What is God's criterion for election?

'The good pleasure of His will'. Ephesians 1:4-5

 

...Another version of a God who acts arbitrarily and contra-logos.

 

...another whining freewiller complaining against God...


18 So then he hath mercy on whom he will, and whom he will be hardeneth.
19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he still find fault? For who withstandeth his will?
20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why didst thou make me thus? Ro 9​

 

The thing I find about election and how Calvinist think about it is that it is so exaggerated. You think you are elected yet you really do not know for sure that you are. I suspect that it may be the same with Salvation because of it. You claim you cannot be saved with out being chosen. Then how do you know?. Is that Holy Spirit of promise is really with in you or is it just your imagination?.I mean no disrespect I just do not see how you know for sure.

I asked the Lord to forgive me of my sins and save me from all my sins. I asked him to take control of my will and to keep me from sin. I cannot begin to explain the exhilaration I felt when the Holy Spirit came in to me. My whole perspective of my life changed in an instant. Even my grades in school went up from near failure to an A student. My attitude towards my teachers changed. My whole life changed .

"Temptation". I was then tempted more than ever before. I was constantly bombarded with thoughts that were not originally mine I had to learn how to cast those thoughts out of my mind. Not that I completely accomplished control of sinful thoughts but I do control them to a point. It seems to me that ever since the day I was saved I've been at war with my flesh and Satan it never seems to stop. I keep saying to myself I will never give up. I pray for strength every morning to be able to bare what will come. These things tell me I'm saved.

At any rate election is the least of my worries. I never think about except when I come here. It just seems silly to me to worry about something you believe you have no control over. I can't make God choose me yet I believe he must have. I have worshiped Him form 61 years. I have been corrected by Him several times over the years. I'm still a long way from being perfect. When I reach perfection it will not be because of my self. It will be because He will make me that way.

I love the Lord. He has always been with me through every single trial. He has blessed me beyond measure not with wealth but with assurance That I belong to Him. I have everything I need in Him, and I know where I'm going when I pass. I'm looking forward to being with Him in my new Home

MB

 

Well when The Lord chose the Jews it was cooperate. Not individual as Calvinism claims. It was not unconditional. He set out to choose Jacob and not Esau. Yet Calvinist on this board claim that election is not the same now. When did God change His elective process?. Show me scripture that shows this?. My Bible says God does not change. How is it that an unchangeable God changed how He chooses men?
Not only this God told the Jews that He chosen them. When did He tell Calvinist they were chosen?
When God Chose Jacob He was choosing a people who would be His people. According to scripture God chose the Gentiles the same way when He first told Peter not to call men common.
MB

 

A "freewiller" complaining against your gross caricature of God.

As Calvinist so frequently do when they quote Romans 9 to try and justify their doctrines, they fail to mention the passage from Jeremiah 18 to which St. Paul is referencing, whereby God tells the nation that if they return from their evil ways and obey His law and repent, He will not destroy them.

 

God is simple, eternal and unchanging. God, by definition, is existence itself. Hence, if God changed, he would not be God.

I have enjoyed your posts.

God bless.

 

...as whining complaining freewillers so frequently do when pitifully attempting to explain away the undeniable truths contained within Romans 9 they willfully ignore to whom the text plainly states it applies:

22 What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction:
23 and that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he afore prepared unto glory,
24 even us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles? Ro 9

 

God commanded it knowing that we are incapable and would not

Just like w the Law God knows we cannot and will not obey

Yes, God commands us to do something that He knows we cannot do

 

MB, is faith all about the experience we have? If so, then theology is irrelevant and our experience is the only thing that matters. All we need, then, is to experience God and get the correct methodology to experience him and we're good.
However, God reveals himself, not solely in experience (plus our feelings are fickle), but mostly in scripture, God's word to mankind.
Does God say he chooses?
Does God say he predestines?
Does God say he wills and ordains?
The answer is yes to all the above. Our feelings and response come because God did something in us...first.
MB, you have created a strawman to lean on. That is your problem, not mine. Your hatred of John Calvin is on you. I don't worship John Calvin. Therefore your complaint is silly to me. Let us exegete scripture and let scripture determine what is true. I am willing to do that. I couldn't care less about Calvin or Arminius. It has nothing to do with what God says. So, please stop using Calvin as your crutch. Let us examine scripture alone.

 

God does not have criteria for salvation except repent and Believe on the finished work of Christ. The call is open to sinners
Once saved He has a specific election of service .
Election for salvation is man made and a complete origin of Satan.

Any one who believes it calls God a receptor of persons, when He is not.

 

What kind of God would command something He knows man is not even capable of doing? A cruel, evil and tyrannical one.


I am not sure why those who are not outright antinomianists find it so difficult to believe that Christians can, with God's grace, actually keep the commandments.


"If we love God, and keep his commandments, we can be sure of loving God’s children. Loving God means keeping his commandments, and these commandments of his are not a burden to us." (1 John 5:2-3)

 

A "freewiller" complaining about your gross misrepresentation of God as a cruel tyrant.

RE: Romans 9...

No potter would waste his time, effort, or money intentionally making defective pottery. Only a fool would believe otherwise. And once again, the Apostle is referencing Jeremias 18, where God tells Israel He will not destroy them IF they turn from their evil ways and repent. It actually contradicts and disproves Calvin's concept of unconditional election!

St. Paul uses this example of Jeremiah 18 to explain to the Jews in Romans 9 why God was rejecting them because they refused to believe in Jesus Christ, while accepting the Gentiles who chose to believe in Jesus Christ.

 

I.E., Why doth he still find fault? For who withstandeth his will?

 

He finds fault when man disobeys. If man was not capable of keeping the commands of God, then God would have no reason to find fault with him.

This isn't rocket surgery.

 

...once again a whining complaining freewiller is willfully ignoring the apostle plainly identifying to whom it applies:

22 What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction:
23 and that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he afore prepared unto glory,
24 even us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles? Ro 9

 

Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why didst thou make me thus?

 

no, we are condemned already nit because of what we do but because of what was done.

 

Did God give the 10 Commandments?

Did God expect man to obey?

Had anyone ever kept the Commandments fully?

You says Xians can fully keep the
Commandments?

Then there is no need for Jesus as your High Priest. Do you believe that?

I John 1:8 says that “if we say we have no sin, we lie and the truth is not in us”. Who is the Truth? Is it not Jesus?

Do you still believe that we can fully keep the Moral Law of God?

 

King David said the he was born in sin