David the king had free will. What did he chose? Murder, lying, coveted his neighbors wife and idolatry for sure, yet it is written; I have found David the [son] of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.
I guess deep down in his heart David must have had a heart for God or was God saying here that you chose Saul to be king over you and he would not do what I told him to do therefore it is in my heart to choose David and he will do what I tell him to do. Along with some of the things he has his heart set on IMHO.
So, in other words, man is more free as lost than as saved? When lost, man is still able to "choose" between God and not-God. However, once man chooses God, he is stuck?
I thought we were in the greater bondage before salvation.
Rom 5:8
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Rom 5:9
Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
Rom 5:10
For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
Rom 5:11
And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.
I really don't know if you can put a label on what I believe. I believe that the blood of Christ is the only thing that makes us clean.
I believe that through His death, burial, and resurrection, it gives us all a right back to the Tree of Life(Jesus).
I believe that repentance is necessary prior to salvation.
I believe that those who are truly saved, will not turn back.
I believe that He will offer salvation to all mankind, but only those who accept, will be saved.
I believe that we are born alive, and only after God imputes sin unto us, that we die spiritually, and then we are Totally Depraved and unable to save ourselves.
I believe that faith precedes salvation.
I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
I believe that Jesus died for my sins.
I know I am saved, and when He calls me, I am going home!!
i am I am's!!
Willis
PS In the FWIW category, I do hold to four points of the "A" theology, if I can remember them correctly. I don't believe anyone of His can fall once He has saved them!!
My words were plain enough without your commentary.
Yes, man is dead in sin until the Holy Spirit enlightens him through the preaching of the Gospel; then man either accepts or rejects salvation found in Jesus Christ.
Brother you may have your Soteriology in pretty good order but you miss the boat totally here. Gomer represents Israel as the adulterous wife of Jehovah and the loving kindness that her Husband has had for her irregardless. Gomer is one of several such allegories given in the OT that depicts Israel as a harlot wife leading up to the GREAT HARLOT of Rev 17 (same thing, the adulterous OT wife of Jehovah).
3rd>>>Gomer is a picture of the sinner that God loves.
4th>>>>Israel is the picture of Gods love even in her sins.
with this...
5th>>> The church has this same love of Christ on them.
***
Christ in Hosea...
Matthew 2:15 applies chapter 11, verse 1, to Christ in Egypt:
“When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son.” Matthew quotes the 2nd half of this verse to show that the Exodus of Israel from Egypt as a new nation was a prophetic type of Israel’s Messiah who was also called out of Egypt in His childhood.
Both Israel and Christ left Palestine to take refuge in Egypt. Christ’s identification with our plight and His loving work of redemption can be seen in Hosea’s redemption of Gomer from the slavemarket.
The play....
This play was set by God himself. When I say play, I do not mean it is not real. I believe it is real. God set the arena.
The play is for us to show the story of redemption. Man has guilt that is two fold. He is guilty of the sins on his hands, and guilty because he is a sinner from the race of Adam(sin nature). Gomer finds herself on the slave market, just as we are on the slave market of sin. Hosea buys Gomer and Gomer now belongs to him, just as Christ owns the believer with his blood. Who can out bid the blood of Christ? None! So we are sealed with Christ as his slave forever.
It is good to ask a question like this but I would say that this one is insufficient in its choices. It only deals with one aspect of how we believe the Bible, and that is: Where do we stand in the free-will & sovereignty debate.
But what is almost untouched upon is our belief of the nature of God's time, as well as the timing of it. Preterism vs. Futurism vs. (fill in the blank).
This issue is not just one of eschatology but deeply effects all the rest of how we believe the Bible.
For the record: I am a Preterist who would be called "Reformed" or "Calvinist" - though I dislike both of those labels for diffferent reasons.
I spend almost all of my time with people I meet with each week to spend their time focusing on Jesus the author and perfecter of faith. Scripture does nto say to focus on your theology. The point is that we are to become like Christ not a theology.
"Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one.
And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment.
And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Just focusing on Jesus is not enough if we do not have the right Jesus. Or, if we do have the right Jesus, but refuse to get to know Him better in the way He has revealed Himself. If we do all of what these verses say we will assure ourselves that we will more likely have a proper balance. Especially if we love our neighbors as ourselves.
Part of that balance ("with all your mind") is learning more and more about Jesus, His Word, His nature, His person, Trinity, etc. This necessarily will teach us certain truths. Those truths are bound to be named as some type of "ism" or another. This is theology. It cannot be avoided. It is actually a good thing - in its place.
We consent to certain labels as a courtesy to others, and as a shorthand way of describing those things we have learned. The labels in themselves are not bad, though they are almost always inadequate.
I always roll my eyes when someone plays the "Well, I just love Jesus" or the "You can have your man's theology. Just give me the Bible" cards.
I disagree. Paul writes all of his books in this way. .....The 1st part of Pauls letters is theology and the 2nd part is theology application. One must have the facts right, before one can teach others the truth.