Originally posted by Terry Herrington:
Ken Hamilton,
Weak responses, especially to number 5. I still believe, like the good old KJV says, "...And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Revelation 22:17
Maybe I'm confused, Do you believe that certain people are destined to hell and others are destined to heaven and that they have no input. Has God arbitrarily decided by random who will believe or is it based on anything other than God's own choices?
If I hadn't heard of Calvinism I would never have dreamed of such a doctrine. When I went forward to receive Christ no one said anything about me being in the elect. I simply heard the Gospel and believed it.
"Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30
I decided to trust Jesus; my burden was very heavy. Praise God!
Hello, Terry:
Hope Ken doesn't mind me coming in.
To most who seem to think that everytime the Bible mentions 'salvation' it refers to eternal salvation with regards to the soul, #5 do appear to be a weak reply.
But the Bible, also speaks of temporal salvation, and indeed, even the heathen can avail of this temporal salvation.
For example, those who are not children of God will find that exhortations in Proverbs when applied practically to their own lives result in a life which, though not God-centered, are morally upright.
God is never arbitrary in any of His actions.
The Bible says He inhabits eternity and is omnipresent, not only in the time, date, year and century that we are in. He is in the future, was in the past, and is in the present.
He created man and knew man would eventually become a fallen creature because man will believe the devil's lie.
Many say and ask that if God knew this, then what was the point ?
I don't know the answer, neither do any of our Calvinistic and Electionist brethren here, and I am sure neither does Calvin, or Gill, or Newton, or Pink.
Perhaps the answer lies in God's own statement to Adam: "
dust thou art..." and perhaps we can glimpse an answer in Paul's discourse on the resurrection in 1st Corinthians when he speaks of the natures of the first Adam and the second Adam.
The fact is that God did not intervene with Adam, and when He did not, Adam fell to the pull of dust
in him, and so did all of his posterity who inherited his disobedient nature.
Still some argue that in electing some to salvation and
intervening after Adam in that He quickens the dead nature so the dead can come to life and come to Him who is the Life He makes man a robot.
But, I think that if He had intervened from the beginning with Adam, then He would have a humanity who
are robots.
The point is that having disobeyed and produced a fallen race as a result of wilfull and conscious disobedience, God is under no obligation to save anyone anymore, yet He did and does, and this time He works His will in those He had set His eyes on from eternity past. Not only does He work His will on them, He Himself became their Savior.
When
I came forward to receive Christ into my life (or so I thought I was doing the receiving), I was an atheist and had every intention of engaging the pastor in a debate in front of his congregation in a place whose dialect I did not speak and understood barely.
Yet, the Holy Spirit stopped my mouth and opened my ears because I understood perfectly what the pastor was preaching about in his dialect, rapid-fire.
Didn't know anything about election, either.
But God is a God of revelation. The Bible says "a line here, a line there, a precept here, a precept there". In
His time and place, He brought me face to face with the true Doctrine of Grace.
It always makes me sad to read people say,
I decided...
I received...
I came..
The truth is, the
I in us would never come to Christ or desire the Bread of Life or feel
a need for the Water of Life, or the want to be shepherded by the True Shepherd, if God does not work His will on
I .
To God be all glory and power and dominion, forever and ever.