Why Witness?

We till the ground, we plant the seed, we water, but God alone causes the increase: He alone calls out some from the realm of darkness into His marvelous light. So why till the ground, prepare the field, plant and water if it serves no purpose in harvesting the fields white for harvest? ~Van

Because we receive rewards for obedience. God knows who will believe, given opportunity; He loses none. We are co-laborers with Him, thus we receive rewards with which to honor Him in Heaven. If we don’t do it, someone else will and will receive the rewards.

No one receives rewards for building on Christ's foundation with wood or straw. Your doctrine believes the fields are black with inability, and only via irresistible grace will the lost person be enabled and compelled to believe. You rewrite scripture, "your faith" becomes "your instilled by irresistible grace faith.

But what does scripture actually say?

Those of us who have been born anew are Ambassadors of Christ with the ministry of Reconciliation. We present opportunity to the unchosen lost, be reconciled to God. We teach everyone believing into Him will not perish but have everlasting life, We do NOT teach "if you were not chosen before creation, you are going straight to Hades and Gehenna and that is nothing you can do about it.

MrW said:

MrW said:

We till the ground, we plant the seed, we water, but God alone causes the increase: He alone calls out some from the realm of darkness into His marvelous light. So why till the ground, prepare the field, plant and water if it serves no purpose in harvesting the fields white for harvest? ~Van

Because we receive rewards for obedience. God knows who will believe, given opportunity; He loses none. We are co-laborers with Him, thus we receive rewards with which to honor Him in Heaven. If we don’t do it, someone else will and will receive the rewards.

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In Chattanooga, they call tripe like this hogwash.

Why witness? Because we are commanded to by Christ. Certainly we want to obey our Lord.

The Gospel is the means by which God has determined to bring the elect into a right relationship with Himself.

As you stated, we are given a great privilege by our Lord to participate in the salvation of others by testifying, witnessing to the truth of Jesus Christ.

Peace to you

Calvinism often leads people to get creative to explain its precepts. If one takes absolute sovereignty to its natural conclusion, one has to consider that God has responsibility for the evil in the world. One can also ask why witness to those who will be saved have already been selected.

If one finds that a doctrine one holds leads to difficulty, it may be a good idea to question the doctrine.

“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

timf said:

One can also ask why witness to those who will be saved…..

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Do you believe God is Omniscient? Do you believe God knows who will accept Christ by faith and who will not?

One can ask why witness to those God already knows will reject the gospel?

Peace to you

I’m not Calvinist.
I’m not Arminian.

MrW said:

We till the ground, we plant the seed, we water, but God alone causes the increase: He alone calls out some from the realm of darkness into His marvelous light. So why till the ground, prepare the field, plant and water if it serves no purpose in harvesting the fields white for harvest? ~Van

Because we receive rewards for obedience. God knows who will believe, given opportunity; He loses none. We are co-laborers with Him, thus we receive rewards with which to honor Him in Heaven. If we don’t do it, someone else will and will receive the rewards.

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Where is the Church instructed to evangelize?

Wesley Briggman said:

Where is the Church instructed to evangelize?

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Gosh! Go first to Matt. 14:14, and then to Matt. 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-16; Luke 24:46-47; John 20:21; Acts 9:15; 10:42; 11:19-21; 26:17-20; Romans 10:11-15; Eph. 4:11 ('evangelists'); Titus 1:5. I probably have left quite a few out.
But perhaps you may think that most of these texts were only for the apostles. If so, the apostles failed abysmally because they did not get to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. They only got to a very small part of it, and it's only in the past 50 or so years that the Gospel has got reasonably close to 'all the world.' It is worth considering 2 Tim. 2:2. 'And the things you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others.' That is four generations, and it applies to all the things that Timothy heard from Paul, which must include evangelism.
The need is urgent; people are perishing without the Gospel. We have to reach out to them. Back in 1792, William Carey, a Baptist, launched the modern missionary movement by preaching on Isaiah 54:1-3. He likened the Church of his day to a barren women seemingly fated to infertility.
But now the Church is commanded to rejoice; to enlarge the place of her tent and prepare for great enlargement. Carey went out as a missionary to India and became the spiritual father of more than 70 million Indian Christians today.