Scriptur
12-26-2009, 09:27 AM
"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). Only those who have "received him...[and] believe on his name" become the sons of God (John 1.12-13). Jesus is offering Himself in John 6 not to an elect but to the entire unbelieving multitude, showing the gospel is for all. Pleading with you Jesus says, "My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.... I am the bread of life" (vv. 32,35). The offer is to everyone, but the partaking is willingly from the heart. God pleading with Israel and mankind to repent are nonsensical if there are those from whom He withholds the grace to repent and the faith to believe.
A Calvinist should be very leery the bolt of lightening he received (irresistibly) that caused him to worship without any prior repentance and faith, actually had "beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven" (Luke 10.18). There is no purpose in trying to believe, because in Calvinism a person is unable and would only lead him to the delusion of thinking he is saved through the flesh which turns people off of Christ by misrepresenting Him. Instead, he just accepts any old flashing light as though from God on High as "Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light" (2 Cor. 11.14).
Why do some Calvinist like James White say, "May God grant us grace to hear and obey His Word" (p. 132, Debating Calvinism)? How can He grant grace to those He has from eternity predestined to eternal torment? Why pray for that since it will do no good? Why pray to God to grant us when his god has already decided? His praying will not alter the reprobate that received preterition and those who are to be irresistibly selected. Why be a doubletalker, putting on a mocking charade,unless you don't have a conscience to see your doublespeak? And why preach the gospel, giving a false hope? If this is evil for us to behave this way, to dangle a thread in front of someone but never allowing them to reach it, then why not the god of Calvinism?
Think how evil it is to worship a god whose heart is "according to God's good pleasure...the just punishment of the wicked" (p. 138, James White). How could it give God pleasure to have to damn people to Hell? This makes us sad, why not God?
What is the point of, "Choose you this day whom ye will serve" (Joshua 24.15) if you could not receive God's sufficient grace for all? If Christ imposes faith upon the elect without their choosing, why does He say to the woman, "Great is thy faith" (Matt. 15.28), or to the centurion, "I have not found so great faith" (Luke 7.9), or to two blind men, "According to your faith be it unto you" (Matt. 9.29)? What is the purpose of judgment, either for the saved or the damned, if everything is God's doing? How much clearer must God be to convince the Calvinist to receive Christ? To be able to accept salvation by faith or reject it no more gives any credit to the believer than accepting a gift of a million dollars gives to the recipient credit for earning the money. Never think because a person refuses the drawing of God when they "draw back unto perdition" (Heb. 10.39) that God is a failure. He does all He can do righteously, and if the person still refuses, that is their choice.
Charles Spurgeon had a similar doubletongue we found with James White, for Charlie said, "While Christ does not drag people to himself by the hair of their heads, I believe [an opinion] that he draws them by the heart as caricature would suggest" (Charles H. Spurgeon, "Human Ability," sermon preached 7 March 1858). Which is it? Does God drag by the hair or doesn't He?
Spurgeon continues, "The gist of the matter lies in the turning of the will. How that is done no flesh knoweth; it is one of those mysteries perceived [opinion] as fact...the cause of which no tongue can tell, and no heart can guess" (same sermon). Herein lies Spurgeon's assumption-the assumed regeneration that was irresistibly imposed-then assuming again, we can't know other than that. Actually we do know in principle God provides sufficient grace to all, passing over no one and irresistibly regenerating nobody, for as Spurgeon said, God doesn't drag anyone by the hair of their heads; "not wishing that any should perish" (2 Pet. 3.9). I'm aware some might try to say this only applies to the elect, but the unassuming position should be to both the elect and non-elect. That God would want a person to perish, and from birth given no grace whatsoever to have the opportunity to be saved, makes the god of Calvinism an evil tyrant and sadistic. What love is this?
A Calvinist should be very leery the bolt of lightening he received (irresistibly) that caused him to worship without any prior repentance and faith, actually had "beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven" (Luke 10.18). There is no purpose in trying to believe, because in Calvinism a person is unable and would only lead him to the delusion of thinking he is saved through the flesh which turns people off of Christ by misrepresenting Him. Instead, he just accepts any old flashing light as though from God on High as "Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light" (2 Cor. 11.14).
Why do some Calvinist like James White say, "May God grant us grace to hear and obey His Word" (p. 132, Debating Calvinism)? How can He grant grace to those He has from eternity predestined to eternal torment? Why pray for that since it will do no good? Why pray to God to grant us when his god has already decided? His praying will not alter the reprobate that received preterition and those who are to be irresistibly selected. Why be a doubletalker, putting on a mocking charade,unless you don't have a conscience to see your doublespeak? And why preach the gospel, giving a false hope? If this is evil for us to behave this way, to dangle a thread in front of someone but never allowing them to reach it, then why not the god of Calvinism?
Think how evil it is to worship a god whose heart is "according to God's good pleasure...the just punishment of the wicked" (p. 138, James White). How could it give God pleasure to have to damn people to Hell? This makes us sad, why not God?
What is the point of, "Choose you this day whom ye will serve" (Joshua 24.15) if you could not receive God's sufficient grace for all? If Christ imposes faith upon the elect without their choosing, why does He say to the woman, "Great is thy faith" (Matt. 15.28), or to the centurion, "I have not found so great faith" (Luke 7.9), or to two blind men, "According to your faith be it unto you" (Matt. 9.29)? What is the purpose of judgment, either for the saved or the damned, if everything is God's doing? How much clearer must God be to convince the Calvinist to receive Christ? To be able to accept salvation by faith or reject it no more gives any credit to the believer than accepting a gift of a million dollars gives to the recipient credit for earning the money. Never think because a person refuses the drawing of God when they "draw back unto perdition" (Heb. 10.39) that God is a failure. He does all He can do righteously, and if the person still refuses, that is their choice.
Charles Spurgeon had a similar doubletongue we found with James White, for Charlie said, "While Christ does not drag people to himself by the hair of their heads, I believe [an opinion] that he draws them by the heart as caricature would suggest" (Charles H. Spurgeon, "Human Ability," sermon preached 7 March 1858). Which is it? Does God drag by the hair or doesn't He?
Spurgeon continues, "The gist of the matter lies in the turning of the will. How that is done no flesh knoweth; it is one of those mysteries perceived [opinion] as fact...the cause of which no tongue can tell, and no heart can guess" (same sermon). Herein lies Spurgeon's assumption-the assumed regeneration that was irresistibly imposed-then assuming again, we can't know other than that. Actually we do know in principle God provides sufficient grace to all, passing over no one and irresistibly regenerating nobody, for as Spurgeon said, God doesn't drag anyone by the hair of their heads; "not wishing that any should perish" (2 Pet. 3.9). I'm aware some might try to say this only applies to the elect, but the unassuming position should be to both the elect and non-elect. That God would want a person to perish, and from birth given no grace whatsoever to have the opportunity to be saved, makes the god of Calvinism an evil tyrant and sadistic. What love is this?