Posted on 11/01/2011 6:08:48 PM PDT by rzman21
The moral of Sola Scriptura is you can quote scripture all you like and make it mean what you want it to.
Even the Devil can quote scripture. Take Luther’s comments from his Small Catechism on Baptism, which he based on his reading of Sola Scriptura.
2. Luther & Baptismal Regeneration — (Note specifically: II.)
The Sacrament of Holy Baptism: The Simple Way a Father Should Present it to His Household.
I. Q. What is Baptism?
A. Baptism is not just plain water, but it is water contained within God’s command and united with God’s Word.
II. Q. What does Baptism give? What good is it?
A. It gives the forgiveness of sins, redeems from death and the Devil, gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, just as God’s words and promises declare. (Emphasis added.)
Q. What are these words and promises of God?
A. Our Lord Christ spoke one of them in the last chapter of Mark: “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; but whoever does not believe will be damned.”
III. Q. How can water do such great things?
A. Water doesn’t make these things happen, of course. It is God’s Word, which is with and in the water. Because, without God’s Word, the water is plain water and not baptism. But with God’s Word it is a Baptism, a grace-filled water of life, a bath of a new birth in the Holy Spirit, as St. Paul said to Titus in the third chapter: “Through this bath of rebirth and renewal of the Holy Spirit, which He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior, that we, justified by the same grace are made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a faithful saying.” (Emphasis added.)
IV. Q. What is the meaning of such a water Baptism?
A. It means that the old Adam in us should be drowned by daily sorrow and repentance, and die with all sins and evil lusts, and, in turn, a new person daily come forth and rise from death again. He will live forever before God in righteousness and purity.
Q. Where is this written?
A. St. Paul says to the Romans in chapter six: “We are buried with Christ through Baptism into death, so that, in the same way Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, thus also must we walk in a new life.”
For the Calvinist however, prayer is a meaningless ritual since they hold that God has decided everything and hasn't considered prayer occurring in time.
A Son begotten in eternally is not co-eternal with the Father.
In the beginning was the Word,(second person of the Trinity) that was who the Son was before He was begotten in time.
You are applying ‘begotten’ in a way it was not intended. Would you make God an amoeba, reproducing himself?
The begetting of the Son occured in time with the birth of Christ.(Psa.2, Lk.1)
That is why the KJB correctly has in John 1:14,
Joh 1:18 No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
The NASB has begotten God, and God cannot be begotten as God. You end up with a lesser ‘god’.
What He begot for the 2nd Person of the Trinity was the perfect human qualities,(Heb.10:5) (combined with the pure human nature of Mary, the woman doesn't transmit the Old Sin Nature, the man does) so that the Word became the God-Man, without Adam's sin and having two natures (God and Man) and one person.
Does this include Judas? Christ prayed that God would protect Peter from Satan. One can only conclude our Lord did not pray the same prayer for Judas. It is clear that God chooses some and to others He passes over. That is a fact taught in scripture as early as Moses and the Angel of Death. One could even go back to Cain and Abel.
For the Calvinist however, prayer is a meaningless ritual since they hold that God has decided everything
Prayer is the way we know the will of God. Yes, God has decided everything for that is the definition of sovereignty and that is the way we are submissive to God's calling, not our will but His. But I wouldn't be so bold as to make the claim that my prayers are righteous and holy to the will of God. All of our prayers are so poor to God that the Holy Spirit must intercede for us.
Now let's suppose you have Uncle Joe. He hears the same sermon as Aunt Bertha and it has no effect. In fact, throughout the years Uncle Joe's heart just seems to grow more callous to anything spiritual. Finally Uncle Joe dies never making a profession and perhaps even rejecting the gospel on his death bed. Wouldn't the problem be that God just never opened Uncle Joe's eyes were to the truth?
With Aunt Bertha God opened her eyes to the truth. With Uncle Joe he never was able to see the truth.
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