1.Sola Scriptura
2.Sola Fide
3.Sola Gratia
4.Solus Christus
5.Soli Deo Gloria
There are some Calvinists on this board that act as if they have never heard of them. Some consider sola fide, or "faith" as a work. Therefore in their scheme of salvation faith isn't considered. Some, such as Icon, believe that because "salvation is all of God," that faith has not role. If it is "all of God" faith somehow gets a pass.
Well, I am not a neo-Calvinist, and other than what I read up on them a few seconds ago, I know little about them. If what I read about their antinomian stance is true, then that is quite unsettling.
It is. What is even more sad is that men like Al Moehler are leaders in this movement in order to appeal to the "Millennials."
I do not know who falls under 'today's calvinist'. If you are referring to the neo's, you need to address them and not I.
No, primarily to those who I just read on this board.
IMO, they put far too much emphasis on God's Sovereignty and the doctrine of Predestination than the rest of the doctrines of the Bible. They are unbalanced.
You have to be kidding me here. God sent His Son to die for sinful man so that they can be saved if they want to, and not because He decreed it? That is putting an awful lot of praise upon the back of sinful man and not God, mon ami.
No praise, only responsibility. If the gift of salvation is offered to man, it is his responsibility to accept it and not reject it, as the Jews did (John 1:11).
I read an analogy once that a farmer foreknows what grows in his garden because he planted the seeds. That is how it is with God.
If he plants corn he knows that corn will come up. But not all corn will come up. Some will not germinate. His foreknowledge is not adequate. Some will be withered; some stunted; some attacked by insects, etc. He cannot foreknow what will happen in his crop.
The Lord has planted "men". Some will receive him and some will not. Predestination speaks to the saved, always. He does not predestine (reprobate) a certain percentage to hell.
David was a man after God's own heart. He bore children after his own image (and the image of God). But not all his children were "righteous" as David was. In fact Absalom was a traitor and led a rebellion against David. How could David have known those things would have happened? Would he have given birth to them if he had had that foreknowledge??
There you guys go again with that word 'forced'. You are the guys that keep bringing that word up in our debates. Why? God does not force salvation onto anyone. He does not offer salvation, either. He gives salvation to those He forekenew. As the Romanist stated For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.[Rom. 8:29,30]
"Foreknew" means to know ahead of time as in omniscience. Those that he knew before the world was ever created would get saved, those he "predestined". Why? He already knew they would get saved. He knew they would respond with "yes" to receiving Christ. Therefore they were predestined. And those were called. Why? They were called into His service to do his will to glorify Him. He also had justified the same. They will also be glorified.
Note: everything here is about the believer; nothing is said about the unbeliever, about reprobation.
Everything evil is part of His plan. If it was not, He would have stopped it before He ever set the plan into motion. The fall of Satan, for whatever reason, had to take place. The fall of Adam, for whatever reason, had to take place. If they were not part of His plan, then you are stating that He could not stop them, even if He wanted to.
That is not true. It is adequately demonstrated in the Book of Job where God gives permission to Satan to tempt Job. God is still sovereign, but within the limits of his sovereignty there is some amount of freedom given to Satan to test Job any way he wishes. There is also freedom given to Job to respond to those temptations any way he wished. He is not bound by the decrees of God.
God, being God, is omniscient. He simply knows the outcome. Knowing the outcome does not determine the outcome.
This is where the hidden things belong to God. We know the fall of Satan, and consequently mankind, took place, as they are clearly shown in His word. But why He allowed, or decreed, or ordained them, however you want to express it, this to take place, we truly do not know why.
Allowing it and causing it, are two very different things.
God allowed Satan to rebel; he didn't cause him or force him.
Why did God choose procreation as the means to bring life, yet knowing that people would abuse their own bodies in the process? I have wondered this many times. I just do not know why. Why did God create man knowing many would die and go to eternal torment? Again, I have wondered this many times myself. I just do not know why.
He made man in his own image (with a will). Man chose to go against God's will.
He either does it through primary or secondary means.
The statement was "Does he cause all things to happen"?
I find your answer not much different than that of a Muslim.
When a mother loses a child to an act of terrorism she looks to heaven first, and then to you, and she will say: "It is Allah's will."
That is fatalism. It is God's will that all things happen as they do--good or bad; terrorism, evil, etc. It makes God the author of evil.
He gave that to Adam and he lost it in the fall.
Man still has a will and God still expects him to exercise it. Nowhere does the Bible teach that man's ability to make choices for good was taken away at the fall.
Adam marred that image in the fall. Man's will is bent towards sin and self after the fall, too. Since that time, man freely chooses within the confines of his nature. That is the only freedom they have since the fall. Thank Adam for that, and do not lay this charge to God. Even Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.[Job 1:22] When you stated You seem to be attributing evil to God, making God the author of evil, you levied a big charge against me. I did no such thing. You just do not understand my belief concerning this.
Very early on capitol punishment was to meted out for murder. Why? Because the attack was not only on man but on God, for man was made in the image of God.
Genesis 9:6 Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed:
for in the image of God made he man.
1 Corinthians 11:7 For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.
--Speaking of why a woman should cover her head, and why a man should not, Paul says that man is made in the image and glory of God.
It is not just Adam, it is mankind.
Furthermore, God gives commands all throughout scripture for mankind to exercise his will and come to God Almighty:
Acts 17:30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:
He wouldn't command all men everywhere to repent if all men everywhere did not have the ability to repent.