Yet another bogus claim, Matthew 23:13 does not require any other scripture to be modified. Fallen people were entering the kingdom. So they had some spiritual ability. Case closed. No scripture indicates all men have no spiritual ability from conception, that is a bogus view.
I respond only so the casual reader is not mislead.
Van’s statement presents a partial truth because not a single person enters God’s kingdom that were not “fallen” and redeemed.
However, what Van fails to maintain is that the fallen cannot enter by their own strength nor even be awaken to the need of Christ outside of the direct purposed work of God.
Felix is an example. Felix could show an intellectual interest in what Paul presented, even request that Paul share at another time.
But that is a reflection of the response of one who is shallow soil. There is no life sustaining nutrient soil. The Word is nothing more then a curiosity, or a tool used to persuade, but their is no substance. So when the Word as all good seed of its own strength germinates, it springs up and dies, for their is nothing to sustain life but thatvwhich the seed brings.
Van must bolster and proclaim his statements as authoritative because as one might find written in the margins of a poor preachers notes, “Shout loudly! Gesture grandly! Weak and unsupported!”
Then that poor preacher gestures grandly and shouts loudly, “Yet another bogus claim!” and in that obstinacy declares, “Case closed!”
