Calvinism is based upon an assumption

What is impossible is to believe there is something needed when you can't hear or see any need you have.

The Spirit must teach this need to an individual it cannot be taught by man.

Bro. Dallas

 

Do good and evil, Holiness and Unholiness coexist in the human at the same instant in time?

If yes, what scripture says so?

If not, how is it possible for the Holy Spirit to indwell the human spirit before the human spirit is washed whiter than snow?

How is it possible to be washed whiter than snow if one refuses to believe and allow it?

[ February 10, 2003, 12:19 AM: Message edited by: Yelsew ]

 

Actually, scripture seems to say the reverse is impossible. One cannot come to belief in God without having the Spirit. I've already posted scriptures that say this, more or less, and you've rejected them.

Here's another more subtle example, but it's one I particularly like. John 3:

Nicodemus comes to Jesus. Nicodemus knows Jesus is from God, and "believes" this based at least in part on the signs Jesus has done. Now what do you suppose Jesus says in response to this? I don't know about you, but I'd have expected Jesus to have said something more along the lines of what He said about the Centurion. "See how this man has great faith!" Or at least something like that. Yet this is what John records of what Jesus says...

Huh? What does that have to do with the price of tea in china?

I'll tell you what it has to do with the topic at hand. Nicodemus has done everything that people like you would require of free will. He has come to Jesus. He has acknowledged who Jesus is. He believes the signs. Yet Jesus basically says, "So what? Unless you are born from above, none of that makes one whit of difference."

Even then Nicodemus doesn't get it. Don't you wonder why he still doesn't get it, even after supposedly "choosing" to come to Jesus of his own free will?

 

John 2:23-25 gives the answer to your problem. Jesus, because he is God, knew what was troubling Nicodemus, so he cut to the chase and told him outright what the cure is. For a modern street preacher, we would call what Jesus did "bashing him with the bible". Nicodemus being a teacher in the land did not of course understand!

In John 3:3 "In all truth I tell you, no on can see the kindom of God without being born from above." Jesus is telling Nicodemus that one must be reborn before one can glimps the kingdom of God, because the unregenerate spirit is never in possession of heavenly eyes.
Jesus then tells Nicodemus how to get heavenly eyes:

That's right, Believe on the Son of God and you get heavenly eyes. It is when one believes that the Holy Spirit enters and cleanses the human spirit regenerating it by "rebirth". It is then that one can see the kingdom, for truly the one becomes part of and subject to the kingdom.

NOT! Nicodemus came to Jesus not acknowledging Jesus to be the Son of God, or Believing the signs. He Came to Jesus in the manner that any teacher or authority would come to one who "challenges" that authority. Nicodemus acknowledged that Jesus had "Godly authority and paranormal powers and He acknowledged the signs that Jesus had done. but he did not know that he was speaking to God himself! He like so many others was inquisitive of this "powerful stranger".

Not quite! He told Nicodemus what was required of him and everyone else who wanted to see the "Kingdom of God" and it is so very simple, Believe on the Son of God, even on his name. Belief does not require regeneration, but regeneration most certainly requires belief.

 

So what you're saying, is that this statement is just another instance, like the Pharisees, where Jesus is just telling him "You don't believe, because I have not called you" Sheesh! I've never heard that read into this verse.
Yelsew answered it well.