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Discussion in '2003 Archive' started by William C, Mar 18, 2003.

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  1. The Archangel

    The Archangel Well-Known Member

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    My friend Bill,

    How are you?

    You recently said this: If Jonah were a Calvinist he would have said, "Ok, I go to Ninevah because God's going to save them or pass over them regardless of what I do anyway."

    This is a gross generalization. I hope you realize that we Calvinists do not think this way.

    We take all of the Bible literally including and especially the last chapter of Matthew where it says "GO!"

    You continue: He didn't see it that way. He thought that if he could avoid preaching the message that he might prevent Ninevah's repentance.

    I'm not so sure. Of course Jonah didn't like the people of Nineveh. I'm not debating that. However, he thought it would be great and grand if he could watch them go up in flames. He felt, perhaps, they deserved God's judgement.

    Jonah's beef was not ultimately with the people of Nineveh, it was with God. Jonah shows that he (Jonah) thinks he knows better than God. Obvioiusly, no one knows better than God.

    However, interestingly enough, we see in this passage that God cannot and will not be thwarted. Though Jonah tries to run, God will not let him escape from the task he has been "Elected" to do. It is kind of interesting, also, that it would seem that God elected the people of Nineveh to redemption and He (God) would not let that purpose be thwarted either. Very interesting!

    Now, I don't mean to turn this into an exegetical arguement for election. However, I did want to say that your charachterization of us Calvinists as lazie faire . Please don't misrepresent us. We are not hands off!

    Most of us are aggressive on the mission front. After all, William Carey--the founder of the modern Baptist missionary movement--was a card-carying Calvinist as were his supporters in England.

    Blessing and have a great weekend!!!!

    Archangel
     
    #41 The Archangel, Mar 29, 2003
  2. William C

    William C New Member

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    Angel, I am doing well, thanks for asking. Just a couple of things I wanted to point out:

    Notice you say, "it would seem that God elected the people of Ninevah to redemption." Why does it "seem" like that to you? Because Jonah was sovereignly elected to carry out a task you assume that his audience was as well? Why? The scripture never says that Ninevah was or was not caused to believe the message of Jonah, why would you assume that to be the case?

    Also, if you read the rest of the story you will see that Ninevah's repentance didn't last, later they rebell and God's wrath is poured out on them. Now that is interesting. [​IMG]

    I wasn't intending to misrepresent all Calvinists in regard to evangelism. As a Calvinist I still believed in the need to "Go" and I did. I was just pointing out the fact that Jonah's didn't seem to be Calvinistic because of his response to God's call. That was merely an observation.

    Actually Carey went on the mission field despite of the lack of support he recieved from his church in England. He came from hyper-calvinistic roots and rebelled against their anti-evagelistic tendencies.
     
    #42 William C, Mar 31, 2003
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