Some Pebbles For Arminians To Chew

[Rippon]

Unknown author . These questions are found in the Oct./Nov. 2003 issue of New Focus magazine .

1. Can a man have free will and God be sovereign ?

2. If all sinners will and power to come to Christ , why did Christ say , " No man can come unto me except the Father which hath sent me draw him ? " ( John 6:44 )

3. Has any man the power to refuse to come to Christ when the Father draws him ?

4. Have those people free will that shall do wickedly and none of them shall understand ? ( Daniel 12:10 )

5. Have those people free will of whom Peter says , they " were made to be taken and destroyed and should utterly perish " ? ( 2 Peter 2:12 )

6. Have those people free will " who were before of old ordained to this condemnation " ? ( Jude 4)

7. Have those people free will of whom Jesus says , " the dead shall hear , and they that hear shall live " ? ( John 5:25 )

8. Have those people free will of whom God says " I will be to them a God and they shall be to Me a people ; and they shall not teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother , saying know the Lord " ? ( John Hebrews 8:10-11)

9. Could not a man with free will believe , notwithstanding Jesus said , " I work a work in your days , a work which ye shall in no wise believe , though a man declare it unto you " ? ( Acts 13:41 )

10. Does not the doctrine of free will make man the cause of his own salvation ?

 

[Rippon]

11. If all men have free will is the sinner as free as the saint ?

12. Is any one free that is a servant ?

13. Are not all men the servants of sin until they are made free by the son ? ( John 8:34-36 )

14. Is the sinner free to will , free to choose , free to love , free to become a Christian , or , free to let it all alone ?

15. If we are saved by our free will , is it not a fact that the only difference between the saved and the lost is that the saved made a better use of their will ?

16. If God only wills to save those that are willing to be saved , is not God's will dependent upon man's will ?

17. Does God work all things after the counsel of His own will , or does He work some things after the will of the sinner ? ( Ephesians 1:11 )

18. Is the unchangeable God , changed by the will of the sinner ? ( Malachi 3:6 )

19. Does salvation or damnation depend upon the use that a man makes of his will ?

20. Does a sinner have the will to do God's will prior to being born again ? If so , is his will changed in the spiritual birth ?

 

[James_Newman]

You forgot 'can God make a rock so big that He can't lift it'

 

[Rippon]

21. Does god begin the work of grace in the sinner independently , or is the sinner's will first consulted ?

22. does Christ have to get the consent of the sinner before He can save him ?

23. Does the sinner have to accept Christ in order to be saved , and reject Him to be lost ? If so , is not Christ limited in the work of salvation to what the sinner sees fit to do ?

24. Is belief a condition of salvation , or is it an evidence of salvation ?

25. Do we have to believe in order to be saved or is the believer already in possession of eternal life ?

26. Does Christ save sinners or do sinners save themselves ? Is salvation a partnership work ?

27. If sinners are saved other than by grace alone , please cite the chapter and verse which says so ?

28. If God purposed to save all men and God changes not , will not all be saved ? if not , why not ?

29. If God works all things after the counsel of His will , was it His will to save those that will not be saved ? ( Ephesians 1:11 )

30. If Christ came to save sinners and did not do it , is not Christ a failure ? ( 1 Timothy 1:15 )

 

[Tom Butler]

Hello, Rippon,

I can see that you're one of those troublemakers who have the annoying habit of using the word of God to support your views. Don't you know that appealing to Scripture makes people uncomfortable?

Tom B.

 

[Bob Dudley]

You said "Arminians" in the title - so is this a family squabble between Calvinists and your wayward cousins the Arminians or can Fundamentalists and Biblicists play too?

 

[Brother James]

Give us the link for that brother Rippon!

 

[humilis]

Mark 12:18 Then come unto him the Sadducees, which say there is no resurrection; and they asked him, saying,
Mark 12:19 Master, Moses wrote unto us, If a man's brother die, and leave his wife behind him, and leave no children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.

Mark 12:24 And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God?

Mark 12:28 And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all?

Mark 12:35 And Jesus answered and said, while he taught in the temple, How say the scribes that Christ is the Son of David?

Gal 5:26 Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.

1Ti 1:3 As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine,
1Ti 1:4 Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do.
1Ti 1:5 Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:
1Ti 1:6 From which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling;


Do you have a stance on all these questions you have posted or are you searching for the truth?

 

[Rippon]

Tom , thanks for your support !

Many Fundamentalists/Biblicists are Arminian Bob .

Brother James : I have no link . I am only typing from an issue of the mag that a British friend sent me .

 

[James_Newman]

Rippon, I am willing to consider that what you say is 100% correct. If I can figure out what it is you are saying. Sometimes it seems you and I say the same things but we may mean different things.

I am continually told that I don't understand Calvinism. How can I understand except one teach me? Would you like to take this opportunity to expound on the basic tenets of Calvinism, and how they relate to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and particularly the forgivness of sin?

 

[Rippon]

Hi James . Why don't you start a thread on those areas ? I'll devote this thread to the subject-at-hand.

 

[James_Newman]

Chewing on rocks? Ok, I'll start a new thread.

 

[Rippon]

31. If Christ is a failure , upon what does the Christian's hope depend ?

32. If grace is favour bestowed upon an unworthy object , does not grace stop where worthiness begins ?

33. When a sinner is quickened by the Spirit , is he not in possession of eternal life ?

34. Is there any intermediate space between life and death ?

35. Do we have to act in order to live, or does life always precede action ?

36. Did Christ come to seek and to save sinners , or to save those that seek Him ? ( Luke 19:10 )

37. If sinners have to seek God in order to be saved , and none seek Him , will any be saved ? ( Romans 3:11 )

38. Does not the saving of sinners come before the calling , and does not God do both ? Are we either saved or called according to our works ? ( 2 Timothy 1:9 )

39. If God saves sinners according to His own purpose ( 2 Timothy 1:9 ) , is not the plan of salvation as old as God's purpose ?

40. If Christ came to save sinners ( 1 Timothy 1:15 ) , and finished the work ( John 19:30 ) , what is left for sinners to do in the work of salvation ?

 

[Frenchy]

Unconditional Election is the doctrine which states that God chose those whom he was pleased to bring to a knowledge of himself, not based upon any merit shown by the object of his grace and not based upon his looking forward to discover who would "accept" the offer of the gospel. God has elected, based solely upon the counsel of his own will, some for glory and others for damnation (Romans 9:15,21). He has done this act before the foundations of the world (Ephesians 1:4-8). This doctrine does not rule out, however, man's responsibility to believe in the redeeming work of God the Son (John 3:16-18). Scripture presents a tension between God's sovereignty in salvation, and man's responsibility to believe which it does not try to resolve. Both are true -- to deny man's responsibility is to affirm an unbiblical hyper-Calvinism; to deny God's sovereignty is to affirm an unbiblical Arminianism.

This i believe to be true
It is called a mystery, a Paradox one which MAN will never figure out or understand, no matter how hard they try. so why bother?

 

[Timtoolman]

Originally posted by James_Newman:
Rippon, I am willing to consider that what you say is 100% correct. If I can figure out what it is you are saying. Sometimes it seems you and I say the same things but we may mean different things.

I am continually told that I don't understand Calvinism. How can I understand except one teach me? Would you like to take this opportunity to expound on the basic tenets of Calvinism, and how they relate to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and particularly the forgivness of sin?

I really have no problem understanding what followers of J. lCalvin are saying! I know because I come to the SAME conclusions that many did before me. Hundreds of years back to cavlin when people declared back then. It makes God the auther of sin. It makes us robots. It assinates God character!

 

[Rippon]

41. Were the different gifts given for the salvation of sinners , or for the edifying of the body of Christ ? ( Ephesians 4:11-12 )

42. Could there be an effect without a cause ?

43. Is the first cause of salvation the work of God , or the work of the sinner ? ( Philippians 1:6 )

44. Do good works produce the Spirit , or does the Spirit produce good works ?

45. If Christ only made salvation possible and the sinner makes it sure by his acts , which deserves the more praise ?

46. If belief is a condition of salvation , is it not a cause of salvation ?

 

[Rippon]

Well , I guess those pebbles were mighty hard for you non-Calvinists to chew on . Surely you can come up with something in response to those 46 items . Or are they too much for you to face up to ? Come one , come all free-will advocates . Step up to the plate . Have you been stumped ? If you really believe in free-will --- then defend your theory by answering the 46 prods .

Oh wait . I have a few examples of free-will in the Bible . Saul's conversion on the Damascus Road in Acts 9 . No , on second thought that's not a good example . Oh , I have another ! How about Lydia's conversion in Acts 16:14 . Negative , that won't do -- " the Lord opened her heart . " Well what about the Gentiles in Acts 13:48 ? Oh no , free will isn't there either -- " those who were ordained to eternal life believed ... "

Just give me some time and I'll try to help you guys and gals out .

 

[J.D.]

O.K. Rip, I'll help them. How about the Phillipian Jailor? Or the Ethiopian eunich (sp?)? Didn't they exercise their faith of their own free will?

 

[OldRegular]

Rippon

They may chew the first half dozen but they will have to gum the rest!

 

[Timtoolman]

I wish I had the time to just go back over all the post and cut and paste everytime each and everyone of those have been answered. But the fact is if you weren't listening or perhaps weren't around the first 50 times those questions have been answered then what is the use.