Featured Faith? Where does it come from?

Iconoclast,

Thank you for you gracious reply.

I quoted Wisdom 3:1 to show the continuity from about 750 BCE (the time of the ministry of Isaiah) through the present day of the Judeo-Christian concept of there being protection in the hand of God. I quoted from Isa. 43:13 to show that the protection lasted only so long as the Jews remained in the hand of God (which did not last very long!). Jesus used the concept in John 10:29 to teach that His own hand was the hand of God, and that He and the Father were one. Some unknown person at some unknown time in history began, very imaginatively, using 10:29 to teach a concept that is not so much as hinted at in that verse—that is, the concept that once a person is saved, they cannot lose their salvation.

By the way, is Wisdom 3:1 true, or is it not? The truth is always the truth regardless of who says it or writes it. Much of the content of the Qur’an comes from the Bible. Does its inclusion in the Qur’an make it any less true than it is in the Bible?

 

You have no Scripture to offer that backs up your false teaching. Not even one. And it is not my eye alone that is beholding your grave error.

 

That's quite disturbing but I'm not surprised. One who holds error that deep ought to stop teaching altogether while seeking to be taught and 'deprogrammed' from his Finneyist errors.

 

I only dealt with the points that I felt were relevant. So you might not find much.

You can't refute something that is Biblical. When you are wrong you are wrong. You can post a wrong position. That doesn't mean you have refuted me.

 

More to the point it shows that you need to look in the dictionary and find out what the real definition of faith is. It is not this tangible mystical essence that you think God gives the unregenerate so that they are able to be saved. Where do you come up with these things? The New Age Movement. It isn't the Bible.

 

No one, except a few of your cheer-leaders agree with ad hominems, false accusations, and derogatory posts. Absolutely no one. You live in a dream world.

 

On the contrary. You have never provided any scripture to show that God gives faith to the unregenerate.
No one here has. It is a fact: God doesn't give spiritual gifts or his fruit to the ungodly. Why people here think that is beyond me.

 

Show me just one example in scripture where it is clear and explicit that God gave man the faith to believe and then the man became regenerated, and then he became saved. There is no example.
Folks here try to use Cornelius.. But that doesn't work. It works against them. Why?

1 Peter 1:23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
1 Peter 1:25 But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
--In order to be born again or regenerated Cornelius had to hear the Word of God, that is the gospel. He had not heard that message until Peter got there even though God had spoken to them.
BTW, here is a good example of a dead man speaking to God, praying to God. So much for that theory.
And yet, he was not born again until he heard the gospel. That is what the scriptures here teach.
The Holy Spirit works through the Word of God to bring a person both regeneration and salvation.
There is no other way.
But the Calvinist has it backwards.

 

There are many who don't believe in particular redemption, including Peter who calls it a damnable heresy.

2 Peter 2:1 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

 

If that means that if I believe Christ died on the cross for the sins of the world and not for the elect only ( as the bible says), than I will gladly concider myself as one who has "fallen away" from Calvins doctrine.

Salvation is offered to all who believe Jesus and even though faith is a gift and the Father draws those who he intends to be saved to Jesus, the sinner has to submit his will and heart to God, because he doesn't draw anyone unwillingly and He doesn't bring anyone to the cross without their consent.

God is not a tyrant, he will not contradict himself he is love he wishes all men come to the saving knowledge of truth and he is holy, he can't do that unless a sinner comes to the cross and believes Jesus as Lord and Savior.

We are spiritually dead in our trans passes and sins and separated from God (in our fallen unregenerated state) that means the spirit but we still have a soul with its faculties functioning in us, we have the choice in our will to accept or not Jesus Christ.

When the Word of God and the gosple is preached the seed of faith is planted on those who open their heart and believe Jesus as their Lord and Saviour.

Calvinists can try as hard as they want, they won't be able to convince the rest of us that human beings have no human responsibility to accept or reject the gosple. It is there in the Bible and we can misinterpret it to fit our man made theology but God still keeps man responsible and excuses him not at all.

Believing that the sinner is a responsible moral being before a holy and just God is what the Bible teaches. It does justice to the character of God.

And all that said I still believe in the doctrine of election or predestination it is taught in the bible as well as the doctrine of God's sovereignty and human responsibility. I can't reconcile them with my finite mind but these truths are reconciled in the Bible and in the mind of God.

Blessings,

 

It says it in Scriptures like: James 2:26, Eph.2:1; Rev.20:14,15; Rom.6:23, etc.

Not equal, but similar. The are similar in that they both fall under the definition of separation.

How is that? If one is speaking of death, then proper meanings must be assigned or there is confusion in the discussion. We are simply talking past each other.

When Adam died he was separated from God spiritually. How else could he carry one a conversation with God?

Yes it is self-evident and obviously not "obfuscation."

We don't speak 13th century English. It was hardly English at that time.
Here is a Biblical definition of Faith:

Romans 4:20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;
21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.
--The person whom the Bible describes as "strong in faith," was "fully persuaded that what God had promised God was able to perform."
Faith is the confidence that what a person has promised a person will do, whether in the secular realm or the spiritual realm.

This is a badly misused and misunderstood verse. The context is Christians who have been living a carnal life (1Cor.3:1-5). These verses just precede chapter three.
Thus the context starts primarily with verse 10 and ends with chapter 3, both speaking about Christians not being able to understand anything beyond simple truths of the Word of God:

1 Corinthians 2:10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
--They were not able to understand the deep things of the Word of God because they were carnal, still babes in Christ, not able to eat meat. They were worldly which means, though they were saved, they often acted like the unsaved. This means that while in that condition they did not receive the things of the Spirit nor did understand them
Note: it says they "did not," not "could not." There is a difference.

Writing to Christians, James says:
James 4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
The carnal mind is emnity against God. And the friend of the world is the enemy of God, though he be a Christian. That is how much God hates the world. Both live in the flesh pleasing the flesh rather than the things of the Spirit of God. Both Paul and James is writing to Christians.

God is right. Your interpretation is wrong. God is speaking here to Christians living worldly and carnal lives.

If I told you of a Muslim who was given a Bible, and simply by reading the NT he was saved, without any other outside influence how would that affect your interpretation of 1Cor.2:14, when you say "the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God"?
Would you deny his salvation because he would not fit into your preconceived theology?

 

Thank you, my brother, for this refreshingly accurate post!