Confession of a Hyper-Calvinist

1) I would hope that no one would ask me for "advice". The gospel is not "advice"; it is a declaration that Christ has accomplished and finished everything necessary and needed for the salvation of God's elect, given to Him by the Father before the world began.

2) It is not a question of whether or not the elect will persevere as there is no doubt that they will.

John 10:27-30 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one.

Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Philippians 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

3) 1 John 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.

The bottom line is that all of God's elect, chosen before the world began, will persevere because God will preserve them.

 

Amen and amen!

 

Jude 1:24-25 Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.

 

I was doing some reading of John Flavel this morning, and I came across the same problem that your teaching apparently promulgates.

Let me put it this way, there is a huge difference between these two statements:

1) Because you do X, Y, and Z, it proves you are one of the elect.
2) Because you one of the elect, you do X, Y, and Z based on God having ordained that you will do X, Y, and Z by His working in you and for His good pleasure.

My reading this morning of Flavel led me to believe that he espoused statement 1). And it is unBiblical. I may be mistaken, but you are reminding me a lot of Flavel.

The Biblical statement is statement 2).

 

"did Jesus restrict the Gospel to just be given out to his own elect then"

No.


"Are we eternally justified before we were saved"

"I was reminded that justification is unilaterally God’s legal declaration that His people are forgiven of their sins and declared righteous IN HIS SIGHT based upon the merits of Christ’s righteousness imputed alone (Romans 8:33-34; 2 Corinthians 5:19-21). And even though God’s justifying His people in His sight ALWAYS leads to their experiencing the new birth and being brought to faith in Christ and true repentance by the work of the Holy Spirit within them, the act of justification is NOT a work within God’s people. It is totally and exclusively an act of God and involves not how they view Him, but how He views them.

So, I have come from believing justification at the time of faith, to justification at the cross, to justification from eternity. But I can say without a doubt that as I have studied these views and arrived at my present position, the basic Gospel truth under which I was initially converted to faith in Christ and true repentance has never changed. The Gospel message wherein the righteousness of God is revealed concerns the glorious Person and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ as the only ground upon which God saves sinners. It is salvation conditioned on Christ Who, by Himself and for His people, fulfilled all conditions so as to secure their complete salvation. His righteousness imputed is the only ground of justification before God. WHEN God actually imputes this righteousness to His people is not a Gospel issue, again, unless one’s view of the timing either denies or confuses Christ and His righteousness as the only ground upon which God saves sinners. True believers can and do disagree on this matter."

- from Bill Parker's When Are God's People Justified in His Sight? in which he goes in depth on this issue over the course of 52 pages; can be read online for free here - When_Are_Gods_People_Justified_in_His_Sight_new.pdf (b5z.net)

 

Anyone who denies the necessity of preaching the gospel and the new birth is teaching a false doctrine.

From the 52-page book I linked to earlier in this thread:

"There are some who hold a view of eternal justification and wrongfully use it to deny the necessity of Christ coming in time to accomplish righteousness for His people and deny the necessity of the means and fruits of justification that God gives to His people in time. They claim that because God’s people have been justified in eternity, it is not necessary for Christ to come and do His powerful work on the cross. I heard a man preach one time that “God did not have to send His Son to suffer and die on the cross to save us from sin. He could just as well have snapped His fingers and we would be saved.” Whatever view of the timing of justification this individual held to, this statement is heresy, a denial of the true Gospel and the clear teachings of God’s Word. Whenever God justifies His chosen people, it is always on the just ground of the righteousness that Christ accomplished in time in His obedience unto death. Without Christ doing His work for His people in time, there is no justification at any time.

Others hold a view of eternal justification and use it to deny the necessity of the new birth, claiming that God’s people do not have to be born again in time, hear, and believe the Gospel of God’s grace in Christ. They take a fatalistic view of God’s eternal dealings with His people. It is the same with their view of the doctrine of election. They claim that because God chose His people in eternity, they could go through this life and never be born again and never hear and believe the Gospel finding out only at Judgment that they were chosen by God. There are others who claim that all whom God chose and justified must be born again, but that the new birth does not necessarily include hearing and believing the true Gospel and being brought to faith in Christ and repentance of dead works and idolatry.

The Bible teaches that all whom God has chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, all whom God has justified in Christ as their Surety based on the merits of His obedience unto death in time, will be born again by the Spirit under the preaching of the Gospel and be brought to faith in Christ and repentance of dead works and idolatry. No one has a proper Biblical claim of being chosen or justified by God until he is born again by the Spirit and brought by God to faith in Christ and repentance of dead works. In this matter, allow me to answer an objection raised by one who is adamantly opposed to any view of justification in eternity. He claims that anyone who holds ANY view of justification from eternity has people “walking around not knowing they have been justified.” This is the same objection that false Christians bring against God’s election of grace. God’s people were chosen by God in Christ before the foundation of the world, yet they are all born spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. They are all born lost, not knowing the right way of salvation by God’s grace. Someone said, “We cannot tell people that they were justified by God before they believe.” This is true! We cannot be true to the Scriptures and tell any sinner that they were chosen of God, redeemed by Christ, or justified in God’s sight before the Holy Spirit brings them to faith in Christ and repentance of dead works and idolatry. Faith in Christ and true repentance are the first evidences of election, redemption, and justification."

 

I look to Christ and his work and sacrifice on the cross as my evidence. I look at nothing in this vile, corrupt person that I am as evidence of anything other than I am vile sinner. Any thing good that I might actually do is all by God's absolutely sovereignty and grace:

Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Philippians 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

(emphasis mine)

 

Cool!