Protestant
Well-Known Member
In an effort to outdo his famous hot dog analogy, our relentless well-meaning board member offers yet another fiction conjured up by his free will imagination.
According to his illustration, if he can predict the outcome of horse races legally, then he, like God, is a miracle worker. If, however, God ‘fixes’ the outcome so that the race results are exactly as He predetermined, then God, like the Mafia, is a fake and a cheat.
Example # 7:
“I've already debated with others here, they call my view of foreknowledge "crystal ball theology". They are correct, I believe God can foresee what men will freely choose to do.
Tell me, which would be more miraculous?
Let's say we went to the horse races, and I correctly picked the win, place, and show for each race that day. That would be pretty miraculous don't you think?
But what if you found out I was with organized crime and that each race was fixed to come out just like I had predicted. Would that seem miraculous to you?
Or would that make me a fake and a cheat?
I ask you then, is God miraculous, or is he a fake and a cheat?”
Refutation:
Once more the board member makes a false equivalency to prove his errant, God-dishonoring doctrine.
Salvation is not a horse race.
A horse race is won by works…..the hard work of the horse, owner, trainer and jockey. Pedigree is also paramount.
Unlike a horse race, salvation is the work of God alone. It is God’s free gift to men…..men of His choosing: the Elect. Salvation is by grace, through faith, both of which are of God alone.
It is by the counsel of His own free will and good pleasure that the Lord decided, in eternity before men are born, whom He would elect. Pedigree does not enter the equation.
He begins with a lump of sinful clay. There is nothing in the clay which deserves mercy. Everything in the clay deserves judgment.
Despite the overwhelming evil predisposition in the clay, God, out of unconditional love and mercy, purposed to re-create some of the clay, calling them vessels of mercy. These vessels He purposed to glorify to the praise of His glorious grace.
The rest He purposed to leave in their natural sinful, hateful state, calling them vessels of wrath fitted to destruction to the praise of His glorious justice.
God owes no man gracious mercy. He does, however, owe every man righteous justice. The reprobate will receive the justice of God at the Great White Throne Judgment.
However, in the case of the Elect, in order to satisfy His justice, the Father sent His willing Son to make atonement for their sins and their sins only. By His sinless sacrifice, Jesus Christ appeased the Father’s wrath, satisfying all the requirements of holy justice. The resurrection of Christ proves this fact.
In order to infallibly secure the eternal salvation of the Elect, the Father has infallibly purposed the means by which His will of good pleasure is to be executed. This decree of means is called Predestination.
It is the infallible work of the Spirit to effectually call the Elect to faith and repentance by the Gospel of Jesus Christ preached by humans. It is by faith spiritually and infallibly created in the Elect by God that the Elect are justified. It is the infallible work of the Spirit which infallibly sanctifies and preserves the Elect, who are then infallibly glorified.
God is neither a cheat, a fake, or a liar.
He has clearly proclaimed the way of salvation: By grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, according to the Scriptures alone.
It is the good pleasure of His free will that the Lord fulfills in the Elect all the conditions necessary to salvation.
This is not ‘fixing’ salvation as do criminals fix horse races.
This is the nature of ‘grace,’ given by God freely to those of His own choosing, yet owed to none.
Conclusion:
Like the early worker in the vineyard who disliked the fact the Lord was too generous with the last vineyard worker, our well-meaning board member dislikes the eternal truth that election is the election of grace, according to the good pleasure of God’s free will, having no respect to anything in man, let alone saving faith which comes only from God.
According to his illustration, if he can predict the outcome of horse races legally, then he, like God, is a miracle worker. If, however, God ‘fixes’ the outcome so that the race results are exactly as He predetermined, then God, like the Mafia, is a fake and a cheat.
Example # 7:
“I've already debated with others here, they call my view of foreknowledge "crystal ball theology". They are correct, I believe God can foresee what men will freely choose to do.
Tell me, which would be more miraculous?
Let's say we went to the horse races, and I correctly picked the win, place, and show for each race that day. That would be pretty miraculous don't you think?
But what if you found out I was with organized crime and that each race was fixed to come out just like I had predicted. Would that seem miraculous to you?
Or would that make me a fake and a cheat?
I ask you then, is God miraculous, or is he a fake and a cheat?”
Refutation:
Once more the board member makes a false equivalency to prove his errant, God-dishonoring doctrine.
Salvation is not a horse race.
A horse race is won by works…..the hard work of the horse, owner, trainer and jockey. Pedigree is also paramount.
Unlike a horse race, salvation is the work of God alone. It is God’s free gift to men…..men of His choosing: the Elect. Salvation is by grace, through faith, both of which are of God alone.
It is by the counsel of His own free will and good pleasure that the Lord decided, in eternity before men are born, whom He would elect. Pedigree does not enter the equation.
He begins with a lump of sinful clay. There is nothing in the clay which deserves mercy. Everything in the clay deserves judgment.
Despite the overwhelming evil predisposition in the clay, God, out of unconditional love and mercy, purposed to re-create some of the clay, calling them vessels of mercy. These vessels He purposed to glorify to the praise of His glorious grace.
The rest He purposed to leave in their natural sinful, hateful state, calling them vessels of wrath fitted to destruction to the praise of His glorious justice.
God owes no man gracious mercy. He does, however, owe every man righteous justice. The reprobate will receive the justice of God at the Great White Throne Judgment.
However, in the case of the Elect, in order to satisfy His justice, the Father sent His willing Son to make atonement for their sins and their sins only. By His sinless sacrifice, Jesus Christ appeased the Father’s wrath, satisfying all the requirements of holy justice. The resurrection of Christ proves this fact.
In order to infallibly secure the eternal salvation of the Elect, the Father has infallibly purposed the means by which His will of good pleasure is to be executed. This decree of means is called Predestination.
It is the infallible work of the Spirit to effectually call the Elect to faith and repentance by the Gospel of Jesus Christ preached by humans. It is by faith spiritually and infallibly created in the Elect by God that the Elect are justified. It is the infallible work of the Spirit which infallibly sanctifies and preserves the Elect, who are then infallibly glorified.
God is neither a cheat, a fake, or a liar.
He has clearly proclaimed the way of salvation: By grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, according to the Scriptures alone.
It is the good pleasure of His free will that the Lord fulfills in the Elect all the conditions necessary to salvation.
This is not ‘fixing’ salvation as do criminals fix horse races.
This is the nature of ‘grace,’ given by God freely to those of His own choosing, yet owed to none.
Conclusion:
Like the early worker in the vineyard who disliked the fact the Lord was too generous with the last vineyard worker, our well-meaning board member dislikes the eternal truth that election is the election of grace, according to the good pleasure of God’s free will, having no respect to anything in man, let alone saving faith which comes only from God.
“For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen.”
