Posted on 05/24/2021 7:16:39 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The pivot point in Owens argument is that he presupposes that WE (mankind) have 3 rational choices...or else.
Anthrocentric theology is no theology at all.
- Stefanski
All theology is Christology.
- Scaer
Read the Spugeon sermon I linked in my post #36. That should help you understand.
Those links present a Hyper-Calvinist viewpoint.
Even Calvin believed in common grace.
....or, how about the misguided Pastor has to GO... and the church gets back on the plumb line! ... ymmv
Read the Spugeon sermon link I posted in #36. Spurgeon is a Calvinist hero, but many Calvinist don’t want to accept what Spurgeon teaches on thi issue.
The Spirit calls, but does not “convince” anyone.
I do not understand how “faith” can be a “gift.” Surely, it is not listed as a “spiritual gift” provided by the Holy Spirit, of which no one has all the gifts.
Of course, you could say one has the gift of tongues but has no gift of faith, but that seems inherently ingenuous to most people.
You’re saying God’s will is thwarted. None of the passages I’ve quoted or you have quoted shows that.
If He commands all men everywhere to repent, then yes, He does call all to follow Him. And He provided the means by which anyone, no matter what status they are in life, can come to Him. There is no excuse for rejecting Christ.
Acts 17:26-27 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.
Acts 17:29-31 Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
I never said God’s Will is “thwarted,” you did.
God literally wants everyone in the world to follow Him, but He knows they all won’t.
You claim God does not want everyone to follow God, which is a lie.
No, I claimed that if God wills it, it will be done.
As to your point, God knows who His sheep are and are not.
That’s the best option. However, since the basics, distinctives of the denomination, theology, etc., haven’t been truly taught in decades, members don’t know what they don’t know. They don’t know the preacher is off the rails. Mom is the only one left with a solid Biblical foundation, and she has little power. She’s 96, and others don’t really listen to her much.
Satan is powerful.
You did not use those words. You said, "In this way, not even God gets His Will." But that sounds like God's Will is thwarted.
Did God demand (Will) Adam and Eve to not eat the apple?
Did God get his Will, or are you going to tell us He never intended Adam and Eve to not eat that apple of sin, because he made them not follow Him?
Was God surprised by Adam and Eve eating the fruit of Tree of Knowledge? Or did He know that they would?
Also, was salvation through Christ “Plan B”?
Again, I ask: Did God get his Will when Adam and Eve disobeyed his direct Command and ate the apple?
Yes. Satan intended the fall for evil, but God used it for good and His glory. No different than Joseph’s brother selling him into slavery.
Christ’s atonement was never “Plan B”.
No, God did not get His Will when Adam and Eve disobeyed Him.
So, are you saying the atonement was Plan B?
Men like Abraham followed God joyously within the sin-laden world Adam and Eve left behind and without the Law. Noah came along and, despite the cleansing flood, sin still abounded. Maybe the flood was another “plan” (B?) that didn't clean the world as it should have. As Genesis 6:5–7 says, “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the LORD said, ‘I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.’”
Man failed God, man continued to fail God despite the Law, with which the Law was likely “Plan C.”
Each time, until Christ, we are told that God is saddened and regrets what He did or allowed to happen. So, no, God did not get what He demanded nor was He happy when Man kept sinning. God's Will keeps going unmet by Man not now glorifying God through following Christ.
God wants all to follow God, without exception, but He continues to not get what He wants. There are many examples of this in Scripture.
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