Featured Doctrine of Unconditional Election 2

The purpose of election is not a hidden secret. It has been demonstrated from the beginning of the creation and was illustrated in the first birth recorded in human history. That birth was the birth of twin boys, Cain and Abel. Cain represented in all points the power of sin over the flesh. He was born after the flesh, but we will learn later that a man must be born again. Therefore, Abel represents the new man, the new birth, the second birth. Jesus said to a ruler of Israel, whom he came in the flesh to save collectively as one man. How? by keeping the law of God and then sacrificing himself so they can experience this new birth. Was Jesus the second son of God. Yes, metaphorically speaking he was. Who was the firstborn? Israel, collectively speaking, was the firstborn son of God. I am not guessing about that. We are told it plainly. Here is proof.

Ex 4:19 And the LORD said unto Moses in Midian, Go, return into Egypt: for all the men are dead which sought thy life.
20 And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt: and Moses took the rod of God in his hand.
21 And the LORD said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go.
22 And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, Israel [is] my son, [even] my firstborn:

This son must be be born again, which means that Israel cannot go into the kingdom until every Israelite living is born again by trusting in the shed blood of Jesus Christ. In this sense, John 3 is dealing with a national salvation and a new birth for his nation. This is the reason a ruler of Israel, a Pharisee is under consideration in John 3. Each Israelite must come to Christ. What happened at the first coming of Jesus Christ was that Israel through her national rulers rejected Jesus Christ as their promised Messiah ans as the son of God. Only a remnant of Israel believed and were born again. That is the reason the gentiles were include in the mystery kingdom of Jesus Christ. The king is away and awaiting his kingdom from the Father, after all unbelievers are destroyed from Israel, as well as the world.

Check it out here as he speaks to Israel after he has returned to heaven and sat down on his Father's throne.

.Ac 2:38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

I underlined the operative phrase in this command.

18 But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled.
19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
20 And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:
21 Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.
22 For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.
23 And it shall come to pass, [that] every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.
24 Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.
25 Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed.
26 Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.

Rom 11:26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
27 For this [is] my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.

Isa 13:9 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.

There will be few of Israel left after the day of the LORD judgement, which is still in the future, but everyone who is left will have been born again and collectively Israel will be born again.

The trial and death of Jesus Christ on cross is an illustrated type of the day of the Lord judgements upon Israel. His resurrection and quickening by the Spirit of God is a representation and type of the resurrected and quickened nation of Israel, yet future.

Both were raised from the dead very early on the third day. We are in the beginning historically of the third day of Israel's burial in the nations in AD 70.

There is much to this story that will always be blocked by Calvinism.

 

JD, no traditional Christian would ever hold your view, including the majority of free-will Arminians.

 

I guess you would need to define what you mean by "traditional" Christian.

The precision of the words of the scriptures are without parallel in any other tome in human history. One must. believe the words and he must not redefine them and add the new definition to them like those do whom you are probably calling traditional Christians. Words like sovereign grace, irresistible grace, sovereignty of God, unconditional election, determinism, total depravity, limited atonement, perseverance of the saints and other made up doctrines, that even the concept of the doctrines cannot be found in the scriptures without doing serious damage to the integrity of the words, let alone being guilty of adding to the words of God.

 

I think we should tell everyone that Christ paid for all the sins of all who believe in Him. And He tells us all who believe have eternal life they can never lose. If you believe, turn from your sins and be baptized.

 

You miss the point that Jesus uses faith found in people to identify the elect. What's an "elect" to the casual listener?

 

Simply say: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved."
This is an accurate statement for both the Calvinist and Arminian.
Unless one believes, one cannot be saved. Jesus atonement is only effective for the believer, not for the unbeliever.

 

This is true, but shouldn't we mention His death for sin? His burial, and resurrection on the third day? Proving his sinlessness? And the everywhere missing "Gospel of the Kingdom"? They preach the Pharisee's Kingdom today if they even mention a kingdom.

 

We preach the gospel.
1 Corinthians 15:3-8 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
Romans 5:1-11 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

 

Peter preached the kingdom of God, as did Jesus and Paul. Nobody does this today unless it's the Pharisee's idea of the kingdom. But Peter included Christ's death, burial, and resurrection in the gospel of the kingdom as it stood at that time. So I try to keep step with him when writing or witnessing. That would be in Acts 2.

 

The Kingdom of Jesus is here, but not yet here in full, as that awaits the King second coming!

 

No, they were born again and redeemed from eternity at calvary. How can God justly lift his wrath from unbelievers without first paying for their sins?

 

You need more study. You'll find I'm right. God cannot forgive unless a person is justified. This is why Jesus looked for faith in those seeking healing. As did Paul. These were in fact born again Jews as Abraham was also faithful.

 

I think this purpose is revealed in John 6:39. 'This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing but raise it up at the last day.'
What we learn from this verse taken with a few others is that God the Father has a people whom He has chosen from the beginning of time (Ephesians 1:4-5). He has given these people to the Son who has redeemed every one of them through His death upon the cross (Revelation 5:9 etc.). He will not lose even one of them so God's grace must be irresistible.
But the very next verse tells us something else of God's purpose. 'And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.' That is why Christ says through Isaiah, 'Look to Me and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God and there is no other.'

We have to hold these two great truths in parallel with each other. One is not more true than the other. But we also read that, 'It pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe (1 Corinthians 1:21; c.f. also Romans 10:14-15). God will have His elect saved through faith, through the medium of preaching.

The English reformer John Rogers, who deserves to be heard if only because he was the first of the martyrs under Queen Mary, said, "A man should go first to the school of repentance and faith before he goes to the university of election." And so he should. Preachers should not ask a man to look into his own heart; he'll find no help there! They should bid him look to Christ, to Christ crucified, to Christ made sin for us, to Christ risen and reigning in heaven, and bid him repent and trust in him for salvation. And if he will come, be he never so wicked a wretch, Christ will by no means cast him out.

But when he comes, it will be because God set His love upon him in eternity and has, in time, drawn him with lovingkindness (Jeremiah 31:3).

 

So when does God see the lost sinner now justified?