Featured Calvinists Please Explain Something for Me...

ACH,

They closed the other thread as I was writing this: so i will put this here..as time permits i will respond to the other post.....

 

Yes...in Romans 6....the nature is spoken of under the language of a servant...or a WILLING BONDSLAVE...

16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

17 But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.


Being made free to obey....never...FREE..to sin...so a regenerated will is not so much FREE..like a FREE SPIRIT...to do anything at all at any time
[THE CARNAL NOTION OF A FREE WILL}

but rather we are free to worship and serve according to God;s law in our heart...:thumbs:


18 And having been set free from sin, you have become the servants of righteousness (of conformity to the divine will in thought, purpose, and action).

18 and having been freed from the sin, ye became servants to the righteousness.

 

And here we have an example of the arrogance of Calvinists and why it is so difficult to talk with them.

 

The thing that concerns one about credibility is their target audience. You, nor those I named and gave my side of the story on in this thread are my target audience and thus I could care less whether I have credibility with YOU or THEM. If you were willing to make a mountain out of a mole mill because I used craftiness to expose your hypocrisy, then you would do so again in the future when the topic isn't going your way. I have zero desire to seek or accept respect or credibility from such ilk.

And I noticed that out of all the threads you picked to do this on, you chose one where someone is making a logical argument against Calvinism. You could have started your own thread, but instead, as the trend goes, probably trying to do the same thing to this guy's thread as you've done to mine. That's despicable, and I want no part of your brand of respect.

In the Light, my apologies that this issue got brought to your thread.

 

There is a private message feature. It's the bees knees. Check it out!

 

"And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter, and said, Doth not your master pay tribute? He saith, Yes. And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers? Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free" Matthew 17:24-26

Jesus is making a comparative analogy here to the children of Israel. The children of the Kings house were considered FREE. According to Calvinist thought, the only free person, by Calvinism's self-made definition of freedom, is that a person is a slave to Christ. This only describes positional freedom AFTER one has been saved. It is not descriptive of freedom as it relates to desire, choice and consequences. Calvinist freedom is a paradoxical Hobson's Choice.

The children of Israel were free, yet in their freedom they rejected Christ. The Calvinist will argue "they were not REALLY free". Well it's their word against God's:

".........Then are the children free"

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" Matthew 23:39

"Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye." Acts 7:51

You can not resist against what you do not have the freedom to oppose.

 

It helps to understand the order of salvation. Regeneration precedes faith which precedes justification, although the time span in which each individual component occurs is imperceptible to us. Once God regenerates the individual the individual is then able to believe freely (faith and belief are the same Greek root word). The will becomes liberated; no longer bound to sin.

 

"In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise"

The order. They heard the word, they trusted, they believed, they were sealed by the Holy Spirit. A person is not regenerated until they are sealed by the Holy Spirit. Eph 1:13 is clear that belief precedes regeneration, not the other way around.

 

:thumbs::thumbs::applause:

 

4 For as touching those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit,
5 and tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come,
6 and then fell away, it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. Heb 6

I believe the answer is clear, yes, the regenerate can reject Christ.

 

"they" gon' say they wuz never saved, bro.

 

The scriptures 'sho nuff' describes them as 'saved' bro.

 

Thank you...:thumbs:

 

IMO, audience relevance (that generation of Jews that crucified Christ) has everything to do with the correct understanding of the passage; and it's NOT that God can't, He WON'T grant repentance to these.

Don't think so. At least not with the 'gospel means' 'faith alone' folks.

 

Jesus will lose none -- John 6:39.

Contextually those in Hebrews 6 who apostatized didn't have 'things that accompany salvation'.