A.W. Pink On Election ...

What? Conditional election or unconditional election?

Those that believe in unconditional election should see no reason in telling anyone the Gospel since all of the elect will be saved and the damned elect will not be saved no matter what. And there's nothing that the devil would rather have us to believe.

 

Maybe obedience? Could that be one small reason that we should witness - because God told us to?

God chose who to save and He chose who to leave in their sin and He chose how to save those who will be saved and He chose that we should preach the Gospel and make disciples, and so we do.

 

How different is the God of the Bible from the God of modern Christendom! The conception of Deity which prevails most widely today, even among those who profess to give heed to the Scriptures, is a miserable caricature, a blasphemous travesty of the Truth. The God of the twentieth century is a helpless, effeminate being who commands the respect of no really thoughtful man. The God of the popular mind is the creation of a maudlin sentimentality. The God of many a present-day pulpit is an object of pity rather than of awe-inspiring reverence.[1] To say that God the Father has purposed the salvation of all mankind, that God the Son died with the express intention of saving the whole human race, and that God the Holy Spirit is now seeking to win the world to Christ; when, as a matter of common observation, it is apparent that the great majority of our fellow-men are dying in sin, and passing into a hopeless eternity: is to say that God the Father is disappointed, that God the Son is dissatisfied, and that God the Holy Spirit is defeated. We have stated the issue baldly, but there is no escaping the conclusion. To argue that God is "trying His best" to save all mankind, but that the majority of men will not let Him save them, is to insist that the will of the Creator is impotent, and that the will of the creature is omnipotent. To throw the blame, as many do, upon the Devil, does not remove the difficulty, for if Satan is defeating the purpose of God, then, Satan is Almighty and God is no longer the Supreme Being.

To declare that the Creator’s original plan has been frustrated by sin, is to dethrone God. To suggest that God was taken by surprise in Eden and that He is now attempting to remedy an unforeseen calamity, is to degrade the Most High to the level of a finite, erring mortal. To argue that man is a free moral agent and the determiner of his own destiny, and that therefore he has the power to checkmate his Maker, is to strip God of the attribute of Omnipotence. To say that the creature has burst the hounds assigned by his Creator, and that God is now practically a helpless Spectator before the sin and suffering entailed by Adam’s fall, is to repudiate the express declaration of Holy Writ, namely, "Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee: the remainder of wrath shalt Thou restrain" (Ps. 76:10). In a word, to deny the sovereignty of God is to enter upon a path which, if followed to its logical terminus, is to arrive at blank atheism.

The sovereignty of the God of Scripture is absolute, irresistible, infinite. When we say that God is sovereign we affirm His right to govern the universe, which He has made for His own glory, just as He pleases. We affirm that His right is the right of the Potter over the clay, i.e., that He may mould that clay into whatsoever form He chooses, fashioning out of the same lump one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor. We affirm that He is under no rule or law outside of His own will and nature, that God is a law unto Himself, and that He is under no obligation to give an account of His matters to any.

A.W. PINK

 

CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON ON READING

"As the apostle says to Timothy, so also he says to
everyone, 'Give yourself to reading.' He who will
not use the thoughts of other men's brains proves
that he has no brains of his own. You need to read.
Renounce as much as you will all light literature,
but study as much as possible sound theological
works, especially the Puritanic writers, and
expositions of the Bible. The best way for you to
spend your leisure is to be either reading or praying."

 

According to you and your theology...not the Bible.

So who makes the rules, you, John Calvin, or God? If God makes our faith in Him a requirement for salvation (a condition) who are you to question or rule on Almighty God's Sovereignty?

 

You make the rules WD. You think God thinks like you.

 

God's Sovereignty is that no one tells Him what to do, or how to respond, but that doesn't make His choosing limited, but only makes those who choose Him within His limits.

I cannot believe what goes on in these discussions about Calvinism, to think the way a Calvinist thinks is to call God a tyrant in the lives odf those He created just so he could watch them forever suffer in the torments of the fire of Soveriegn judgement.

 

That's a pretty sick imagination you have there brother. Anything but believe the truth.

 

Whatever...

God doesn't think like me, I try to think like Christ.

 

Funny, that's what my bible says too!

Seriously, who are you, oh man, to question the sovereignty of God? Who chooses? What do all those passages about election mean? What does it mean when Christ says that "all that my Father has given me...". Notice the tense. Read the words without the pre-conceived notion and see what the gospel really is.

Are you offended? What, I can't choose God? He chose me? How like the natural man to not give up the throne that we put ourselves on. God is sovereign. He clearly states that He makes one vessel unto honor and one unto dis-honor. What is he talking about if man makes the choice?

Choice is part of it, but you cannot make the choice except God put true repentence and faith in your heart and enables you to make that choice. And, once He has done that, what choice will a man make? Without those gifts, what choice will man make? To the first question, no man would choose to say no, since he is repentent. To the second question, no man would say yes because he is dead in his sins and incapable of the choice. The dead cannot choose life, it must be given to them.

Dave

 

Who are you to tell God how sovereignty is to be?

Chooses what?

Depends on the context read in.

I could suggest the same to you. Read the words...in context without pre-conceived notion, nor after reading the works of men.

About what?

I have done no such thing. I cannot take credit for a free gift.

Do you read anything in context?

Do you even know what "choice, chose" mean?
Choice
CHOICE, n.

1. The act of choosing; the voluntary act of selecting or separating from two or more things that which is preferred; or the determination of the mind in preferring one thing to another ; election.

If you mean physical death, I agree. If you mean spiritual death (separation) as it is used in the Bible, you are wrong.