Featured The Truth About the Biblical Act of Predestination.

Jesus has presented the Gospel, thus knocking on the door. It's up to each person to answer the door by believing it or not.

 

Eisegesis 101

 

Verse please.

 

Does Jesus say " anyone can will themselves to believe"?

The whole of scripture tells us who the "whoever" are.

Again, does man cause himself to believe or does God cause man to believe? What is your answer?

 

Nope, you are entirely wrong.
God sees the sheep and the goats. God sees the wheat and the tares. God sees the elect and the non-elect. God sees the predestined to heaven and the damned to hell. God sees the chosen people of the Promise and those not chosen. God sees the entire Church the 144,000, with the mark and seal of God, and the rest who have the mark of the beast.

That's it. He tells us "There is no Jew, nor Greek, nor male nor female, nor slave nor free." You are either citizens of the Kingdom of God, with an inheritance, or you are not.

 

There are two kinds of people, exactly as you say, lost or saved.

 

John 3:
3 Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

Was this in a movie or something?

I'm sorry they asked.

All living people are dead in their trespasses and sins, if they are lost. How do you get around "you has He Quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins"?

They are dead in their sins, unless someone thinks they can invent something the opposite of what God said, like, "dead" means "alive".

Is that what it means to you robo?

Maybe, it was painted in a picture somewhere by an Artist.

Did he also add the words about the Spirit? You said there is nothing Spiritual about John 3:16.

5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.

6 Flesh is born of flesh, but spirit is born of the Spirit.

7 Do not be amazed that I said, ‘You must be born again.

3:18b; whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

This is the problem you have with imbibing on "whosoever";

Those "whosoever" that come to God are shown in the same passage to have done so, because their Spiritual conversion of being Born Again was accomplished and Wrought by God;

John 3:21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

Did you get this stuff from a picture show or a picture?

.

I hope you're not saying that you're adding Jesus preaching the Gospel into Revelation 3(?)

I thought there had been enough added from a picture, already(?)

We're do all these alterations to the Bible come from?

Because, they entirely change the message of Repent and Believe the Gospel.

 

JD, be honest. Your subject has been to force your dispensationalist bias upon scripture in trying to understand predestination. In so doing, you widely miss the mark.

 

John 13: Jesus answered, “It is he to whom I shall give a piece of bread when I have dipped it.” And having dipped the bread, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. 27 Now after the piece of bread, Satan entered him. Then Jesus said to him, “What you do, do quickly.” 28 But no one at the table knew for what reason He said this to him. 29 For some thought, because Judas had the money box, that Jesus had said to him, “Buy those things we need for the feast,” or that he should give something to the poor.

30 Having received the piece of bread, he then went out immediately. And it was night.

 

I believed by hearing the Gospel repeatedly until I carefully considered it, and, with my knowledge of science & history, realized it's true.

 

Wrong. They come from within the Bible. Don't think Jesus didn't give Judas the opportonity to repent & be saved? Please read John 13:21-30.

 

CHAPTER II

"1 Cor. 15:46). It is of the utmost importance that this be understood; for the advocates of modern dispensationalism have wrought confusion, and have succeeded in giving plausibility to many misinterpretations of Scripture, by first taking for granted (erroneously, as will be herein shown) that a "literal" interpretation necessarily calls for something material or natural, and by then insisting strenuously that all prophecies which refer to Israel, Jerusalem, Zion, etc., should be interpreted "literally."

"It will not be difficult to show that this is a thoroughly unsound principle of interpretation, that it is based upon a false premise, and that its application has made havoc of many prophecies.

"For example, those expositors who think the Bible teaches us to expect hereafter a millennium of earthly bliss, a golden age of world-wide peace and plenty, [14] Gal. 3:7, 29; 2 Cor. 1:20). Further, in the New Testament it is plainly revealed that, even as "Abraham had two sons" (which [15] 1 Cor. 15:46).

If, therefore, an O. T. prophecy of blessing, intended for the true Israel (that "holy nation" of 1 Pet. 2:9), be interpreted as applying to "Israel after the flesh," the interpretation is not "literal" (i. e., according to the letter) except in the sense in which "the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life" (2 Cor. 3:6); for obviously in this case the "literal" interpretation destroys the prophecy completely.

"And it is specially to be noted that, in the passage from which this Scripture is quoted, Paul is explaining the great differences between the Old Covenant (which was of the letter) and the New Covenant (of the Spirit);

"... and, moreover, he is comparing the ministry of Moses, which had to do with things that are seen (an earthly sanctuary and its vessels of service, animal sacrifices, etc.), with the ministry of himself and others whom God had made "able ministers of the New Covenant; not of the letter, but of the spirit."

"Also it should be noted that the apostle there speaks of the Old Covenant (under which promises were made to the natural Israel) as "that which is done away"; whereas the New Covenant is [16] v. 11).

"From this Scripture alone it is evident (and the same truth is set forth at greater length in Gal. 4:21-31 and Hebrews Chapters VIII-X) that all future promises of glory and blessing for Israel and Zion must belong to the true Israel and the heavenly Zion.

"And, in this very passage, we are admonished to

"look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen" (4:18);

which admonition, however, is habitually disregarded in the interpretation of prophecies relating to these very subjects.

We ask the reader specially to note that in the above quoted passage, the apostle speaks of the old covenant as "that which is done away" (v. 11),

"that which is abolished" (v. 13).

This shows that the old covenant, under which the earthly nation of Israel had been constituted, was already, in Paul's day, a thing of the past.

"Evidently then our difficulty in understanding prophecies of the class referred to above is due to our lack of faith and our spiritual dullness.

"For, in respect to the things which are not seen, faith takes the place of sight; for faith has to so solely with things not visible to the natural eye; and hope likewise, for "hope that is seen is not hope" (Rom. 8:24).

"Wherefore it is written that,

"faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen";

and "through faith we understand" (Heb. 11:1, 3).

 

LOL, here you are telling us that God's Word, which promises not to return void, is a detriment to us.
Following a man-made dispensationalist dogma is certainly a detriment to you, but reading the Bible is not. It is precisely because I read the Bible that I recognized very clearly that my upbringing in dispensationalism was severely flawed.
JD, I look at you and I see my 19 year old self.

 

HOW THE O. T. PROPHECIES CONCERNING ISRAEL
ARE INTERPRETED BY PAUL

"We shall be the better prepared for an examination of the O. T. prophecies concerning "the hope of Israel" if we first observe how those prophecies were interpreted by the N. T. writers, especially Paul.

"Therefore we call attention at this point to a few N. T. passages.

"When Porcius Festus remanded Paul for trial before King Herod Agrippa on the charges lodged against him by the Jews, and when the king had given the apostle leave to speak for himself, he said:

"And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers; unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night hope to come. For which hope's sake, King Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews" (Ac. 26:6, 7).

CHAPTER III

"This is very definite. It proves that Paul, in preaching the gospel of Christ crucified and risen from the dead, was proclaiming to the people of Israel the fulfillment of God's promise to that people; a promise that had been made, not only to them through Moses and the prophets, but also directly to their fathers--Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

"And this, be it noted, is in exact agreement with the testimony of Peter, who, writing to converted Jews of the dispersion and speaking of the prophets of Israel, said: [26] 1 Pet. 1:10-12).

"Paul's statement to King Agrippa further proves that this gospel-salvation, which he preached, was and had been the hope of every true Israelite--"all our twelve tribes."

"Therefore the true hope of Israel was not, and is not, an earthly kingdom which some future generation of Jews, men of flesh and blood, are to inherit. Furthermore, the true Israel of God, as Paul himself had previously explained in his Epistle to the Romans, is composed of believing Israelites according to the flesh, with believing Gentiles added to them, forming one body, as represented by the olive-tree of Romans XI.

"The above statement of Paul to King Agrippa also makes clear what he meant by saying: "Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded" (Rom. 11:7). For the true hope and expectation of all Israel--"our twelve tribes"--lay in the resurrection, where the promise of "the sure mercies of David" was to be fulfilled (Acts 13:34).

"It matters not that, as individuals, they were nearly all "blinded" to it, and were looking for a kingdom of earthly grandeur, suited to their carnal ideas; for the truth of their own Scriptures was that the kingdom of God, which had been promised by their prophets, was a spiritual kingdom, to be realized in the resurrection of the dead, and to be entered only by those who are born again of the Word and Spirit of God.

"The Lord Jesus Himself had given the same teaching concerning the Kingdom of heaven (or Kingdom of [27] Matt. 18:3); and He goes on to show that to enter into that kingdom is to "enter into life" (vv. 8-11).

"And this He followed up by declaring how hard it is for a rich man to enter into the kingdom (Matt. 19:16-26), calling it in one verse (23) "the kingdom of heaven," and in the next, "the kingdom of God."

"And He concluded the lesson by saying to those who had forsaken all and followed Him; "Verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of His glory, ye shall also sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (v. 28).

"From this it appears that the "all Israel" of Scripture here designated as "the twelve tribes of Israel," is a spiritual nation; and that it shall come into its inheritance in the day of "glory," when the kingdom of God shall be manifested, and when Christ, who is now upon His Father's throne in heaven, shall occupy the throne of His glory.

Returning now to Paul's defense before King Agrippa, we note his concluding words:

"Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying"--not a new thing, a mystery never before revealed, but--"none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come"---not that Christ would restore earthly dominion to national Israel, as now is widely taught amongst Christians, but--"that Christ should suffer, and that He should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should show [28] Ac. 26:22, 23).

Here is clear proof that the gospel proclaims nothing that was not foretold by the prophets; for, as we know from Paul's teaching elsewhere, the "mystery" of the gospel was that believing Gentiles were to become "fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God," being made "fellow heirs [with saved Jews] and of the same body, and partakers [with saved Jews] of His promise in Christ"; and that all this was to be accomplished "by [means of] the gospel" (Eph. 2:11-22; 3:6, 9).

And the last quoted passage also proves that the predicted manifestation of light to the people of Israel and to the Gentiles was to come after the sufferings of the promised Messiah and his resurrection from the dead. Here we have the statement of an inspired apostle as to what was the order of revelation as it stood when Christ appeared to the Jewish people;--not "the setting up of the Davidic kingdom," as stated by the leading exponent of modern dispensationalism, but--the sufferings of Christ and His resurrection from the dead, followed by the showing of Gospel light to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile. In other words, that "the next thing in the order of divine revelation" was precisely what came to pass.

By this it appears that Paul's statement as to what was "the next thing in the order of revelation as it then stood" flatly contradicts that of the Scofield Reference Bible, quoted above.

Likewise the apostle Peter, in a passage already quoted (1 Pet. 1:9-12), makes known what was "the next thing in the order of divine revelation" as it then stood; namely, the "salvation" concerning which the [29] prophets of Israel had enquired and searched diligently, searching what the Spirit of Christ who was in them did signify when He testified beforehand "the sufferings of Christ and the glories [plural] that should follow."