If God is not willing that any perish, then why do men perish?

Because the "any" are the ones who Christ died for. Of that amount, Christ shall lose none. None of these "any" shall perish.

John 6:37 "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out."

 

God sovereignly chose free will for His created beings -- hence HIS OWN description.

"I STAND at the door and KNOCK if ANY MAN hears my voice AND opens the door -- THEN I WILL come in".

God says "TO as many as RECEIVED HIM to THEM he gave the right to be called the sons of God".

God says He sovereignly "DRAWS ALL MANKIND unto HIM".

Even Calvinists admit that the John 12:32 drawing of God enables the choice that TD eliminates.

God is not willing that any should perish AND God is not willing that we all be robots. That SECOND negative is valued higher than the first - apparently.

In Christ,

Bob

 

Hear ye hear ye! Anyone may drive my car! And by "anyone" I mean "anyone who is me".

That is the kind of doublespeak games that are 'needed' to make Calvinism true - but can not be made to work in scripture.

In Christ,

Bob

 

I seriously consider especially what Greek scholars have to say about the Word.

Dr. Kenneth S. Wuest in his "In These Last Days" says about II Peter 3:9:

p. 70 'His will is not that 'some' should perish, though that is regarded by the writer as inevitable . . . Some will perish, but it is not His will. His will is that all should come to repentance. The goodness of God should lead to repentance.'

p. 71 'It is not God's considered will that any should perish. There is the sovereignty of God and the free will of man. God will not violate man's will. While it is His considered will that no one should be lost, yet in making man in His image He necessarily had to make him a free moral agent, with a will which is able to say, "yes" and "no" to Him. While God is always willing to save man, man is not always willing to be saved.'

Dr. A.T. Robertson, the Baptist scholar says:

'God is not impotent nor unwilling to execute his promise . . . . (He is) not wishing {me boulomenos} Some will perish vs 7, but that is not God's desire. God wishes 'all' (pantas) to come (choreo) the old verb meaning to make room. See Acts 17:30; Romans 11:32; I Timothy 2:4; Hebrews 2:9 for God's provision of grace for all who will repent.'

Do any of you brethren have any other sources coming from Greek scholars?

I would not be surprised if the Lord providentially, posted these men among us so we might more correctly understand His ways.

 

If I made it appear that I am the author of Rev 3 -- I did not mean to do it. Sorry.

In Christ,

Bob

 

Far be it from me to "interpret"...

Lets "let the text speak for itself"

John 1:9

John 3

Rev 3

Luke 7 – He says that the Pharisees “rejected God’s Purpose for themselves”

Matt 7

Hmm - the point is very clear -- as it turns out. It shows us what the Sovereign God "Chose" to do.

In Christ,

Bob

 

Nick you should take another look at this verse:

There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.
10He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.
11 [He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.
12But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name

Calvinists are always explaining away "receiving" as a passive thing, like receiving a pat on the back, but it is clear from this text that the phrase "a many as received Him" is not passive on men's part, because in verse 11 those who were HIS OWN did not receive him, which is clearly an act of the men being unwilling to receive the Christ when he came.

 

This is a silly question. He is simply showing that God doesn't delight or desire the perishing of the wicked, but he desires and delights in the salvation of whoever would receive Christ. He WANTS people to receive Christ just as he wants you to forgive your brothers. Some choose not to receive Christ just as you choose not to forgive your brother. God's desires and his sovereign will are not the same. He desires you to obey him, but he obviously hasn't sovereignly willed for that to occur.

 

I thought we went through all this on another thread. I posted several examples from scripture with the same word for "willing" to show it means "desiring." God does not desire that any should perish. I posted verse after verse where this same word is translated as desire.

It seems to me that on this Calvinism-Arminianism forum the same arguments are rehashed over and over and over. It's making me insane. The Calvinists are actually convincing me I do not want to be a Calvinist! I also find their arguments less and less convincing the more I read them (sorry guys).

I think I'm done with this forum at least for awhile. See you all on another forum! With a friendly ciao for now ~

 

Arminians believe in Original Sin and that we all Fell in Adam.

Pelagius was a British monk born about A.D. 370. He taught many things that were wrong. One of the things he believed was that no created soul had any direct relation to the sin of Adam. No sin of Adam was imputed to the human race just the acts of sin that people themselves committed were imputed to sinners.

Our Biblical theology which leans more toward Arminianism is very distinct from the errors of Pelagius.

 

And Arminians always stop on verse 12 of this Scripture and build their whole case on that, disregarding what the next is saying.

 

'And Arminians always stop on verse 12 of this Scripture and build their whole case on that, disregarding what the next is saying.'

Ray is saying, 'No problem. We were not born again, via blood [human geneology or heritage] nor by our own will, as though we could or can regenerate ourselves. Only the Holy Spirit can minister this work in our lives. We were only born again because of the work and ministry of Almighty God. He is to receive all the glory and praise.

God does all the work of regeneration, justification, sanctification and glorification; it is not of human origin. The thing to keep in mind is that God never forces an entrance into our hearts, we have to ' . . . receive Him' [John 1:12] and then He gives His authority in taking us away from being 'children of disobedience' [Ephesians 2:2c] to that of becoming the sons and daughters of God. [John 1:12 & I John 3:2]

See, you have misrepresented us once again; but you are forgiven.

 

John 1

Global context: "The LIGHT OF MEN" unqualified.
"Light shines in DARKNESS" - the entire world is said to be in darkness not just the jews.
"so that ALL might believe through Him" Unqualified - the message of John in the Gospels has gone to all the WORLD.

In vs 12 we see that the action of those who received Christ is what determines the result and in the Greek the reception is in the "active voice". It does not state that some other action was taken forcing them to be children of God and then merely note that they also "received Christ". (Analytical Greek NT - "indicative mood" and "active voice" used for receive in John 1:12)

Notice "children of A God" just does not work here.
Notice "Nor of the will of man, but of A God" is not workable. No justification for such abuse of the text.

Born of blood - refering to natural birth.

God's part: Sending His Son as light into the world - the same world that was made through him - (global unqualified non-restrictive context.)
not only into the world but also to his own (those he chose for himself) -

Man's part - history (those chosen as "his own" failed - they did not receive HIM).
- standing offer - BUT To as many as RECEIVED Him (by contrast to HIS CHOSEN "OWN" - who did NOT receive Him)

God's part - to them he gave the right to become children of God.

God's part - to cause those that receive him to be born again.

Calvinism "hope" of course is to ignore the sequence - to lift God's part out - and delete man's part so that NO sequence appears - JUST God causing man to be born again - arbitrarily selecting prior to any reference of man receiving anything. Calvinism's attempt to ignore the complete text fails.

The Arminian principle of
-God first acting to supernaturally bring salvation to all,
- then calling for man to respond and receive,
- then subsequently
providing that those who act and receive - shall then have the right to become children of god following their act of receiving.

In Christ,

Bob

 

I have dealt with verse 13 at least 3 times on this board in recent days, as have many other Arminians here, not to mention the many scholars who have written commentaries on the subject for centuries.