| Reformation Basics | ||
| In the 1600's Martin Luther and a band of other men set out to bring the church back to biblical Christianity. | ||
| The Bondage of
the Will |
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| Commentary on
Romans |
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| Institutes of
the Christian Religion, 2 Vol. |
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| Total Depravity | ||
| This doctrine though offensive to
most, truly is a biblical teaching. The words Total Depravity are not meant to
say that we as humans are as bad as we could be. Anyone can look around and see that though the world is steeped in sin like a tea bag, it is not completely horrible, the sun still shines and occasionally there are hospitals built and orphans adopted. Total Depravity simply means that there are no parts of man that have not been touched by sin. Everything that we do is partially determined by our sin natures. This doesn't mean again that we are all axe-murderers just that we are all sinners. So what is Sin? Sin is a lack of conformity with GOD. Basically meaning everything we do that is not of faith is sin. So the real question is if we do things that are sins, why do we do them? If we weren't depraved in our natures why didn't we choose to do right from the beginning? You see the very fact that we all have sinned is evidence of the depravity of man, if we have all sinned and that sin is due to our natures how then can we choose GOD, when in the moment we sinned we have already chose, not to choose him? Do you see the problem here? Whether you accept the idea of the sin nature coming from Adams fall or not, you still are left with the problem of the sin nature you fell into by your own personal first sin. Regardless of what that personal first sin was or is. At that moment the of personal first sin, YOU chose not to follow GOD, it is really irrelevant why you chose not to, only that you did, and in so doing your free-will was exercised and you were immediately under the sentence of death. IE the "The day you eat of it you will surely die". Now having already voluntarily chosen to disobey GOD and sin you're caught and the punishment is death, even if you walked the rest of your life in perfect obedience, you still have to pay for the crime you committed. The first sin was your free-will choice to disobey GOD. From that point on every choice you make is determined by the previous choice to disobey, IE you now have a sin nature even if you didn't have it from ADAM. Now if your nature is to sin, How then can you freely choose GOD which would be against your nature? We'll answer that in another post. However Total Depravity simply means that there is no part of you untouched by sin. Now to support the Total depravity of man through the scripture, which is after all our CANON. Rom 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, NIV ALL is a universal affirmative it means everybody has sinned. Isa 53:6 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; NIV Isaiah says WE ALL another universal affirmative, he even includes himself. Hos 7:16 16 They do not turn to the Most High; they are like a faulty bow. NIV They who? Well humans of course, Hosea is speaking in the place of GOD and saying "They" Gen 6:12 12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways NIV Again the universal affirmative, All the people. Was Noah a people? Sure he was, so even he was corrupt in some of his ways, as we find out after the flood. Ps 14:3 3 All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one. NIV Again a Universal affirmative, all men, there is no one that does good, NO ONE that means you and me also, otherwise it would say there are some who do good. Ezek 16:47 47 You not only walked in their ways and copied their detestable practices, but in all your ways you soon became more depraved than they NIV Rom 1:28-29 28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. NIV Some translations render the word depraved as corrupt, if you want to say Total Corruption, I'll agree there, since corruption is a stronger word than depravity anyway. OK I won't beat this Horse any more, it seems that the bible supports the idea of Total Depravity. |
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| The Freedom of
the Will |
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| Unconditional Election | ||
| Many people seem to think that
unconditional election is a horrible thing to say. To this I say that there
problem is not with the doctrine of Unconditional Election but rather with the
doctrine of depravity. You see if GOD chooses the saved based on something they have done, then they aren't really saved are they, they have earned their way. Whether you have a problem with this doctrine is not at the question , the question is really: Is this doctrine a biblical one? You see if unconditional election is taught in the bible it matters not whether we like it, it is still true. So are you saved because of something you DID? If you are then you have a gospel of works. You see if your salvation is dependant on your choosing of Christ, your choosing is a work, if you could choose GOD, you wouldn't need to be saved. Any way with brevity, Unconditional election means to say that we are not saved because of anything good in us, but we are saved by the merciful choice of GOD alone. The very word saved implies that you are in fact lost, if you are lost how can you find your way unless someone else guides you? Now to that you may say, "well my friend led me to Christ and then I choose to follow Jesus." With this statement you are saying that the election is up to your choice, but is it? Who sent your friend? Why did he come to you? You see, however many causal links you put in the chain it still comes back to GOD in the beginning doing something to get you into the position of being able to choose Christ. This is very important. Sure you did make the conscious choice to cling to Jesus, but why? Simply because GOD, changed your heart. Did he change your heart because you are better looking than some other guy? Did GOD change your heart because you were smarter, faster more righteous than somebody? Unconditional election doesn't claim to explain why GOD choose us it, only says that we were chosen because of GODs sovereign pleasure. GOD did not need to save us but he did. Now if GOD saved somebody because he knew they would choose Christ if presented the chance, then you are back at works righteousness. Don't get me wrong I'm not claiming to know why GOD has chosen me or you or anybody for that matter, only that it had nothing to do with me or you or anybody. You see if I would have chosen Christ on my own, why didn't I choose him in the first place? If I could have chosen Christ, I would have and avoided the whole sin mess to begin with. But I have sinned showing that unless something else changed my nature I wouldn't chose Christ. Unconditional election in the scripture, Eph 2:8-10 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. NIV You see here, the FAITH that you have is a gift of GOD it is NOT of yourself, basically GOD gave you the ability to have faith in Jesus. So much for the Foreknowledge view of election Titus 3:5-6 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, NIV Chose again not because of US but simply because of mercy, sounds unconditional so far. 1 Cor 1:29-31 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God-that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. NIV Again, Because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who's the him, simply GOD, and no one can boast implying you have nothing to boast about because GOD chose out of his sovereign whim. Eph 1:11-12 11 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, NIV John 15:16 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit-fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. NIV You did not chose but were chosen. Eph 2:9-10 10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. NIV even if you do good works it is because GOD prepared them in advance, meaning with out GOD you couldn't do good. Rom 9:11-12 11 Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad-in order that God's purpose in election might stand: NIV Finally if you made it this far, before they had done anything good or bad, anything. Any includes all things including choosing GOD. GOD chooses first, unconditionally. |
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| Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God |
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| Limited Atonement | ||
| I can understand how some people
might think that limited atonement means GOD doesn't give everybody a chance to
be saved. I can even go so far as to say I understand why that statement is offensive. However Limited atonement means almost exactly that, GOD chose to save some and the others he leaves alone. Again here is the word "saves" if GOD is saving some and not others that implies they are in some kind of trouble. Who caused the trouble, GOD or man? Did GOD make man sin? No man chose to disobey GOD. Is GOD required to save anybody? No, saving grace is an act of mercy, GOD sent his son to die for those who deserved death, so that those whom he chose to be merciful to, could be called JUST because their crime was paid for. It is true that the opening statement of this chain of letters was to say that GOD did not wish any to perish. This statement is true GOD does not desire any to perish. Had Adam not eaten the Fruit, nobody but perhaps Satan would perish. But Adam did eat the fruit. Now that GOD desires none to perish, suddenly comes in conflict with his desire to have Justice met. So you're GOD what do you do? You send your son to die in the place of those whom you choose to save by your own good council. The rest though you desired they hadn't sinned in the first place did, so now they get what they deserve, and Christ got what we deserved. The doctrine of limited atonement, does not limit the value of Christ's death and it doesn't conflict with the verses where we see that because of the sins of the world Jesus had to die. Limited Atonement simply means that Christ's death is only an efficacious justification for those whom GOD desires to save. You see had the world not sinned, Jesus would not need to die for our sins. Those statements make no clear allusions as to GOD saving the whole world. Jesus did die because of the sins of the world but not to Justify the whole world to GOD. You see if the efficacy of Jesus' death isn't limited in some way, who are all those people being cast into the lake of fire in Revelation with Satan? So simply Jesus' death though caused by all the sin in the world, only Justifies those who GOD chose to grant mercy to in the first place. What the Scripture says Heb 9:28 28 so Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for him, unto salvation. ASV Christ bears the sins of MANY, not all. This is not to say that the sins of the world didn't cause him to be sacrificed. Matt 20:28 28 even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. ASV Again we see the word MANY, not all. Eph 5:2 nd live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. NIV Gave himself for US, us being the church, that who the letter was written to, the church is not the whole world. Looks pretty limited. Heb 9:15 15 For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance-now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant. NIV Those who are called, seems to limit it again. We see the verses that speak specifically of being salvific, have a tendency to teach limited atonement. In conclusion Though Christ did die for all, the only ones who make it to Heaven based on that death are those who are in Christ Jesus, so no matter how you slice it, either every bodies goes to heaven, or the atonement is limited. |
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| Irresistible Grace | ||
| It would seem to me that if GOD
is Sovereign and chooses to create faith in somebodies life he could do it and
he could do it in such a way as to make that faith irresistible. I don't understand why Christian are so offended by the fact that if GOD elects to save somebody he will. This would seem to be the most comforting fact. Irresistible grace simply is to state that GOD can and will bring all those whom he elects into saving faith. It means to say nothing about the un-elect. Remember, only those who have sinned need to be saved, so if GOD chose to give grace to some and pass over the others how can we fault him for it? You see simply some people get grace and others get what they deserved anyway. The grace that GOD gives is given to people who were already condemned for not following GOD, so if they were not following, and now suddenly they are following how could that come about unless the grace of GOD was Irresistible? What does Jesus say? John 6:37-38 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. NIV Universal affirmative, ALL implies ALL. that the father gives me implies GOD is Giving some and not others, those he gives will come. Notice it doesn't say MAY come but WILL. Sounds Irresistible doesn't it. In Christ Jesus you have rest because you are there because of the Fathers Sovereign mercy, and the Father can't lie so you are secure. |
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| Perseverance Of The Saints | ||
| Once Saved always Saved. Let's
look at that from a non Calvinistic standpoint. "Once Saved, Maybe Saved" or perhaps "Once Saved, Not Saved" If you deny once saved always saved you have denied the very act of GOD saving. By implying that salvation may not be permanent you are in effect saying salvation isn't salvation. Once saved Maybe Saved doesn't make logical sense, and further more is an insult to GOD and Jesus, not to mention the Holy Ghost who does the work in our hearts. Are you to say GOD is not sovereign enough to grant mercy to those whom he chooses? Was Christ's death only sufficient to save you if you keep the LAW? I thought the reason we needed saving was because we broke GOD's law in the first place? Again we see the fundamental problem with the Once saved Maybe saved theology, you're assuming that GOD is in heaven saying, "Great Bob has just accepted Christ, angels rejoice for my son has come home" and then minutes later GOD says "Darn it, Bob has lust in his heart, I guess I WAS WRONG, he's not saved after all, call off the celebration angels he's still damned!" five minutes later "Angels wait, Bob has repented yet again, lets celebrate, oops he's jealous of his neighbor now forget it" Sound silly, perhaps we ought to take a closer look at the perseverance of the Saints. Once Saved Always Saved. In Heaven GOD says "Angels rejoice Bob has come to faith in Christ" and five minutes later "Angels keep rejoicing although Bob has lust in his heart I will send the Holy Spirit to convict him of the sin and keep him on the right path" Which sounds more like the Character of GOD? Rest assured if you are in Christ now, you are in Christ FOREVER. What did Jesus Say? John 10:26-30 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. 30 I and the Father are one." NIV Seems clear doesn't it, THEY SHALL NEVER PERISH, NO ONE CAN SNATCH THEM OUT OF MY HAND. 1 John 2:19-20 19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us. NKJV If you lose your salvation you never had it. |
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| Truth About God | ||