CHURCH PLANT- Can Calvinist and Non Cal, Neo-Pent do it.

That is not how God works. God allows man to have his own will. He did not make man a robot.

Why did God give man commands such as:
Resist not the Holy Spirit. (Duh!)
Quench not the Holy Spirit.

Why did Stephen accuse his peers and his forefathers of resisting the Holy Spirit? Obviously because it could be done.

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

 

Dear Brother, Grace in the regenerated child of God is resistable. therefore Paul warns us to not grieve the Spirit, nor to do despite to the Spirit. If you once again will read the article you think supports free-willism, you will see this article is speaking of a child of God a person already regenerated; this person in their quickening cannot and does not resist Grace, but in their life experience as a child of God they (that individual) does often resist the Grace of God; else we would never have anything to repent, nor need of repentance.

See? Simple. Arminius taught this, though he was wrong in his view on ability to resist Grace in regeneration, he was right in his view on the ability of the regenerated man to resist that Grace in daily living.

Simple truth. Arminians are not free-willers. Free willers take all of salvation from beginning to end to be wholly by the choice of man, the choice to be born again, the choice to remain born again. There are close similarities, but the free-will wills himself into the family as a child, the Arminian sees God providing Grace to enable the person to believe, their belief then by that Grace is what evidences them (him/her) as predestinated unto salvation. Free-willers are much lower in their understanding of Grace than Arminianius and his true followers.

bro. Dallas

 

I agree with you Bro. Dallas. It was a very informative article. My post was directed to Carico who seems to believe the opposite.

 

Dear DHK,
I was responding to the post previous to yours as you were also responding, your post came first and thus between mine and the one I was replying to, I did not intend to reply to yours as though you were in variance from what I wrote.

I will now try to get back on topic. I agree with those who have stated the church planter must establish the doctrinal stance of the body. He certainly cannot lord over the faith of any as they are free to read the Bible and understand at as best they can. However, the first order of business ought to be that you secure a set of articles stating as clearly as possible your faith, practice and order and yes, there must be fundamental agreement.

If fundamental agreement with what you teach is not established at the first, as your body grows, although the groups you describe may "get along" as soon as there is a majority of one or the other the trouble will begin. The difficulty will come when that majority is in opposition to your doctrinal position. Any court in the land will grant the property to the majority, UNLESS you have an already established doctrinal position and by-laws stating membership be in fundamental agreement, that should also be clearly defined.

I visited a church in Alaska once which body had experienced this. They were SGLM Baptist, they had not established these articles as their faith, practice and order, they had no guidelines for the reception of new members. Pentecostal "leaners" began visiting among them and joined them, when the numbers were in favor of the Pentecostal membership, they moved in regular business meeting to establish articles based upon their faith and order. When this was opposed in business meeting by the Baptist minority, the question was carried to civil law. The court ruled in favor of the majority as the true body of the church.

Be careful brother, else you may forget the scripture that says:

I do wish you the Richest Blessings of God in this effort and work. I will pray God will open the hearts of your non-Baptist members and show them the truth of your teaching and preaching.

bro. Dallas Eaton, II