Posted on 08/21/2008 1:45:32 PM PDT by Gamecock
Thanks for sharing that.
A prophet is never received in his own town.
Might I suspect a book by a < sarc> cold heartless Calvinist? < /sarc> (Sarcasm is not aimed at you)
Tim Keller wrote a book titled The Reason For God. It might help you with your discussions with friends and family. You can see him on Youtube going into the belly of the beast so to speak. He has given lectures at Stanford and the Google campus. I find the quite winsome and disarming towards the skeptic.
Nope.
Have a nice life.
"...Paul confronted Peter about his error of retreating from the Gentiles when the Judaizers showed up...."
What is a 'Judaizer'? A 'God-Fearer' one who sympathized, with and practiced as far as possible, the Law of Moses, yet, not having been born in any of the twelve tribes, remained an gentile nevertheless? And when Peter retreated from his stance re: these gentiles was not at the insistence of James and his followers who grudgingly admitted the validity of the God-Fearers, but only as auxiliary to, not bona fide members of God's chosen people?
"...Paul said he was sent to the Jews with the Gospel..."
By 'gospel' do you mean Paul was sent 'to the Jews' to proclaim the fulfillment of Daniel's prophecy? To all the Jews?
lol. I’m not sure I’ve “mellowed.” Perhaps I’ve gotten more patient because I’ve been around here long enough to see quite a few Arminians become Calvinists, by the grace of God alone. 8~)
Sure it does. And thank God it does because it makes life so much more joyful to know mercy is truly unmerited, and we are saved by grace and not debt.
Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. " -- Romans 5:8-10"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Saved while we were still enemies, still sinners.
Read Ephesians 1. Our salvation is all part of God's grand purpose in creating in the first place.
"Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father." -- John 6:65
The first great awakening was brought about by a squinty eyed Calvinist reading Sinners in the hands of an angry God in a squeaky monotone voice by candle light.
The second great awakening, which called for manipulating people through new excitements resulted in Mormonism and other cults and huge swathes of burnt over areas that have never recovered.
AMEN!
"God giveth the increase."
Amen and amen. When that truth finally became real to me. a huge burden was lifted off of my shoulders resulting in opening a praise to His glory that I never felt was possible. And I saw the same thing happen with my kids. Hallelujah, all praise and glory to the Lamb!
Then why do you believe and your neighbor doesn't?
Why? Are you smarter? More pious? Quicker-witted?
What's the difference between you and your neighbor?
Eventually, people will wonder why good things seem to work out for you, or why you don't succumb to the bad times.
Then you can smile and tell them the reason.
That’s a stupid question. The answer is because I made the decision.
I've been attending a PCA church lately, actually. But I doubt I'll turn Calvinist any time soon. Deo volento. >.>
The “error” is according to that which is actually true. For example, if I think Paul was an African-American and taught this, according to what is actually true, I am wrong. However, I might still be a believer.
Your next statements puzzle me a little. The Judaizers were Jewish men (yes, bona fide blood members of God’s physically chosen people, the Jews), who followed Paul around telling folks that Jesus was fine, but there was more to the Gospel than just trusting Jesus to forgive your sins. They taught you now had the “equipment” to really obey the Law of Moses and thereby insure your salvation. This confusion of the Gospel became a great source of irritaion to Paul. Read the entire letter to the Galations and listen to how angry Paul is that such men would attempt to water down the message.
“Even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned.” Do I read that, “Go to hell”? Sure, this is language intended to shake them up. But, the message is the same. There is one message about Jesus being adequate without cermonial additions.
And what I meant is that Paul recognized that Peter, while sadly mistaken about his pulling back, was still a “sent one” (apostle) to the Jews to tell them that their Messiah had come. As far as Daniel’s prophecy points toward this, yes, Peter was sent to all Jews to tell them about Jesus. And, oddly, Peter was the first one who really saw the breaking down of the barrier between the Jews and Gentiles (Acts 10:9ff).
**The answer is because I made the decision.**
Why?
Or do you often make descisions without thinking them through?
ie: “I bought a house because I made the decision to”
So you were smarter than the unbeliever who didn’t make the decision? Or was it just dumb luck?
Wonderful news. I haven't heard any of our PCA brothers and sisters complaining.
My only complaint is that there isn't one closer to our house. I envy you and hope you find it to be a good match.
And as far as calling yourself a Calvinist, it takes some time to shake the perception of stodginess and antiquity off the label. But once it's gone, you feel liberated. It's just so joyful and solid. God's in His heaven and we have been redeemed by grace alone through faith alone in His perfect Son alone. The best is yet to be.
In most PCA churches, you only have to be able to subscribe to the Confession of Faith if you serve as an ordained officer. (Some extend that to other leadership positions and to adult Sunday School teachers).
I would recommend that you read through the Westminster Confession of Faith and its scripture proofs. (Do a keyword search to see the series posted by Alex Murphy). That’s the OPC version, but it is substantially similar to the PCA version.
And, remember, Calvin himself would probably have had to have taken some exceptions to the WCF.
I used the keyword WCF to mark each entry, although you may find it easier to use this post to locate all the threads.
I regret having done so a long time ago.
Wesley also told Hervey imputed righteousness is imputed nonsense.
We’ve all fallen for modern evangelistic techniques my friend.
It dawned on my wife just the other day that you shouldn’t tell someone that they can have a personal relationship with Christ.
Everyone has a personal relationship with Jesus. Some are with Christ as savior, some as a Jesus the wrathful judge.
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