Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: CCWoody

"If you are going to maintain that Christ died for every single man, then you need to show evidence of 'Universal Salvation' in the Bible."

That statement is false on many levels. First and foremost, if you are going to maintain
that Christ didn't die for all, and that that God does
want some to perish, you have to address the verses that
say otherwise, rather than shying away and setting up
your 'Universal Salvation' straw man.

"For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men" (Titus 2:11).

To do so you're coming from yet another assumption plucked from your wilted Tulip that man cannot resist God.
But if you've ever read the Old Testament, you know that
cannot be true. For God's elect, the Jews, frequently abandoned their faith for idol worship.

And we can resist God's grace and mercy.
"You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did" (Acts 7:51).

So if God has called all men, and yet all are not saved,
what is the only logical conclusion? That God has enabled
man to freely accept or freely reject Him.
If not so, this should NOT be in the Bible:
"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you" (Matthew 7:7). Also see Luke 11:9.


"Before God spoke the very first word of creation, did He know all details of His creation from who would be saved and down even to the last detail of every single thought of all His created 'dirt'?"

Yes, of course, but foreknowledge doesn't imply causation.

"For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren" (Romans 8:29). Why bother
about the word 'foreknew' if it hadn't meaning? If predestined savlation required no role on man's part whatsoever, the passage would simply omit that reference to
foreknowledge. But foreknowledge doesn't imply causation.
God knew who would be saved not because He directly caused them to be saved, but He knew who would be saved when He gives them the opportunity.

Also, you're looking at God as if He is also bound by a linear timeline. We exist at the point where the future intersects the past, and once we live through those moments, we no longer have access to those moments. But God isn't bound by linear time; He is atemporal, existing in the past, present, and future (to put it in human terms), and has all eternity and all access to each and every moment that has occurred. See 'Mere Christianity', by C.S. Lewis for more on that.


1,820 posted on 01/21/2005 8:50:59 AM PST by Literati1984
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies ]


To: Literati1984
Don't forget this wonderful verse as well:

1 John 2:2
He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.


1,821 posted on 01/21/2005 8:56:02 AM PST by ShadowAce (Linux -- The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1820 | View Replies ]

To: Literati1984
It may interest you to know that ccWoody is no longer a member of this board.
1,826 posted on 01/21/2005 10:51:25 AM PST by Gamecock (GWB: "Not because we consider ourselves a chosen nation; God moves and chooses as He wills.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1820 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson