Featured The misleading arguments against Free-Will - revisited

I don't know about Mitchell But here is what I believe James said to submit our selves to God.
Jas_4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Calvinist do not consider the truth of submission they claim they do not have to submit because it implies decision on the part of man. If scripture it self implies that we do have to do something to be saved you hold up Eph 2:8 and misinterpret it..
Works are striving to obey the Law nothing else

Christ said to a woman who had washed his feet and dried them with her hair.
Luk 7:50 And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.
You ignored this verse when I presented it before.

Paul told the jailer how to be saved, He and his friends said;
Act 16:31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
Christ invited us to come to Him.

Mat_11:28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Rest my friend is salvation because you cannot rest with out Christ like you do with HIM.

Paul said.
Act_2:21 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

All of these require faith and a decision for Christ. And you deny every one of them all while you can't show even one verse that supports we are regenerated in order to have faith. Oh you show verses and make claims but your claims are false. Or we are just saved out of thin air None of this is even in scripture yet you believe it..You've never shown it because you are quick to change the subject or flat out ignore it
MB

 

Well that's just an outright false statement on your part.
It is false, in part because you are falsely connecting James 4:7 to salvation.
Every Calvinist I have ever known believes we Christians are too submit under the authority of our Supreme King.
However, a rebel will never willingly submit to anyone who demands they give up power.
It would be helpful if you rightly divided the word of God instead of misusing it as you do with James 4:7.

 

You use the word as it you understand it but sadly you don't. I noticed you left out the other verses. Are you going to say the same about them. No doubt you will Because I suppose you are blind to the truth. One day soon you'll regret your misuse of the scriptures.
MB

 

You are deflecting from the fact you are misusing scripture and claiming a meaning outside of context.
Here's an example of your method.
A passage from scripture:

"If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.”

Looking at that verse alone a person could argue that by worshipping God we will prosper. But, that would be completely wrong if a person actually reads the passage in which that verse lies.

Please don't quote scripture if you aren't going to keep the full context of the passage in which it lies.

 

Actually Satan said something similar to Christ when He tempted the Lord. The Lord said get behind me Satan
To prosper you have to trust in Christ. He takes care of all that I need. I don't worry about anything in this life. Complaining will not help worry and distress does not help. Depending on the Lord is what the Lord wants us to do. I place all my cares on Him. It doesn't mean He will make you rich yet I have need of nothing but His Love. Miracles happen following Christ. I see them happen all the time in my life. Don't forget you cannot out give God. Everything we give to others comes back 10 times more than you give. This is true
MB

 

rewrite.

 

MB,
Do you not see here that the context of this passage is written to believers, not unbelievers?
This entire letter is written to, and concerns, believers in Jesus Christ:

" James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.
2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
3 knowing [this], that the trying of your faith worketh patience." ( James 1:1-3 ).

Firstly, he's speaking to Jews..."the twelve tribes that are scattered abroad".
Secondly, he is speaking to those that have faith.

Thirdly he tells them that the man who endures temptation ( trials ), shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that love Him:
" Blessed [is] the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. " ( James 1:12 ).

Do all men love the Lord?
No.
Do all men have faith?
No ( 2 Thessalonians 3:2 ).

By the time one gets to chapter 4, James is still speaking to that limited audience...his brethren, Jewish believers in Christ.
He is not speaking to all men, neither is James 4:7 addressed to or pertaining to. all men.
It is telling the believer to submit themselves to God, and assuring them that the devil will flee from them when they resist him.

Submitting one's self to God is something that only a believer will do.
It is not, nor has it ever been, something that a person who is steadfast in their love of sin and hatred of God ( Psalms 10:4, Romans 1:18-32, Romans 3:10-18, John 3:19-20 ), will ever do.

MB,
I have a question.

Do you think it safe to base your understanding of God's word on implication?
What it seems to say?

However, I hold that if salvation is based on something we do to be saved, that person holds up Ephesians 2:8-9 and misunderstands it.
Salvation is by grace.

Faith is by grace ( Ephesians 2:8 ).
Belief is by grace ( Philippians 1:29 ).
Belief is a work of God ( John 6:29 ), not a work of men.

It's all of grace.

Works are man's efforts to meet God's requirements outside of His only provision for salvation...
Christ and His finished work on the cross.

It seems to me that what you're hung up on, is that you still believe that what a person does ( belief, faith, submit, etc. ) results in a person being saved.

Every good thing you have is all of His grace.

 

Where does our faith come from, as believers?

" looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of [our] faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." ( Hebrews 12:2 ).

Jesus Christ, who "authored" ( created ) and "finished" ( perfected ) it.
When you read this, the significance that Christ began a work in someone ( Philippians 1:6 ), and then tells them that that work is what saved them, does not make you sit up and take notice of it?

It does to me.

Paul made a promise to the Jailer.
Notice that that promise included his house, and not just him.

He's not telling all men "how to be saved".
I'm not sure who taught you that, but it wasn't God's word.

There is no step-by-step, "Romans Road plan of salvation" that a person can follow, that will ever result in gaining eternal life.
It is a gift ( Romans 6:23 ), not a reward for performing a set of actions, or even for believing on Christ.

Even our belief, as Christ's precious sheep, is a work of God ( John 6:29 ) and was given to us in His behalf ( Philippians 1:29 ).

Who are the ones who labor and are heavy laden?
What do they labor against, and what are they heavy laden with?
Sin, and the weight of it.

I know of no man outside of Christ and His gracious conviction of sin that would ever admit that it grieves them to be a sinner.
I know of few men ( and women ) who have ever told me that their sin against God breaks their heart and it grieves their spirit to even be responsible for another sin, as David was ( Psalms 51 ).

Most unbelievers I meet are indifferent towards it, while some are even proud of it.
I've met no one, except those who profess Christ, that are truly bothered by it.

Does your sin bother you, MB?
Even though you are forgiven, for Jesus' sake?

Does the fact that you are trapped in a body that continues to stumble and fall into sins ( Romans 7:21-25 ), cause you to ask God to hasten your death, so no more sins are committed...even though you know, deep down, that you are forgiven for them because of Christ's sacrifice for you?

It does me.

 

This is true.
But there's more to being saved than a person simply calling upon the Lord and asking Him to save them.

The Lord saves them that call upon Him in truth:
"The LORD [is] nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth." ( Psalms 145:18 ).

Have you called upon Him in truth?
Have you believed His words, and that is what has prompted you to call upon Him...in the firm belief and hope that He will hear you?
Then know that it is He which has "called" you to Himself ( 2 Timothy 1:9 ).



The Lord promises to save them that call upon Him out of a pure heart:
" Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart." ( 2 Timothy 2:22 ).

Do you call upon Him out of a pure heart?
Have you believed on Christ, from the heart ( Romans 10:9-10 )?

Then know that it is He which caused you to approach Him ( Psalms 65:4 ), and Who began a good work in you ( Philippians 1:6 ), even when you were dead in trespasses and sins ( Ephesians 2:1, Ephesians 2:5 ).
You love Him, because He first loved you ( 1 John 4:19 ).

You love Him, because you are born again.

No one does anything to "get saved"...they are saved because He saved them.
We don't "grab His hand" when it's offered to us...
He grabs our hand and drags us up out of the mud of our own rebellious sin and self-righteousness.

You're not saved because you called upon Him...you're saved because He "called" you ( Romans 8:29-30, 2 Timothy 1:9 ).
I'm not sure who taught you that what you do saves you, MB, because the Bible does not teach salvation by man's efforts.

If it did, then it would not be of grace ( Romans 11:5-6 )...
It would be "of works" ( Ephesians 2:9 ).

The works of the Law are what God has placed before men in order to show us that we cannot keep the Law.
It was designed to be the "schoolmaster" to bring us to Christ...and nothing more.
Mankind throwing ourselves against the brick wall of keeping the Law, in a vain effort to gain God's favor, should teach us something...
That making anything that pleases God into a work, is nothing more than another vain attempt at meeting one of God's requirements.

The truth is, nothing we can do, in and of ourselves, will ever result in gaining God's favor.
The only Man who ever did that, was Jesus Christ Himself.

Every believer in Jesus Christ is totally dependent upon God's mercy and kindness...and that alone, for His gift of eternal life ( Titus 3:5-6 ).
I urge you to remember that, the next time the thought crosses your mind that what you did, saved you.
Because the reality of it is, what He did, and only what He did, is what saved us.




May God bless you richly, sir.