Sin has thoroughly diseased us

I think even the best of us are like Jesus said of the Pharisees. "Graves that appear not". I think of Facebook and other social media resources as the Pharisee's playground. My how good we look when marketing ourselves.

 

And yet some on here as long as I have been on here think Total Depravity is some kind of biblical joke... There in no spark in man unless God puts the spark there... Unless God changes the man, he can not come to God... Unless he is born of God, by the Holy Spirit alone, he doesn't belong to him... As scripture states, he is none of his... He can not show LOVE, unless he is shown LOVE by God who IS LOVE, to God and his fellow creatures... A sinner is a sinner until he is a saved one and he didn't change himself... Brother Glen

Btw... Ken, I'll dive more into Philpot later

 

J.C. Philpot wrote a lot of very good stuff which is well worth reading, but unfortunately he tended towards Hyper-calvinism. He was aligned with the Gospel Standard Baptists who deny that the Gospel is to be preached to all

Article XXVI of the Gospel Standard articles: "We deny duty faith and duty repentance – these terms suggesting that it is every man’s duty spiritually and savingly to repent and believe. We deny also that there is any capability in man by nature to any spiritual good whatever. So that we reject the doctrine that man in a state of nature should be exhorted to believe in or turn to God."

Article XXXIII of the Gospel Standard articles: "Therefore, that for ministers in the present day to address unconverted persons, or indiscriminately all in a mixed congregation, calling upon them to savingly repent, believe, and receive Christ, or perform any other acts dependent upon the new creative power of the Holy Ghost, is, on the one hand, to imply creature power, and on the other, to deny the doctrine of special redemption."

 

Thanks Ken... Philpot is 100% Christ and speaks my language... Brother Glen

 

Is this true? I have never heard of these articles but they help explain a lot of things that have been confusing me with some of the responses on this site. Thanks for posting.

 

But I think the Holy Spirit can begin to act on people in small increments, slowly and that sometimes Calvinists insist in a no work at all or a light switch coming on. And it has to be one or another. I believe there can be a definite period of time where the Holy Spirit is working on someone - they are not saved but they are beginning to move in that direction. Do you guys believe that it has to be total depravity, no interest in God, then regeneration, instant complete salvation and then we can talk about repentance and belief?

 

Very correct “ the man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:14)

 

I can only speak for myself….yes it was immediate, an immediate understanding that I’d not realized my own selfishness, my own misunderstanding of God's plan for salvation and suddenly I was ashamed and foolish (stupid) that I had missed it. You also are happy that at last the Lord had shown grace & mercy to such a dumb snip sinner and in doing so had made me whole. There is then profound gratefulness along with a unique understanding of God's plan for your life. There is one thing more, I grew a conscience. I’d liken it to a child’s learning something… it floors you that you never put two & two together… it’s like when my uncle first taught me to swing through when you make contact with your bat and thus hit the ball farther and higher, not just a grounder but a home run. that’s a wow moment and one you never forget!

 

I just got off the phone yesterday with a pastor that indicated I should go to Facebook to hear his sermons…well I don’t do Facebook.

 

Martin the Fullerite bashing the Gillites.

 

"Everyone to the right of me is hyper". Tom Butler

 

[Yawn] I limit the term Hyper-Calvinist to those who do not urge folk to come to Christ lest one of the non-elect should slip in while God isn't looking.
If the cap fits, wear it.

 

Matthew 11:28; John 5:40; 6:37. Although someone's coming to Christ is always the result of God's gracious drawing. John 6:44.

 

This is the perfect post to direct you all to a book I just read.. A Shepherd Looks At Psalm 23 by W. Philip Keller a book written in 1970... My wife used it in her church ladies prayer group and suggest I read it... I did!... Cost around $7.00 paperback... Just a heads up... Learned a lot about sheep and the shepherd... Brother Glen

 

God protected me many times as an unbeliever now that I look back on my life. Even my worst sins became bulwarks against repeating them. So I can see His hand over me from my earliest memories. When He sent His Spirit into my heart when religion was the least concern, I knew who it was and believed in Him (Christ) because of that experience. The experience remains and spawns faith in my heart. I think much of the debate is between those who experience salvation and those who hope to, assuming their arm of the flesh approach to the gospel will one day pan out.