The Riches Of God's Grace Upon A Poor Worthless Worm

In modern English...

"Oh, gracious Lord, why is it that You reveal Yourself to me in a way that You do not reveal Yourself to the rest of the world?"

Answer...

He does not!

John 3:16-17
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

1 Timothy 2:3-4
“For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

2 Peter 3:9
“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”

Ezekiel 33:11
“Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’”

Isaiah 45:22
“Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.”

Titus 2:11
“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.”

Acts 17:30-31
“Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”

Romans 10:12-13
“For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For ‘whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’”

Revelation 3:20
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.”

Matthew 28:19-20
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen.”

 

Yet Paul wrote:

“15 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called [me] through His grace, 16 to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood,” (Ga 1:15-16 NKJV)

Elsewhere he wrote:

“15 For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. 16 To the one [we are] the aroma of death [leading] to death, and to the other the aroma of life [leading] to life. And who [is] sufficient for these things?” (2Co 2:15-16 NKJV)

Jesus Himself said:

"All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.” (Mt 11:27 NKJV).

 

I don't get it. None of that argues against my doctrine.

God is just, therefore, Calvinism is false. (and thus, your reading of those passages is false, I presume, since you didn't bother to explain the point you're trying to make.)

 

Well, you had written: "'Oh, gracious Lord, why is it that You reveal Yourself to me in a way that You do not reveal Yourself to the rest of the world?'

Answer...

He does not!"

I assumed that the answer there ("He does not") was yours. My quotes were seeking to show that God does indeed reveal Himself to some people and not others. Salvation is entirely God's work, including His making Himself known to sinners. Those who believe the doctrines of grace ("Calvinists", to use the term you use) also believe that God is just. Yet Paul writes to the Christians in Rome:

“18 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens. 19 You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?" 20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed [it], "Why have you made me like this?" 21 Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? 22 [What] if God, wanting to show [His] wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory,” (Ro 9:18-23 NKJV)

Did Paul believe that God was unjust?

 

Yeah, I totally understood your point and you've entirely understood mine. God is not a respecter of persons, David. You didn't hear the gospel because God prefers you over anyone else.

No, they absolutely do NOT believe that God is just! That's just precisely the entire point!

They SAY that God is just and to whatever degree they believe to be true is the degree to which they have redefined the word "Just" to be synonymous with "arbitrary" (it's exact opposite) when applied to God.

Non sequitur.

This is question begging. You don't get to presuppose that your doctrine is right and then ask me to respond to a question that rests on that premise.

In short, you are simultaneous ignoring the context of the passage and reading your doctrine into this text. That passage does not teach anything that would make it make sense to ask whether Paul believed God to be just. Romans 9 is not about predestination, it is talking about God having cut off the nation of Israel and why. Paul isn't teaching that God hated Esau and he references the Potter and the clay for the same reason he reference Jacob and Esau. The context is the NATION of Israel, not specific persons. Notice that the younger boy (Jacob) never served his older brother (Esau). This is because the prophesy wasn't about the two boys but about the nations that would come from them.

Genesis 25: 21 Now Isaac pleaded with the Lord for his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord granted his plea, and Rebekah his wife conceived. 22 But the children struggled together within her; and she said, “If all is well, why am I like this?” So she went to inquire of the Lord.

23 And the Lord said to her:

“Two nations are in your womb,
Two peoples shall be separated from your body;
One people shall be stronger than the other,
And the older shall serve the younger.”​

and in Jeremiah 18 (probably the single most important chapter in the entire bible, by the way)...

Jeremiah 18:
The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: 2 “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear My words.” 3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something at the wheel. 4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make.

5 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 6 “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?” says the Lord. “Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel! 7 The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, 8 if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it. 9 And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, 10 if it does evil in My sight so that it does not obey My voice, then I will relent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it.​

So, notice that the clay isn't a particular person but it is nations. Romans 9 is all about God applying the principle described in Jeremiah 18 to the nation of Israel. Paul is explaining that because Israel rejected their King, God isn't going to give them their kingdom (i.e. This cutting off was not complete in that He did not cut off the Twelve and their coverts and it is also temporary. God will come back to Israel eventually).

 

Well, I firmly believe the doctrines of grace, and I believe that God is just. I don't believe He is arbitrary. I only know that He didn't save me because of any good He saw in me. The idea that the Romans 9 passage I quoted is addressed to nations rather than individuals doesn't fit with the words Paul uses. For instance:

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? (Rom 9:20)

I have quoted the KJV because "who art thou?" shows he was addressing an individual.

 

There are those who firmly believe that communism will eventually produce a utopian society.

The fact that the two are contractory doesn't prevent them from believe it. People can believe anything they want to believe, it doesn't make it true, it doesn't make it self-consistent, it doesn't mean they aren't lying to themselves.

Then there are three possibilities...

1. You have a false definition of the word "arbitrary".
2. You do not believe in the "doctrines of grace".
3. You do not care whether or not your doctrine makes sense.

If He has saved you at all it is because you understood that you are a sinful evil person and that you deserve to be separated from God forever. You likewise understood that God Himself became a human being and died the death that you deserve and then rose from the dead and that, by virtue of that righteous act, God offers salvation as a free gift to all those who would but accept it.

Belief in the gospel and thereby being saved is not more a meritorious act than is opening a gift given to your by your grandmother on your birthday. You don't feel like you've earned the gifts your family gives you by your having taken off the wrapping paper, do you?

It fits just fine. It really does help a lot to use a bible that isn't translated into an antiquated form of English that no one speaks any longer. It also helps to read the bible more than a single sentence at a time. I have already addressed this exact passage, by the way, and demonstrated biblically that Paul definitely was addressing the nation of Israel. Why do you ignore it?

Romans 9:19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” 20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?​

This is DIRECTLY citing Jeremiah 18, where the author explicitly states that the "clay" is ISRAEL!!!!

Jeremiah 18:5 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 6 “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?” says the Lord. “Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel!​

Further, Romans 9 undeniably starts by talking about Israel. Read the verse several verses...

Romans 9:1 I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, 2 that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, 4 who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; 5 of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.
Israel’s Rejection and God’s Purpose

6 But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, 7 nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, “In Isaac your seed shall be called.” 8 That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed. 9 For this is the word of promise: “At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son.”

10 And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac 11 (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls), 12 it was said to her, “The older shall serve the younger.” 13 As it is written, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.”​

Further still, Romans 9 undeniably ends by talking about Israel....

Romans 9:30 What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; 31 but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law [d]of righteousness. 32 Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, [e]by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. 33 As it is written:

“Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense,
And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”​

Yet you and those who teach your doctrine ignore all of that. They somehow think that Paul starts the chapter talking about Israel's current status before God and then abruptly changes the subject to the predestination of individual persons and then just as abruptly changes the subject back again to the subject of Israel's current status before God. It makes no sense at all!

In short, both the whole chapter itself as well as the Old Testament passages that the chapter makes reference to, proves, without any doubt whatsoever, that the subject matter of the chapter has to do with the nation of Israel and not particular individual persons.

Right, I get it, but it doesn't work like that. This isn't how any language works. Notice the use of the phrase "can I not do with you" in Jeremiah 18:6, as though Israel was a singular person. Using language in this manner is common and intuitively understood and makes perfectly clear sense. The only time it would ever be made unclear is if you quoted that single sentence by itself and read it as though none of the whole rest of the chapter existed. Context is everything.