In Christ, Eph 1:4: A question for Reformed Baptists

JA

You wrote: "Its your site and you have your own game you must play."

What????

 

JA

If I answer, will you answer Ephesians 1:13?

 

JA

In terms of Eph 1:13 your "answer" is that "the elect are sealed in Christ." That doesn't even come close to addressing the issue. That's a cop-out. If the new birth is reserved in Christ, how can a person be made born again in Christ, or be regenerated in Christ, before being SEALED in Christ? You haven't answered that. I even offered you an answer, and you wouldn't touch it.

Those of John 8 couldn’t hear the truth because they had been hardened. (Isaiah 6:10; John 12:37-41)

As I said in the other post, they “heard” and rejected the Father’s grace who reached out to them all day long (Isaiah 65:2), and they rejected John the Baptist and his ministry of repentance, all while claiming to be Moses’ disciples. Now they are hardened and blinded. So Jesus reveals the problem to them. He says that IF God was their Father, like Nathaniel and like many others in Israel, then they would what? Answer: Then they would "love" Jesus because He proceeded from the Father. The whole POINT is that Jesus was showing them that they were not right with the Father, and that IF they were, then they would love Him, and the Father would have drawn them to Him, and have given them to Him, but as such, being in the persistent unrepentant state, having been now hardened, they couldn stand to listen to Jesus and only wanted to kill Him. These were not Jesus’ sheep, because they, first and foremost, were not the Father’s sheep. You can read all about this on my writeup on John 6:44.

Question: Can a person be Born Again, without being in Christ? Can a condemned unbeliever (John 3:18), be in Christ? One of the most essential teachings of Calvinism is preemptive Regeneration which is preemptively placing them in Christ, while condemned unbelievers, and then after they hear and believe, they are sealed in Christ. In other words, you have them in Christ, before being sealed in Christ. That's the problem.

 

JA

Nothing is down, and nothing was changed, except that I added a link to this discussion, just as you requested.

 

JA

At Eph 1:4, you add "to be".

At John 1:12-13, you take what we are born of, and make it what we are born "because of".

At Eph 1:13, you say that the elect are sealed in Christ. The elect "in who"? You mean the eternal flock of the Father? You mean those who are eternally in the Father, are then regenerated in Christ, and then after believing in Christ, are sealed in Christ? Do you see what a mess that is?

 

Benjamin

Enjoying your popcorn?

 

JA

Even if you do not want to agree with me, at least you can honestly evaluate what I'm saying about Eph 1:13, relative to Calvinism. However, if you want to say, "the elect are sealed in Christ" and call that "your answer," then you are entitled to that, but it makes you completely worthless for my need.

 

JA

You wrote: "How does a person get to the point they understand?"

Answer: by the power of the living and active Gospel through which the Holy Spirit dispenses faith and opens hearts. That's how. However, Calvinism is not about opening hearts, but about changing hearts via preemptive regeneration.

Again, you are teaching that people are regenerated before being sealed in Christ? You are stealing from what is in Christ, and giving it to unbelievers because you deem them "elect."

In case anyone thinks that Calvinism is more honoring to God than Arminianism, check this link: http://www.examiningcalvinism.com/files/Complaints/cc_man.html

 

JA

You wrote: "it is clear you are not reading my post. So lets slow down. 1:13 says...AFTER... After what?"

Yes, I am reading, and Iv'e said it in charts, tables, you name it:

After hearing, after believing, you were sealed in Christ. (Eph 1:13)

Now what did I, allegedly, not read?

 

JA

It is true that unbelievers are condemned and serve the devil and his interests, and hence the necessity of Prevenient Grace, that is, God's grace when He seeks, draws, knocks, convicts, pricks, pierces, and opens hearts to believe. You don't get the new heart, the new birth, regeneration, the Indwelling, ect, until you are sealed in Christ. Those things are restricted and reserved to none but those who are in Christ, and you are stealing.

 

For those reading

It is up to the Calvinist to show how unbelievers can biblically be "placed in Christ" in order to become preemptively regenerated, before they are ever sealed in Christ. Unbelievers have no biblical claim for what's in Christ, namely regeneration. Only believers are given the "right" to be sealed in Christ and be made born "of God." (John 1:12-13)

Unbelievers: they get Prevenient Grace

Believers: they get Regenerative Grace, the new birth, a new heart, a new spirit, are made a new creature (2Cor 5:17), receive the indwelling (1Cor 3:16), are made one spirit with God. (1Cor 6:16-17). The Calvinist wants to "borrow" from what is here in Christ, and give it to "elect" unbelievers. Hogwash!

 

My main question

If "the elect" are chosen in Christ, then in whom were these "elect" chosen, in order to receive the election to become given to Christ? Isn't it inevitable that it sets up an eternal election in the Father?, and yet the Son says that no one comes to the Father but by Him? (John 14:6)

John Hagee states: “Jesus called a Gentile woman, a dog. He never called the Gentiles His brethren. Let me remind you of something. We did not get plugged in until the cross. We had no basis of standing with God until the cross. There’s where we were in Galatians 3 when Paul said you were outside the covenance of Israel, without hope and without God. That’s very important. Then at the cross, we were plugged in, and we received the riches of Abraham, and we received healing, and we received adoption, and we received all the cornucopia of the blessings of God. But before the cross, we were castoffs. You need to understand that.” (emphasis mine)