Featured No Bible Doctrine Called Sovereign Grace

The law is a reflection of God's love and character, and He cannot deny Himself. It is impossible for God to lie.

Tyranny is an oppressive rule, and a terror to the righteous. God is not a tyrant. Satan is.

 

This is an utterly faithless statement.

If we're talking about the origin of evil, it's not something we can wrap our minds around, because it's outside of time. If Christ's words are indicative, it began in Satan the Father of Lies.

There's a picture for us in the Creation narrative. God separated the light from the darkness. Light was created, but the darkness was already there uncreated, yet God names it, and acts upon it and with it.

Let's just suffice it it say that God is not the creator of evil, yet it was part of His will that it would appear.

 

Who is righteous that they might not be in terror of God?
The Christian stands before God, declared righteous by substitutionary ransom of Jesus, Jesus continual prayer as our High Priest, and by the God given faith through which we are justified.

God is an absolute Sovereign King. What He says is done, without question. This is why Habakkuk's second prayer sends him to the watchtower to see God's response. Habakkuk thought he was doomed for questioning God.

*Habakkuk 1:12 through 2:1*
Are you not from everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O Lord, you have ordained them as a judgment, and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof. You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he? You make mankind like the fish of the sea, like crawling things that have no ruler. He brings all of them up with a hook; he drags them out with his net; he gathers them in his dragnet; so he rejoices and is glad. Therefore he sacrifices to his net and makes offerings to his dragnet; for by them he lives in luxury, and his food is rich. Is he then to keep on emptying his net and mercilessly killing nations forever?
I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint.

 

We are not in a neutral position in regards to sin. We are sinful wicked and evil bound for hell

But God, he chooses to save some

if God did not choose to save some then no one would be saved

 

Well, let's break this down and talk about one point in what is better called "The Doctrines of Grace."

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

What does that say to you?

 

He has chosen to save those that freely trust in His son.

 

The Sovereignty of God means He either causes or allows whatsoever comes to pass.

The word Sovereignty is found in some translations, such as the NASB for malkû (H4437).

The idea is a reference to what the Sovereign controls, i.e. His Kingdom, His Royal House.

The claim the idea is "exhaustive determinism" is unbiblical nonsense, as the OP said a redefining of a concept.

 

These are believers that Paul is addressing here so we know they are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and as such are guided by Him. Paul has told them to strive to be Christ like in their daily walk. Php 2:3 Instead of being motivated by selfish ambition or vanity, each of you should, in humility, be moved to treat one another as more important than yourself. NET

 

I agree with Van here and I also think there is a difference between sovereignty and meticulous determinism. The problem is that with the above definition which I agree with, once God KNOWS something is going to happen in the future, even if you want to say he didn't determine it to be but that he just allowed freedom and knows what will be freely done by a creature - is it not still true that now that God knows for sure that such a thing will happen it MUST happen? Otherwise God would be wrong.

If you say God knows all the possible choices to be made and simply understands and has a plan to handle each choice then he by definition does not really KNOW the future but is simply the best player ever at chess. The idea of God having two wills is starting to look reasonable again. Edwards and Piper might be right.

 

God knows what man will freely do but God does not cause man to do it.God knows who will reject Him and who will trust in Him but He does not cause either to happen.

 

The powers that be say views of Divine Knowledge cannot be discussed on this forum, because only the view they see as the Baptist view is allowed.

For example if you say God knowing the future sins we will commit requires that we commit those sins, or else God's knowledge is imperfect, then you are back to exhaustive determinism. But scripture, rather than the clever stories of men, says quite clearly things happen by "chance." Thus all arguments for exhaustive determinism are fallacious.

 

I agree with that but I know you would say that God influences all this by circumstances and conviction and so on. I remember fundamentalist preachers saying "If you feel any conviction, or see your need to come to Christ, don't put it off. Act immediately because you may never have another opportunity". And by that they meant both that you didn't know whether you would live and so on but also that the Holy Spirit may never act on you again. I can show you Calvinists like Bonar and Edwards who said this word for word and also guys like John R. Rice. There has to be a level of sovereignty in salvation or these guys would be wrong. And if we pray for people to get saved aren't we asking for sovereign intervention contrary to their will to be applied?

 

I for sure think a lot happens by chance from our point of view. But sometimes in scripture God talks to us at our level for our benefit. If God says to someone "what did you do", it doesn't imply he really didn't know, it's just the only way for God to converse with us. It has to be at our level or else we can't converse. By the way, thanks for the heads up on the divine knowledge.

 

More caterwauling against God being the Sovereign Creator of the universe, but here is what the Scriptures state:

All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. (Psalms 139:16)

The LORD works out everything for his own ends – even the wicked for a day of disaster. (Proverbs 16:4)

In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps. (Proverbs 16:9)

A man's steps are directed by the LORD. How then can anyone understand his own way? (Proverbs 20:24)

The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases. (Proverbs 21:1)

All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: "What have you done?" (Daniel 4:35)

Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." (James 4:13-15)

 

Show us your scripture and how chance triumphs over God.

 

Done and done many times Sir as far as scripture saying things happen by chance. It you cannot do a word search, it is very easy to learn.

Did I say something "triumphs" over God? Nope so yet another disinformation post allowed for no good reason other than to hide truth.

If God allows things to happen by chance, that is according to His will, is consistent with His sovereign choice, and only triumphs over the fictions of foolish falseology folks.

 

Psa 119:155
The wicked have no chance for deliverance, for they do not seek your statutes.

 

For those interested in why the wicked are far from salvation.

Salvation is far from the wicked: For they seek not thy statutes. - Psalms 119:155

"Salvation is far from the wicked,.... Christ, the author of salvation, is far from them: he was far from the unbelieving Jews, even though salvation was of them, and he, the Saviour, was among them; and he is far from all unconverted persons, as to knowledge of him, faith in him, or love to him; and from all those that seek for salvation elsewhere, let them make ever such pretences to religion: the Gospel of salvation, which they put away from them, as the Jews did in the times of Christ and the apostles; an experimental knowledge of salvation, a sense of need of it, and an application of it, are far from them; and the enjoyment of it in heaven, which, though nearer the saints than when they first believed, is far off from the wicked, and whose damnation is near.

...

for they seek not thy statutes; either to know them, or keep them: they seek not after God, to know him, his mind and will; the language of their hearts and actions is, "depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of thy ways"; no, not of life and salvation, and therefore it must be far from them."

- from John Gill's Bible commentary on Psalms 119:155