The Invitation To Heaven

This is not true. Jesus spoke in parables so they could not understand and be converted. Paul proved they were reprobate by exposing them to Christ before going off to the Gentiles.

 

Yet another subject change attacking Van and not addressing the topic. Calvinists on this forum appear to be one trick ponies.

1) Of course parables are used to teach doctrine, so those that say otherwise are simply trying to nullify the truths taught in parables AND their straight-forward explanations.

2) Calvinism twists and wrests passage after passage to create a biblical wasteland.

3) I liked the Lone Ranger shows as a kid, he was for truth, justice, and compassion.

 

Calvinism claims God wants us to hand tracks to blind people to glorify God.
Or preach to deaf people, or witness in a cemetery. Calvinism is as bogus as a three dollar bill.

God desires all people to be saved and has given the task of evangelism to born anew believers.

So simple a child could understand...

 

Interesting how you place all the burden for winning souls on the human who uses great marketing techniques.

Yet Jesus says this:

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them inthe name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Notice it's all Jesus who has the authority. It's not the great oratory of the preacher that convinces sinners to cooperate with God.

There is nothing incompatible with a universal message to all humans to be reconciled with God and the fact that only those who the Father has given to Jesus will hear his voice and be reconciled.

It strikes me odd that you would be offended by this biblical truth.

 

The Command to Repent.

 

[Mar 6:10-11 KJV] 10 And he said unto them, In what place soever ye enter into an house, there abide till ye depart from that place.

11 And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, when ye depart thence, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city.

 

There is a God. God Calls many and few are Chosen.

Matthew 20:16 - Meaning and Commentary on Bible Verse

many be called;
externally, under the ministration of the Gospel, as the Jews in general were, by Christ and his apostles; but

few chosen;
in Christ from all eternity, both to grace and glory;

and in consequence, and as an evidence of it, but few among the Jews;

as also in the Gentile world, comparatively speaking: and even but a few of those that are outwardly called, are inwardly and effectually called by the powerful grace of God, out of darkness into marvelous light, into the grace and liberty of the Gospel, into communion with Christ, and to the obtaining his kingdom and glory, according to the eternal purpose of God

 

I did indeed respond to the two passages that you've referred to.
In my opinion, you're looking at them by themselves instead of bringing in information from other passages that tell us:

1) A man's heart condition before God does any work.
2) The Jews and their responsibility to keep a covenant that the Lord had made with them.
3) The parable of the wedding is about the Lord compelling people to come in...
Did He do that for those who were bidden?

No ( at least not for most of them ).
He invited them, and they turned Him down.

Not to be rude, but by my estimation, you keep rejecting the plain words of many passages that show the Lord's choosing of people to salvation, why people believe and why they do not, and the fact that God over-rules our decisions as men.

For example, Romans 9, John 6, Romans 11, Ephesians 1 and several others give me the details that I need to come back to the passages in question and determine why the Jews then rejected Christ's invitations.

I agree.

 

It's not a sham...
It has a purpose.

To me, you misunderstand who the Gospel is intended for...
Acts of the Apostles 2:39.
The call to salvation is to the "whosoever believeth"...
It loses none of its truth just because men are naturally unwilling to believe it.

Just as Israel failed to keep the Law of Moses time and again, and the Lord eventually sent His Son to keep it...
We as men are completely unable and unwilling to approach God on His terms.
That is how bad off we are as a race.

But it doesn't stop there;
God has always had a remnant according to the election of grace.
As I see it, that is the one detail that you keep overlooking...
The contents of Romans 8, Romans 9, Romans 10 and Romans 11.
Ephesians 1, Ephesians 2, Colossians 2, 2 Thessalonians 2 and several others.

Again, the universal proclamation of the Gospel is for all men.
The problem is, God not only has to open the heart in order for us as rebellious men to receive His words ( Acts of the Apostles 16:14 ), He does so for only those that were given to His Son...
A multitude that no man can number out of every tongue, tribe and nation.

That is His purpose...
To show His wrath and to make His power known, and to show His grace and to make His kindness known.
He does that by making some for His wrath and making others for His mercy.

That is what Romans 9 details.



Again, given the hardness of our hearts and the unwillingness to come to Him for reconciliation,
if it were up to us, no man would come to Him.
In addition, that would not be grace...
Salvation would then be conditioned upon what we do ( man's efforts ), and right there is an opportunity for boasting in something other than His mercy and grace and for giving us somethnig we never could earn...

Eternal life, which is to know God and His Son ( John 17:3 ).

 

" For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." (1 Corinthians 1:21).

Because that is His chosen method, and He is pleased to use it.
Is that not enough?.

He does.
See Romans 10:13-15.

He sends men to do His bidding, and they preach Christ crucified for sinners.
Just as He did Paul, Barnabas, Silas, and many others.

 

According to our corrupt way of thinking ( our "definition" ), an offer must logically be followed by either the ability to accept it or the ability to reject it.
But God's word says no such thing.

In fact, His word tells us that the Jews ( and by extension, us ) would not come to Him that they might have life ( John 5:40 ).
The wicked ( that's us outside of His grace ) will not come to Christ, lest our deeds should be reproved ( John 3:19-20 ).
You don't find this significant?
I do.

It tells me exactly what Matthew 15:15-20 does...
Out of the heart of men proceed many things that defile us.
Our hearts are dead and sinful to the Lord, even though we think that nothing's wrong;
That is, until He awakens us.
When He shows us our sinful condition by His power and grace, we then realize how we would have never sought Him but for Him revealing Himself to us.


Again, it seems that you're completely ignoring Romans 1:18-32, Romans 3:10-18, John 3:19-20 and many other passages ( especially in the Psalms ) that tell us that we are dead in trespasses and sins.
"Dead" means "talk to the hand, God".
"Dead" means, "death is better than bondage" to God and His will.
"Dead" means, "better to be on my feet in Hell than on my knees in Heaven".
That is what "dead" means.

You don't see that when you read those passages?

I do, and that is what makes me realize that it takes a miracle of God's grace to get a prideful and unrepentant man like me to even listen to His words,
much less to seek Him for deliverance or to worship Him for His majesty, grace and mercy.
I know full well what I am in the flesh, ( and what I was outside of His grace and mercy ) because of what He has shown me in His word, my friend.
Without Him I'd be very much in trouble, and it would be my own fault.

If salvation were an offer or an invitation in the sense that it relied on us as men being willing to accept it...
we'd all do what the Jews did, as a nation, and turn Him down flat.

This is my last reply in this thread.


Good evening to you, SBG,
and may He be pleased to show you many things in His word by His grace, as you, by faith, follow His commands in 1 Peter 2:2 and 2 Timothy 2:15.

 

Calvinism requires its defenders to misrepresent the views of others to change the subject from their bogus doctrine.
Do one comes to Christ unless drawn by the Father. Thus the "all the burden for winning souls" does not rest with God's witnesses, or with the work of the Holy Spirit, because God requires the lost to put their faith in the One He sent.

 

"No one comes to Christ unless the Father draws him."
This is true. God must choose to draw that person up from the well of his own sin. There is no needed cooperation. He does not demand the person have faith...before God draws that man out of the well.
In truth, God draws a dead person out of the well and then breathes new life into that dead man. This is all by God's grace. God then gives this man the faith to believe.

Yet, you will now contend against this biblical truth.

 

"And they cried to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb." REVELATION 6:16

 

Matthew 22. The Jews refused their Messiah and persecuted the prophets. So the kingdom is given to the Gentiles.

Luke 14. The same with the addition of the fact that the tares are allowed to grow up with the wheat, but are separated in the day of harvest.

Also, these are parables, not allegories. There is a point to them, but not every detail contains doctrinal significance. Not every element of a parable is symbolic of something. Otherwise I might conclude that God answers my prayers just to get me off His back. Luke 18

 

See above.