Featured Is God the author of Evil/Sin?

Do you have a reading disorder?

Someone asked how the Reformed know they are among the “elect” and I answered his question. What does your comment have to do with his question or my answer?

No person, Doctrine of Grace or Free Will, that I know claims anyone knows from birth whether they will someday believe the Gospel or will never believe the Gospel. Only God knows that. However the Bible does teach that a person can KNOW whether they are a Child of God ... “by their fruit you will know them”.

Who said that?

 

I hold with the scriptures, in that God is always in full control, but He does directly determines certain events, and also permits things to happen!

Best example would be the Cross, as the trinity had set up that event from eternity past, but God determined that it would happen at that set time and place in history, but the sinners who nailed Jesus upon that Cross wanted to do that, God did not have to cause/force them to sin!

 

Why don’t you point out the verse that teaches “God loves us, because we first loved Him”?

 

It's a judgement in many cases. But consider Paul.

“What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,” Romans 9:22–23 (NCPB)

“For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, ‘Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth’. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.” Romans 9:17–18 (NCPB)

“Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?” Romans 9:21 (NCPB)

From the same Same Lump? Thank God you are not a cannibal.

 

It is not I who says that God draws people, but God Himself in the Bible.

 

Hi Miss E,

The see the usual suspects have been furiously posting the usual screed.

So let me return to your OP:
1) Does God choose people for salvation? Yes, 2 Thessalonians 2:13.
2) Does God choose them during their lifetime on the basis of faith in the truth? Yes 2 Thessalonians 2:13
3) Were all those chosen first "drawn" by the Father? Yes John 6:44
4) Are all those "drawn" chosen for salvation? Nope, the #2 &3 soils of Matthew 13 were drawn through the gospel, yet were not chosen.
5) Calvinists accept that God ordaines (predestines) whatsoever comes to pass, yet did not ordain our each and every sin that comes to pass. According to Calvinism we can only choose to sin, and never choose holy volitions, but this does not mean we are ordained to sin. Cognitive dissonance? Yes.
6) The correct understanding of God's sovereignty is that God causes or allows whatsoever comes to pass.

 

Just do

Just do the legally obligated response and God is then obligated to give. It's like buying a pizza. Give them the cash and get the pizza.
Of course, grace is non-existent in that transaction, but why should a reader of the Bible care...as long as I control my destiny by my free will...

 

Not at all. By God's amazing grace, I"once was lost, but now am found. Was blind, but now I see."
When God made me alive with Christ, God gave me faith to believe His promises.
I have a very biblical view of how God saved me, gave me faith and daily sanctified me for His glory. It is a wonderful blessing to rest in the more than capable arms of God.

 

Why would anyone stop you from stating what the Bible so richly declares.
All our righteousness is as filthy rags. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All we, like sheep, have gone astray.
You have stated a glorious truth, MissE. God chose us based upon nothing we had done to earn his favor. That, my friend, is Amazing Grace. How sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.

 

That would be quite a trick since I quote paragraphs so you can read the context for yourself. However, quoting verses out of context is not something you can be accused of since you just post opinions without Scripture.

 

Yes the "T" of the TULIP says the fallen cannot choose holy volitions, thus we can only choose to sin. Frequently in seeking to defend the indefensible, you will find posters who deny the actual meaning of the T and claim it only means we do not have the ability to save ourselves. On and on they post denials, ad hominems and misrepresentations yet claim they are earnestly seeking truth. As some might say, we can judge the tree by its fruit. (Matthew 12:33)

 

Pay the money, or you don't get the pizza...but I love you regardless...