• How is a Person Saved?

    "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you" (1 Pet. 1.23,25). You are born-again (regenerated) through believing the gospel upon it being preached unto you; not regenerated then it is preached unto you to believe.

    "As many as were ordained to eternal life believed" (Acts 13.48). How were they ordained to believe? By God foreknowing their free-choice. "Seeing YOU put the gospel form you...we turn to the Gentiles" (v.46). "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate (Rom. 8.29)...elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father" (1 Pet. 1.2). "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name" (John 1.12). Who gets to be a son of God? What precedes becoming a son of God? Those who receive Him, even those who believe on His name; not by the will of the flesh (passion) or the will of man (planning) (v.13). First you must believe: "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God" (1 John 5.1). "In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise" (Eph. 1.13). When is a person sealed (regenerated)? After trusting and hearing and believing. How does this election take place? "Whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate (Rom. 8.29)...elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father" (1 Pet. 1.2). Salvation is promised to all ("Repent, and be baptized every one of you" [Acts 2.38]), contingent upon individual faith ("Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved" [Acts 16.31]).

    "They that hear shall live" (John 5.25). "Ye will not come to me, that ye may have life" (John 5.40). "Every one who seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life" (John 6.40). "Believing ye may have life" (John 20.31). "Believe...and thou shalt be saved (Acts 16.31). If you are Totally unable, then why would God plead with you to hear, come, see and believe? And if you could not respond to the gospel because of an alleged Total depravity (Total inability), then God is being cruel and unjust even abusive by blaming those for not receiving Him when they were born into sin and are not responsible for the sins of their fathers. The Calvinist accuses the OSAS Arminian of a "works-oriented system" despite the fact that faith is contrasted to and the opposite of works and that the requirement of salvation is sola fide (faith alone). What glorifies God and who is really claiming, "because I was better than those who did not believe"? Those who with repentance and faith agree, "Boasting...is excluded by the law of faith" (Rom. 3.27); or those who without any prior repentance and faith, assumed pridefully, "I have peace with God because God in eternity past chose this undeserving sinner and placed His grace and love upon me"? Which do you think is true grace, peace and love? Make your choice.

    You can often sense the pride of a Calvinist as he brushes by you and when he speaks, he need not say but a few words before you are turned off. We can be confident these men were not saved. Calvinists who are not saved include Paul Washer, Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), John Calvin, Augustine of Hippo, James White (today), John Fullerton MacArthur, Jr, R.C. Sproul, John Piper, Fred Driscoll, Charles Spurgeon, Matthew Slick (CARM) to name some popular names. And to the surprise of many even though Martin Luther restored to us Justification by Faith and denounced practices of the Roman Church what he actually meant was in the Calvinist sense, so it is highly likely Luther was not born-again either, because Calvinists don't want to be saved God's way. They prefer to assume they were regenerated that allegedly made them to repent and believe which is irresistibly imposed.

    The Southern Baptist Convention says the issue of the heresy of Calvinism is going to be the foremost issue for the next 10 years. They are not going to weed out the Calvinists they say, but they admit they will have to do something about these false Christians that continue to try to highjack their convention each year.