Repent for your sins as evening approaches.shalom b'shem Yah'shuaCall on YHvH is my salvation
This evening begins Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
May your name be written in the Book of Life.
Posted on 07/22/2007 7:40:38 PM PDT by xzins
We believe that Christ died for our sins.
We believe that God gives everyone saving grace.
We believe that nobody can be saved if they don’t want to be. We are told that man is to engage in the Via towards eternal life. We must persevere until the end in the manner which Jesus commanded us.
“I am saying that calvinism says all have a choice, and that even those disinclined toward you still have a choice.”
How can you have a choice if you are predestined before you were born?
We met on Free Republic. :>)
Could you vote for Hillary Clinton?
California is like the U.S. itself. All kinds of people from all over the world trying to get along.
California has a larger economy than most countries. If California were its own country, it would be the seventh largest economy in the world.
What's so bad about palm trees and evergreens living side-by-side? 8~)
There’s a lot going on.
I’m still trying to tell the players without a program.
Golly, DrE. Californians just seemed most likely to be pacific to me.
(drum roll....)
Yes.
“Gee, I wonder who would benefit by former Reformers becoming pacifists?”
I’m not following...
what in the world are you doing on Free Republic?!!
Are you a liberal democrat!!
Think of it this way, when our Lord Jesus went to the Pool and told the lame man to get up and walk, was He being insensitive to the many other people who were lying around? Was it wrong of our Lord to not tell everyone, "You're healed" and have it be so? Of course not. Our Lord was exercising His grace and mercy towards one individual in a crowd. We just never talk about all the others lying around.
Our concept and theology that we have of God today is skewed. God calls us out of darkness into His light so that we will attain everlasting life. He just doesn't do this for everyone.
What we have created is a God that does not resemble the majestic God of scriptures; all-knowing, all-powerful involved in the day-to-day activities of His people as He leads and guides us. Instead we have replaced Him with a Care Bear type of god who is interested in giving us a comfy life and protects us when we go on our ski trips.
Wow, that's the BEST example I've ever seen. :O)
Nope; I consider most of the Republican Party far too left wing for my tastes.
But, I’ve voted contrarian before; also, if the Republicans put up somebody worse than what I consider her to be, then she’d get my vote. It comes down to a choice.
A choice. My reading of TULIP precludes any choices at all.
http://www.thecaveonline.com/APEH/calvinTULIP.html says that:
T — total depravity. This doesn’t mean people are as bad as they can be. It means that sin is in every part of one’s being, including the mind and will, so that a man cannot save himself.
U — unconditional election. God chooses to save people unconditionally; that is, they are not chosen on the basis of their own merit.
L — limited atonement. The sacrifice of Christ on the cross was for the purpose of saving the elect.
I — irresistible grace. When God has chosen to save someone, He will.
P — perseverence of the saints. Those people God chooses cannot lose their salvation; they will continue to believe. If they fall away, it will be only for a time.
Choices. Well, let’s see...
T: a man cannot save himself. No choice.
U: they are not chosen on the basis of their own merit. No choice.
L: The sacrifice of Christ on the cross was for the purpose of saving the elect. No choice.
I: When God has chosen to save someone, He will. No choice.
P: Those people God chooses cannot lose their salvation. No choice.
You see why we come up with terms like robot slave? No choice. Preprogrammed units walking through a scripted life. Where is the choice, sir?
And that's the point. Man can but man won't. This is the condition of man that God must overcome.
I'm gifted.
Dincha know?
:>)
I never could vote for a pro-abortion candidate, and Hillary is vehemently pro-baby-killing.
I would consider my vote to be a direct violation of: “Thou shalt not murder.”
But...I still have the choice to do so.
I do not reach the same conclusion. Jesus said:
John 16:7 : But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.
In the realm of God's "interference", Jesus effectively replaced Himself with the Holy Spirit, Who is just as active today in all of our lives as Jesus ever was with those He interacted with back then. Miracles are commonplace and happen every day in all parts of the world. In fact, Jesus even implies here that God's influence is even GREATER now since He has returned to Heaven. I would agree.
God certainly did leave HIS Church to speak and teach, etc., but in no way does this diminish God's very active role in the lives of believers around the globe.
So therefore, everything except for His direct actions (miracles etc.) could be considered to be man made.
What is a miracle, i.e. in what things does God not have direct action? I would consider everything that was truly man-made to be sin.
In the same way, the Bible writings were man made, the Bible assembled was man made, the writings of the Church are man made and the Church doctrines are man made.
I don't understand this at all. :) What is the meaning of "God's inspired word"? I think that absolute miracle was paramount in both the writing of and the assembly of the Bible.
We don’t say that the Holy Spirit forsakes the laity; we say that individuals are more prone to Scriptural error than the deliberative body that we call the Magisterium.
Yes, which is why I tried to be careful to include something to the effect of "on matters of interpretation". I know you don't believe in a total "shut-out". But I do see a barrier there that is very concerning, and appears to impede a close, intimate, and personal relationship with God.
We don’t think of God as lending authority since it implies that He would take it back.
I would agree with you if you are saying that God never took back the powers He gave the Apostles. I was thinking more in terms of the ability to pass them on. :) If my buddy lends me his wrench, then it wouldn't be right for me to then lend it to someone else without his blessing. :)
Repent for your sins as evening approaches.shalom b'shem Yah'shuaCall on YHvH is my salvation
This evening begins Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
May your name be written in the Book of Life.
“Think of it this way, when our Lord Jesus went to the Pool and told the lame man to get up and walk, was He being insensitive to the many other people who were lying around? “
Healing a lame man does not equate to the state of everlasting life.
“Instead we have replaced Him with a Care Bear type of god who is interested in giving us a comfy life and protects us when we go on our ski trips.”
Not all of us. The Reformed have replaced God with a Care Bear type of God who has placed them into an elite elect and protects them from the consequences of all of their actions and gives them a limo ride to Heaven.
“Some people would rather reign in hell than serve in heaven to quote C.S. Lewis.”
I thought that the Reformed view is that the choice of men is of no consequence.
“The fact is that our Lord Jesus shed blood only covers the sins of those who are Christians. “
The fact is that the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Our Lord is for all men according to Scripture.
John 1:29, “The next day he *saw Jesus coming to him, and *said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”
John 4:42, “and they were saying to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world.”
1 Tim. 4:10, “For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers.”
1 John 2:2, “and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.”
1 John 4:14, “And we have beheld and bear witness that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.”
and you will come back with the duelling verses that say “many” and not “all”.
We must perform a higher order mathematical function called “and” in order to resolve this. In other words, God intends all to be saved, yet knows that some will not be.
Well, we look at the hundreds of complicated, convoluted pages of the Catechism of the RCC, and then we read the Bible and find the truth.
Later we might also read the much shorter and Scripturally-based Westminster Confession of Faith or Heidelberg Confession or London Baptist Confession of Faith, and then we might choose the one that most appeals to our God-given conscience.
They are remarkably consistent because they are founded on the word of God. If they weren't founded on the word of God, if they added or subtracted to the Scriptures, if they concocted vain traditions and stated them as fact, if they encouraged men to believe in fables and to construct wooden idols and to pray to anyone other than Christ the only mediator between men and God, then they would just be another doctrine of men and an abomination to God.
But because they are Scripturally-based, they are simply joint restatements of Scriptural truths.
Re: choices. Men always have "choices." The Biblical understanding is that unless and until God has regenerated a man and given him a new heart and new eyes and ears, that man will always "choose poorly" (a great phrase from "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.")
When the Holy Spirit resides in a man, that man's perspective will be wrenched from himself and turned toward God. And the only one who can accomplish such a feat of strength is God Himself.
"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost" -- Titus 3:5
In the broader sense, keeping in mind the sovereignty and omnipotence of God who "decreed the end from the beginning," all things in life have been ordained by God for His glory.
That part is difficult to wrap our minds around. But this difficulty doesn't negate its truth. It simply calls for faith in order to embrace it. And the result of embracing that truth is comfort and security and peace in His eternal promise to those who believe in His Son as Lord and Savior.
All in all, an amazing plan.
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