The Invitation To Heaven

sigh...
The universal preaching of reconciliation to all is "very clear." God's choosing of those who will respond to this message is also "very clear."
Of course, your theology does not allow for God to predestinate, choose, elect and adopt, despite its obvious teaching in the Bible.

 

sbw, there is no good or bad. There is only "wretched." God chooses to reconcile wretched sinners to himself.
Sadly, you refuse to view yourself as wretched and unworthy. Instead, you relish the idea that you were so brilliant as to choose God over all other options. How proud you must be of the choice you made.

 

Calvinists deny God chooses people for salvation through setting them apart in Christ by reason of crediting their faith as righteousness. They contend against this biblical truth. They rewrite James 2:5, and2 Thessalonians 2:13 and deny God requires the lost the believe in the One He sent. (John 6:29). Calvinists deny Paul spoke to new Christians as to men of flesh using spiritual milk, thus teaching the lost can understand and affirmatively respond to some spiritual things. (1 Corinthians 2:14-3:3) They deny God desires all people to be saved. (1 Timothy 2:4)

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

 

Sinful people cannot discern spiritual truth. So the New Birth comes first and faith second. Do you know how sinful people are according to scripture?

 

Clearly you do not.

Calvinists deny God chooses people for salvation through setting them apart in Christ by reason of crediting their faith as righteousness. They contend against this biblical truth. They rewrite James 2:5, and2 Thessalonians 2:13 and deny God requires the lost the believe in the One He sent. (John 6:29). Calvinists deny Paul spoke to new Christians as to men of flesh using spiritual milk, thus teaching the lost can understand and affirmatively respond to some spiritual things. (1 Corinthians 2:14-3:3) They deny God desires all people to be saved. (1 Timothy 2:4)

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

 

Van, your twisted teaching has been rebuked by many here at the BB. Your denial of God's authority and gift of faith is well known.

 

Unless the lord grants a lost sinner a heart and mind able to respond, its dead people hearing things of God, which no natural man is able to discern!

 

Calvinist must change the subject and attack the messengers of truth. And they are even willing to claim victory in the unreferenced past. Not much to admire...

 

Yet another rewrite of unreferenced scripture. Matthew 23:13 teaches the lost have some spiritual ability, for they were in the process of entering the kingdom.

 

No subject change. Although, you refuse to address the issue and switch it to "Calvinist." It is your favorite tactic to avoid the Bible and the actual text.
Van, if you cannot address me directly, don't make it about a 500 year old dead man whom you have never read his writings.

 

The passage below shows exactly who causes us to be saved. Notice there is nothing about human ability. In fact, Paul takes pains to tell us "not because of our works."

2 Timothy 1:8-12

Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, which is why I suffer as I do.

 

Invitation to 'a wedding'? In a Parable? Come on, man.

Election has to do with the purposing and planning of salvation. The atonement has to do with the provision of it. We come now to study the application and communication of salvation to the elect.

I. THE OUTWARD CALL The Scripture clearly speaks of two different calls. The first one in the order of occurrence is known generally as the outward or external call. The following Scriptures refer to this call: Isa. 45:22; 55:6; Matt. 9:13; 11:28; 22:14; Mark 2:17; Luke 5:32; Rev. 22:17. There are other Scriptures that evidently refer to both calls. These are reserved until we take up the inward call.

1. THE CALL IS THROUGH THE PREACHING OF THE GOSPEL. It was by means of the gospel that Jesus called sinners to repentance. Today every presentation of the gospel is a call to men to forsake sin and trust Christ. The preaching of the gospel is also properly attended by a setting forth of man's need of salvation and of his duty and responsibility under God to repent and believe (Acts 17:30). There should also be the earnest entreaty to men to be reconciled to God

(2 Cor. 5:20) and an invitation to all that labor (Matt. 11:28), and are athirst (Isa. 55:1; John 7:37; Rev. 22:17). 2. THIS CALL IS AN INDIRECT CALL OF THE SPIRIT See the discussion of the indirect work of the Spirit in the lost in Chapter IX.


3. THIS CALL, THEREFORE, IS GENERAL By this we mean that it is not confined to the elect (Matt. 22:14). We are commanded to preach the gospel to all. This call is intended for all men, though all do not hear it. This is true just as all men are commanded to repent (Acts 17:30), even though all men do not hear this command.

4. THIS CALL, OF ITSELF, IS ALWAYS INEFFECTIVE To Israel God said: "When I called, ye did not answer" (Isa. 65:12). The call referred to here was an outward call similar to the call now under discussion. Because of man's depravity, the preaching of the gospel alone is never sufficient to bring him to Christ. He needs more than an outward call. The gospel "is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth" (Rom. 1:16); but "the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him, and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually judged" (1 Cor. 2:14). Man must be enabled to turn from sin and believe on Christ. Jer. 13:23; John 12:39,40; 6:44,65. Nevertheless it is the immediate duty of all to accept this call. Acts 17:30.

5. THIS CALL IS SINCERE Arminians object that the Calvinistic system of doctrine makes a general call insincere. Sincere means "being in reality as in appearance. Intending precisely what one says or what one appears to intend." Having defined the term under discussion, we are now prepared to examine into the exact grounds of this objection. Three Calvinistic teachings are pointed out as rendering a general call insincere. They are: (1) The teaching that man by nature is unable to turn from sin to Christ.

Arminians say if the case with the natural man were such as Calvinists represent it, and this were fully known to God, then God could not be sincere in inviting men to come to Christ. But there is nothing in the general call that makes it appear that all men are able to respond to it. This is nothing more than an unwarranted inference. And it has its foundation, not in the call itself, but in an erroneous conception of man's state by nature.

Hence this call is not insincere. "God's call to all men to repent and to believe the gospel is no more insincere than His command to all men to Love Him with all the heart. There is no obstacle in the way of men's obedience to the gospel, that does not exist to prevent their obedience to the law. If it is proper to publish the commands of the law, it is proper to publish the invitations of the gospel.

A human being may be perfectly sincere in giving an invitation which he knows will be refused. He may desire to have the invitation accepted, while yet he may, for certain reasons of justice and personal dignity, be unwilling to put forth special efforts, aside from the invitation itself, to secure the acceptance of it on the part of those to whom it is offered" (Strong).

Does God's invitation or call to all men any more appear to indicate that all men can accept it than His command to all men to love Him supremely appears to indicate that all men can do it? (2) The teaching as to God's elective purpose to save only a portion of Adam's race. Arminians say if God has purposed to save only a portion of Adam's race, then He cannot sincerely invite all men to come to Christ for salvation.

Let it first be remarked as to this phase of the objection that the objector, to have even the semblance of consistency, must deny the foreknowledge of God. For, if God foreknew everything, then He certainly foreknew that all men would not believe the gospel, since we see that all do not. And certainly no evangelical would say that God purposed to save those who reject the gospel.


So, if the foreknowledge of God be true, then God purposed to save only a part of Adam's race, believers. Hence consistency demands that the Arminian surrender either this phase of the objection or else surrender the foreknowledge of God. He cannot be logical and hold both.

(3) The doctrine of a limited atonement. This was touched on in relation to the sincerity of God's general call through the gospel in the previous chapter. However we give it further brief notice. If one is going before a large number of people to offer to each one of them a ten-dollar bill, and he has inerrant knowledge before hand that only a hundred out of that number will accept his offer, need he in order to make a sincere offer to all have more than one hundred ten-dollar bills? Surely not. Knowing that he has a sufficient number to supply all that will accept the offer, he can most freely and sincerely say, "Let every one of you that desires a ten-dollar bill come to me and I will give you one."

Is it not manifest to all who can think logically that, in a case such as is described above, the failure of all the people except the hundred to receive a ten-dollar bill would be due to their refusal of the offer, and not to lack of provision? God's general call is in appearance no more than it is in reality. And He appears to intend no more than He does actually intend. This does not appear as something that all men can respond to nor as something that will enable men to come to Christ or that will necessarily impel them to come.

Nor does this call appear to affirm that God has made a futile provision of salvation for those who persist in unbelief. In this call God appears to intend that all men are welcome if they will come; that all who come will be received. He actually intends just this. It is just as much a Bible truth that all who come to Christ will be saved as it is that only the elect will be saved. We can heartily and gladly subscribe to the New Hampshire Declaration of Faith in saying that "nothing prevents the salvation of the greatest sinner on earth except his own inherent depravity and voluntary refusal to submit to the Lord Jesus Christ." In other words, these are the things that send the sinner to Hell.

Free Website Building Software | Create a Website - Homestead (4 of 6) [17/08/2004 10:18:23 a.m.] SIMMONS- THE OUTWARD AND INWARD CALLS to Hell.

 

Let's look at Matthew 23.
Notice the prophetic pronouncements against the scribes and Pharisees. This passage has nothing to do with human ability to choose God and be saved. It has everything to do with those who teach reconciliation with God by human effort.

Matthew 23:1-13,15-17,23,25-27,29-30

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear,and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbiby others. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.

“Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred?

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’

Would Jesus declare "woe to you on the BB who declare a person "must" do a meritorious act of choosing before I can redeem."?

 

right. reference Matthew 22:2 - Meaning and Commentary on Bible Verse

 

Correct. Amen. Good catch.

To view yourself as wretched and unworthy and agreeing with The Eternal Plan of God in Salvation, starting with Total Depravity, will cease the crying about a term, 'Calvinism', etc.

Choosing The Tree of Life, while in The Garden of Eden, IS NOT OFFERED BY GOD.

II. THE INWARD CALL

The following Scriptures refer to the inward call: Acts 2:39; Rom. 1:6; 8.28,30; 9:11,24; 1 Cor. 1:1,26; 7:15; Gal. 1:15; 5:8; Eph. 4:4; Col. 3:15; 1 Thess. 5:24; 2 Thess. 2:14; 2 Tim. 1:9; Heb. 9:15; 1 Pet. 1.15; 2:9; 3:9; 5:10; 2 Pet. 1:3,10; Jude 1.

Some of these Scriptures, as has been indicated already, seem to allude to both the inward and outward call.

1. THIS CALL IS A DIRECT CALL THROUGH THE SPIRIT

The Holy Spirit takes the preached gospel and opening the heart of the sinner (Acts 16:14), applies the word to the heart in regenerating power.

It is then, and only then, that man is able to understand and receive the things of the Spirit of God. Thus the inward call is also through the gospel, but it is through the gospel as applied by the Holy Spirit.

The Scriptures touching on this work of the Spirit through the word will be given when we study regeneration.

2. THIS CALL IS PARTICULAR By means of it the chosen objects of God's saving grace are singled out. The difference here between the outward and the inward calls may be imperfectly illustrated by the difference between a general invitation extended by a church to the people of a community to attend its services and the personal invitations that are extended to particular individuals by the membership of the church.

Of course, as we have said, this only imperfectly illustrates the difference between God's two calls. Rom. 8:30 shows the particularity of this call. 3. THIS CALL IS ALWAYS EFFECTIVE

It is manifest that the Scriptures given at the beginning of the discussion of this call refer to an effective and efficient call. This call is never resisted; yet, in responding to it, man acts voluntarily and freely. See chapter on "The Free Agency of Man."

The effectiveness of this call is shown by Rom. 8:28, 30; 1 Cor. 1:24.


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PRETTY BASIC REFERENCE MATERIAL

 

You cannot doubt, but only believe if you are born-again.
“Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” 1 John 3:9 (KJV 1900)

Can you doubt you are reading this? No, because you are experiencing it. The Born-again experience Christ and cannot doubt his reality.

 

Yet another change the subject post. Yet another false doctrine asserted.
No mention of John 6:29, James 2:5, 2 Thessalonians 2:13, 1 Timothy 2:4, Matthew 23:13, or 1 Corinthians 2:14-3:3.

Did I mention Calvinists are "one trick ponies."

 

Have you ever tried living in sin and suffered God's chastizement?
“But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.” Hebrews 12:8 (KJV 1900)

 

All these "one trick ponies" know is to change the subject and disparage the truth messengers. No mention of John 6:29, James 2:5, 2 Thessalonians 2:13, 1 Timothy 2:4, Matthew 23:13, or 1 Corinthians 2:14-3:3.

 

This is, "you area Saint", you are HOLY material: http://links.christreformed.org/romans/MS20020818.Rom.1.8-15.Eager_to_Preach_the_Gospel.mp3