So tell all your friends the depressing news that is Calvinism. Theology is cool. John C. Harmon K. Big Al is a Prophet of the Most High. See the light at www. Menu The Lantern. And He does this prior to our faith.
His grace is then called irresistible, not because we believe against our will kicking and screaming, but our hearts are inclined to believe, so we love to believe and we go to Christ willingly.
The Scriptures show us this in Psalms ; ; Jer. They will sin, yes. But they will never fall away from grace. This does not give us a license to sin, for those who are truly changed are changed and have a new desire and new nature which releases them from the that the old depraved nature had on them. These saints persevere because God continually upholds them through the grace of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. This, in and of itself, is an amazing thing!!
And does the Scripture show us this doctrine? More than we could imagine: Phil. What doctrines am I rejecting as a Calvinist? I reject anything which exalts man to a place and position where he ought not to be, and decreases the grace of Christ. I reject anything which makes God a cosmic bell-hop tending to the commands and demands of sinful men as another gospel.
I reject anything which denies the sovereign decrees of God and His electing grace to put salvation into the hands of sinful men as another gospel.
I reject anything which places the perseverance of man to glory in the incapable hands of a sinful man as another gospel. I reject anything which endeavors to treat God as the great Grandfather in the sky beckoning and pleading with man to be saved as changing the true God into a pitiable wimp.
This is another Gospel. I reject anything which denies the atonement of Christ for what it is; a substitutionary atonement on behalf of the elect. If we deny this, we deny the Gospel.
I reject anything which makes the cross less than definite salvation for the elect, as another Gospel. It is to these Calvinistic doctrines and teachings which all Biblical Christians hold.
It is these Calvinistic doctrines of grace which wild horses could in no way drag from me. And what does Paul say about those who preach, teach, and believe another Gospel? We see that the Gospel is something to contend about, and is something we need to be right about.
When I was 21, I had a form of godliness but I denied its power. I had a system of doctrine which denied Jesus as the only Sovereign and Lord. Yet, God in His mercy forgave that heinous sin of wrong belief.
He allowed the scales to fall from my eyes. It is absolutely true what Spurgeon said, that Calvinism is nothing other than a nickname for Biblical Christianity. And until a person understands these doctrines, his walk with God will be a superficial walk. Why am I a Calvinist? Because God will not allow me to be anything else.
He has opened my eyes to depth beyond my wildest aspirations. He continues to humble me, the rebellious sinner, before His awesome majesty and power. Such as what? Like Walls, I find this denial difficult to swallow. A god who can save all but chooses not to is not the God whom the Bible reveals, a God who is love 1 John But that argument, even in outline form here, is difficult to rebut, as far as I am concerned. Book Reviewed: Jerry L. Walls, Does God Love Everyone? George P Wood on September 13, georgepwood.
Subscribe to Newsletter. E-mail address. Walls writes: The deepest issue that divides Arminians and Calvinists is not the sovereignty of God, predestination, or the authority of the Bible. A god who can save all but chooses not to is not the God whom the Bible reveals. Looking back, I would have called us four or four-and-a-half point Calvinists, the doctrine of limited atonement being the only questionable plank in the venerable TULIP acronym.
If anything was true of the Christian faith, it was these things along with total depravity and perseverance of the saints. When the traditional texts were presented as proof of these doctrinal dogmas, I could only nod in agreement, finding no fault in how Scripture was read and interpreted. Yet a funny thing happened during my late teens and into my early twenties. The more I sunk my Christian foundation into the bedrock of Calvinism, the more fragile and volatile my spiritual life and commitment to Christianity became.
A number of unspeakable evils befell my family one after another; prayers went unanswered; God remained hidden despite earnest seeking; life floundered and became dark. I despaired. How could a God of love personally cause these horrendous evils and yet still be perfectly good? How could I trust God to be loving when he determined people to sin, and then held them accountable for what they could not have refrained from doing?
I desperately sought to hold these disparate theological tenets in proper balance, but the tension tore me apart. Intuitively I knew that if God was the ultimate cause behind evil, then he was evil; slowly, and in a dangerously creeping way, I began to hate this God of Calvinism even while I outwardly mouthed all the right doctrines.
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