Featured Faith and Hope

Okay, good quotes but where does it say the Holy Ghost coming enables the will? Who enabled the will before the Holy Ghost came? I am telling you that you fellows do not give much thought to your posts before you make them.

If there is a single verse in the scriptures that says men seek God then someone is going to have to reconcile context and at least make an effort to tell the truth.

Rom 9:30 What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.
31 But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.
32 Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone;
33 As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

 

You should go back and read again what I have said because I have not said the Holy Spirit is not involved in people actually getting saved. I said that the gift of the Holy Spirit to indwell the believer is the definition of salvation.

Ga 3:14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

Joh 7:37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
39 (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified)

Here the Spirit of God is call the gift of righteousness.

Ro 5:17 For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.

Ro 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Salvation from God is not something that cannot be defined. It is defined by God dwelling in us in the person of the Holy Ghost. God has promised to give eternal life to as many as will repent and believe in Jesus Christ who has made salvation possible by his righteous life and his sacrifice on behalf of all men on the cross and his resurrection from the dead. This is not complicated.

 

One must not go around ignoring plain statements from the scriptures. Salvation is THE gift of God. It is he who gives it. The gift of God is also the Holy Ghost indwelling a man. Salvation and the Holy Ghost are synonyms. God gives salvation, the Holy Ghost, to every man who will believe the gospel of Christ. A sinner must believe the gospel of Christ before God gives him this gift.

The scriptures tells us that faith comes by hearing the word of God. We are told that it has pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Faith is never set forth as the gift of God.

Ga 3:14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

What you guys are trying to teach is that the promise of faith come through the Spirit. This is wrong.

 

Dead sinners are not how you define them. If those who have the Spirit indwelling their mortal bodies are alive in Christ, and they are, then those who have not the Spirit indwelling them are spiritually dead. You are trying to make spiritual death something that it is not. Spiritual death is not having the Spirit of God indwelling ones mortal body. Physical death is not having the soul dwelling in the body.

Justification by faith was taking place for 4 thousand years before the first person was saved by the blood of Christ. You need to start thinking through these things before you post.

 

You seem to be thinking there is some type of magic involved in salvation. There is not. One must process the information that God gives about himself and his salvation and submit to it. The key is believing the words. You say you believe Ga 3:14 but then question it because everyone who hears does not receive the promise.

When Paul wrote these following words in AD 58 he had already been severely beaten 5 times by the Jews, left for dead at Lystra and had to escape the lynch mob by scaling a wall in a basket.

1 Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.
2 For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

Verse 3 says why they will not be saved. They have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. They have not believed in Jesus Christ, who is his righteousness.

Paul says in another letter that he attempts to persuade men to believe and receive God's salvation because he knows the end of a man who dies unsaved.

2Co 5:11 Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.

12 For we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that ye may have somewhat to [answer] them which glory in appearance, and not in heart.
13 For whether we be beside ourselves, [it is] to God: or whether we be sober, [it is] for your cause.
14 For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:
15 And [that] he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.
16 Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we [him] no more.
17 Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
18 And all things [are] of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech [you] by us: we pray [you] in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
21 For he hath made him [to be] sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
1 We then, [as] workers together [with him], beseech [you] also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.
2 (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now [is] the accepted time; behold, now [is] the day of salvation.)
3 Giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blame

Calvinism is self righteousness. When it claims God sends people to hell because he has not provided an acceptable sacrifice for them it is a denial of the person and work of Jesus Christ on behalf of the world. God has never told us he will save every sinner but he did say every sinner could be saved by coming to him through Christ.

Calvinism says only those sinners whom God has previously selected to be saved can come to him for salvation. That is not what God says. He says the following;

Joh 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Election is not the way, Jesus Christ is. Election is not the truth. Jesus Christ is. Election is not the life. Jesus Christ is.

 

There is no mystery associated with Romans 8 and 9. The reason for this is because Paul is dealing with Israel and the preparation work of God in the OT in preparing Israel to be born again by faith in Jesus Christ and to enter into his kingdom. There were promises all through their OT history that God was coming to them, that he would die for them, and he would abide in them by the Spirit. All of their ceremonial law and their temple worship was designed to teach them about the salvation that God was preparing for them through the Messiah. The problem you and most other Calvinists have is that you do not believe a single word of the OT. Your eyes are totally blind to the prophetic types and antitypes of the scriptures.

There is a mystery being revealed by God through the Apostle Paul in Ephesians. It is a mystery because there was not a single word written about what God is revealing in this letter in the OT. It is the mystery of Christ and it is the theme of this letter. There is a capsule verse in Eph 3:6 that identifies this mystery and only the very numb will miss it. That verse says the following;

Eph 3:6 That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:

Now I know you well enough by now to know you will not accept what that verse says. First of all you probably will not recognize the fact that God is forming the body of Christ, beginning with the Jews as recorded in Acts 1-7 when only Jews had the gospel preached to them.

Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
12 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

Then because of an addition in Christ, he says this to these gentiles;

13 In whom ye also [trusted], after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

Joint heirs - The Jews first in verse 11-12 and the gentiles in Verses 14. The Holy Spirit is the down payment or the earnest of our inheritance.

Calvinism does not recognize the bible doctrine of being "in Christ" that is in his body and they do not recognize that we gentiles who believe in Christ have been made partakers with the Jews of their spiritual blessings, which is sonship in Christ, the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Ghost.

So when God says he has chosen us in Christ it means exactly what it says. He chose Christ before the world was and everyone who is in him is chosen of God because we are one with Christ. It is a wonderful plan.

 

Do you folks ever read what you have written? You have just spouted off silliness. While claiming that God justifies by faith you then argue against justification by faith by saying that no one has faith if God did not choose them and elect them. Good grief. Having a bible has done you absolutely zero good because you believe none of it.