The Bible is God's message to all or only some?

Why shouldn't I be ?
You haven't treated me any other way but nice since we started posting here.:thumbs:

 

(.....psssst, Pinoy, it's probably because she feels sorry for you..........)

 

Boy are you in trouble now! :laugh:

 

Just for the record, I am neither Calvinist nor Arminian. I personally find that both of those systems of theology have faults. In my opinion, the truth of Scripture actually lies somewhere in between either of those two theology's.

 

"Those therefore whom God passes by he reprobates, and that for no other cause but because he is pleased to exclude them from the inheritance which he predestines to his children - Calvin's Institutes 3:23:1

 

But are you a Baptist?

 

uh, oh...:smilewinkgrin:

 

Well, that is Calvin's opinion.
not necessarily true.

 

Excellent question.

A short bit of my testimony may possible help in answering such a question. When I was yet unsaved, a co-worker of mine and I would always discuss the Bible during the course of our workday. This co-worker would continually tell me that unless I became born again, I could never see or enter the kingdom of Heaven. I would argue with him and call him a fanatic. Then one day he came to work with a new Bible, he approached me and said, I want you to have this. I did accept it from him, and stowed it away in my locker where it collected dust for some time. Our discussion on being born again continued to the point where I couldn't stand it any longer, so I told him I was going to take the Bible he gave me home, and prove from that book that he was wrong. At home I would spend time reading and re-reading John chapter 3, and none of it made any sense to me. A week went by and I continued trying to decipher the mystery about what it meant to be born again. Then one day, for whatever reason, I opened the Bible, and I got down on my knees and prayed. I pray something like this; Dear God, I am trying to understand what this born again stuff means, and I can't seem to figure it out, no matter how much I try. Dear God, a co-worker of mine keeps telling me that unless I become born again I will never be able to enter heaven. Dear God, please tell me what it all means, and whether I need to become born again. I do so much want to be in heaven with you when this life ends. So if there is something I need to know about the importance of this, dear God, would you please show me? I finished praying, and once again began reading John 3, but something was different this time. I now could understand what it was saying to me. It was as if God shined his spot-light on the verses of Scripture, the words leaped off the pages at me. I turned to Proverbs, and then to Romans. What's going on here. I can now understand those words that once remained a darkened mystery to me. I was totally amazed. To make a long story short, I became saved.
So, these days I thank that co-worker who cared enough to give me, an unsaved person a Bible.

 

No I am not.
I do however have many baptist friends, and on occasion attend baptist churches for special events. If you were to read my profile it would tell you which denomination I attend.

 

.......(goodbye).........

 

That same concept was later penned into the Reformed WCF

The rest of mankind, God was pleased, according to the unsearchable counsel of his own will, whereby he extendeth or withholdeth mercy as he pleaseth, for the glory of his sovereign power over his creatures, to pass by, and to ordain them to dishonor and wrath for their sin, to the praise of his glorious justice. - Westminister Confession of Faith

 

And I am not reformed either.
just a primitive baptist.
besides, the charge was that those of the Doctrine of Grace are excluding anyone from salvation/redemption.
not true.
but first let me set the main principle.
salvation is finished, redemption is complete.
those who are saved and right now are caught in the vise or grip of ungodly theology or such like, have an eternal salvation secured for them by One who by trial and tribulation learned obedience to the One who sent Him, and therefore, they who call upon His Name are under obligation to learn obedience towards Him through their own trials and tribulation.

All whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life have had their sins atoned for, their redemption obtained and completed, regardless of their theological stance, politics, race, geography, chronological existence in this plane called time.

None are excluded by God on account of any of the above factors, and no one has any right to exclude anyone, by confession or anything.

 

Ohhhh, you're preaching to the choir.

"Was not our heart burning within us, while he spake to us in the way, while he opened to us the scriptures?"

I can honestly say there's nothing I've ever done or experienced in this world that has caused my heart to soar and given that joy unspeakable like the preached or written word when it comes with power. Nothing.

 

Theologically I am a Baptist. My theological views don't differ from Baptists. I just don't currently attend a Baptist Church, although I have and may again.

 

The Spirit was here as early as the 2nd verse of the Book; “.....and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters”. When Christ said, “Ye must be born again [from above]....The wind bloweth where it will.....so is every one that is born of the Spirit”, He was not implementing something new, He was revealing a mystery from of old, something that had always been. It is a mistake to confuse the 'clothing with power from on high' and the work of the Comforter, with the work of the Spirit in regeneration which was around long before Pentecost.

In all honesty, I speak the truth, I have for decades prayed the same exact short supplication of David whenever sitting to read the scriptures, “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.” And I soooo relate with David when he says, “I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great spoil.” As I said in a prior post, in my life I've never experienced that joy and peace, that heartburn, from anything like that which comes from being taught by the Spirit, whether from the preaching or from the reading of the word. It's been my experience that when the Spirit teaches it comes in like a flood, it'll blow you away. I believe the OT saints were able to have that same experience.

I don't understand the question, but I have one for you:

...I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit... Isa 57:15

Did God dwell with these folks because they were of a contrite and humble spirit, or were they of a contrite and humble spirit because God dwelt with them? You know, which comes first, the chicken or the egg?

I say they were of a contrite and humble spirit because God dwelt with them.