Featured The Offer of the Gospel

The power of God in the Gospel Does indeed accomplished its task, as that is the agent that God ordain was the method to have His elected ones to get saved, by hearing the good news, and by the Spriit Himself quickening them to respond and receive jesus to get saved!

its not lacking anything, but not intended by God to save all who hear it!

 

Cite for me one respected Calvinist theologian who believes that elect individuals do not respond willingly.

God made no such decision.

 

Rule #1 in theological debate: never assume.

According to irrefutable biblical doctrine the sinner has to be regenerated first before he can believe. How many times will Rom. 8:7; 1 Cor. 2:14; Eph. 2:1; Col. 2:13 et. al. have to be cited to make the point that sinners are not only unwilling, but unable to believe? It takes a unilateral work of grace, by the Holy Spirit, to make an individual capable of belief (Eph. 2:4,5; Col. 2:13).

I am not sure what it is you are really asking. God created Adam with the ability to sin or not to sin. Adam acted as the fair and just representative of the human race. When Adam sinned he did so as our fair and just representative. As a result all human beings are born in sin (Rom. 5:12). None of this happened outside of God's omniscience.

Does God intend for every person to come to faith in Christ. No. If God decreed every person to come to faith in Christ, then every person would come to faith in Christ. Then is it left up to chance? No one comes to faith in Christ by chance. Those who come to faith in Christ are chosen by the Father (JN. 6:37). That is where we see God's will of decree at work.

 

Doesn't Romans 1:16 definitively answer the question?

Romans 1:16
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.

 

What are the "things of the Spirit of God" (1 Cor. 2:14)? They are "the things freely given to us by God" (1 Cor. 2:12). Those "things" are whatever the Spirit chooses to reveal including, but not limited to, the Gospel. The natural man of verse 14 "cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised". Since the natural man - the sinner - does not have the Spirit of God he is UNABLE to appraise the things of the Spirit.

Romans 8 begins with the sinner's deliverance from bondage. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (v. 1). The sinner is set free from the law of sin and death (v. 2). The former sinner, now Christian, walks according to the Spirit (v. 4). These blessings are contrasted against those who are "according to the flesh" and who set their minds on the "things of the flesh" (v. 5). The mind set on the flesh is death (v. 6). Why? Because the mind set on the flesh "is hostile toward God"; it does not "subject itself to the law of God"; and it "is not even able to do so". Again, why? Because those who are in the flesh "cannot please God" (v. 8). The sinner is once again proven to be UNABLE. In context of the chapter the sinner is unable to subject himself to the "law of the Spirit of life" (v. 2).

Ephesians 2:1 introduces the fact that the sinner is dead in sin. You and I have debated this before, but it bears repeating. The word for "dead" in Ephesians 2:1 is "nekros". It is the word for a dead body; a corpse. The sinner is spiritually dead in the same way that a body is physically dead. Left to his own devices the sinner can no more conjure up faith then a rock can sprout wings and fly. It takes the unilateral work of a loving God to change the status quo of death and make the sinner capable of believing.

Ephesians 2:4, 5 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ* (by grace you have been saved),

*emphasis mine

Even while we were dead... Things that are dead do not make any volitional decisions. Why? Because they are dead. Not only is the dead sinner UNABLE to believe, it is impossible for him to believe apart from God quickening him. That is why I love the words "But God" in Ephesians 2:4. God took action when the sinner could not. The passage in Colossians teaches the same exact thing.

Your soteriology falls under the weight of its own fallacies and unbiblical reasoning. It has proven to be untenable time and time again; and considering the fact that you bring up the same topics repeatedly, it will continue to be untenable - ad infinitum, ad nauseaum.

 

:thumbsup::applause::thumbsup: Case closed....

 

Things that are dead cannot he held accountable for being dead, nor can they be punished. Things that are dead also were once alive.

 

not according to Paul....
6 But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.

 

Is that a biblical argument?

 

You don't get it. The comparison was made to a corpse. Take a corpse to court and sue, and then beat it for punishment and tell me the corpses reaction.

 

Its a logical argument. The Bible is filled with them.

 

Unbiblical logic. If you disagree prove it from scripture.

 

What is unbiblical, that corpses feel no pain? Corpses werent once full of life? What exactly are you calling illogical here?

Unbiblical logic is what Skan already called you out on, using Bible in an illogical and faulty way.

 

Yes. I sure do. I double and triple down on it.

"Not even able to do"
"He cannot understand them"
"Dead in trespasses and sins"

I quadruple down.

I love how you just brush away the truth even when it jumps up, bites you on the hindquarters, and refuses to let go.

James is warning Christians about the seriousness of sin. That is the context it needs to be understood in.

Different context.

The fact that you are tone deaf and cannot realize I already did list them is not surprising.

 

I would love to continue this but I have to get some shut eye. I will be happy to correct your errors again in the morning.

Say goodnight, Gracie.