First, and foremost, we disagree on the Atonement provided by Jesus, the Christ. The scriptural elect do not constitute the whole world, and Jesus died for the sins of the world, not just a portion of the world. That Once-For-ALL Atonement by Deity for humanity, was effectual for all the sins of the world regardless of any limitations YOU, a human, want to put on it.Yelsew,
I believe people have saving faith because God gives it to them. God created the earth and everything in it by speaking a word. He can appoint a worm to attack Jonah's bush. He can raise the dead and give life to a valley full of dry bones. He can make himself incarnate and take upon the sins of the mass of the elect upon himself and declare them righteous. He can certainly give them faith.
NO MAN is declared righteous because of the Atonement of Christ, there is no example in Scripture of that happening. The only examples of man being declared righteous are those men who had demonstrated FAITH in God. I know of no others declared righteous in God's eyes.
Yes, God can do anything God wants to do, there is no argument regarding that. However, God does not have faith. If you will trust the definition of faith that the whole world trusts, you will recognize that God has no need for FAITH! If you will recognize God's plan of Salvation for man is a completed work, Jesus declared "it is finished", then you will understand why it is incumbent upon man to come to faith in God for his salvation. Salvation is a sure thing for the one who has faith in God when he meets his appointment with death. "For it is appointed unto man once to die, then the judgment." The faith condition of man at that appointed time determines man's eternal destiny. If you have faith in God you live, if you do not have faith in God, you then face the second death.
Jesus said " whosoever believeth in the Son of God, shall have life....", So it matters little to me what Pink and Spurgeon said. It matters an eternity what Jesus, the son of God said."As many as were ordained to eternal life, believed" (Acts 13:48).
Amazing that Pink ignores the words of Jesus but accepts and hinges his doctrine on the words of Luke who was not an Apostle, written to Theophilus, a secular ruler. Luke provides historical perspective to the workings of the Church. Jesus is the founder of the church!Every artifice of human ingenuity has been employed to blunt the sharp edge of this Scripture and to explain away the obvious meaning of these words, but it has been employed in vain, though nothing will ever be able to reconcile this and similar passages to the mind of the natural man.
Pink's four points mean nothing to me, because he is defending his own misinterpretation of the Holy Word of God.
The phrase "all who were destined for eternal life became believers." is no different then than it is today. Under Paul and Barnabas' teaching those who "heard" the word of God and believed were saved....regenerated if you will. Thus they were "destined for eternal life". It is no different today, "Whosoever believeth in him are "DESTINED", "ORDAINED", for eternal life. The words of Jesus are clear and easy to understand. Why do you so quickly put them aside in favor of those of Pink and Spurgeon and Sproul...all men just like you and I?Acts 13:44-51. The next Sabbath almost the whole town assembled to hear the word of God.
When they saw the crowds, the Jews, filled with jealousy, used blasphemies to contradict everything Paul said. Then Paul and Barnabas spoke out fearlessly. "We had to proclaim the word of God to you first, but since you have rejected it, since you do not think yourselves worthy of eternal life, here and now we turn to the gentiles. For this is what the Lord commanded us to do when he said: I have made you a light to the nations, so that my salvation may reach the remotest parts of the earth."
It made the gentiles very happy to hear this and they gave thanks to the Lord for his message; all who were destined for eternal life became believers. Thus the word of the Lord spread through the whole countryside.
But the Jews worked on some of the devout women of the upper classes and the leading men of the city; they stirred up a persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them from their territory. So they shook the dust from their feet in protest against them and went off to Iconium; but the converts were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit.