30 reasons, I am not a Calvinist

Thanks Ann.


One thing I remember back when I had just begun to really study the bible was the first time I came across the word "elect". I think it was in Ephesians. But when I read it, I felt panicked that maybe I wasn't one of the elect. How would I know? It was a scary thought and took me awhile to get through it.

 

Let these words discourage others from proudly stating they only get their beliefs from reading the Bible only:


We do not start out our Christian lives by working out our faith for ourselves; it is mediated to us by Christian tradition, in the form of sermons,books and established patterns of church life and fellowship. We read our Bibles in the light of what we have learned from these sources; we approach Scripture with minds already formed by the mass of accepted opinions and viewpoints with which we have come into contact, in both the Church and the world....It is easy to be unaware that it has happened; it is hard even to begin to realize how profoundly tradition in this sense has moulded us. But we are forbidden to become enslaved to human tradition, either secular or Christian, whether it be "catholic" tradition, or "critical" tradition, or "ecumenical" tradition. We may never assume the complete rightness of our own established ways of thought and practice and excuse ourselves the duty of testing and reforming them by Scriptures.

J.I. Packer

 

I will respond to yours, and by extension Stll Learning.

Note the wording in the question given:

What is the Gospel?
In it basic sense - The Good News is that man can be brought back into a right relationship with God, made possible only by the shedding of blood from a perfect sacrifice for their sins.

Note also it states, to the dispensationalist, the sacrifices were not seen as TYPES of the Messiah AS sin-bearer. This reflects back to the qualifier of the Gospel 'message', specifically with regard for that time (ie. sacrifices for sin)

The point here is that Dispensationalists have held emphatically to the fact that the sacrifices were TYPES or shadows of the Messiah AS sin-bearer. What this statement is trying to establish is that Dispy hold to two salvations. 1. works and 2. grace

This is a common fallacious statement made by many in the covenant group.

 

Amy....good post. That tension of what if I am not elect is designed by God to have someone prayerfully seek his face and ask for mercy.
Once you view those verses as a believer they give you alot of comfort and blessing.

 

Or......you weren't taught anything as a child or young adult and end up getting messed up by every wind of doctrine when you're saved.
(That would be me.)

I thank God that He sought me, bought me, and taught me!

(I'm still learning though.)