Absolutely what, faith is a work?!?2BHizown said:Absolutely! I think we've all arrived at the same destination! Praise God! God saves sinners!
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Absolutely what, faith is a work?!?2BHizown said:Absolutely! I think we've all arrived at the same destination! Praise God! God saves sinners!
It does no such thing. The gospel is not revealed in nature. However God is. So every man because of general revelation is guilty of not obeying the law of his conscience (Romans 2).Quote:
Originally Posted by Scott J
Do "all" as in each and every individual hear the gospel?
Do you know as fact that they have not? Romans 1 implies that they have.
Yes you can. The task of spreading the gospel was given to man. We know for a fact that people lived and died in the Americas before European exploration in ignorance of the gospel.Quote:
Have all individuals heard the gospel since the ascension?
I believe they have, but that is my belief and not fact. You cannot state truthfully that they have not.
The context of my question was the gospel or direct revelation.Quote:
You believe that God reveals Himself to all men?
Romans 1 and John 12 imply "yes".
Not true. The Bible tells us why. Those with a bias against the doctrines of grace simply want to avoid those scriptures because they deny man credit for making a good choice. Man cannot claim any glory according to calvinism... and the Bible.Quote:
If that is true then why don't all accept Him?
Ahhh...this is the one thing that a calvinst HAS to know, even though there is no way of knowing for certain this side of Heaven.
The honest answer is that scripture tells us but it is inconvenient to anti-calvinists. We were born by the will of God... not of man.The honest answer any Christian should give on this question is "I don't know", because we don't. Calvinism THINKS it knows, but it doesn't.
All do not. Some believe. They believe for a reason. There is a cause for their belief and despite your protests to the contrary, scripture tells us that it is not man's goodness and that it is God's goodness.Quote:
Acknowledging that all do not... why do any?
Acknowledging what, all have not heard or all do not believe? I won't ever acknowledge the first, but I am in agreement with the second.
Evading again? Faith in Christ is a decision/act of will. Either that act of will came from within the man... a good decision... a merit that God rewards with salvation or else it comes from God purely through grace.Quote:
What about them separates them from the damned?
Other than faith in Christ? Nothing.
*sigh* evasion.Quote:
You still need to answer that question. Are they saved by the merit of their choice or by the grace of God?
*sigh* strawman.
2BHizown said:"Born, as all of us are by nature, an Arminian, I still believed the old things I had heard continually from the pulpit, and did not see the grace of God. When I was comming to Christ, I thought I was doing it all myself, and though I sought the Lord earnestly, I had no idea the Lord was seeking me...I can recall the very day and hour when first I received those truths in my own soul -- when they were, as John Bunyan says, burnt into my heart as with a hot iron...One week night, when I was sitting in the house of God, I was not thinking much about the preacher's sermon, for I did not believe it. The thought struck me, "How did you come to be a Christian?" I sought the Lord. "But how did you come to seek the Lord?" The truth flashed across my mind in a moment -- I should not have sought tHim unless there had come some previous influence in my mind to make me seek Him. I prayed, thought I, but then I asked myself, How came I to pray? I was induced to pray by reading the Scriptures. How come I came to read the Scriptures? I did read them, but what led me to do so? Then, in a momment, I saw that God was at the bottom of it all, and that He was the Author of my faith, and so the whole doctrine of grace opened up to me, and from that doctrine I have not departed to this day; and I desire to make this my constant confession, 'I ascribe my change wholly to God'."
CHARLES SPURGEON, Autobiography
I believe the Gospel is revealed in nature, and in any way that God wants it presented. See Revelation 14:6, and Paul's conversion. You may not like the Gospel in the Stars theory, but it is plausible.It does no such thing. The gospel is not revealed in nature. However God is. So every man because of general revelation is guilty of not obeying the law of his conscience (Romans 2).
See above answer. You believe that omniscient God has put the ENTIRE responsibility of spreading the Gospel on the shoulders of man? Wow. Man is a means of doing this, but to claim that man is the ONLY way the Gospel is shared holds man up pretty high.Yes you can. The task of spreading the gospel was given to man. We know for a fact that people lived and died in the Americas before European exploration in ignorance of the gospel.
The Bible doesn't tell us why, but the faulty exegesis of reformers THINKS the Bible tells us why. Huge difference.Not true. The Bible tells us why. Those with a bias against the doctrines of grace simply want to avoid those scriptures because they deny man credit for making a good choice. Man cannot claim any glory according to calvinism... and the Bible.
I evaded nothing. You asked a simple question, I gave a simple answer. You are starting to get it, I think. Faith IS a decision/act of the will. Everything else you said is true, since God has set it up that way. Who are you to question God in how He works?Evading again? Faith in Christ is a decision/act of will. Either that act of will came from within the man... a good decision... a merit that God rewards with salvation or else it comes from God purely through grace.
Again, who are you to question how God works? If He does reward faith from within (that He has given ALL men), so what? Is He not allowed to do that?This is a question. Not a straw man. If you have a third or fourth answer, I will gladly consider it as well. The fact remains that salvation is an effect and every effect has a cause. Either God's goodness causes the actions of those who believe or man's goodness... or you have imagined another answer.
...Man, is Piper off on this or what
2BHizown said:'No man can come to Me unless the Holy Spirit draw him.'
The Holy Spirit gives an inner call, creates a hunger for the word and the gospel. God gifts us with faith to believe and repent. This one was overshadowed with God's grace and then given the faith to believe or he could never had made any choice to go to God, but only a bad choice not pleasing to God! The choice for God without a work of the Holy Spirit can definitely happen when an unbeliever hears the gospel, walks an aisle, signs a card, thinking they have by doing so bought 'fire insurance'. Sadly they are professors, not posessors moved by God's Spirit!
sparkle said:I am a new poster, and I have a very sincere question, directed to those that believe that regeneration is the first step in our salvation. Simply put, are you equating the conviction of the Holy Spirit with regeneration?
Some choice!! Calvinist keep saying choice and then take it away. They say you can choice good or evil but because of your sinful nature you cannot do good. What a doctrine to mankind to say the Lord loves you but adios.
webdog said:The work of the Holy Spirit works in perfect unison with Christ, and does not precede Him so that Christ can be heard. Drawing and regeneration are not to be confused.
Brother Bob said:Some choice!! Calvinist keep saying choice and then take it away. They say you can choice good or evil but because of your sinful nature you cannot do good. What a doctrine to mankind to say the Lord loves you but adios.
canadyjd said:A lost person cannot be brought under conviction until Holy Spirit regenerates them because they cannot discern spiritual matters. Once Holy Spirit regenerates them, changes them, they are brought under conviction of the truth of the gospel concerning Jesus Christ and their own estate as a person lost and doomed to hell. Having been regenerated, they are now capable of making that "choice" for Christ, and they respond to what God has revealed to them in repentance and faith, joy and perseverence. And people will make that choice for Christ every time Holy Spirit so changes their nature, without fail.
p.s. DUCK!
This is Scriptural error. God does not give faith to believe. Where is that in the Bible. Give Scriptural evidence. God may give faith to a Christian but not to an unbeliever. You have a wrong definition of faith.2BHizown said:'No man can come to Me unless the Holy Spirit draw him.'
The Holy Spirit gives an inner call, creates a hunger for the word and the gospel. God gifts us with faith to believe and repent.
sparkle said:Thank you very much canadyjd. I'm having a big problem understanding this. It doesn't seem to be much of a choice when explained this way. I'm truly not trying to be argumentative, just trying to understand.