Uncle Billy Went to Church

[JohnDeereFan]

Uncle Billy finally accepted my invitation to Church this past Sunday. The pastor preached a sermon on the Prodigal Son, and we sang, Just as I Am for a good 20 minutes while the pastor urged anyone who wanted to "accept Jesus into his heart" to come up front. Three people walked the aisle, but uncle Billy didn't budge from the mauve-cushioned pew.

Q: Has God done everything in His power to save uncle Billy?

Q: What does uncle Billy lack that the three others did not?

I understand what you're getting at but the truth is, it's hard to say.

I was what I call a professional aisle walker. I went up for every altar call, knew the words to all the hymns, knew just when to shout "Amen", was in church every time the doors were open, but I wasn't anymore born again than the man in the moon. I was in the church all my life until I repented and trusted Christ (as opposed to "accepting Him") in my mid twenties..

My dad, on the other hand, heard the Gospel all his life and resisted God until he finally got saved in his late fifties.

God saves who He will, when He will.

Just because it isn't in our time or how we think God should do it doesn't mean God isn't still sovereign and doesn't mean God is done.

If God wants your Uncle Billy saved, then God will save him. If not, then He won't.

 

[JohnDeereFan]

Yeah, but Calvinism seems to trump Christianity.

Calvinism is Christianity. Man-centered Arminianism, on the other hand...

 

[JohnDeereFan]

Until you can act like an adult, and speak reasonably....

You realize you're the one insulting everybody and being childish, right?

Here's hoping your daughters have a better role model than what you're presenting here.

 

[thatbrian]

You mean, like using inflammatory language and derogatory comments that take away from the point of the thread?

I little banter and sarcasm if fine, Don, but you can easily see those who are belligerent and inflammatory in every single post.

 

[thatbrian]

I understand what you're getting at but the truth is, it's hard to say.

I was what I call a professional aisle walker. I went up for every altar call, knew the words to all the hymns, knew just when to shout "Amen", was in church every time the doors were open, but I wasn't anymore born again than the man in the moon. I was in the church all my life until I repented and trusted Christ (as opposed to "accepting Him") in my mid twenties..

My dad, on the other hand, heard the Gospel all his life and resisted God until he finally got saved in his late fifties.

God saves who He will, when He will.

Just because it isn't in our time or how we think God should do it doesn't mean God isn't still sovereign and doesn't mean God is done.

If God wants your Uncle Billy saved, then God will save him. If not, then He won't.

Glad that you were "saved" from walking the aisle for the rest of your life, and yes, trusting Him, rather than our commitment to Him, is indeed the biblical way of salvation.

You probably missed it, but "Uncle Billy" is a fictitious character I've created to help point out the inconsistencies of Arminian - Pelagian views .

 

[Reynolds]

Calvinism is Christianity. Man-centered Arminianism, on the other hand...

My point exactly, only Calvinists are Christians on here.

 

[Reynolds]

No, I think it is that the Sovereignty of God in salvation trumps any man-made doctrine.

Ok, then logically thinking, why would a Calvinist care what anyone else believes? It seems irrational for Calvinists to try to change others. Sovereign God does not need you to fight against other doctrines? Calvinism and logic are quite often at odds. God told Adam don't eat. Sovereign Gods will was fulfilled by Adam eating???? It honestly has a degree of craziness to it.

 

[InTheLight]

I understand what you're getting at but the truth is, it's hard to say.

I was what I call a professional aisle walker. I went up for every altar call, knew the words to all the hymns, knew just when to shout "Amen", was in church every time the doors were open, but I wasn't anymore born again than the man in the moon. I was in the church all my life until I repented and trusted Christ (as opposed to "accepting Him") in my mid twenties.

OK, so all this time of going to church, walking the aisle, praying the prayer--you were seeking God, correct?

And if you were seeking God, Calvinists will tell you that you were regenerated. No one seeks God, they say, so you must have been regenerated. So you were regenerated for YEARS before you actually repented and believed (or, as Calvinists say, God gave you the gift of faith.)

Is this how you would characterize your experience? Why or why not?

 

[Jerome]

Just As I Am ~ Hymn (w/ lyrics)

I know of a preacher who suggested this be sung every Sunday. Can you imagine?

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

You mean, like using inflammatory language and derogatory comments that take away from the point of the thread?

Topping it off by ....ah, forget it.

 

[thatbrian]

nm

 

[JohnDeereFan]

No one seeks God, they say, so you must have been regenerated. So you were regenerated for YEARS before you actually repented and believed (or, as Calvinists say, God gave you the gift of faith.)

No. If I had been regenerated, I would have repented and trusted Christ, not merely walked an aisle to say a canned prayer in the hopes that that would be the time I'd have the will power to "be good" enough to be a real Christian.

Is this how you would characterize your experience?

Of course not.

Why or why not?

Because it isn't Biblical and because it's a wildly inaccurate straw man presentation of elementary Reformed doctrine.

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

Calvinism is Christianity. Man-centered Arminianism, on the other hand...

Is still Christianity with a different prospective from Calvinist theology

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

What most of Evangelical Christianity do to believers:

Oh, I just that it made them Trump supporters

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

Ok, then logically thinking, why would a Calvinist care what anyone else believes? It seems irrational for Calvinists to try to change others. Sovereign God does not need you to fight against other doctrines? Calvinism and logic are quite often at odds. God told Adam don't eat. Sovereign Gods will was fulfilled by Adam eating???? It honestly has a degree of craziness to it.

I’m with you till the last part.

 

[JohnDeereFan]

Is still Christianity with a different prospective from Calvinist theology

Just one where God's sovereignty is subject to man's will and God's needs man's permission.

 

[BobRyan]

No, I think it is that the Sovereignty of God in salvation trumps any man-made doctrine.

True - and God sovereignly chose the free will model. Created it... sustains it.

"He came to His OWN and His OWN received Him not" John 1:11
"Behold I STAND at the door and knock... if anyone hears my voice and opens the door - I will come in" Rev 3

Rom 10
7 or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).” 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, 9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

Why do Baptist label themselves as Calvinists or Arminians? We don’t come from Reformed Catholic Like Churches do we? Yes we may have a particular like for Doctrines of Grace or Arminian “Free will” Theology but we are Baptists are we not....there is a certain liberty to our individual belief systems and there should be some guidelines to operating in a Christian structure.

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

Just one where God's sovereignty is subject to man's will and God's needs man's permission.

Then of course you are a stanch Calvinist who would only attend a Reformed or other DOG church?

 

[JohnDeereFan]

Then of course you are a stanch Calvinist who would only attend a Reformed or other DOG church?

I'm a Reformed Baptist, if that's what you mean, and I would prefer to attend a church that holds to Reformed theology.

Would you characterize your years of attending church and walking the aisle during invitations as "seeking God?"

No. I would characterize them as constructing a god of my own liking based on an affinity for cultural Christianity.

Isn't it funny that everybody else here understood but you.