Featured The Command of GOD

Quite a convoluted post.

 

God commands 'All men everywhere to repent' (Acts 17:30; cf. Mark 1:15 etc.).

 

Utlyan, you believe salvation is a result of personal effort. I believe salvation is through the gift of faith, and by no merit of our own. If God wanted everyone to be saved, everyone would be saved, but God made some people for destruction.

We are slaves to sin, and without God, we cannot repent of sin.

 

God hardened the heart of Pharaoh, did God want the Pharaoh's heart to be hard?

 

Do you brethren on here believe there is a sin nature?... If not what do you do with the remarks made by the Apostle Paul in Romans... Because according to Paul there is or do we pretend it's not even in the Bible?... Brother Glen

Romans 7:9 For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.

7:10 And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.

7:11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.

7:12 Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.

7:13 Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.

7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.

7:15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.

7:16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.

7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

7:19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

7:20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

7:21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

7:22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

7:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

 

I'm Calvinist. We sin because we're slaves to sin, unless God makes his slaves to righteousness. In a way, it is God's will that we sin. Even non-Calvinists recognize our sin nature and our inability to please God on our own.

How can I choose not to sin on my own, in response to God's instruction to sin no more? From a human perspective, I have that choice. But, it is God who chooses for me to, or not to, obey his instruction.

I respect your position on the subject. I respect the belief that God meets us halfway. But, I think that doctrine is just a compromise we make in trying to understand things beyond us.

 

Need more convincing... Brother Glen

1 John 1:6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:

1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1:10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

 

I've read the Bible. I know what it says and I believe it agrees with me. What do you think the point is in quoting verses without explanation? That somehow if your name is on the same screen as those verses, that those verses will look different?

 

It seems we are of the same cloth are we not?... I am not quoting them for your benefit but for the one who started the post... Just attaching those verses of scripture that supports your POV and mine... The scriptures explain themselves... They say exactly what they say they mean... They interpret themselves... Brother Glen

 

You fail to distinguish between accountability and ability. Man is accountable to God's commandments but DUE TO HIS OWN SIN he has lost the ability to obey those commandments (Rom.8:7 - more accurately he has no desire to obey but is in a state of enmity against God and his commandments) and comes into this world "condemned already" due to his sin in Adam.

Therefore, based strictly upon justice God could condemn the whole human race to hell immediately at the fall or any time thereafter. Salvation is by grace (undeserved) and an act of mercy (something that cannot be demanded).