Faith is not a work

Yelsew,

Read your post dated March 25 7:12. Excellent answer and to the point. I like truth expressed well.

It is sad that other brethren don't understand or will not acknowledge expressed Biblical truth. Some repeatedly bang their heads against the wall and still don't get it!

 

Bro. Ray,

After banging my head for years trying to accept the teachings my parents and other family members accept that man can choose to believe and then choose not to and be lost, I am by the Grace of God a firm believer in all five points of "Calvinism."

The fifth point: P--perseverance of the Saints I believe will be accomplished because of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit; I believe if this were left to myself, I would fail to perservere.

Does that explain my position?

BTW, I never had a problem with those who pick and choose among the various so-called points of TULIP until once I built a web-site and applied to link it to another site; The return e-mail asked me if I were a five point calvinist, I answered honestly, that I am, and the return e-mail summarily and hatefully addressed me as something less than a child of God.

I replied that I hoped the Lord would bless the brother, and I do. Now, I have a problem with someone claiming something, but picking and choosing what they will accept.

Forgive me if I have misunderstood your position, but I don't remember any clarification prior to your recent post.

God Bless.
Bro. Dallas

 

No Ray, What I am saying is that none of God's attributes, especially Grace are commodities that can be transfered from God to man.

God's attributes are that which is true of God, a behavior constraint to which the behavior of God is shaped. God's Grace is the way which God relates to his creation, hence the "age of grace". Grace is God's has been and remains his dominant attribute in relationship to His created man. If God did not have Grace as an attribute, his attribute of Justice would have greater 'current' influence and God would "pay us the wage for our sin" upon our first sin!...and he'd Love it, because it is true.

But, because God has many more attributes than Grace, his behavior toward mankind is shaped by all of his Attributes at any given point in time. Thus, God is Love, God is Merciful, God is Just, God is Omniscient, God is omnipotent, etc.

It is because we each are made in the image of God, having all but the Omni-attributes that God has, that we can respond to God's behavior toward us, and that we can behave toward others in accordance with the attributes that we are willing to force by our free will into the dominant position. That is how we find people among us that are driven by Love, while others are driven by Grace, and still others are Merciful, and others still, are Just.

I hope this helps.

 

Am I missing something here in these posts?

In theology we were taught that God has "Communicable Attributes" and "Incommunicable Attributes. The communicable attributes are things like grace, mercy and justice. The attributes that are incommunicable are those like Omnipresence, Omnipotence, and Omniscience.

Does anyone disagree with this?