Replies

Calvinism stresses the will

Who will come? No man is restrained .

The gospel is to be offered to all men and those that will ,will come

God does not remove from any man anything. Man has the "free will " left to them by Adam .

What we do know is that dead men can not choose life. That life has to be given to them .

So God Quickens the man dead in sin and He is born again. Once that happens that man will desire Christ, He will choose to repent and believe. His will is no longer in bondage to the sin of Adam..He is truly free to choose.(remember Luthers book?)
We know from looking around us that that grace is not given to all men , or all men would chose Christ .

The atonement is limited to the elect .

Fact, just consider this. How many men do you know that sat under the teaching of the bible , but never had the desire to choose Christ? I have known hundreds.

It is like the bible says they have eyes but do not see and ears but do not hear. They have no desire to repent.

How many do you konw that in an emotional service will come forward
and maybe attend church for a time but never have any fruit and then leave?

What is different about you? You are no smarter or more holy before you were saved (sorry about that :>) ..but there was something..a quickening in your heart that made you run to Christ and the cross...That my friend is irrestible grace..not "forcing" men to love Him, but freeing them to for the first time.

Remember how light and free you felt? Ahhhh Amazing Grace How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me..I once was lost but now am found was blind BUT NOW I see..yea God!!

Thanks for the reply.

God does not remove from any man anything. Man has the "free will " left to them by Adam .

What we do know is that dead men can not choose life. That life has to be given to them .

So God Quickens the man dead in sin and He is born again. Once that happens that man will desire Christ, He will choose to repent and believe. His will is no longer in bondage to the sin of Adam...

The atonement is limited to the elect .

I'm still getting hung up on how "dead men can not choose life" seems to contradict "Man has the 'free will' left to them by Adam."

Does the "free will" left to Adam merely mean freedom to sin, and only sin? Then, is that freedom?

I'm not really suggesting man would ever seek or choose God on his own. But, perhaps the quickening is the grace of restoring the man so that he does have a choice to seek or choose God. But if that is irresistable, it seems like we've lost free will again.

Yes, the atonement is limited to the elect... sounds like a tautology. I don't believe in universalism - that everyone on the planet was saved by Christ, regardless of their choice to follow Jesus or not.

Thank you for your patience.