But if man is purely evil and thus cannot repent, then God is not just. Rather, man can indeed repent.
Even Moses declared to his hearers that what he is commanding them to do is not too difficult or beyond their reach. Moses simply commanded them to love God, to walk in his ways and his commands, decrees, and laws. Yet, if man is totally incapable of any non-evil-motivated action, then man surely cannot whole-heartedly repent, and man surely cannot obey God's laws with all his heart and all his soul as is commanded in Deuteronomy This day the Lord your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances.
You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul. Regarding Predestination If God has already elected those who are going to heaven, then why evangelize, seek to be saved, or even follow God's path? Your traditional Calvinist would proclaim, "Because God told us so! Evangelism may be the means of how God saves the elect, but our conscience decision to not evangelize will not affect the elect. The interesting counter-argument would be when Calvinists say to non-Calvinists, "But why bother evangelizing God already knows if a particular person will ever accept the message or not.
If God predestined everything, then there is no use in praying for your friends or family. Basically, God has already predestined the events and no appealing to God will likely change his mind- it has already been predestined and cannot be changed. If God predestined everything, then God created sin. This is where Calvinists disagree among themselves. There are several camps; some that believe every little detail has been predestined, those who believe that God predestined all major events including salvation , and those who believe that God only predestines those who will be saved.
I suppose this point would address the first camp; If indeed God did predestine every little thing, then God did create sin. He caused man to act a specific way knowing in advance what it would lead to. If man is totally incapable of good, then man cannot truly be remorseful or repentant.
If man is totally incapable of good, then man cannot be faulted for his sins. If God predestined everything, then there is no such thing as randomness. Now that's an interesting research topic.. If God predestined everything, then why eternally condemn the non-elect? Let me survey several biblical passages to show that it is. First, when Jesus gave His bread of life discourse He said, "whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
Why didn't they believe? Do you understand what Jesus said? To those hard-hearted people Jesus explicitly said to them that the Father gave to Christ some to be saved and not others. In other words, some were chosen while others were left in their hard-heartedness, unable to come to Christ.
Second, most likely the most famous passage is in Romans 9. There Paul made contrast between the historical figures of Jacob and Esau. Then he made the theological affirmations that God loved Jacob while Esau was hated; Jacob was chosen while Esau was not. These brothers stood as illustrative examples of what is true of all humanity. Third, in 1 Thessalonians Paul comforted believers living in dark times: "For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.
These were destined for wrath; but we believers have not been. Fourth, in 1 Peter Peter said that we came to Christ, that is, we believed in Him.
In contrast, he said in verse 7 that some do not believe, citing Psalm that says like a stone Jesus was rejected by the builders. Verse 8 then cites Isaiah 8, declaring Jesus is a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that causes offense to them. Peter continues, "They stumble because they disobey the word"—this is the word of the gospel back in 1 Peter —"as they were destined to do.
Finally, in Jude 4 we learn that false teachers were a part of the plan of God to affect the church: "For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation. So is this doctrine biblical? A simple reading of Scripture shows that not only are some chosen to salvation in God's eternal purpose, but some are not. Those Scripture passages that teach God's election of a particular people unto salvation also teach God's non-election of others.
This is where a distinction is helpful to understand this. As you open it, you quickly realize it is not anything you asked for — yet it is the most interesting and delightful toy you have ever seen.
In fact, after all the gifts have been opened, it is your favorite present of all. Did your father force you to like the gift, as if you were a robot? Did he make you enjoy that gift against your will? But in his wisdom, as he planned for Christmas day, he predetermined to give you that gift out of his gracious love for you, his child. And it was precisely in the giving of the gift that he also gave you the desire for, love of, and joy over the gift.
This is how Calvinists make sense of Ephesians , which talks about faith being a gift from God, not something that originates inside us. God gives us faith in Jesus, but when God gives us that gift it is genuinely our faith — we are doing the believing, out a will that has been renewed by the transforming power of the Spirit.
But if God did not give us the gift of faith, we would never believe from hearts. By now, you can probably guess which side of the debate I fall on!
But I do think it is important for Calvinists to be charitable towards our Arminian brothers and sisters, and vice versa. Because of their emphasis on free will, many Calvinists say that Arminians are necessarily man-centered, not God-centered. The most important thing is that all are constantly going to the Scriptures to gain our understanding on this and every doctrine.
We need to Scripture to inform and reform our framework, and not force Bible verses into our own framework. Eric: A good brief summary on Calvinism and and Arminianism but illustrations attempting to describe spiritual truths we cannot understand this side of heaven are always inadequate. Yet God's overtures of grace invite mena nd women to come to him.
It is from such empirical observations about how God's grace operates, found in Book III of the Institutes, that Calvin develops his account of election and predestination, an account which, as I have stressed, is not original to him, but can be found in equal measure in Augustine, Anselm, Aquinas, Luther, and hosts of others.
Election is God's choice of some to salvation, predestination is God's willing them to his end. In the case of Calvin, a number of things need to be noted. First, predestination is not an axiom from which the entirely of his theology can be deduced in the manner of Euclid's geometry or Spinoza's ethics.
Calvin is not consumed with the thought of predestination, a monomaniac. Second, the idea of election and predestination of some implies for Calvin and the others I have mentioned the idea of others being bypassed.
God wills that they not be redeemed. And because they are sinful, his willing that they not be saved ensures their damnation. Third, this idea of predestination is not to be confused with fatalism. It is not that we are predestined whether we like it or not. Rather, there are signs as to whether or not we are predestined to salvation.
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