• Welcome to Baptist Board, a friendly forum to discuss the Baptist Faith in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to all the features that our community has to offer.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon and God Bless!

Why Provisionism Is Biblical

Van

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
1) Scripture teaches many will seek the narrow door (Christ) but will not find it. Thus the lost are able, in their spiritually dead sinful state to seek God. Luke 13:24

2) Everyone who believes [as discerned by God] that Jesus is the Christ, has been and remains born anew by God. The sequence is:
a) God reveals His gospel
b) Those not yet hardened, hear and understand and respond
c) Some embrace the gospel fully, some partially and some reject it
d) Those whose faith God credits as righteousness, He causes to be born anew.​
Thus everyone believing as discerned by God has been born anew as a child of God.

3) In John 3:3 the word translated see is used in the sense that we "see" our doctor. Thus it refers to access not awareness. Thus consistent with the sequence, first we become aware, they we respond.

4) Acts 16:4 says God opened Lydia's heart meaning the gospel was presented in a way she could understand and accept without any supernatural involvement. This also is consistent with the sequence, first the lost become away, then they respond. So our faith is not the starting point or the ending point,

5) God choosing to credit a lost person's faith as righteousness is a gracious gift, turning a sows ear into a silk purse. Obvious the faith of a lost person is worthless, and without merit, as it is a filthy rag before they receive God's gracious gift. God's provision of "credited faith" is in God's hands, not ours. This is consistent with Romans 9:16, which teaches salvation depends not on the lost, but upon God. Biblically the "gift of faith" refers to the gift of crediting our faith, rather than the compulsion of irresistible grace.

6) Ephesians 1:4 teaches God chose His Redeemer before the foundation of the world, and therefore in making that choice, He chose us in Him corporately as those His Redeemer might redeem. No individuals existed or were chosen before creation, and all individuals subsequently chosen had existed as not a chosen people who had not yet received mercy, 1 Peter 2:9-10.

7) Acts 13:48 teaches that the Gentiles who agreed with the arrangement specified in the gospel for eternal life, believed. The Greek word, translated as appointed refers to an arrangement agreed upon by mutual consent, rather than a unilateral dictate.

8) When scripture says belief or repentance has been "granted" it means allowed rather than disallowed by their hearts being hardened.
Thus fallen humans are mostly, but not all, able to hear and to heed the gospel with varied responses.

9) No verse or passage says a lost person must be supernaturally altered in order to hear and to head God's revelation.

a) John 6:37 refers to God transferring a chosen individual spiritually into Christ, as after the transfer Christ will not cast him out. This verse has nothing to do with "coming to faith in Christ."
b) Romans 8:29-30 says those whom He foreknew as the target group of His redemption plan He also planed to have them be spiritually born anew, thus conformed to the image of His Son, a sibling so to speak, and He implemented His plan, by calling them on at a time into the kingdom of His Son, when He credited their faith. Following the transfer, they underwent the washing of regeneration, removing their sin burden, what God held against them, which resulted in their justification, and then He gloried them, uniting them with Christ, making them eternally alive.​

10) Romans 4:16 says receiving the promises given to the seed of Abraham is by or based on "credited" faith which is according to grace rather than the works of the Law.

In Summary, Provisionism is fully consistent with all scripture, and those who claim otherwise use errant interpretations of vague scriptures to support their false claims. Thus Provisionism is Biblical.
 

Van

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
I see I made some typos in the opening post. Here are the corrected sentences:

4) Acts 16:4 says God opened Lydia's heart meaning the gospel was presented in a way she could understand and accept without any supernatural involvement. This also is consistent with the sequence, first the lost become aware, then they respond. So our faith is not the starting point or the ending point,

9) No verse or passage says a lost person must be supernaturally altered in order to hear and to heed God's revelation.

b) Romans 8:29-30 says those whom He foreknew as the target group of His redemption plan He also planed to have them be spiritually born anew, thus conformed to the image of His Son, a sibling so to speak, and He implemented His plan, by calling them one at a time into the kingdom of His Son, when He credited their faith. Following the transfer, they underwent the washing of regeneration, removing their sin burden, what God held against them, which resulted in their justification, and then He gloried them, uniting them with Christ, making them eternally alive.​

Additionally scripture denies "Total Spiritual Inability" but proclaims "Limited Spiritual Ability" as the lost are able to understand spiritual milk, but not spiritual solid food, as taught by 1 Corinthians 3:1-3.

And Provisionism is consistent with the correct order of divine and human actions, with God remaining absolutely sovereign in determining who He chooses to redeem, reconcile and glorify. The lost do not deserve, merit, or otherwise earn or determine their salvation.

Because the lost have "Limited Spiritual Ability" (proven by Luke 13:24) they do not need to be supernaturally "enabled" in order to hear and to heed the fundamentals of the gospel, which are the spiritual milk things of the Spirit.


 

Van

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
God provided our Soul Competency to allow us to gain access to salvation through our faith, but the result makes us
"Responsible." Everyone (including the lost) is able to respond to God's appeals for reconciliation, because a Divine Provision will be heard and understood. [This concept is extracted from Provisionism as found on the internet]

Deuteronomy 30:11-19
Matthew 23:37
Luke 8:12
Romans 2:4
Hebrews 3:7-8"

Here a case is made against the "T" of the TULIP, Total Spiritual Inability, the false doctrine that the lost are unable to understand spiritual milk, contrary to 1 Corinthians 3:1-3 where Paul spoke to immature Christians in the same way, using spiritual milk, that he did when speaking to "men of flesh," people who were not indwelt.

Moses' inspired message was spiritually dead people are to love God, thus able to love God; by obeying His word, thus able to discern the Word of God; and by "holding close" or faithfully following God, thus able to repent and strive to follow His will.

Matthew 23:37 teaches God gathers the "willing" not the unwilling. Thus some lost people are able to will to come to Christ through faith.

Luke 8:12 teaches a Satanic action is required to take away the gospel message, because otherwise the lost may believe and be saved.

Romans 2:4 teaches we should not take lightly the kind provision of God's revelation to us, and His patience in allowing humanity the time to come to repentance.

Hebrews 3:7-8 reminds us that God was provoked when those delivered out of Egypt, hardened their own hearts, when they heard and rejected God's will. God would not have been provoked if they had been unable to hear and appropriately respond.
 

Van

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
God's provision of innate Soul Competency is required both make sense of witnessing, as otherwise the effort would be akin to casting pearls before swine, and to allow us to see the justness in holding those responsible for going against what they see are right. incompetent people are not held responsible for their inability.

But the fields are white for harvest, requiring acceptance that many of the lost are able to hear and respond to the gospel.
 
Top