Featured Context of Acts 13:48

Verse 9 of Ephesians 2 clarifies the meaning of verse 8 by contrasting faith with works. Not of works, lest any man should boast, is in contrast to the faith give us by Christ in verse 8. No doubt salvation is a gift but that is clearly not the interpretation of verse 8.

Scripture must be interpreted by laying precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, and there a little." (Isaiah 28:10) Unfortunately for you, you cannot see that is what I am doing which you call reading into scripture.

Keep patting yourself on the back, brother. I am sure you think you deserve it.

 

Isaiah 1:1
Isa 1:1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, [and] Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

Hosea 1:1
Ho 1:1 The word of the LORD that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, [and] Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.

The LORD knows how to address the two houses of Israel, Judah and Ephraim. They are the same people some 700 years later and one can determine that the Northern family of ten tribes still, after all these years, worshiped Jehovah as their God, even though he said "ye are not my people." We can be sure of this because the first missionary journey of the great apostle Paul found him preaching in synagogues in the regions where they abode in his days, Asia minor. Peter wrote his epistles to them and addressed them, not as sons of God, but as strangers.

1Pe 1:1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, (these are all provinces in Asia Minor)
2Pe 3:1 This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance:
1Pe 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: (you will see how important this generation is in God's scheme of things when I make my post about the generation of Jesus Christ)

As a side note, Paul, writing his 13 epistles to the gentiles never one time even hinted that we, members of the church of Jesus Christ, are priests. He did not use the word priests or priesthood in any of his epistles as he gave us the great doctrines of the church in this age.That is significant.

But how do they become "children of the living God" like is prophesied in Hosea? If one becomes a child of someone, he must be born into his family. This letter then is in a broader sense than just the church of Jesus Christ, of which all who were born again at this time are members. These members of Israels race will still be around and many of these things will yet apply to Israel after the church is taken.

These are the folk that are in view here:

Rom 9:22 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?
25 As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.
26 And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.
27 Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:
28 For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.
29 And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha.

God had mercy on Judah but did not have mercy on Israel, though later God said that the sins of Judah were greater than the sins of Israel. In this age after the cross work of Christ the believers of Israel became the remnant, the very small seed, the children of God through the new birth, and as great as it is it is not the end of the story for this nation. The word of the Lord gives many prophesies concerning this people that one cannot learn by reading the OT scriptures.


1Pe 1:18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;
19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
20 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,
21 Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.
22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:
23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
24 For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:
25 But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

The word of the LORD is a person when this title is given to him.

One cannot give much detail on these forums because of the limitation, but I give these verses for comparison and thought. No one might agree with my conclusions but every word is important in the scriptures.

Rom 11:I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
2 God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel saying,
3 Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life.
4 But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.
5 Even so then at this present time (58 AD) also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.

25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
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.

The mystery is not verse 26 because it is an OT quote and prophesy that is plainly understood. The mystery is verse 25 that says the judicial blindness of Israel will end when the gentiles have filled the house and the church is complete.

There will be no more remnant doctrine of Israel, going forward, because at the end of this all who are left after God's baptism of fire prophesied by John the Baptist, which will be few, will all be saved and his physical and spiritual promises will be realized..

 

Who do you think the sheep nations are that are gathered in Matt 25:32? Where is the church in relation to this verse?

When Christ said in Mt 16:18...upon this rock I will build my church (gather my people together) and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it," he included not only the northern tribes of Samaria but also the coming gentile nations as the other sheep. The other sheep which are not of this flock (John 10:16) is also a picture of the same purpose in the gathering, building and unifying of the kingdom of God as a church people. His teachings to the Jewish audience was necessary because the first church was a Jewish church that he was bringing forth during his ministry. Christ's teachings were always in the context of seeking the kingdom of God and his righteousness. (Matthew 6:33) in accordance to his new covenant. This is the kingdom, not only proclaimed by the prophets by the spirit of Christ in them (1 Peter 1:11) but also by Christ who proclaimed "the kingdom of God is within (in the midst) of you. A new spiritual covenant nation in the midst of a carnal covenant nation. A kingdom within a kingdom. A calling out within a calling out. The old would pass away and new would proceed from out of their midst.

This is the church nation to whom the keys of the kingdom are given.

 

Sir, please reread 1 Peter 2:9-10. Note that God had not "set aside a people" until after the involved individuals had been "not a people" chosen for God.

Also claiming my views are twisted without any specification reveals nothing.

 

I take it that the above response agrees that if God knows the future exhaustively, then God is the author of sin, because the sin must occur or God would be mistaken and he never is.

The issue with being "of your father, the devil, is we all started out as children of wrath, rather than born anew children of God. We all once were "in Adam" and thus in the domain of darkness. Paul certainly was acting like he belonged to the father, the devil, when Paul helped murder Steven.

I saw an off topic copy and paste that did not even address the issue. Of course is God permits or allows sin, then He is not the author! But if He knows before we are born and each and every sin, then we cannot do otherwise. That would seem to make God the author of sin. Please address the actual issue.

 

The Gift of God
Eph_2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
Rom_6:23 the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The gift of God is salvation by grace and through faith. It is offered to all people everywhere.

Funny you do not even believe Calvin and you call yourself a calvinist you should be ashamed.

"The next question is, in what way do men receive that salvation which is offered to them by the hand of God?
The answer is, by faith; and hence he concludes that nothing connected with it is our own. If, on the part of God, it is grace alone, and if we bring nothing but faith, which strips us of all commendation, it follows that salvation does not come from us."
“Faith, then, brings a man empty to God, that he may be filled with the blessings of Christ.”
Calvin commentary Eph 2:8

Perhaps you will believe this man:
The problem with your exegesis of the verse is that "this" is a neuter pronoun and "faith" is a feminine noun. While a pronoun's case is determined by its function in the sentence, the gender and number are determined by its antecedent. Therefore, this cannot be referring back to faith. But "grace" also is feminine, so it cannot be the antecedent of [τοῦτο that G5124]. So what is?
If you look backwards for an antecedent, you will look in vain. There are neuter nouns, but they make no sense as an antecedent.
The answer is to know a little Greek! When Greek wants to refer back to a general thought, perhaps a phrase, the pronoun can be in the neuter. This is "not of yourselves" does not refer specifically to [πίστεως faith G4102] but rather to the entire salvific process ["For by grace you have been saved "] {how} through faith. Salvation is a gift that we receive from God because of our faith. Bill Mounce Calvinist Greek scholar

“Grace is God's part, faith ours.” He adds that since in the original the demonstrative “this” (and this not of yourselves) is neuter and does not correspond with the gender of the word “faith,” which is feminine, it does not refer to the latter “but to the act of being saved by grace conditioned on faith on our part.” “In Eph_2:8 … there is no reference to διὰ πίστεως [through faith] in τοῦτο [this], but rather to the idea of salvation in the clause before.” A. T. Robertson {RWP}

What you are doing is ignoring the text of scripture and cherry picking verses that you think support you view. I am sure many have directed you to scripture that shows your view to be in error but it seems you just wave them off and hold to your philosophy that has it's foundation in the Gnostic philosophy of Augustine.

 

We all see you boldly declaring that man is the cause and God is effected.

We all know you are wrong since the entire passage very clearly says that God is the cause (vs 4, but God...) and man is the effected party in God's amazing and gracious salvation.

I pray that one day you will stop promoting your humanism here at the BB.

 

First, I will apologize for saying what you said was twisted. That was overkill. Blasphemous was enough. I will stick with more biblical descriptions in the future. I have yet to see any scripture to back up your claim that God is the author of sin.

Sin is allowed in that the wicked are being gathered together to cast into the fire.

Second, all God's people are a setting aside in that it means they are a called-out people, as Israel was called out from Egypt. Abraham and Sarah were a called out people. The church is a calling out of the Lord. In regard to 1 Peter 2:9-10, since Abraham and his seedline are counted in the household of faith, then they are seen in the verse you quoted. And so on.

 

The conclusion that God is the author of sin is a leap of logic without any support. As I said in the previous posting, God is not the author of sin. Sin causes confusion. Confusion flows out of and originates from sin. 1 Cor 14:33 say, "For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints." We can then say that since the scriptures say God is not the author of confusion, he then CANNOT be the author of sin.

His knowing all in no wise makes him the author of sin but a just God who will require the payment of every last farthing.

Is God unjust because he requires payment for sin. Romans 9:20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus?

Your point that Adam and Paul would have been under the same influence of Satan is correct. They violated the righteous law either willingly or by misinterpretation of its intent. That required a sacrifice and an adoption of God, a being born from above. If they remained under a system that misinterpreted scripture or their vain imagination of types and shadows (darkness) in regard to what God has said, the only thing they could do was to continue to sin.

The vast majority, if not all, that Christ addressed at the time would never repent and remained under the perverted teachings of the law. They were never a calling out or they would have to come under the teachings of his new covenant.

Except a man be born from above, he cannot understand the scriptures.

 

LOL, I did not say nor suggest God is the author of sin. Asked for an explanation of why God is not the author of sin if He knows the future exhaustively. No response thus far.

If the people who were the chosen in 1 Peter 2:9-10, had once not been a people, they were not "called out" because of being in Abraham's blood line. If that was actually the idea, they would have always been chosen.

While your views are unbiblical, I would not call them ""Blasphemous," as I am not a mind-reader.

 

From John Gill Commentary-

Go to commentary on Ephesians 2:8 to read full document-

Gill said, "I asked the following question from a Greek and Hebrew professor

"In this verse, to what does the word "that" refer to? Adam Clarke, Wesley & company say that it is neuter plural and "Faith" is feminine hence it cannot refer to faith (Such an admission would destroy their theological system). However, "Grace" is also feminine as is "Salvation."

"Here you ask a wonderful theological/exegetical question to which I can only give an opinion, and not a definitive answer. The problem is that there is NO precise referent. Grace is feminine. Faith is feminine. And even "salvation" as a noun is feminine. Yet it must be one of these three at least, and may be more than one, or all three in conjunction. Since all three come from God and not from man, the latter might seem like the most likely. However, it is a tautology to say salvation and grace are "not of yourselves" and in that case it certainly looks like the passage is really pointing out that man cannot even take credit for his own act of faith, but that faith itself was created by God and implanted in us that we might believe (i.e. the normal Calvinistic position). In which regard the whole theological issue of "regeneration preceding faith" comes into play. So that is basically my opinion, though others obviously disagree strenuously, but from an exegetical standpoint, the other positions have to explain the matter of tautology.

Whether you accept the reply or not, it is sufficient to show that the Greek is not as definitive in this verse as some scholars would have you believe. Editor

to be continued-

 

Denial is not rebuttal. If He knows before we are born our each and every sin, then we cannot do otherwise. That would seem to make God the author of sin. Please explain how a person could not sin according to God's exhaustive knowledge of the future?

No scripture says a lost person cannot understand at least in part scripture. How would it act as a tutor and lead people to Christ without some level of comprehension? Galatians 3:24-25

As far as "God is not the author of confusion," the actual verse reads God is not of confusion but of peace as in all the churches of the saints. The two different Greek words translated as author in the KJV mean "chief leader" and thus the primary cause of whatever is in view such as eternal salvation and faith. (See Hebrews 5:9, Hebrews 12:2)

 

When I read your post it sounded to me as if that was what your position was. Did you not make your position clear enough or I did not understand or both. We may never know. For my part, had it been posted as a question rather than a statement, I would not have call it blasphemous. If I remember correctly some else also understood it the same way that I did.

As far as no response, I am not sure what you do not understand in my post 109.

Christ's people are always a called out people. When we trace Christ's lineage in Luke 3, we see Abraham listed as well as Isaac and Jacob. While it was a literal seedline of the sons of God, it was also a spiritual seedline that would be continued through to this present New Covenant age so it is NOT by being born of blood, or the will of the flesh, or the will of man but of God. Yes, the gentiles are called out into the body of Christ as the church. Since it is no longer a fleshly seedline but is a spiritual one, there is no need for the gentiles to be able to trace their seedline through Abraham even though they are included in Abraham's sons as the seedline of Christ, therefore chosen in Christ. We are called out as gentiles to be lead out of bondage by Christ even as Moses called out/lead out the children of Israel.

It is you conclusion that is unbiblical.

 

Once again, the people of 1 Peter 2:9-10 were once not a people. Full Stop. They became a people. So your "always a called out people" is unbiblical.

 

If you will look at a few more interpretations other than the ASV you would see that the vast majority agree with the KJV.
Either way, the end interpretation holds true to what I said.

Your being an Arminian leads you to the error that a carnal people can understand a spiritual book. They are lead to understanding by the faith and life Christ given unto them.

Concerning your saying, "that would seem to make God the author of sin", I think if you read Romans 9 again it may help.

For those who are not in Christ, they truly cannot do otherwise, because they are of the seedline of Abraham and not his children or true spiritual sons. They are born of their father the devil and his lusts/work they will do. They are a carnal seedline and not a spiritual seedline. The fault lies with their father, the author of sin, and not God.

 

@unprofitable as you know the bible does not say God is the author of sin that is left to your errant theology which would require Him to be if your theology were in fact true.
LBCF Cap 3 Sec 1
God hath decreed in himself, from all eternity, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely and unchangeably, all things, whatsoever comes to pass; yet so as thereby is God neither the author of sin nor hath fellowship with any therein;

Well it seems under your calvinism "all things" really means "only some things". But such is the nature of calvinism words only mean what you want them to mean. You have a very fluid view of language. It seems calvinists have fallen through the looking glass into wonderland.

 

Since you apparently do not agree with predestination, you probably will not understand or agree with my next statement. You cannot see that the gentiles who came to Christ were already predestined, as those Jews, to be placed in the body of Christ, where there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female, for ye are all are one in Christ. This is that nation where they would become of the seedline of Christ. This seedline of Jews and subsequent gentiles are the called out people of God which have been since the beginning of time, always a people, always the sons of God.

 

If I understand your post correctly, show me where I have EVER said that God is the author of sin. You must be quoting Van's post. By the way, in another post you called me a calvinist. I have never cared for Calvin and do not call myself one because he hated the Baptists. Just because I believe some of the doctrine of grace, does not make me a calvinist.

I have no problem with what you say God hath decreed. The problem with it is your interpretation. You post God has decreed all things, whatsover comes to pass. How can that possibly be if he is waiting on you to decree you accept Christ. You must think you are very powerful

 

And for you to accept what Calvin, Mounce or Robertson said would destroy your theological system. It is funny though that you call yourself a calvinist and yet you deny what calvinists say.

 

How can you know what I say if you don't read my posts.

Show me where I have EVER called myself a calvinist or you are a false witness