Totally Depraved Cornelius

None of the above proves a forced Salvation. Why not show real proof. You can't because there isn't any.
MB

 

The proof is in the last verse. After Christ told Paul who He was. Paul Submitted and asked what will thou have me to do. You can deny it until the cows come home But Paul's submission is right there in verse 9.
MB

 

My 'hyper-Monergist' view. Paul said:

15 But when it was the good pleasure of God, who separated me, even from my mother`s womb, and called me through his grace,
16 to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles; straightway I conferred not with flesh and blood: Gal 1

"When it was the good pleasure of God to reveal His Son in me". You think Saul hated God? No! Christ told of Saul here:

2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the hour cometh, that whosoever killeth you shall think that he offereth service unto God. Jn 16

Saul sincerely believed he was serving the Lord by stamping out this cult. Thus Christ's address:

"Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?"

Thus Saul's reply:

"Who art thou, Lord?"

Saul belonged to the Lord already, even from the womb. When it was God's good pleasure to reveal that to Saul, He did so.

 

So you should be.

I never said it was.

Indeed; yet: 'Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; before you were born I set you apart' (Jer. 1:5).
Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they were all written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them' (Psalms 139:16).
'Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world' (Eph. 1:4 again!).

It would be if that were what I thought. What I have explained to you several times is that what God decrees in eternity comes to pass in time, whether it be raising up of Cyrus (Isaiah 46:8-11), the coming of the Christ (Micah 5:2) or the salvation of His elect (Acts of the Apostles 15:15-18, and of course, Ephesians 1:4).

Amen! But verses 12-14 cannot contradict verses 3-6, and nor do they. God decreed in eternity that we should be saved in Christ by grace through faith, and that is exactly what happened in time.

 

Verse is written to the Israelites.

 

Do you really want to take that route? If you do, then we must dismiss all of Scripture because none of it was written to us.

 

It seems to me you have over looked the most important thing of all. True Christians do not go around seeking out other Christians to murder and persecute. This does not say that Christ was in Paul when he murdered innocent Christians. God's Son was revealed in Paul so that He could fulfill the preaching to the Gentiles.
MB

 

What does this have to do with anything?

 

No, I don't "decide". I make observations based on scriptures.

1. They are name-checked in scripture.
2. They are filled with the Holy Spirit in the womb. Obviously God changed them without their knowledge or will.
3. God speaks audibly to them and calls them by name in a commanding, no-nonsense tone of voice.

 

Some of it was to us, and some was written to the Jews. Even a blind man can see that.
MB

 

Ask the person I was writing to.
MB

 

Which part was written to us? Be specific.

 

Yes, I really want to take this route, and no, we are not compelled to dismiss all scripture. The Bible says that the gospel went out to the Jews first and also to the Gentiles. That pretty much covers everyone. The Epistles cover pretty much every thing else.

 

But they were not written to us. There was an original audience that it was written to and it certainly was not us.

 

Romans 15:4

 

...and there's the core of your 'criteria'. Any inkling of Monergism affirmed in the scriptures makes them the exception and not the example. I'd be interested to know some Bible characters you've given the ok to be examples.

...talk about cherry picking...

 

Saul was a child of God in error, but Christ arrested him and he become Paul, a Christian. It's that simple.

 

You think he was a child of God prior to conversion?

 

Yes, as I do with most of the examples given us in scripture. Regeneration before conversion is a basic fundamental Monergist tenet.

 

I get that but you seem to take it to an extreme where someone is saved before, sometimes way before, they are actually saved...