rc,
Your quote said, ‘I weep for you two...
To have such a shallow understanding of God and lack of understanding of His word speaks volumes of why the visible church is in the wicked God foresaken stae it is in now.
The Holy Spirit has ALWAYS been active in men's hearts LONG before Christ are you kidding me?
Psalm 51:11 11 Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Just because He "indwells" in us now and in the O.T. He was "epi" or upon man dosn't mean the H.S. intentions where not the same... don't even think you can say anything different on THAT issue.
Wes... PLEASE using Romans 9 are we ! I didn't know you knew that there was such a book! The clay doesn't have the ability to make itself into anything! That's the whole point! It's the sovereignty of God that HE decided : Who will be chosen for salvation and those who HE PREDESTINED FOR WRATH! [/quote]
Don’t cry my friend until you have studied for as many years as I have in a formal theological classroom, in a pastor’s study for twenty-five years and now daily in my study.
You are right that the Spirit of God has been active back in eternity past, when He created the Heaven and the earth. [Genesis 1:1] and back in Noah’s era of time. [Genesis 6:3]
You must learn that God did not indwell, baptize into the Holy Spirit the laity of the former covenant, with the exception of the priests, prophets, pastors, kings of Israel and some of the artisans who built the Temple. The inner Advocate of the Spirit only came after Pentecost and is referred to in John 14:16.
In Psalm 51:11 King David is speaking only about himself and is not referring to any of the people of God, meaning the laity. This being true, this is why the O.T. covenant people had a proclivity toward backsliding.
As for Romans chapter nine, Calvin built, for the most part, his view of God’s saving and damning sinners from this chapter, albeit on a totally hypothetical concept. Start with “What if God . . . ” and the Lord might illumine you to understand that this is merely a theoretical and imaginary explanation showing God’s Almighty power to do all that His Divine Attributes will allow Him to perform and accomplish in His world.
The New International Versions says:
‘What if God, choosing to show His wrath and make His power known, bore with great patience the objects of His wrath prepared for destruction? What if He did this to make the riches of His glory known to the objects of His mercy, whom He prepared in advance for glory—even us, whom He also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? He did not autocratically save and damn people, but He is saying what if I did do this.
If God predestined some for Heaven and Hell, He would have created them for Hell by ordaining their sins, which at death would have guaranteed their lost destiny. The whole point of the Bible, God’s Word, is to keep people from sinning against Him. But, to the Calvinist mindset--God makes men and women sin against Christ. What you are inadvertantly thinking and expounding is that Satan and God are co-conspirators who are acting on the same side. Thus the thrice holy God becomes the Author of sin--to those who are fitted to eternal destruction. This is, of course, an impossibility because He has love for the lost, He is clothed with an exacting justice, and the attribute of His Divine holiness would eternally insure us that He is not a participant in making men sin against His Divine Being. He is not it; it is not He.
Rev. Dr. Berrian
Calvinists are strong on Romans nine in their theorizing about it, but are ill equipped to understand and deal with the myriad attributes of Almighty God.
