6 Major Sins of Calvinism

[Churchwork]

The 6 Major Sins of Calvinism

(1) You're unwilling to let go of control over self to place your trust in the sovereign Lord since you refuse to repent and believe in Christ to be regenerated. To maintain hold over self, you cling to an idol called Total depravity which says you can't repent and believe in Him so you don't. To rationalize your selfish stance further, you accept the evil spirit's imputation to pridefully assume you were irresistibly selected. Thus, you never genuinely come to the cross as a helpless sinner to receive the Lord Jesus as Savior to be saved.

(2) You worship a cruel and sadistic god who sends people to Hell for being born into sin that was not their fault and blames them for not responding when he made them that way apparently. Your god is evil, incompetent and impotent to be able to provide sufficient grace to all to have the free choice.

(3) You worship a tyrant that irresistibly imposes regeneration on people which is not much of a gift since it can neither be accepted nor refused. There is no opportunity for salvation in Calvinism just the evil dictates of a non-sovereign god. How impersonal and quite unlike the relational God of the Bible who says, "ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart" (Jer. 29.13).

(4) As you are doubleminded so is your god who contradicts himself with his two wills, declaring openly he wants all to be saved, but secretly he doesn't. If something is a secret then by definition Calvinists can't make any claim about it or even if it exists so they are just pretentiously asserting themselves with their doublespeak. The Bible says be "not doubletongued" (1 Tim. 3.8).

(5) It's wrong to give people false hope that they can be saved when your god prods them on yet makes them unable to respond. There is no way around this abusive behavior, duplicity and charade.

(6) If there were two people drowning would it be right to let one drown and save the other? If you could save both but didn't in our society you would be guilty and go to prison for negligent homicide. But this is the way the Calvinist god operates. The Calvinist claims he can save both, but is perfectly just in not doing so. When I get in a pickle, I hope I am not standing next to a Calvinist. The question is, how can God's morals be below our own? How can the Creator have a morality that so against our own sense of right and wrong?

Cain and Abel
Did Cain and Abel have the free choice to give God a proper offering? Were they totally depraved? Was Cain preteritioned? Was Abel irresistibly made to give a lamb as an offering? God provided them with sufficient grace to have the free choice. Grace that is not sufficient for all is deficient. The Calvinist's lust for an explanation why Abel gave a proper offering goes unanswered. Instead of having the humility to accept he currently doesn't understand and be comfortable with that, he inserts into the text that which is not explicitly stated in order to make it agree with his committed position to try to comfort his soul. But it is not lasting because self cannot help but be puffed up, begetting more self, with the prideful assumption of being irresistibly selected.

What is the proper response to a Calvinist when he asks, why did Abel choose God and Cain didn't? Simply say to him that they were both made in God's image, born into sin, and by the grace of God sufficient for us all gave them free choice. What caused their choice? They did it. It was their choice afforded to them by God just as God has free choice, ability or free will whichever term you prefer. God made us in His image with this attribute He has. The god of Calvinism can't do that so you know the god of Calvinism is not just impotent and lesser but actually some evil spirit even Satan himself.

Conclusion
The Calvinist's main issue is he can't fathom how God can have infinite foreknowledge and reconcile that with free will. Well, I don't know how God gives me self-consciousness and God-consciousness either, but I know He does it, since He says so in His word. They are not trusting in God's word. It is even verified in our own experience what scholars call "proper basic beliefs" that are self-evident and common to us all. Because Calvinists can't understand how God does this, they assert God causes everything so nobody has the free choice to do anything (a facade), leaving the human race without any moral imperative. A person's conscience has nowhere to go but down from there. Shouldn't a true and lasting faith strengthen man's conscience?

Next time you come across someone who pleads with you and implores you to do something which you obviously cannot do, have not been supplied with the ability to do so and not given a choice in the matter (no prevenient grace), recognize such sadistic and cruel behavior is attributed to the evil god of Calvinism. How twisted and unloving.

[Nottheworld]

Depravity and Election

"You were dead in your trespasses and sins" (Eph. 2.1). "The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Cor. 2.14). Are you made alive (regenerated) then you are capable of believing, or are you made alive because you believed?

"For by grace you have been saved through faith" (Eph. 2.8). If you are saved through faith, what comes first logically? The salvation or faith? "We are justified by faith" (Rom. 5.1). We are not justified by salvation which gives us faith, but we are justified through faith (we can obtain this gift) to be made alive by the grace of God. Justification doesn't give us faith but we are justified by faith. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved" (Acts 16.31). Nowhere in the NT does it say wait to get zapped by God to be able to believe. In every case in Scripture you find the opposite.

How do you handle "dead in sins"? Dead doesn't mean annihilation but "separation." "Your sins have separated you from God" (Is. 59.2). Spiritual annihilation is not the meaning, but spiritual separation and still in His image and likeness: "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man" (Gen. 9.6). Even an unsaved person is still in the image of God. Even after being separated he is still in God's image. Don't "curse we men, who are made after the likeness of God" (James 3.9). The image of God is effaced in fallen man, not erased (not there), so you do have the capacity to hear, understand and receive His sufficient grace.

"The LORD God called to Adam, 'Where are you?' He replied, 'I heard you'." (Gen. 3.9,10) Even though Adam was dead spiritually, he could still hear God and understand what He was saying. We are still in God's image. Our ability to hear God is still there. Our ability to respond to God is still there-to respond positively to accept or negatively to reject.

Paul says about the unsaved, "For the truth about God is known to them instinctively. God has put this knowledge in their hearts" (Rom. 1.19). "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse" (v.20). Unsaved people who are dead in trespasses and sin can clearly see the truth of God revealed in general revelation. So clear is it, they are "without excuse" (v.20). Death doesn't mean they can't understand or perceive the truth. Instead, they are unwilling to receive the truth. "The natural man does not receive [dechomai: welcome]" the truth (1 Cor. 2.14). He understands in his mind, but does not receive it in his heart. If you can perceive the truth, you can receive the truth.

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will" (Eph. 1.3-5). "For those whom he foreknew he also predestined" (Rom. 8.29). "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father" (1 Pet. 1.2). "The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Rev. 13.8) "by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God" (Acts 2.23).

The Calvinist says there is no condition for God giving election and there is no condition for man receiving it. Whereas Christians believe there is no condition for God giving it for it is given by grace, but there is one condition for receiving it which is by faith. "For whom He foreknew He also predestined" (Rom. 8.29). "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God" (1 Pet. 1.2). The Calvinist says God chooses some people apart from His foreknowledge of who will believe. Christians believe God chooses in accordance with His foreknowledge of who would believe. God picks people knowing they will receive the message of salvation.

I can offer you something unconditionally, but I can't give it to you if you don't receive it. A gift must be received. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved" (Acts 16.31). "Believe on the name of the Son of God" (1 John 5.13). "He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But 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 1.10-12). How do you get salvation? You must receive it, accept it and make an act of faith.

"Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1.13). This gracious act of salvation did not come out of your will, but came through your will. "For by grace you have been saved through faith" (Eph. 2.8). It is a mistake to say we cannot or do not receive the gift that He gave because it would be accredited to us. Who gets credit for salvation? If someone gives you something and you take it, how do you get credit for it? The person who gives the gift should get the credit. If you are dependent on God you will receive the gift, but if you are not dependent on Him, you will consider receiving the gift to be your credit. Are you willing to say you are the poor beggar and humble enough to say you are impoverished in yourself? You must accept it or you will be lost.


Atonement and Grace


"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3.16). On face value God loves everybody. Does "world" mean "some," or just the saved or "elect world"? To do that is reading into the text not reading out of the text. What does the text mean in its context? "For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly" (Rom. 5.6). How many people are ungodly? Just the elect or the whole world? "For the love of the Christ constrains us, having judged this: that one died for all, then all have died and he died for all, that they who live should no longer live to themselves" (2 Cor. 5.14,15). All have died because like all are in Adam, Christ's death covers all to receive co-death for those who believe. How can someone read this text and say Christ only died for some? How can someone with theological colored glasses read a verse that says all actually means some? "Who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2.4). There is a very simple rule in the Bible: all means all and that's all it means. All means all and that's all that all means. If God did not desire all men to be saved, guess what? He would have said He desires only some men to be saved. Why not say so if that is what He means? When God says all, it doesn't mean some. It means all and that's all it means.


"The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance" (2 Pet. 3.9). How many people does God want to be saved in this verse? If some people are not saved what is the reason? Because they perceived but didn't receive. They knew it was true, but they refused to accept the truth. Christ came onto His own, but they were unwilling to receive Him. "And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world" (1 John 2.2). Did Jesus die for the sins of the whole world or just the Christian world? John could not possibly mean the Christian world, because in verse 15 he said, "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." Are we not suppose to love the elect of the world? The world is defined: "For all that is in the world--the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life--is not of the Father but is of the world" (v.16). It couldn't mean the elect, because he puts the world as opposed to God.


For God to not love the world is contrary to the Bible and contrary to "God is love" (1 John 4.16). God is all loving. God cannot lie and cannot overlook sin. And God is love. If God is all just then He is also all loving. If God is all loving, He must love all. You cannot be all loving and just love some. To say God only loves some people is an insult to the nature of God which makes God arbitrary and capricious. It is to make God more like the God of the Koran like the famous Persian poet, Omar Khayyám said,


"'Tis all a Chequer-board of Nights and Days
Where Destiny with Men for Pieces plays:
Hither and thither moves, and mates, and slays,
And one by one back in the Closet lays.

The God of the Islam is so sovereign that he can act contrary to his very nature if he wishes. If he wants, he can just love some people and hate other people. God in the Bible by His very nature loves all people. Picture this illustration. A farmer had a pond. And the neighborhood kids were want to go swimming. So he put up a fence and a sign, "Don't swim!" One day he was driving back in his field, three boys were found drowning, caught in weeds from below that had a grab on them. He just points up to the sign, tells them they are trespassing and that they deserve to drown then folds his arms. He lets all three boys drown. Would anyone say that was loving person? That's exactly what Calvinists think God can and could have done. They believe God didn't have to try to save anyone? The farmer is half right the children deserve punishment, but on the other hand, he is tragically and totally wrong to be so unloving not to try to rescue those children. To stand there and watch them drown may be all just, but he is not all loving. God of the Bible is both.

The Calvinist have their own version. They will respond the story is the same up to the point of when the farmer returns to the pond. He throws a rope to just one of the boys and lets the other two drown. Neither is this found in the Bible from the above verses (for God loves all), nor in the depth of my heart can I accept it. I am made in God's image with a moral sensitivity to believe such a god could never be worthy of our commitment. Moreover, my spirit is regenerated with God's life. A god who is not all loving is not worthy of all our love. God says "love the LORD your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul" (Deut. 11.13). God says, I AM love. For God to not try to rescue the other two is not an all loving God.

What the Farmer really does is throw a rope to all three boys. One person accepts the rope. The other two say, no thanks, I can do it myself. We can swim ashore on our own. The two drown. The Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin. "And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.... When He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth" (John 16.8,13). God sends a rope to everybody-sufficient grace to all! But some, like Calvinists, do not accept His love. They want to do it on their own and assume they have been regenerated without having had to repent and believe in Christ to be regenerated. They get to have their cake and eat it to. For them, the deck is stacked.

Now the Calvinist will say his god uses overpowering grace to save some, but the question is left wanting, why doesn't he do so for everyone? This problem leads to many adopting the belief as an off-shoot from the Puritans coming over to America that God will save everyone (universalism and unitarian) since the extreme view of sovereignty leads to a more reasonable conclusion a god who can save everyone rather than the evil tyrant represented by the god of Calvinism. Both are dead wrong!

Why is Jesus pleading with all of Israel in Matthew 23? "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!" (Matt. 23.37). He wanted to save them all. The Holy Spirit was sent to convict all of them. This tells me a loving God can never do something against a person's free choice. Let's say a man courting a woman tries to persuade her to marry him, but she says she is not interested. He continues, but she asks him not to press her further. He then decides to force her to marry him as can be done in some evil dictatorships. Is that love? Forced love is rape! God is not a divine rapist. Not the God of the Bible! Love NEVER forces itself on anyone else.

C. S. Lewis said in his book, The Great Divorce, there are only two kinds of people. Those who say, "Thy will be done O God!" The other, God says to them, "Thy will be done." Irresistible grace is contrary to God's nature and man's nature. "You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you" (Acts 7.51). Choice is the issue! "As it is written, 'Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated'." (Rom. 9.13) "But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, 'Why have you made me like this?' What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction" (Rom. 9.20,22). Margin notes reference Malachi 1.2 for verse 13.

"I have loved you," says the LORD. Yet you say, 'In what way have You loved us?' Was not Esau Jacob's brother?" Says the LORD. "Yet Jacob I have loved" (Mal. 1.2).
This verse is talking about the nation Jacob Israel, and the nation Esau which was Edom (v.4) whom God hated for their sins. God didn't hate the person, nor was it about the predestination of an individual. And this is not a heavenly destiny but an earthly purpose. This verse has nothing to do with individual election, but corporate election for a temporal purpose to bring Israel back together and to bring in the eternal Savior. This word "hate" really refers to "love less" as in Luke 14.26 and in Gen. 29.30-31. It's a Hebrew idiom.

God hardens hearts because He can't get you to respond with His loving stroke. So He has to take you in the other direction. That's why He hardened the Pharaohs heart, because the Pharaoh hardened his own heart first. When you pet a kitten and it purrs, suppose you are still petting the same way but the kitten turns around the other way. Did you stop give loving strokes rubbing the fur the wrong way? No.


Preservation or Perseverance?


The Calvinist believes if you are the elect you will persevere to the end. If you are unfaithful, slipping into the sin, that's proof if you are not one of the elect in their minds. There is no full assurance unless you endure unto the end. Two very popular Calvinists are Sabbatarians and said if they took a plane or other mode of transportation on Sunday (the belief in a Christian Sunday Sabbath), they would know they were not one of the elect. They have no assurance for their salvation because it was never their choice. Incidentally, the Sabbath is not required to be kept, for the Sabbath rest was fulfilled when the veil was rent and the Holy Spirit came to be our rest by indwelling the Holy of Holies-our inner man. Nor is Sunday like the Sabbath, for Sunday is a day of spiritual vitality and activity.


"And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand" (John 10.28).


"For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day" (2 Tim. 1.12).


Many Puritan divines trembled as they approach death because they weren't sure if they had been faithful enough.


Dr. Norman Geisler shows us clearly Calvinists strike out on all 5 points of TULIP. God is love. There is not a single Calvinist on the planet that can consistently look at an unsaved person and say Jesus died for you. He doesn't know whether he is one of the elect. You can't if you are a Calvinist go up to a person and say to him, I have Great News for you. Jesus died for you. Jesus loves you.


Whereas a Christian can look at every person in the eye and say Jesus loves you and He died for you. Christ died for you and wants you to be saved, but He is not going to force you. I pray you are willing to receive Him now my Calvinist friends to stop holding the cup upside down and putting the cart before the horse. Don't say, "I think, therefore I am." Say, "I am, therefore I think." May Calvinists receive You God in the love that You have shown them. Amen.

[Churchwork]

Satan's work is accomplished if he can get you to think you are saved when you are not. He needs nothing more than this to bring you to Hell with him. So don't be surprised when the Lord says to you He doesn't know you even though you claim many works in his name. Case and point: James White is going to Hell (http://biblocality.com/forums/showthread.php?2748-James-White-Declines-Rebuttal-to-6-Questions).



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OF1f4PZyEns&feature=related


I reject the false Christ of Calvinism, because he denies John 3.16 that Jesus loved the world: He died for the sins of the world. What Calvinists have entered into, especially your hardened Calvinists, is Satanic grace and baptism of the evil spirit, thus, bound for Hell.


In Calvinism parlance, you (James White, Mark Driscoll, Paul Washer, Piper, Sproul, etc.) are going to Hell. There is nothing you can do about it. But I am to deliver the gospel to you anyway and give you false hope according to Calvinism. How does that make you feel to be irresistibly selected for Hell and not given sufficient grace to even have the opportunity to be saved according to Calvinism?



Deception

Broadly speaking, a Christian who has not yet experienced the baptism in the Holy Spirit is rather vague about the reality of the spiritual realm. He is like the servant of Elisha whose eyes were closed to that sphere. He may receive instructions from the Bible, yet his understanding is confined to the mind because he still lacks revelation in his spirit. But upon experiencing the baptism his intuition becomes acutely sensitive and he discovers in his spirit a spiritual world opening before him. By the experience of the baptism in the Holy Spirit he not only touches the supernatural power of God but contacts God’s Person as well.

Now it is just there that spiritual warfare begins. This is the period when the power of darkness disguises himself as an angel of light and even attempts to counterfeit the Person and the work of the Holy Spirit. It is also the moment when the intuition is made aware of the existence of a spiritual domain and of the reality of Satan and his evil spirits. The Apostles were taught in the Scriptures by the Lord after Calvary; but they were made conscious of the real existence of a spiritual realm following Pentecost. Spirit-baptism marks the starting point of spiritual warfare.

Once a believer has contacted the Person of God via the baptism in the Holy Spirit, he then has his own spirit released. He now senses the reality of the things and beings in the spiritual domain. With such knowledge (and let us call to mind that the knowledge of a spiritual man does not accrue to him all at once; some of it may, and usually does, come through many trials), he encounters Satan. Only those who are spiritual perceive the reality of the spiritual foe and hence engage in battle (Eph. 6.12). Such warfare is not fought with arms of the flesh (2 Cor. 10.4). Because the conflict is spiritual so must the weapons. It is a struggle between the spirit of man and that of the enemy—an engagement of spirit with spirit.

Before he arrives at such a juncture in his spiritual walk, the child of God neither understands, nor can he engage in, the battle of the spirits. Only after his inner man has been strengthened by the Holy Spirit does he know how to wrestle with the adversary in his spirit. As he spiritually advances he begins to discover the reality of Satan and his kingdom and then it is that he is given to understand how to resist and attack the foe with his spirit.

The reasons for such conflict are many, with the enemy’s tactic of attack and blocking constituting the greatest. Satan frequently either unsettles the emotions of the physical bodies of spiritual believers, or he blocks the works of the spiritual ones, or he may disturb their environments. The need to fight for God forms still another reason for this warfare. As Satan plots in the air and works on earth against God, so His people fight back with spiritual power, destroying the enemy’s plots and plans through their prayers. Though at times saints do not know for sure what Satan’s scheme is nor what he is doing at the moment, they nevertheless continue to press the fight with no let up, for they understand who their antagonist is.

Beyond the above two explanations, spiritual combat has for its existence yet another cause: the need to be delivered from Satan’s deception and to deliver deceived souls. In spite of the fact that their spirit’s intuition becomes sharp and sensitive after they are baptized in the Holy Spirit, believers may nonetheless fall into deception. To preclude their plunging into the wiles of the adversary, they need not only spiritual sensitivity but also spiritual knowledge. Should they be ignorant of the manner in which the Holy Spirit leads, they may assume a passive position and thereby become captives of the enemy. The easiest error Christians can commit at this moment is to follow some irrational feeling or experience rather than the leading in their inner man. Once baptized in the Holy Spirit, they have entered the supernatural realm. Unless believers appreciate their own weakness, that is, know how incompetent they are in themselves to encounter the supernatural, they shall be deceived.

The Christian’s spirit can be influenced by either of two forces: the Holy Spirit or the evil spirit. He commits a fatal blunder who thinks his spirit can be controlled solely by the Holy Spirit and not be so by the evil spirit too. Let it be forever known that aside from the Spirit that is from God, there is additionally “the spirit of the world” (1 Cor. 2.12), which is in fact the spiritual foe of Ephesians 6.12. Except the Christian shuts up his spirit to resist, he may find the evil one usurping his spirit through deceit and counterfeit.

When a child of God becomes spiritual he is subject to the influence of the supernatural world. At this point it is vital for him to know the difference between “spiritual” and “supernatural,” the confusion of which forms the cause of many deceptions. Spiritual experiences are those which originate with the believer’s spirit, while those of the supernatural may not necessarily come from there. They may arise from physical senses or from the soulical sphere. A Christian ought never interpret a supernatural experience as always being a spiritual one. He should examine his experiences and determine whether they enter through the outer sensual organs or come via the inner spirit. Whatever emanates from outside, however supernatural it may be, is never spiritual.

The Lord’s saints should not receive everything supernatural unquestioningly, for Satan too can perform supernatural deeds. No matter how the feeling is during the moment of experience nor how the phenomenon appears or declares itself to be, believers should investigate its source. The charge of 1 john 4.1 must be strictly observed: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world.” The counterfeits of the adversary often exceed the believer’s expectation. If the Lord’s people will humble themselves by admitting that deception is quite possible to them, they will be the less deceived. Because of the counterfeits of the enemy, spiritual warfare looms inevitable. Unless with their spirits soldiers of Christ take to the field to meet the foe, they shall find him coming in to suppress their spiritual strength. In spiritual conflict the spirit of the Christian wars against the enemy evil spirit. Now should the Christian be deceived already, then he fights to regain his freedom. If not, then he strives to rescue others and to prevent the foe from attacking. He takes the positive stance of subjugating the enemy by opposing every one of Satan’s plans and works.

Such battles are fought in the strength of the spirit. It requires power there to wage war. A Christian must understand how to wrestle against the assailant with his spirit. Otherwise he cannot detect how the enemy will attack or discern how God will direct him to fight. But if he walks by the spirit he learns how to pray incessantly therein against the wicked powers. And with each battle his inner man waxes that much stronger. He comes to realize that by applying the law of the spirit he not only can overcome sin but also Satan.

From that part of the Scriptures in which the Apostle touches on spiritual warfare we can readily estimate how important strength is in such conflict. Before he mentions the problem of spiritual warfare (Eph. 6.11-18), Paul first exhorts his readers to “be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might” (v.10). Where should there be this strength of which he speaks? Paul tells us in Chapter 3: “strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man” (v.16). The inner man is man’s center, the spirit of man. And right there is where the powers of darkness attack the man. Now if the inner man is weak everything else becomes weak. A frail spirit produces fear in the heart which automatically weakens the believers stand in the day of evil. What he needs pre-eminently is a firm spirit. Except he understands the nature of the conflict a believer is not capable of resisting in his spirit against the principalities and the powers.

Many Christians find their spirit feathery and free when all is sweetness and light; but just let there be eruptive war, and their spirit becomes disturbed, fearful, and worried, until finally it is submerged. They do not know why they are defeated. Satan’s aim is victory, and to this end he attempts to remove believers from their ascension position by causing their spirit to sink so that he can ascend. Position is a primary factor in battle. When the saint’s spirit tumbles, he loses his heavenly position. Christians must consequently maintain a strong spirit and yield no ground to the enemy.

Upon realizing how his inner man is strengthened with might through God’s Holy Spirit, a spiritual child of God learns the absolute necessity of overcoming the enemy. His inner man grows sturdier as he attacks the foe with prayer and wrestling. In the same manner that the muscles of the wrestler develop in physical combat, just so the strength of the believer’s spirit increases as he battles the adversary. The latter mounts an assault in order to depress the believer’s inner man and thus to afflict his soul. If the child of God has come to appreciate the wiles of his assailant, he will not surrender at any point but will instead resist; and his emotional soul is thereby protected. Resistance in the inner man forces the enemy to go on the defensive.

Resistance is one of the indispensable elements in spiritual combat. The best defense is a continuous offense. Oppose with the will as well as with the strength in the spirit. Giving opposition means struggling free from the power of suppression. The opponent will be routed if one fights his way out by the spirit. But should one allow the enemy to attack and not resist in return, then that one’s spirit will surely be depressed, sink very low, and may require many days before it regains its ascendancy. The spirit that does not withstand the enemy is often a suppressed one.

How shall we resist? With the Word of God which is the Sword of the Holy Spirit. As a believer receives God’s Word it becomes “spirit and life” to him. Hence he can employ this as his weapon of resistance. A heavenly believer knows how to use the Word of God advantageously to break down the enemy’s lie. Even now a battle is raging in the world of the spirit. Though unobserved by the eyes of the flesh, it is sensed and proven by those who are seeking heavenly progress. Many who are deceived and bound by the enemy need to be released. Not only is there need for release from sin and selfrighteousness; many who are bound as well by supernatural experience need release also. Due to curiosity and the prospect of pleasant sensations, Christians gladly welcome these supernatural phenomena, not recognizing that these merely puff up their pride without producing any real or lasting result in terms of a holy and righteous life or spiritual work. When the evil spirits succeed in their deceptions they gain a footing in the believer. From this ground the enemy gradually enlarges his frontiers until finally he renders the believer as one who walks in the flesh.

Now obviously he who himself is bound cannot possibly set others free. Only when wholly freed experientially from the powers of darkness can the believer himself overcome the foe and rescue others. The incidence of the danger of deception increases in proportion to the number of those who experience the baptism in the Holy Spirit. The need today is for a company of overcoming saints who know how to wage war for the release of those under the enemy’s deception. The church of God shall be defeated if she lacks members who know how to walk by the spirit and how to fight therewith against the enemy. May God raise up such!

[Parture]

Since God provides sufficient grace to all of us then how can we be totally depraved? Therefore, total depravity is false, an idol you erect that keeps you eternally separated from God which says you can't repent, so you don't, and that is selfish. You want an easy-believism in a selfish salvation, accepting any old spirit that simulates God's saving grace as a facsimile of God's design. You worship a false Christ, because you are unwilling to repent and believe in Christ to be regenerated (new birth, initial salvation, born-again, receiving eternal life). That's why you are going to Hell which makes me very sad for you.

Let's talk about it. If you stop avoiding, you might actually be saved one day.


God doesn't provide sufficient grace for all of us (calvinsim does not teach that), only for the elect. Arminianism on the other hand, says Christ's blood was shed for all, wherein some of it will be wasted. Calvinism says not one drop will be spilled for He only died for those who will receive 'sufficient grace' as you have called it.
You can't divide up the blood of Christ to segment a portion for each person as you try to do in Calvinism. That's very legalistic. That's not how the blood works. The blood is for eternal forgiveness by an infinite God, so the blood is never wasted when God is perfectly righteous in His administering the blood to whoever is willing to receive it, sufficient for all the world. "And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2.2). "The whole world lieth in wickedness" (1 John 5.19). So "faith is spoken of throughout the whole world" (Rom. 1.8).

Grace is not sufficient if it is not sufficient for the whole world. Even if God did not provide ample grace to only person, then it would not be sufficient. In Calvinism it is not sufficient for all, only an irresistible elect. So the blood of the Christ of Calvinism pales in comparison to the blood of Jesus Christ. The blood of Jesus can save everyone if everyone was willing, but the blood of the Jesus of Calvinism cannot. And of course the blood of the true Jesus is sufficient for all: "Who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe" (1 Tim. 4:10). "If any man eat...my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world" (v. 51). "Not wishing that any should perish" (2 Pet. 3:9). You are "without excuse" (Rom 1.20). How can you be without excuse if grace is not provided to all? And doesn't "specially those that believe" indicate that as "Savior of all men" there are some men that don't believe even though they received sufficient grace?

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3.16). "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved" (John 3.17). "Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time" (1 Tim. 2.4-6). "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Pet. 3.9). "And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2.2).

In Calvinism nobody has the right to refuse the gift of salvation or to receive it.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yjve-Cw_pV4&feature=related

[Parture]

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).

God loved the world OR the world of believers? (The latter is an odd way of expression). God loved the world whosoever believeth OR God loved the world of just believers whosoever believeth? (How can just some of the believers believe? I thought all believers believe.)

"For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him MIGHT be saved" (John 3:17).

The world in verse 16 should be the same in verse 17. The "world" clearly in verse 16 is the whole world-everybody! So God sent His Son in the world for everyone that they MIGHT be saved "whosoever believeth."

All you need is John 3:16 and 3:17 to prove Calvinism is false. It all comes crumbling down. All works are dead in Calvinism. It is all for nought and bound for perdition.

May the Calvinist hear these solemn words and receive Jesus as her Lord and Savior! Amen.


"Teacher so loved the class that .... whosover has brown hair gets to leave early."
"Doctor so loved the city that .... whosoever has green eyes gets free medical checkups."
That's weird. Those without brown hair are sitting in the class not feeling loved. A doctor's gesture to the city is not a good comparison, for God is not merely making a gesture to the world. If the teacher really loved the class she would let everyone off because she can (in Calvinism) or when they submit the test then can leave early (OSAS Arminian).


If "world" means "every single individual", then why did God only give everlasting life to "believers"?
The world includes everything in the world which is every single individual. That would be weird if God loved the world but not the people of the world. God gave everlasting life to believers because we received His love. Love is never forced. Love does not imply forcing someone to do something. How is that love? You don't know the love of God.


"might" be saved?! You mean God isn't sure? You mean God's promises might fail?
You are not really accusing me but God because the Bible uses the word "might" in verse 17. "Might" is used because God can't be unrighteous. He is righteous in providing the means of salvation without forcing it on anyone. The whole world could be saved might they all accept Him. God knows what's going to happen, so when He uses the word "might" He is not contradicting Himself. He is saying the whole world could indeed be saved. Could doesn't take away from His infinite foreknowledge. Why do you accuse God of being a failure because a person refuses His love? That is not something Christians would do. God made no promise. Remember, He said "might" - a conditional election.

"For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved" (John 3:17 KJV).
"For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him" (RSV).
"For God has not sent his Son into the world that he may judge the world, but that the world may be saved through him" (Darby's).

"Should be", "might", "may" all express the fact that the world could be saved if everyone was willing. Some are willing, but as we know sadly most are not. God has done righteously all He can do.


Amazing.... Millions of Calvinists over the centuries, all owning Bibles and studying them intently, John 3:16 being one of the most well-known verses ever, and you think Calvinism topples down so very easily?
Yes, just as Atheism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Roman Catholicism, Islam, Eastern Orthodox, Wesleyan, Presbyterian. They all fall to the light of these two verses. "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil" (John 3:19).


What makes you think that Calvinists haven't already received Jesus as our Lord and Saviour? Do you believe that we (as well as you!) have to have "perfect" doctrine and understanding, in order to be saved?
No, all you need to be saved (that is, regenerated) is to repent and believe in Jesus Christ who He is, not who He is not. Very simply, He is the fulness of the Godhead bodily (2nd Person in the Trinity). He died on the cross for the sins of the whole world and was raised the third day. Though you may claim Jesus is deity and that He was raised the third day, you do not believe He died for the sins of the whole world, and that is why you are going to Hell as the Bible says: "He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God" (v.18). The name of Jesus should not be misrepresented as your false Christ. This is simple so anyone could understand to be saved by grace through faith.

[Parture]

Re: http://www.youtube.com/user/herald1509


"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3.16).

Jesus died to give believers everlasting life. I agree.
What are you worshiping though? God "so loved the world" He gave His Son not to just part of the world but "the world" - all of it and everything in it! So "the whosoever believeth" refers to those who receive this grace that was sufficient for all though many refuse God's love.


"For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved" (John 3.17).

The world will be saved through the remnant that will be saved.

The regeneration of the world (Matt. 19.28) and personal regeneration (Tit. 3.5) are both included in verse 17, and since God did not send His Son to "condemn the world" (e.g. preterition) His desire is not for a remnant, but that all "might be saved" not just some.


"Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time" (1 Tim. 2.4-6).

God can desire salvation for all nations, and even all individuals, although He certainly isn't doing all in His power to accomplish this. He must want something more than universal salvation, otherwise He would do more, to save more people. His desire to save every individual, if it exists, cannot be His greatest desire.

You are presupposing God can go beyond the boundary of righteousness to save someone, but since God is righteous, He can't bring someone to salvation unrighteously. So when God would "have all men be saved" He supplies sufficient grace to all in "the world" to give man the enabling choice. By so doing, nobody is Totally depraved (destroying T in TULIP), for everyone could freely obtain the gift of repentance and faith to be regenerated. That the god of Calvinism doesn't save everyone is a big problem because it is wrong to send someone to Hell providing them no opportunity to salvation when they were born that way. If such behavior is evil for humans and God's morals are higher than ours, then how can God hold to a lesser standard than us?


"The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Pet. 3.9).

The word "any" refers to the "us-ward", and Peter's audience is the Church here, not the world.

Our nearest reference to "longsuffering to us-ward" and "not willing any should perish" is in verse 7 which reads, "ungodly people will perish" (NLT). So God is long-suffering (providing sufficient grace) "not willing that any perish." Since Christians can't perish because the Bible says "they shall never perish" (John 10.28), then God is being long-suffering for "the world" and for the Church's sake to come to maturity as well. There is no reason to make this just about the Church and not the salvation by the gospel for souls. The audience is the Church, but is not Peter allowed to speak about delivering the gospel through the Church to the world? Don't make this a mutually exclusive affair. Let the Word of God breathe. We will recall that God wishes no one to "perish but that all should reach repentance" because He "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (2 Peter 3.9; 1 Tim. 2.4). You'll find in Scripture when something can go either way, it does go either way. For example, if you see verses for rapture near the end of the Tribulation and verses for rapture before the Tribulation, then it stands to reason instead of holding to the whole Church being raptured before the Tribulation or the end, that first rapture is according to readiness.


"And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2.2).

Jesus is the propitiation for the sins of the world in the sense that He is the only one through whom anyone in the the world can have sins forgiven. Not everyone is forgiven of their sins; only believers are forgiven.

There the emphasis is on for us and contrasting to the world. He not only died for us—for His sheep (John 10.15), He also died for the Church (Eph. 5.25), even for all (2 Cor. 5.14)—that is to say, for the whole world (1 John 2.2). Unfortunately the world does not believe in Him, so it forfeits salvation. "...for the sins of the whole world" is not merely saying "He is the only one through whom anyone in the world can have sins forgiven," but for the "sins of the whole world" literally which involves everybody. There is no person who ever lived the blood of Christ can't cover.

"He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world" (1 John 2.2). Christ is the propitiation for the unbelievers as well as for the believers. But again the meaning here is not substitution, but provision. The salvation of God has already been prepared. When you receive it you then will be reckoned by God as being one among the "many". Christ died on behalf of all men, since His death has made provision for all men; but it cannot be taken to mean a substitution in death for all men or some men. If anyone does not believe, he will perish. This is man’s responsibility before God.

[Parture]

herald1509,

It looks like you blocked me on your YouTube, shutting your mind down, so here is my response here instead.


That's Satan working through you accusing of whatever. Notice very precisely these facts: 1) you avoided the data (didn't deal with it); 2) you're still not born-again, because you refuse to repent and believe in Christ to be regenerated; therefore, 3) you're a false Christian, and 5) you're going to Hell. You're a bad guy.

It all stems from wanting a selfish salvation by worshiping a false god who doesn't provide sufficient grace to all, so that is why you Institute Total depravity which says you can't repent, so you don't. It's an idol that allows you to cop-out and not take responsibility as God would have you. So you accept any old spirit that comes over you for regeneration by merely assuming it without any prior repentance and faith in Christ. God never irresistibly imposes Himself on anyone like that. What love would that be? A gift forced on someone is no gift at all.

God wants a real relationship, not one with someone who pompously is unwilling and falls into a simulation of saving grace and facsimile of God's design. Just realize that the god your promote is one which has lower morals than man does, for if a person was in need we would help that person, but your god doesn't; nor would you likely making God in your own image. Your god is really Satan whether you realize it or not. How sad for you that this is the way you want to be. It's your choice: but you are without excuse! I have told you the truth. You don't need psychologizing and counseling. What you need is to give your life to Christ and stop worshiping a false Christ. It's as simple as that.

Praise the Lord for this discernment! My prayers go out to you.

[Churchwork]

The Sins of Baptists and Calvinists


The calvinists and the baptists are part of the Sardis Revivals in the 15-18th centuries, but this is like emptying a glass of water then fill it up again but with less water each time. This is the characteristic of these so-called revivals.


The calvinists like to call themselves Reformed, but they are not Reformed. They are unreformed! All 5 points of calvinism are false. Man is not totally deprave, since if that were true, he could not choose the cross but would need to be premade like a robot to be saved first before he could believe. Naturally then the 4 other points of calvinism fall apart.


Man is not unconditionally elected as that robot, nor is he under a limited atonement just for robots. Nor is grace irresisted by those robots. So there is not perseverance of robots preprogrammed for salvation.


Baptists are usually 3 point calvinist, 2 point osas arminian. They hold the false teaching of total depravity and the false teaching of unconditional election (imputed righteousness rather than imparted righteousness). But those two ideas contradict resistible grace, unlimited atonement and preservation of the saints (eternal life at new birth in God's predestinating by His infinite foreknowledge our free-choice).


Luther had this same confusion as do Baptists and was notoriously confused. Luther began as a limited atonement guy, but then changed to unlimited atonement. Many say Constantine was calvinist, but some of his writings point him to being osas arminian. John Wesley was non-osas arminian which is wrong. Whitefield was calvinist which is wrong. Arminius himself seemed to be right, for he was osas arminian. That is, he believed God predestinates by foreknowing (Rom. 8.29) our free-choice (John 3.16): a conditional election, unlimited atonement, resistible grace, for preservation of the saints. Arminius is noted as saying that he believed in OSAS, except that it only seemed like some verses point to non-OSAS, not that he believed in non-OSAS. What he failed to realize was that those verses actually pertain to loss of rewards in the millennial kingdom.


Baptists are also wrong because they legalize baptism, demanding physical water. But Paul allowed for baptism with or without water in burial and resurrection with Christ to come out of the world.


The conscience of Baptist is seared by puffing up self over physical water. And Baptists and Calvinists have a conscience seared by the pride of thinking they were premade for salvation to be saved first before they could believe to come out of total depravity. They puff themselves up with this special teaching.

[Churchwork]

The Fall of Man (http://www3.telus.net/trbrooks/SMCFP.htm)

THE MAN GOD FASHIONED was notably different from all other created beings. Man possessed a spirit similar to that of the angels and at the same time had a soul resembling that of the lower animals. When God created man He gave him a perfect freedom. He did not make man an automaton, controlled automatically by His will. This is evident in Genesis 2 at the time God instructed the original man what fruit he could eat and what not. The man God created was not a machine run by God; instead he had perfect freedom of choice. If he chose to obey God, he could; if he decided to rebel against God, he could do that too. Man had in his possession a sovereignty by which he could exercise his volition in choosing to obey or to disobey. This is a most important point, for we must realize that in our spiritual life God never deprives us our freedom. Unless we actively cooperate, God will not undertake anything for us. Neither God nor the devil can do any work without first obtaining our consent, for man’s will is free.

Man’s spirit was originally the highest part of his entire being to which soul and body were to be subject. Under normal conditions the spirit is like a mistress, the soul like a steward, and the body like a servant. The mistress commits matters to the steward who in turn commands the servant to carry them out. The mistress gives orders privately to the steward; the steward in turn transmits them openly to the servant. The steward appears to be the lord of all, but in actuality the lord over all is the mistress. Unfortunately man has fallen; he has been defeated and has sinned; consequently, the proper order of spirit, soul and body has been confused.

God bestowed upon man a sovereign power and accorded numerous gifts to a human soul. Thought and will or intellect and intention are among the prominent portions. The original purpose of God is that the human soul should receive and assimilate the truth and substance of God’s spiritual life. He gave gifts to men in order that man might take God’s knowledge and will as his own. If man’s spirit and soul would maintain their created perfection, healthiness and liveliness, his body would then be able to continue forever without change. If he would exercise his will by taking and eating the fruit of life, God’s Own life undoubtedly would enter his spirit, permeate his soul, transform his entire inner man, and translate his body into incorruptibility. He then would literally be in possession of “eternal life.” In that event his soulical life would be filled completely with spiritual life, and his whole being would be transformed into that which is spiritual. Conversely, if the order of spirit and soul would be reversed, then man would plunge into darkness and the human body could not last long but would soon be corrupted.

We know how man’s soul chose the tree of the knowledge of good and evil rather than the tree of life. Yet is it not clear that God’s will for Adam was to eat the fruit of the tree of life? Because before He forbade Adam to eat the fruit of the tree of good and evil and warned him that in the day he ate he should die (Gen. 2.17), He first commanded man to eat freely of every tree of the garden and purposely mentioned the tree of life in the midst of the garden. Who can say that this is not so?

“The fruit of the knowledge of good and evil” uplifts the human soul and suppresses the spirit. God does not forbid man to eat of this fruit merely to test man. He forbids it because He knows that by eating this fruit man’s soul life will be so stimulated that his spirit life will be stifled. This means man will lose the true knowledge of God and thus be dead to Him. God’s forbiddance shows God’s love. The knowledge of good and evil in this world is itself evil. Such knowledge springs from the intellect of man’s soul. It puffs up the soul life and consequently deflates the spirit life to the point of losing any knowledge of God, to the point of becoming as much as dead.

A great number of God’s servants view this tree of life as God offering life to the world in His Son the Lord Jesus. This is eternal life, God’s nature, His uncreated life. Hence, we have here two trees—one germinates spiritual life while the other develops soulish life. Man in his original state is neither sinful nor holy and righteous. He stands between the two. Either he can accept God’s life, thus becoming a spiritual man and a partaker of divine nature; or he can inflate his created life into becoming soulish, consequently inflicting death on his spirit. God imparted a perfect balance to the three parts of man. Whenever one part is over-developed the others are afflicted.

Our spiritual walk will be greatly helped if we understand the origin of soul and its life principle. Our spirit comes directly from God for it is God-given (Num. 16.22). Our soul is not so directly derived; it was produced after the spirit entered the body. It is therefore characteristically related to the created being. It is the created life, the natural life. The soul’s usefulness is indeed extensive if it maintains its proper place as a steward, permitting the spirit to be mistress. Man can then receive God’s life and be related to God in life. If, however, this soulical realm becomes inflated the spirit is accordingly suppressed. All man’s doings will be confined to the natural realm of the created, unable to be united to God’s supernatural and uncreated life. The original man succumbed to death in that he ate of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, thereby abnormally developing his soulical life.

Satan tempted Eve with a question. He knew his query would arouse the woman’s thought. If she were completely under the spirit’s control she would reject such questioning. By trying to answer she exercised her mind in disobedience to the spirit. Doubtless Satan’s question was full of errors, for his prime motive was merely to incite Eve’s mental exertion. He would have expected Eve to correct him, but alas, Eve dared to change God’s Word in her conversation with Satan. The enemy accordingly was emboldened to tempt her to eat by suggesting to her that, in eating, her eyes would be opened and she would be like God—knowing good and evil. “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate” (Gen. 3.6). That was how Eve viewed the matter. Satan provoked her soulical thought first and then advanced to seize her will. The result: she fell into sin.

Satan always uses physical need as the first target for attack. He simply mentioned eating fruit to Eve, an entirely physical matter. Next he proceeded to entice her soul, intimating that by indulging, her eyes would be opened to know good and evil. Although such searching for knowledge was perfectly legitimate, the consequence nonetheless led her spirit into open rebellion against God because she misconstrued God’s forbiddance as arising from an evil intention. Satan’s temptation reaches initially to the body, then to the soul and lastly to the spirit.
After being tempted Eve gave her verdict. To begin with, “the tree was good for food.” This is the “lust of the flesh.” Eve’s flesh was the first to be stirred up. Second, “it was a delight to the eyes.” This is “the lust of the eyes.” Both the body and her soul were now enticed. Third, “the tree was to be desired to make one wise.” This is “the pride of life.” Such desire revealed the wavering of her emotion and will. Her soul was now agitated beyond control. It no longer stood by as a spectator but had been goaded into desiring the fruit. How dangerous a master human emotion is!

Why should Eve desire the fruit? It was not merely the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes, but also curiosity’s urge for wisdom. In the pursuit of wisdom and knowledge, even of so-called “spiritual knowledge,” activities of the soul often can be detected. When one tries to increase his knowledge by doing mental gymnastics over books without waiting upon God and looking to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, his soul is plainly in full swing. This will deplete his spiritual life. Because the fall of man was occasioned by seeking knowledge, God uses the foolishness of the cross to “destroy the wisdom of the wise.” Intellect was the chief cause of the fall; hence, in order to be saved one must believe in the folly of the Word of the cross rather than depend upon his intellect. The tree of knowledge causes man to fall, so God employs the tree of folly (1 Peter 2.24) to save souls. “If any one among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God” (1 Cor. 3.18-20; also see 1.18-25).

Having carefully reviewed the account of the fall of man, we are able to see that in rebelling against God, Adam and Eve developed their souls to the extent of displacing their spirits and plunging themselves into darkness. The prominent parts of the soul are man’s mind, will and emotion. Will is the organ of decision, therefore the master of the man. Mind is the organ of thought, while emotion is that of affection. The Apostle Paul tells us “Adam was not deceived,” indicating that Adam’s mind was not muddled on that fatal day. The one who was feeble-minded was Eve: “the woman was deceived and became a transgressor” (1 Tim. 2.14). According to the record of Genesis it is written that “the woman said, ‘The serpent beguiled me and I ate’” (Gen. 3.13); but that “the man said, “The woman gave (not beguiled) me fruit of the tree and I ate’” (Gen. 3.12). Adam obviously was not deceived; his mind was clear and he knew the fruit was from the forbidden tree. He ate because of his affection for the woman. Adam understood that what the serpent said was nothing more than the enemy’s deception. From the words of the Apostle we are led to see that Adam sinned deliberately. He loved Eve more than himself. He made her his idol, and for her sake he was willing to rebel against the commandment of his Creator. How pitiful that his mind was overruled by his emotion; his reasoning, overcome by his affection. Why is it that men “did not believe the truth?” Because they “had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thess. 2.12). It is not that the truth is unreasonable but that it is not loved. Hence when one truly turns to the Lord he “believes with his heart (not mind) and so is justified” (Rom 10.10).

Satan moved Adam to sin by seizing the latter’s will through his emotion, while he tempted Eve to sin by grasping her will through the channel of a darkened mind. When man’s will and mind and emotion were poisoned by the serpent and man followed after Satan instead of God, his spirit, which was capable of communing with God, suffered a fatal blow. Here we can see the law which governs the work of Satan. He uses the things of the flesh (eating fruit) to entice man’s soul into sin; as soon as the soul sins, the spirit descends into utter darkness. The order of his working is always such: from the outside to the inside. If he does not start with the body, then he begins by working on the mind or the emotion in order to get to the will of man. The moment man’s will yields to Satan he possesses man’s whole being and puts the spirit to death. But not so the work of God; His is always from the inside to the outside. God begins working in man’s spirit and continues by illuminating his mind, stirring his emotion, and causing him to exercise his will over his body for carrying into execution the will of God. All satanic works are performed from the outside inward; all divine works, from the inside outward. We may in this way distinguish what comes from God and what from Satan. All this additionally teaches us that once Satan seizes man’s will, then is he in control over that man.

We should carefully note that the soul is where man expresses his free will and exerts his own mastery. The Bible therefore often records that it is the soul which sins. For example, Micah 6.7 says, “the sin of my soul.” Ezekiel 18.4,20 reads, “the soul that sins.” And in the books of Leviticus and Numbers mention frequently is made that the soul sins. Why? Because it is the soul which chooses to sin. Our description of sin is: “The will acquiesces in the temptation.” Sinning is a matter of the soul’s will; atonement accordingly must be for the soul. “Ye give the heave-offering of Jehovah to make atonement for your souls” (Ex. 30.15 Darby). “For the soul of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that maketh atonement for the soul” (Lev. 17.11 Darby). “To make atonement for our souls before Jehovah” (Num. 31.50 Darby). Since it is the soul which sins, it follows that the soul needs to be atoned. And it can only be atoned, moreover, by a soul:

it pleased Jehovah to bruise him; he bath subjected him to suffering . . . thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin . . . He shall see of the fruit of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied . . . he bath poured out his soul unto death . . . ; and he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. (Is. 53.10-12 Darby)

In examining the nature of Adam’s sin we discover that aside from rebellion there is also a certain kind of independence. We must not lose sight here of free will. On the one hand, the tree of life implies a sense of dependence. Man at that time did not possess God’s nature, but had he partaken of the fruit of the tree of life he could have secured God’s life; man could have reached his summit—possessing the very life of God. This is dependence. On the other hand, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil suggests independence because man strived by the exercise of his will for the knowledge not promised, for something not accorded him by God. His rebellion declared his independence. By rebelling he did not need to depend upon God. Furthermore, his seeking the knowledge of good and evil also showed his independence, for he was not satisfied with what God had bestowed already. The difference between the spiritual and the soulish is crystal clear. The spiritual depends utterly upon God, fully satisfied with what God has given; the soulish steers clear of God and covets what God has not conferred, especially “knowledge.” Independence is a special mark of the soulish. That thing—no matter how good, even worshiping God—is unquestionably of the soul if it does not require complete trust in God and instead calls for reliance upon one’s own strength. The tree of life cannot grow within us together with the tree of knowledge. Rebellion and independence explain every sin committed by both sinners and saints.

Spirit, Soul and Body after the Fall

Adam lived by the breath of life becoming spirit in him. By the spirit he sensed God, knew God’s voice, and communed with God. He had a very keen awareness of God. But after his fall his spirit died.

When God spoke to Adam at the first He said, “in the day that you eat of it (the fruit of the tree of good and evil) you shall die” (Gen. 2.17). Adam and Eve nevertheless continued on for hundreds of years after eating the forbidden fruit. This obviously indicates that the death God foretold was not physical. Adam’s death began in his spirit.

What really is death? According to its scientific definition, death is “the cessation of communication with environment.” Death of the spirit is the cessation of its communication with God. Death of the body is the cutting off of communication between spirit and body. So when we say the spirit is dead it does not imply there is no more spirit; we simply mean the spirit has lost its sensitivity towards God and thus is dead to Him. The exact situation is that the spirit is incapacitated, unable to commune with God. To illustrate. A dumb person has a mouth and lungs but something is wrong with his vocal cords and he is powerless to speak. So far as human language is concerned his mouth may be considered dead. Similarly Adam’s spirit died because of his disobedience to God. He still had his spirit, yet it was dead to God for it had lost its spiritual instinct. It is still so; sin has destroyed the spirit’s keen intuitive knowledge of God and rendered man spiritually dead. He may be religious, moral, learned, capable, strong and wise, but he is dead to God. He may even talk about God, reason about God and preach God, but he is still dead to Him. Man is not able to hear or to sense the voice of God’s Spirit. Consequently in the New Testament God often refers to those who are living in the flesh as dead.

The death which began in our forefather’s spirit gradually spread until it reached his body. Though he lived on for many years after his spirit was dead, death nevertheless worked incessantly in him until his spirit, soul and body were all dead. His body, which could have been transformed and glorified, was instead returned to dust. Because his inward man had fallen into chaos, his outward body must die and be destroyed.

Henceforth Adam’s spirit (as well as the spirit of all his descendants) fell under the oppression of the soul until it gradually merged with the soul and the two parts became closely united. The writer of Hebrews declares in 4.12 that the Word of God shall pierce and divide soul and spirit. The dividing is necessary because spirit and soul have become one. While they are intimately knit they plunge man into a psychic world. Everything is done according to the dictates of intellect or feeling. The spirit has lost its power and sensation, as though dead asleep. What instinct it has in knowing and serving God is entirely paralyzed. It remains in a coma as if non-existent. This is what is meant in Jude 19 by “natural, not having spirit” (literal).* This certainly does not mean the human spirit ceases to exist, for Numbers 16.22 distinctly states that God is “the God of the spirits of all flesh.” Every human being still has in his possession a spirit, although it is darkened by sin and impotent to hold communion with God.

*The spirit here does not point to the Holy Spirit but to the human spirit, for it is preceded by the word “natural,” which literally is, “soulish.” As “soulish” pertains to man, so “spirit” also pertains to man.

However dead this spirit may be towards God it may remain as active as the mind or the body. It is accounted dead to God but is still very active in other respects. Sometimes the spirit of a fallen man can even be stronger than his soul or body and gain dominion over the whole being. Such persons are “spiritual” just as most people are largely soulical or physical, because their spirits are much bigger than that of ordinary individuals. These are the sorceresses and the witches. They indeed maintain contacts with the spiritual realm; but these do so through the evil spirit, not by the Holy Spirit. The spirit of the fallen man thus is allied with Satan and his evil spirits. It is dead to God yet very much alive to Satan and follows the evil spirit which is now at work in him.

In yielding to the demand of its passions and lusts the soul has become a slave to the body so that the Holy Spirit finds it useless to strive for God’s place in such a one. Hence the Scripture declares, “My Spirit shall not always plead with Man; for he indeed is flesh” (Gen. 6.3 Darby). The Bible refers to the flesh as the composite of the unregenerated soul and the physical life, though more often than not it points to sin which is in the body. Once man is completely under the dominion of the flesh he has no possibility of liberating himself. Soul has replaced the spirit’s authority. Everything is done independently and according to the dictates of his mind. Even in religious matters, in the hottest pursuit of God, all is carried on by the strength and will of man’s soul, void of the Holy Spirit’s revelation. The soul is not merely independent of the spirit; it is additionally under the body’s control. It is now asked to obey, to execute and to fulfill the lusts, passions and demands of the body. Every son of Adam is therefore not only dead in his spirit but he is also “from the earth, a man of dust” (1 Cor. 15.47). Fallen men are governed completely by the flesh, walking in response to the desires of their soulish life and physical passions. Such ones are unable to commune with God. Sometimes they display their intellect, at others times their passion, but more often both their intellect and passion. Unimpeded, the flesh is in firm control over the total man.

This is what is unfolded in Jude 18 and 19—“mockers, walking after their own lusts of ungodlinesses. These are they who set themselves apart, natural men, not having spirit” (Darby). Being soulish is antagonistic to being spiritual. The spirit, that noblest part of us, the part which may be united to God and ought to regulate the soul and body, is now under the dominion of the soul, that part of us which is earthly in both its motive and aim. The spirit has been stripped of its original position. Man’s present condition is abnormal. Wherefore he is pictured as not having spirit. The result of being soulish is that he becomes a mocker, pursuing ungodly passions and creating divisions.

1 Corinthians 2.14 speaks of such unregenerated persons in this fashion: “The natural (soulish) man does not receive the gifts of the spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” Such men as are under the control of their souls with their spirits suppressed are in direct contrast to spiritual people. They may be exceedingly intelligent, able to present masterful ideas or theories, yet they do not consent to the things of the Spirit of God. They are unfit to receive revelation from the Holy Spirit. Such revelation is vastly different from human ideas. Man may think human intellect and reasoning are almighty, that the brain is able to comprehend all truths of the world; but the verdict of God’s Word is, “vanity of vanities.”

While man is in his soulish state he frequently senses the insecurity of this age and so he too seeks the eternal life of the coming age. But even if he does, he is still powerless to uncover the Word of life by his much thinking and theorizing. How untrustworthy are human reasonings! We often observe how very clever persons clash in their different opinions. Theories easily lead man into error. They are castles in the air, tumbling him into eternal darkness.

How true it is that without the guidance of the Holy Spirit intellect not only is undependable but also extremely dangerous, because it often confuses the issue of right and wrong. A slight carelessness may cause not merely temporary loss but even everlasting harm. The darkened mind of man frequently leads him to eternal death. If only unregenerated souls could see this, how good it would be!

While man is fleshly he may be controlled by more than just the soul; he may be under the direction of the body as well; for soul and body are closely entwined. Because the body of sin is abounding in desires and passions, man may commit the most hideous of sins. As the body is formed of the dust, so its natural tendency is towards the earth. The introduction of the serpent’s poison into man’s body turns all its legitimate desires into lusts. Having once yielded to the body in disobeying God, the soul finds itself bound to yield every time. The base desires of the body may therefore often be expressed through the soul. The power of the body becomes so overwhelming that the soul cannot but become the obedient slave.
God’s thought is for the spirit to have the pre-eminence, ruling our soul. But once man turns fleshly his spirit sinks into servitude to the soul. Further degradation follows when man becomes “bodily” (of the body), for the basest body rises to be sovereign. Man has then descended from “spirit-control” to “soul-control,” and from “soul-control” to “body-control.” Deeper and deeper he sinks. How pitiful it must be when the flesh gains dominion.

Sin has slain the spirit: spiritual death hence becomes the portion of all, for all are dead in sins and trespasses. Sin has rendered the soul independent: the soulish life is therefore but a selfish and self-willed one. Sin has finally empowered the body: sinful nature accordingly reigns through the body.