Matt Slick is Going to Hell - The Insufficient Grace of His God

[Finestwheat]

Jesus rose from the dead. Our forgiveness of sins is through Jesus and is received by faith alone, in Christ alone, by grace alone. The Sheep hear the Master's voice and follow him and he gives them eternal life (John 10:27-28) because he knows them by name (John 10:3). "Jesus therefore said to them again, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.' All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. 9 'I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture,'" (John 10:7-9).

Matt Slick uses this as his signature on his forums. Notice how Matt Slick tries to play games here for his extreme dictatorial view of sovereignty that is devoid of love and is non-relational. First off, if it is by faith alone, then it is not in Christ alone. Or if it is in grace alone, then it can't be Christ or faith alone. A proper response to these three alone's that are not really each alone then, is that salvation is in Christ alone by grace through faith. Do you see that? God is the one who saves through Christ, but it is by grace through faith to be saved by Him. Who's faith? "According to the good pleasure of His will" (Eph. 1.5) the Father "himself is righteous, and that he justifies him who has faith in Jesus" (Rom. 3.26). That way you don't have the extreme view of sovereignty that is without personally relating.

Those who are regenerated and receive eternal life are not because He knows them by name, for John 10.3 says, "To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out." How is this accomplished? The gate is open, and the sheep willingly "hear his voice" so "he calleth his own sheep by name" and thus "leadeth them out." This is the correct understanding and substantiated in verse 1: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber." We are told to enter the sheepfold must enter "by the door" and it is "he that" must do it, and not some other way. Who does the entering? "He that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep." He must enter in the door. The door is our Lord Jesus Christ.

For Jesus to condemn others as "thieves and robbers" who do not come through Him as the gate, entails their personal responsibility and ability that they could have come, but were unwilling. Those who contend otherwise, "the sheep did not listen to them" (John 10:8). Do not listen to Calvinists in any other way than to help them.

One of Slick's minions writes,

God does not Love all men and does not have grace for all men, but only His elect of all nations.

That's not what my Bible says. In fact we see personal responsibility that we can respond because God grants us the grace that extends to the whole world. "For God so loved the world...that the world through him might be saved" (John 3:16,17). "And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. But IF from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, IF thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul" (Deut. 4:28-29).

This act of regeneration is what God does. Remember, your believing is something God has given you: "For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake" (Phil. 1:29); Also, "Jesus answered and said to them, 'This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent'" (John 6:29); And, "...and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed" (Acts 13:48). This is also why we are born again not by our own wills, but the will of God: "But as many as received Him...[these] were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:12,13).

Regeneration is what God does. Certainly our ability to believe in Christ is also given to us, just as all things are granted to all creatures accordingly. The question then becomes how is it that belief is granted to some and not to others? It stands to reason since God pleads with you, died on the cross for the sins of the whole world and tells you what you must do ("What must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved" [Acts 16:30-31]), then the gift of belief can freely be obtained ("We have also obtained access by faith into this grace" [Rom. 5.2], "for by grace are ye saved through faith" [Eph. 2.8]), since it is for the whole world to be able to do so, and requires our response. God's work is to save, to lead people to Him so they will believe in Jesus whom He has sent. God does the saving by His own will so we can't by our will assume we are regenerated as taught in Calvinism. We must fulfill His condition for salvation which is to receive Him by coming to Him with an honest heart and as helpless sinners. "But the good soil represents honest, good-hearted people who hear God's message, cling to it, and steadily produce a huge harvest" (Luke 8:15). How did God appoint to believe? Those who come to Him with a heart of repentance, honesty and sincerity.