Interesting. You believe God has picked who He has saved, and that not everyone can be saved?
Where is our choice in the matter?
“Interesting. You believe God has picked who He has saved, and that not everyone can be saved?”
Yes, although everyone is responsible before God to repent, I believe we can only repent if He enables us. I believe this because the Bible frequently, throughout the Old and New Testaments, refers to fallen men as “dead.”
A dead person cannot help himself, at all, not even reach out for help. So, a Calvinist believes that God mercifully enables us to put our trust in Christ.
Many think that means that we don’t think you should spread the gospel or urge sinners to repent. That is not true. Read the theology of any prominent Calvinist, or just look at the history of any Calvinist church or denomination. We are fantastic missionaries and will continue to be.
Some verses to ponder on the idea of predestination, that is, God’s having sovereignly ordained who it is who will trust in Him:
Ephesians 2:1 “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins.”
Romans 8:28-30: “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined, to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.”
The valley of dry bones in Ezekiel 37 is illustrative. The bones don’t reassemble themselves and come alive. God must make them so.
Philipians 2:13 “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.”
And the one that frustrates us so, Pharoah in Exodus, where it is said repeatedly God hardened Pharoah’s heart; and yet it also says Pharoah hardened his heart.
It is not natural to us, but it is what God presents in Scripture, so I accept it as truth.