Featured Bible vs Reformed Election

Except, here's the problem, you said that in direct response to the following:

You can take things out of context all you want but when you do I am going to call you on it, especially if you are doing it to try and belittle me. We were clearly talking about the sacrifice and then you made the comparison as an illustration. Context matters and I am tired of you blatantly taking things out of context to either make your point or to belittle another poster. That's called bearing false witness and you should repent.

 

No thank you.

 

By this very sentence you show that you don't know what Reformed Theology is, which is why you are so confused by Calvin's writing. I shudder to think what you would make of Bunyan or Spurgeon.
Tell me, what do you believe is the sinner's warrant to come to Christ? And what do you think I, as a Calvinist, believe is the sinner's warrant to come to Christ?

 

No, it's irrefutable proof that God has elect from every nation.

 

Amen.

None are excepted?
That is not what the Scriptures say, SBG:

" When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
32 and before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth [his] sheep from the goats:
33 and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:" ( Matthew 25:31-34 ).



" Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:" ( Matthew 25:41 ).
" And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal." ( Matthew 25:46 ).



" Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they [are] not all Israel, which are of Israel:
7 neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, [are they] all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.
8 That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these [are] not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed." ( Romans 9:6-8 ).

" [What] if God, willing to shew [his] wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
23 and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
24 even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?" ( Romans 9:22-24 ).

" But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption; " ( 2 Peter 2:12 ).

" Unto you therefore which believe [he is] precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner,
8 and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, [even to them] which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed." ( 1 Peter 2:7-8 ).

" For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ." ( Jude 1:4 ).


There are elect, the children of God ( the righteous, made so by the blood of His dear Son ) and there are the children of wrath.

The elect were chosen in Christ from the foundation of the world ( Ephesians 1:4-5 ).
They were foreknown, predestinated, called, justified and glorified ( Romans 8:29-30 ).

The children of wrath ( the vessels of wrath, fitted to destruction ) were not.

 

You haven't told me what you think the sinner's warrant to come to Christ is, either for yourself, or for 'Calvinists.'
However, not to waste further time, I will tell you what the sinner's warrant is. It is simply that he is a sinner, and Christ Jesus came into the world to save such. If he will come to Christ in repentance and faith, Christ undertakes not to cast him out. No matter if he is a wife-beater, an adulterer, a child-molester, a thief, a murderer or a would-be Moslem suicide bomber; if he will come to Christ, He will by no means cast him out (John 6:37). There is a wonderful sermon by Spurgeon on this theme, but I don't have time to look it out.

But when he comes, he will find that it is all of God (Romans 9:16 etc.) who has loved him from eternity and drawn him to Himself with all longsuffering and with covenant mercies, because salvation belongs to our God.

 

I would like to add that there is really no reason for all this animosity between Calvinists and Arminians.
G. Campbell Morgan was a famous pastor and preacher in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. He was Arminian in his theology He was pastor of Westminster Chapel, London (for the second time) around 1935, by which time he was quite elderly. He looked around for a man to succeed him, seeking someone who was utterly faithful to the word of God. He settled on Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and approached him when both men were on preaching tours of the USA.
But Lloyd-Jones was a Calvinist. Nevertheless, Campbell Morgan was prepared to bring him in as co-pastor and they ministered together from 1938 until C.M. retired in 1943. According to Lloyd-Jones they had no problems with is arrangement, one preaching in the mornings, the other in the evenings. The only practical difference in their theologies was that C.M. would tell people that Christ had died for them and M.L-J would tell them that Christ died for such as them.
Whilst I am unreservedly Calvinist in my theology, I would have no problem cooperating with an Arminian in evangelism. A Pelagian or semi-Pelagian would be another matter, however.

 

I didn't ask what God's warrant is, I asked what the sinner's warrant is to come to Christ.

But the Greek word houtos in John 3:16 means 'thus' or 'in this way,' rather than 'so' as a measure of quantity (as in the Christian Standard Bible). This is how God loved the world; He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. Amen and amen!

 

I'm glad to hear that you have Calvinist friends I had gained the impression from your posts that you were rather extreme on the matter. I'm glad to hear that I was wrong.

We don't limit the achievement of Jesus' death. He said, "...This is the will of Him who sent Me, that I should lose nothing of al that He has given Me, but raise it up at the last day" (John 6:39). And this He has done. The great crowd of Rev. 7 is neither smaller or greater under Calvinism or Arminianism. Actually, 'limited atonement' is an unfortunate expression. 'Particular' or, better yet 'effectual' atonement would be much better. It's just that TUPIP or TUEIP aren't such catchy acronyms as TULIP.

That's still not what I was looking for. I want to know what the sinner's warrant to come to Christ is.
As I Calvinist I can agree with that sentiment, but I'm not sure I could do so as an Arminian. God loved me enough to save me, not just to offer me salvation, not just to draw me towards Christ, but actually to save me (Titus 3:3-6). It is not just the offer of salvation that belongs to God, but salvation itself.

 

ouch.

Stung again by your rapier wit.

 

Well said, Martin.