirit alone. If you have a problem with that, and want to challenge His Spirit as the sole One who did this, then no one can help you.

Here is what I said:
How did God “open her heart”? The answer from the text is that because she was a worshiper of God, having listened to God and learned from God through the words of the prophets and having accepted the One who sent Him, she had the prerequisite beliefs (i.e. belief in God’s promised Messiah) to accept Jesus. Simply put, if you reject God and His word, your heart will not be open to Jesus.

[snip - please don't accuse others of lying, it is unnecessarily inflammatory] You did not say I challenged the Spirit, you said discredit the Spirit.

I did not address Lydia's "works" but her beliefs. Why not address what I actually said, [snip]?

We know that God opened her heart. That is not in dispute. Where we part company is in how God opened her heart. I base my view on the context and you base yours on reading your man made doctrine into the text.

 

These kind of personal attacks only serve to create animosity. It does not make you correct, neither does it lend to your credibility.

 

Oops, I misread the I as a T in the title of the thread ... was before I had my morning coffee. I can show the path on the "T". Should I start another thread?

 

Yes, Jn 3:8: THE SPIRIT BLOWS WHERE HE WILLS, SO IT IS WITH EVERYONE BORN OF THE SPIRIT.

 

The interesting thing about IG is that most are not actually opposed to it, but rather see it as a failure because of God's timing, which is also irresistible and uncontrollable.

As the old saw goes, "God did not do it now, so God cannot do it at all." I find that concept coming up time and again in these discussions. Yet, when pressed hard, even those most adamant against God's sovereignty will admit that, yes, IF God did desire to enforce His will on someone, He could. So, in the end, for me at least, the issue is one of questioning God and God's motives, rather than some grand scriptural case that can be made that says that God is not actually sovereign.

 

Here is your quote:
You base Lydias heart being opened due to her worship (works), and now change it to "beliefs?"

[personal attack deleted]. Here is my quote for the third time:

How did God “open her heart”? The answer from the text is that because she was a worshiper of God, having listened to God and learned from God through the words of the prophets and having accepted the One who sent Him, she had the prerequisite beliefs (i.e. belief in God’s promised Messiah) to accept Jesus. Simply put, if you reject God and His word, your heart will not be open to Jesus.

 

Summary of thread: Irresistible Grace is one of the false doctrines of Calvinism. It has no support in scripture, but is supported by reading into vague passages the claimed doctrine. God opens a persons heart so that means by irresistible grace. God grants repentence so that means by irresistible grace. And on and on it goes.

 

I think it may be helpful to define what you think Irresistible Grace is. And I say that for everyone before they continue on if they believe it is biblical or not.

 

John 3:8 does not read: THE SPIRIT BLOWS WHERE HE WILLS, SO IT IS WITH EVERYONE BORN OF THE SPIRIT.

Here is how it actually reads:8 The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” NASB

So it is easy to see how support is claimed where none exists. Even if the misrepresented version was an apt paraphrase, it still provides no support for the doctrine. The biblical truth is every believer is born of God. This is true whether you believe, with Calvinism, that in order to be a believer you must be born again, or whether you believe scripture which says God causes believers to be born again, John 1:12-13.

 

Acts 7:51 "You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit!

1 Thessalonians 5:19 "Do not quench the Spirit. "

Irresistible grace appears to be resistable.