Yeah, I am really, really conflicted with John. In everything else, he is a spot on, really great Bible teacher and preacher, I’m just not a Calvinist, and its weird because Calvinists and reformed people tend to talk more about Calvin than Christ. And there is a reformed movement sweeping evangelicals, even in the Baptist church. But it is just not Biblical. As quoted above, “If you declare that Jesus is Lord, and believe that God brought him back to life, you will be saved.” A lot of Calvinists want to argue that it is more complicated than that, that their study and education has revealed to them much much more that is part of salvation, but that hardly squares with Jesus stating that unless you have the faith of a child, you could not be saved. In other words, salvation by faith is as simple as a child’s faith.
I think that what John has stated is a sign of growth of a Christian, and that we should strive for each one of those things to be part of who we are as followers of Christ. But I don’t believe that is a salvation checklist. You could be saved, and not have developed in those areas like you could have, but that would be your loss on missing out to have a deeper, richer experience for Christ, and to enjoy the fruits of living that experience for Christ.
Finally, many great Bible teachers like Norman Geissler, Frank Turek, Adrian Rodgers have clearly shown that the elect refers to nations, or people called to ministry, but not to salvation. Salvation is to all people, not just some that God arbitrarily picks to be saved.
I'm a Calvinist. I became a Calvinist about 5 years ago. What I have learned is that God is VERY, VERY GOOD and I am VERY, VERY EVIL. It's not much more complicated than that.
I’m thinking, after reading these posts, that many people are confused about the purpose of this thread and series.
It’s not about how to get saved, which IS very simple, but about examining the evidence of salvation.