Demeaning the Great Commission

[Faithful]

How can God's grace that brings regeneration reach Calvinism's "totally depraved" sinner who is incapable of believing the gospel of Calvinism? Only by turning grace into Irresistible Grace--a concept unknown in Scripture. Since man is allegedly unable to believe on Christ, Calvinism salvation must be imposed upon him without his first believing the gospel. If Total Depravity means that no man can believe the gospel unto salvation, then not only the theory of Irresistible Grace follows but also that man must be regenerated and made alive before he can believe and be saved.

Yet a biblical view keeps slipping in, betrayed by un-Calvinistic admissions, because the guilt of their own human consciences', that has God's law imprinted on their hearts, which they fight against tooth and nail through Calvinistic propaganda and forced reading of materials by false Christians. For example, the following from Sproul: "Once Luther grasped the teaching of Paul in Romans, he was reborn." This slip of pen contradicts the claim that one must first be regenerated, and only then can the gospel be understood and believed. Which is it? We are reborn/regenerated before we can believe the gospel, or through believing the gospel? Or are we reborn twice, once by God's sovereign act before we believe, and then again after first being regenerated and given the faith to believe?

In contrast, the Bible repeatedly declares in the plainest language (and in numerous passages) that no man can be changed from unrepentant sinner to child of God without from the heart believing the gospel and, as a result of believing, being born of the Spirit of God. But if no one can believe the gospel without first being regenerated by the Spirit of God, as Calvinism declares, then not only the damnation of billions but also the continuance of evil must be God's will, inasmuch as He chooses to regenerate so few and to move upon so few hearts with Irresistible Grace. What grace is this? The Bible, reason, and conscience are all outraged. Dick Sanford has put it well:

The teaching that [because of the Calvinism's God's cold-type sovereignty] a man who's saved couldn't have done anything but be saved, and a man who's lost couldn't have done anything but be lost destroys the concept of grace. It changes grace into simple programming [and isn't that what Calvinism is at the end of the day, simplistic?] Love is not required.... Man isn't responding to a loving God's grace, he is simply doing what he was programmed to do.
With the advent of so much computer programming in society today in the many computer programming languages, many people bring God down to their own simplistic mindsets and assume God is limited to computer programming. Computer programming becomes an idol and people fashion God in their own image of their computer programming skills.

[Faithful]

Building Upon a "Dead" Foundation

It was a serious misunderstanding of "dead in sins" that gave birth to Irresistible Grace. Inasmuch as White is recognized as an authority on Calvinism, let him elaborate further upon its assertions with regard to the "I" in TULIP:

Reformed authors frequently point to the biblical teaching that man is "dead in sins" as substantiation of their belief that God must be absolutely sovereign and salvation must be completely of free grace and [I]not a synergistic cooperation between God and man since man is not capable of cooperating any more than a corpse. If men are dead in sin at all [i.e., by Calvinism's own peculiar definition], it follows that they must have spiritual life restored to them before they can do spiritually good things.... Spiritually dead men believe all sorts of things: just not those things that are pleasing to God.
Where does the Bible make this distinction that the spiritually dead can "believe all sorts of things" but not "those things that are pleasing to God"? And what does this have to do with salvation, since salvation does not depend upon being "pleasing to God"? And if spiritual death is likened to physical death, then the spiritually dead shouldn't be able even to think or to believe anything. But if the analogy fails completely in that respect, how can it be valid with regard to the gospel?

White offers no direct teaching from the Bible. There is none. The doctrine of Irresistible Grace was deduced from the biblical statement that men are spiritually dead. The only way to make it fit TULIP was to equate "spiritual death" with "physical death." That error became a major pillar of calvinism.

Praise the Lord God the Father has given the Son so that by such mercy and grace any ("we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world" 1 John 4.14) can obtain the gift of faith and be saved by grace: "obtained access by faith into this grace" (Rom. 5.2). Otherwise, Jesus died in vain. What child would read it any differently?

[Faithful]

Is Man Really A Moral Corpse?

Aren't the Ten Commandments given to spiritually dead mankind, and don't the spiritually dead understand the moral issues and often keep some of the commandments? Paul says that even the spiritually dead Gentiles "shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excuses one another..." (Rom. 2.14-15). Doesn't God appeal to every man's conscience?

The Bible offers no justification whatsoever, from Genesis to Revelation, for concluding that man is morally a corpse. Prone to evil, yes; but unable to understand that he is a sinner and that Christ died for his sins? Unable to recognize his sin and incapable of believing the gospel? No. The Bible teaches that the spiritually dead can understand the gospel and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ unto salvation.

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live" (John 5.24-25).

Is it a contradiction to claim man who is dead in sins can be regenerated without first repentantly believing in hearing the gospel of salvation? "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live" (John 5.24-25). Though man is spiritually dead, do we find he is incapable of making right choices, doing good and receiving the gospel of salvation? Jesus says, "...you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children" (Luke 11.13). If people were as evil as they could possibly be, they would not desire to give good things to their children, but Jesus still says that they are evil. Evil people still give good gifts and do kind things. If "spiritually dead" meant man was "totally depraved" "moral corpses," how can man make any moral choices and do any good? That they can, though, is undeniable. Yet the spiritually "dead" person, even though able to do some good, is unable to seek God and believe in the Gospel? That distinction is never made in Scripture. "He [Jesus] said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16.15). It would be irrational for God to send His servants to suffer and die in preaching the gospel to those who were incapable of understanding and believing it. In all the Calvinist writings there is not one verse from Scripture cited that clearly states the doctrine, "Only when the Holy Spirit regenerates man and makes him alive spiritually can man have faith in Christ and be saved" (Edwin H. Palmer). It's only because of TULIP, invented by man, used by Satan, such demands are placed to convince your flesh not to be saved God's way.