Featured Faith, Coming to Christ pleases God !

26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:

IS Paul lying?
ARE you charging God with lying?

I never accused you of anything.
The passage says that they were commanded to "seek the Lord," "to find Him."
You say they cannot?
That is contrary to what God is saying through Paul.
Who is right? God or you? Someone is wrong. Are you saying God is wrong?
Explain yourself.

 

In Acts 17 Paul commands them to seek the Lord.
In Romans 3, he says: no man seeks God.
Either Paul is wrong and contradicting himself, or,
Your theology is wrong and therefore you cannot harmonize these Scriptures.
I believe the latter to be true.

 

Act 17:21 (For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.)
Act 17:22 Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.
Act 17:23 For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.
--They were idolaters, everyone of them.

Act 17:28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
1. Paul is quoting from a heathen Greek poet.
2. He is using the word "offspring" that word of that poet, to refer that WE (the Athenians, the Greek poet, and Paul) were all created by God. A Greek poet would not be referring to "the elect of God," nor to the saved or born again, or the family of God, would he? In this you are wrong.

Act 17:30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:
On that basis he commands all men everywhere (pagans, idolaters, Athenians, Greek poets,), all men everywhere--to REPENT!

 

As in any passage Context Rules!
It is a matter of hermeneutical principles.

And here is the context:
Act 17:28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

WE, i.e. Paul, the Athenians, the Greek poets, are all the offspring of God.
The quote is from a Greek poet. He wasn't speaking of the elect of God, was he?
He wasn't even referring to Christians. He was a Greek Poet who used the word "offspring" that Paul also used.

 

Act 17:21 (For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.)
Act 17:22 Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.
Act 17:23 For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.
--They were idolaters, everyone of them.

Act 17:28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
1. Paul is quoting from a heathen Greek poet.
2. He is using the word "offspring" that word of that poet, to refer that WE (the Athenians, the Greek poet, and Paul) were all created by God. A Greek poet would not be referring to "the elect of God," nor to the saved or born again, or the family of God, would he? In this you are wrong.

Act 17:30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:
On that basis he commands all men everywhere (pagans, idolaters, Athenians, Greek poets,), all men everywhere--to REPENT!

 

Don't be ridiculous!
He was speaking on Mars' Hill. He was surrounded by idolatrous Athenians.
There wasn't a saved person in sight. He was still waiting for Timothy and Silas to come from Berea, for they hadn't arrived yet. He was preaching at the request of the pagan philosophers:
Act 17:18 Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say?
--These people are "not of God," as you say.

 

Here is yet another teaching of Christ to be avoided by those who reject the fact that evidence and the drawing of God leads men to salvation

John 12
32 And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.” 33 But He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which He was to die. 34 The crowd then answered Him, “We have heard out of the Law that the Christ is to remain forever; and how can You say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this Son of Man?” 35 So Jesus said to them, “For a little while longer the Light is among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. 36While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light.”

John 20
27 Then He *said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.” 28 Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus *said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.” 30 Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.

And of course the irrefutable point from page 1 --

BOTH Calvinists and Arminians agree that the lost do not "please God" but where we differ is that Arminians believe the "Lost are part of the WORLD" and that "God so LOVED the (lost) World that HE Gave... yes really -- that WHOSOEVER believes on Him might not perish but have everlasting life... yes really" John 3:16

Paul says the gospel is going to the unsaved in Romans 11 " 14 if somehow I might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them."

The God of the Bible "came to seek and save the lost". Luke 19:10, Matt 18:11


The very sequence you object to is found there - "light shining out of darkness" and those who are lost being converted in the very sequence identified by Paul - the same author -- writing to the Romans.

Romans 10
“The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, 9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

The very sequence Calvinism forbids - the Bible affirms! The gospel goes to the lost - those who are not saved, and not at all righteous -- and then -
"with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation."

Without all the "extreme inference" injected into 2Cor 4 - this all works just fine.


Calvinism "dies a thousand deaths" in the pages of scripture.

 

Your continual "circling back" to the fact that the saints of Heb 11 "please God" is nonsense when applied to the bible texts about the unsaved world - because the unsaved are not the saved. When you quote my texts showing the hole in your doctrine and respond by ignoring the text entirely - you demonstrate time after time that nobody should follow your suggestions/ideas/ - even your own fellow Calvinists are back peddaling on your posts.

Obviously.

Why do you keep trying out failed tactic that nobody has shown any inclination to be duped by to this point? why not respond to the texts that are clearly showing how the non-saved are being reached with the gospel? How MUCH of the Bible do you really have to "put on ignore" to cling to Calvinism "anyway"??

Do you simply "avoid the texts that do not pleas you":/?

If so - what Catholic priest in the dark ages could not have used such a tactic and against protestants? How would your method ever have allowed for the Protestant reformation to start with??

 

This is hardly worth answering since you won't even look at the context of the verse and only quote the last part of verse three butchering the meaning of the verse.

This statement is written to believers.
Many of the statements that you post on this board are written in the flesh and do not please God. Many of the things that every believer does are done in the flesh and do not please God. It has nothing to do with salvation. It is describing our walk with God--walking according to the flesh or according to the Spirit.
How is your walk? Is it a Spirit-filled walk? That is the question every believer must ask of themselves. That is what Romans 8:8 is speaking about. Are they pleasing God by walking in the Spirit and not in the flesh.