Posted on 06/29/2011 3:47:58 AM PDT by The Ignorant Fisherman
My friend, for years some of us have prayed vigilantly for loved ones and individuals to come to a saving knowledge of the Savior, only to have these individuals choose to die in their sins and transgressions in the end (John 8:24, Rom. 6:23). My friends, has Almighty God turned a deaf ear to our desperate pleas and petitions for our loved ones? GOD FORBID!!!! Almighty God wants these individuals saved and regenerated more then we ever could. God fully comprehends the entire magnitude of their ETERNAL destiny and loves them more then we ever could with A PERFECT AND ETERNAL LOVE (John 3:16-17, 1 John 4:9, 16). God the Father sent and gave His only begotten Son to meet our ETERNAL dire needs (Rom. 6:23, 10:4, 2 Cor. 5:21, 1 John 3:5). God the Son put on humanity and violently died and shed His sinless blood on the cross for the sins of the whole world to be our perfect propitiation and Savior (Gal. 1:4, Heb, 10:7-10, 1 Peter 1:18-19, 1 John 2:2, Rev 1:5).
"God fully comprehends the entire magnitude of their ETERNAL destiny and LOVES them more then we ever could with A PERFECT AND ETERNAL LOVE"
Through out these individuals’ (our loved ones and the whole world’s ) entire lives (existence in time) Almighty God has put up the “Heavenly Steel Curtain” and has made every attempt to deliver these godless and lawless individuals (whether virtuous or vile - good or evil) from their fallen state and ETERNAL doom, but in the end these choose ruin and destruction instead of ETERNAL righteousness and fellowship with their Creator in spirit and truth (Matt. 25:41, John 4:24, Rev. 20:11-15). What is most tragic is that these individuals chose to rejected God’s saving grace through out their entire short “flower of the field” lives and live in a delusion about the ETERNAL realities of righteousness and judgment. These - in the end - dive head first over Almighty God's "Heavenly goal line stance" into ETERNAL perdition, ruin and judgment (i.e., into the Hell Zone). Each human being is the sole captain of their ETERNAL destiny. In the end, it is each ones own personal decision that chooses their ETERNAL destiny and habitation.
"In the end, it is each ones own personal decision that chooses their ETERNAL destiny and habitation"
My Beloved, always remember that in Almighty God is no evil or unrighteousness (Job 34:10, Psalm 116:5, Rom. 9:14). He NEVER can lie (Titus 1:2, Heb. 6:18). He is only LOVING, MERCIFUL, GRACIOUS, LONG SUFFERING and most of all RIGHTEOUS (Psalm 86:15, 103:8, 116:5, 145:17, John 4:9,16, 2 John 1:3)!
“Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? (Gen 18:25c)”
There are many hard and overwhelming realities to deal with today in this lost and dying world. May we be bold as lions to see these realities for what they are from Almighty God’s Eternal perspective? It is from this Heavenly position that we will be set free from all of the temporal overwhelming realities of time and ETERNITY (John 8:32, 36, Col. 3:1-2).
My friends let me quote Almighty God once more.
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved (John 3:16-17)."
My beloved, I do not know how to state anything more wonderful than that! Beloved, enjoy God and let him LOVE you as only He can in these trying days.
The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!
"For Grace you have been saved through faith. AND THIS IS NOT OF YOUR OWN DOING, IT IS THE GIFT OF GOD"
Your Salvation is not of your own doing or your own choice - it is the Gift of God.
God looked upon all mankind (see Psalm 14=Psalm 53) and found that none came upon their own free will. None sought for him on their own (Romans 3). And to this Lord Jesus Christ says: "NO ONE CAN COME TO ME UNLESS THE FATHER DRAWS HIM".
The dead do not come to Christ on their own freewill, for mankind is Spiritually dead in Adam.
This is why you can testify and pray endlessly for folks that will not come to Christ. They are dead to the gospel, it makes no sense to them. They have not been given a new "heart of flesh" (Micah) to love him, their minds have not been regenerated (Romans), they have not been given "ears to hear" (Matthew), they have not received a measure of faith from God (Romans), they have not been "Born Again" (John) BORN of GOD and "NOT OF THE WILL OF MAN" (John 1:13).
But those who have been "made alive in Christ" by God (Ephesians) do hear the word, they do hear the Gospel, they ARE attracted by the Word Preached. Why? Because of God's doing. Because of what God has done and implanted - which springs up to their "message" their confession of faith upon Christ alone.
To say that you did Salvation upon your own Free will, is to spite God for the amazing things he has done for you, the gifts he has lavished upon you and the Everlasting Love He has lavished upon folks like us FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD.
His grace is evident to those who will not believe. His testimony is in all creation (Romans 1). His word has gone through all the world and is in all jurisprudence through his Commandments. Even the Gospel is preached through the radio waves upon the entire earth, so NONE HAVE AN EXCUSE.
The door is open, the Savior's love is evident, but their wills are bound by the gravity of sin and their hearts abhor the things of God and his love.
We preach it because we KNOW NOT who will respond, we sow the seed of the world of God, sometimes on rocky ground - sometimes fertile ground (which of which we cannot perceive) and all to the commandment of Christ to Preach to every Nation and the Ends of the Earth, God's Love on the Cross for folks like us.
The 95 yr old mother of an atheist friend, herself an atheist Jew, recently confided in me that she fears death. Pray for the Lord to lead her to a saving knowledge of Christ. I expect to speak with her later today.
Yes, that the Father would draw her irresistibly to Christ. Irresistibly by His awesome love.
No dispute that without the Father drawing a person to Christ, that person would never choose Christ, but there's a difference between drawing them and forcing them to choose.
It's literally a case of "you can lead a lost man to living water, but you can't make him drink".
No one said anything about forcing. God's love is irresistible, He knows exactly how to draw (woo) someone. After all, He made us you know and knows exactly how to love us so much that it is impossible to resist.
Christ said "All the Father gives to me, will come to me". They are drawn by His awesome, irresistible love.
I could say that God's love is all encompassing, never ending and beyond our understanding, but not irresistible as you're describing it.
Now my questions is to you - If Christ says "All that the Father gives to me, WILL come to me" and your argument is that God's love is resistible then what other way are they guaranteed to come as Christ says?
Right there is the author's problem. If it is an individuals "free choice" then what specifically is your prayer doing? Having God try harder? Paladin stated that God's love is not irresistible. So why even bother praying for someone? They can resist God and it's their choice. What's the purpose of prayer?
God's nature is love and one of those characteristics is righteousness. God is perfectly right and just in casting ALL of us evil, rebellious people into eternal torment. That doesn't make God unloving. Rather we deserve it and it is our wages that God is paying. After all He created hell for the devil and wicked. But for God to reveal Himself to some of us shows just how merciful, loving and gracious God is, in spite of ourselves.
How people constantly misquote John 3:16-17! They need to look further at the verses:
Jhn 3:17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Jhn 3:18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
Jhn 3:19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
Jhn 3:20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.
The reason we are saved is not because of a choice we make. Rather, it is because the Father has chosen to give us to His precious Son.
That is absolutely correct. The Lord Jesus Christ said that "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out." John 6:37 . And the question is what "cast out" means.
In Matthew 8:12 the Lord Jesus Christ answers this "but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
So if we say that God the Father gives ALL mankind in John 6:37 to the Son, then no one goes to hell ("outer darkness") and everybody is saved regardless (Universal Salvation).
But this is not the case. God the Father gives the elect to Christ and Christ losses not one of them, none of them go into outer darkness and all of them are drawn to Christ by his irresistible love such that they confess what God has already done for them - Implanted Faith and Believe upon the Son's work for them on the Cross.
To believe otherwise is Universal Salvation.
Sorry, but you can dress it up anyway you like it, but enticing someone to follow you in spite of their own free will is coercion. I suspect that the problem you're having is that of perspective though. Yes, the Scriptures do state that all those who the Father gives to Christ will come to Him, but that's not a statement of intent on God's part but a statement of fact as seen by someone who knows the end from the beginning. God, who resides outside of time, already knows who will accept Christ and who will reject Him, so therefore He calls and draws those who will accept Him and that acceptance will be by their own free will. In this manner, mankind's freedom to choose is preserved and God's omnipotence is proven.
Did I mention I was a Freewill Calvinist? :)
The problem here is doubting God's power.
The doctrine of Freewill is a chimera for it delivers no comfort for it is a Doctrine of Man. It promises much and delivers no comfort near the end.
Whereas the Doctrine of Election and Predestination says much about the Character of God. That He is in the business of raising the Spiritually dead and drawing them to service. His works "while we were dead in trespasses and sin" are awesome. That He preserves the saints and never leaves nor forsakes them.
The doctrine based on man's choice (freewill) leaves one in doubt of ones salvation. For one can doubt ones choice at any time.
But believing God's election of you from the dead, not for any works you would do, is great comfort and strengthens your faith in God: "That He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:6
For example, free will does not provoke a person to question God's commitment to Salvation, it provokes a person to reexamine their life in an effort to remain fully within God's will and plan for us.
I'm as staunch a defender of free will as any man, and yet I have no problem at all in saying that I know Christ is faithful to finish the work He began in my life. I don't doubt God's faithfulness, I doubt my ability as a man to please God on my own. Free will constantly forces me to reexamine my life to ensure that I can say "not I, but Christ".
Do you understand now what I'm talking about? Free will does not contradict Predestination, it compliments it.
Yes, but can you freely leave Christ? Can you loss your salvation? Do you still have free will?
As for those who leave "They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us." 1 John 2:19 Your asking for a God who is not Sovereign and not capable of really saving. For a God who is subservient to man's wishes.
Christ's own Words here are being plainly ignored and therefore my work to present the Scriptures is done.
Explain the Prodigal Son parable, where it was said that the son “was dead, but is now alive!”
The idea is that the Son was Spiritually Dead, but now is Alive by Faith. "Dead" means "Dead", so the question you must ask is what made him "alive!" from the Dead? For the Spiritually "Dead" do not make Spiritual choices, but lie still in the grave.
You must ask what "Dead" means. And of Christs saying "ALL that the Father gives me WILL come to Me" - What does ALL mean and what does WILL mean?
This is all I ask.
Have you actually read the parable? You do realize that the son made the decision all by himself to return to his Father, don't you? That father did not come and get him. The son returned of his own free will.
Your ignoring what Jesus said about him, that He was Dead, Spiritually Dead, so the question is what happened to make him alive? You are saying that it was his choice, but the Dead do not make choices. Therefore something had to happen, and that something is God.
According to Scripture, that something is a new heart (a heart of flesh instead of stone), a regenerated mind, ears to hear, a measure of faith and to be born of God.
You must be arguing that these things happened after one Chooses Christ. But that is putting the cart before the horse.
If your heart is as Stone, you do not care for God. If you do not have a regenerated mind, you cannot think the things of God, If you do not have Ears to Hear, you cannot hear His voice. If He has not implanted Faith within what was formerly Spiritually dead, you cannot exercise Faith to please Him. And lastly, one cannot Birth oneself and be Born of God.
Also, as I wrote, God the Father had to draw you (with His irresistable Love) to the Son.
All this is plain in the Scriptures and you seem to be saying that God did not do this for you before your confession of faith.
Did God save you or did you save yourself?
No, that is not the question. Do you actually believe that Christ would leave out something that important from the parable the He was telling?
Did God save you or did you save yourself?
God saved me. I accepted the salvation of my own free will. For His grace that brings salvation has appeared to me--as it does to ALL MEN.
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