He was also cross-eyed.
Posted on 12/24/2009 9:17:14 AM PST by Alex Murphy
In 2002, I had a plane ticket to fly to England to begin a PhD programme in Wesleyan Studies at the University of Manchester, England. I was a Wesleyan-Arminian theologian in the making. I spoke at conferences on John Wesley and wrote several academic publications that were published in the top Wesleyan academic journals including The Wesleyan Theological Journal and The Asbury Theological Journal.1 I even wrote a book entitled Rediscovering John Wesley, about the life, ministry and theology of John Wesley.2 I lived, breathed, believed, wrote and preached Wesleyan-Arminian theology.
However, my Wesleyan world began to radically change in 2003, when my wife Kay and I began to feel the call of God to plant a church. After serving as a pastor and college instructor in Tennessee for several years, I knew God was preparing me to plant a church. We began to dream of planting a church that would be highly innovative, gospel-centred and culturally relevant. During that time, some close friends began telling us about the need for a contemporary church in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. After much prayer, I resigned as lead pastor of our church in Tennessee and made plans to move to North Carolina's beautiful Outer Banks. Everyone thought we were crazy because we were moving to a place that we had never been before. With only faith and a few possessions, we moved to the Outer Banks in May 2005.
As I wrestled with the call to be a church planter, the seeds of Reformed theology began to take form. The implications of planting a church actually shaped and influenced my turn to Reformed theology. I began to ask some sobering questions. Where did the call come from? Why was God calling me to a specific group of people in a place I had never been before? Why was God calling me to do something so radically different from anything I had ever done before? Was it all up to me? How would I know that God would provide for my family if I moved in faith? What would happen if we failed?
I began to realize that the Lord was at the centre of it all. The theological implications were nothing more than astounding. I saw that God was already at work in the Outer Banks preparing the hearts of hundreds of people to receive the gospel before I ever visited. I thought I was going there to do a work for the Lord; rather, I was actually going there to share in the work that he was already doing in the hearts and lives of the people. Many ministers wrongly say 'my ministry' or 'my church.' In actuality, the church belongs to Christ and ministry is an extension of God's work in and through the church. It is Christ's work from beginning to end! This does not remove our responsibility; rather, it frees us to rely on Christ and his cross for ministry. This opened wonderful new possibilities!
I laid aside my Wesleyan lenses and began to see Scripture in a new light. I never really meditated on the meaning of such passages as Ephesians 1:3-14 and Romans.8:28-30. The Scriptures came alive with new meaning and depth. As an Arminian, I had always skipped over these passages and never fully read them. I began reading the works of great historical Reformed thinkers such as Martin Luther, John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards and Charles Spurgeon. Then I began to read the contemporary writings of men like John Piper, D.A. Carson, C.J. Mahaney, Wayne Grudem and Albert Mohler. I also became involved with a Reformed church planting group called the Acts 29 Network, which helped me work through the practical and cultural implications of Reformed theology as a church planter.
I began to see that God was the Sovereign Creator of all things. He upholds, directs and governs all creation from the greatest even to the least by his sovereign will and holy providence. In his foreknowledge, he also governs and directs the affairs of the nations. He rules over all and is the only Sovereign God. John Piper describes the sovereignty of God in the following way, 'He is the only "Sovereign," and therefore He is the happy Sovereign, because there is none that can frustrate what He aims to do according to His good pleasure."3 Contrary to Open Theism, God's plans and purposes cannot be thwarted or overturned.4 He works all things together for good to those who love him according to his will.
It followed then, that I began to understand salvation from a Reformed theological perspective. Men like Martin Luther and John Calvin fought to bring a reformation to the church that would put faith back into the hands of the people. Arising out of the period of the Protestant Reformation were five foundations which summarized in part what the Reformers were trying to do. These banners were known as the 'Five Solas' (Latin for 'only' or 'alone') of the Reformation: the authority of Scripture alone, salvation in Christ alone, by grace alone, through faith alone, and to God alone be glory. These five solas of the faith are as important now as they were then.
The Reformed view of salvation is completely Christocentric. Christianity begins and ends with Jesus Christ. The word Christian literally means 'Christ-like.' Therefore, a proper Christology is the place to start if we are really going to talk about salvation. Reformed theology distinguishes between man-centred and God-centred views of salvation. Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man and is freely offered to all who repent of their sins and trust Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. By his blood, Jesus has obtained eternal redemption for every believer. We are 'saved by grace through faith, not of works, lest anyone should boast' (Eph. 2:8—9). Therefore, salvation is the work of God from beginning to end. Salvation is wholly dependent upon the work of God's grace. God credits his righteousness to those who put their faith in Christ alone for their salvation, thereby justifying them in his sight.
I began to understand that God works in various ways to bring people into full salvation in Jesus Christ. It all begins when God calls us. This is commonly referred to as the effectual call. The effectual call is when the Holy Spirit effectually calls a person by working to awaken the heart, mind and soul of a person to a personal need of salvation. Bruce Demarest helps distinguish between the general call to the unsaved that comes through the preaching of the gospel and the special call that is effected by the Holy Spirit's secret work on the heart.6 The universal call goes out to all through the general proclamation of the gospel. All should hear the gospel message; however, only the elect will hear the inward or special call of the Holy Spirit. We do our part in preaching the gospel and God does his part in calling the elect unto himself by his Spirit.
The Westminster Confession describes the effectual call as,
God's free and special grace alone, not from anything at all foreseen in man, who is altogether passive therein, until, being quickened and renewed by the Holy Spirit, he is thereby enabled to answer this call, and to embrace the grace offered and conveyed in it.This does not diminish the human responsibility in any way. Divine sovereignty and human responsibility are both in the Scriptures. J. I. Packer says that, 'God's sovereignty and man's responsibility are taught us side by side in the same Bible: sometimes, indeed, in the same text.'7
We are also justified by Christ alone, not by any works. Justification is a judicial act, in which God forgives a person's sins and declares him to be in a position of righteousness before God. It is what God does for us. It is by the merits of Christ's redemptive work on the cross that we receive justification, which is the forgiveness of sins. Paul makes it clear that this justification comes by grace through faith in God alone, not of works (Rom. 3:24; Eph. 2:8-9). Justification is the work of God's grace, not ours. For that reason, it is a foundational teaching in the Christian faith, especially in the Protestant tradition.8 The redemptive work of Jesus Christ on the cross brings justification into the life of the believer. Christ's work of reconciliation transforms our hostility toward God into fellowship with him. Let us then never lose sight of the cross and the doctrine of justification. This is why Charles Spurgeon encourages us to, 'abide hard at the cross and search the mystery of his wounds.'9 The Father sent his Son to die for us on the cross to apply the fruit of his death to our lives in justification and salvation. D. A. Carson warns,
I fear that the cross, without ever being disowned, is constantly in danger of being dismissed from the central place it must enjoy, by relatively peripheral insights that take on far too much weight.10
Reformed theology helped me rediscover the centrality of the gospel for the Christian life. Many Christians have a watered down, man-centred version of the gospel. The result of not having a solid grasp on the gospel is a dysfunctional and fragmented faith. C. J. Mahaney warns that three things result when we move away from the gospel: legalism, condemnation and subjectivism.11 Therefore, the gospel message must always remain central. Jerry Bridges says,
The gospel is not the most important message in history; it is the only essential message in all of history. Yet we allow thousands of professing Christians to live their entire lives without clearly understanding it and experience the joy of living their lives by it.12
What is the gospel? The gospel is the declaration of the good news that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that he died for our sins on the cross of Cavalry. Simply put, there is no gospel without the sinless life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Tim Keller beautifully describes the gospel:
Through the person and work of Jesus Christ, God fully accomplishes salvation for us, rescuing us from judgment for sin into fellowship with him, and then restores the creation in which we can enjoy our new life together with him forever.13
The gospel has far-reaching implications for every Christian believer beyond salvation. Not only are we saved by the gospel, but we are also called to live by the gospel. Not only should every Christian have a clear understanding of the gospel but they should also apply it to every area of the Christian life. The gospel is to be applied to every area of thinking, feeling, relating, working and behaving.14 We must never move beyond the gospel. We should memorize the gospel, pray the gospel, sing the gospel, review how the gospel has changed our lives, and finally we should continually study the gospel.15 The gospel is for all of life. This is the reason why the gospel is the foundation for Christian life. Only a gospel-centred approach to all of life will produce healthy Christ followers. It is easy to use church growth principles to add people to your church; however, only the gospel can grow people into disciples of Jesus Christ.
Because of my shift in thinking to a Reformed view of salvation through the gospel, my thoughts of ministry and evangelism also began to change. I began to realize the important connection between the Bible, theology and ministry. Our theology has a direct effect on our ministry. In many ways, our ministry is the fruit of our theology. As an Arminian, I thought it was all up to me to save people. Arminian theology can result in man-centred approaches to evangelism and ministry. I began to see that Christ was already at work in people's lives. I realized that ministry is only effective when the Holy Spirit is already present and at work. Ministry is sharing in the mission of God. Christians have been sent as missionaries to share the gospel in our present culture and to fulfill the Great Commission. Gospel-centred ministry is rooted in the concept of the Missio Dei ('Mission of God') which recognizes that there is one mission and it is God's mission. The church is not an end in itself; the church points beyond itself to fulfill the mission of God.
To understand what it means to be a part of the mission of God, one must begin by understanding that God is a missionary God. The very being of God is the basis for the missionary enterprise. God is a sending God, with a desire to see humankind and creation reconciled, redeemed and healed.16 God's mission can be seen throughout the pages of the Bible and history. Nowhere is the mission of God better understood than in the person and work of Jesus Christ. John 3:16 tells us that 'God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.' Being a missional Christian is simply following the way of Jesus. Jesus Christ was and is the first and greatest missionary. The Bible tells us that he came from heaven to earth to die for a lost and dying world.
Ed Stetzer says, 'Being Missional means actually doing mission right where you are. Missional means adopting the posture of a missionary, learning and adapting to the culture around you while remaining biblically sound.'17 As the Father sent Jesus, he also sends us into our time and culture. Mark Driscoll says, 'It is imperative that Christians be like Jesus, by living freely within the culture as missionaries who are as faithful to the Father and his gospel as Jesus was in his own time and place.'18 We have been chosen by God to live in this time and place in order to fulfill the mission of God. Acts 17:26-27 tells us that God has determined the exact place and time where we should live so that that men may find him. It is truly awesome to realize that you have been chosen by God to be his representative to this world. It is both a great privilege and great responsibility. In 2 Corinthians 5:20 Paul describes our calling in the following way, 'we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.'
I simply wrote this article to share my theological pilgrimage from Arminian theology to Reformed theology. Ironically, my journey has been the exact opposite of Clark Pinnock's theological pilgrimage in which he moved from Reformed to Arminian theology.19 I have not attempted to try to articulate anything new, but to affirm the importance and relevance of Reformed theology in the 21st century. In many ways, my journey seems to parallel a larger resurgence of interest in Reformed theology within Evangelicalism. Collin Hansen captured the resurgence in an article he wrote for Christianity Today called 'Young, Restless, Reformed.'20
Reformed theologian John Franke said,
Reformed theology is always reforming according to the Word of God in order to bear witness to the eternal truth of the gospel in the context of an ever-changing world characterized by a variety of cultural settings: theologia reformata et semper reformata.21
In the spirit of the Reformation, my theology has been reformed and is being reformed. God has taken me on a theological journey from Wesley to Whitefield, from Arminianism to Calvinism.
My theological journey has come full circle. Although I strayed off the road for a while, I have returned home to the roots of my Baptist heritage. My great-great grandfather Rev. William H. Bevins was a Baptist preacher in the late eighteen hundreds in the mountains of Southwest Virginia. He was an adherent to the New Hampshire Baptist Confession, which is a thoroughly Reformed Baptist statement of faith. My great grandfather Phillip Wheeler Bevins built the second sanctuary for First Baptist Church in Concord, Tennessee in 1928. My grandmother Loretta Bevins was the first person baptized in the church. Decades later, when I became a Christian I was also baptized at the First Baptist Church of Concord. Now, I am currently finishing a doctoral degree at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest.
Notes:
1. In fact, by the time many of these were published my theology had begun to shift to Reformed theology. 'Historical Development of Wesley's Doctrine of the Holy Spirit.' Wesleyan Theological Journal (Fall 2006). 'Pneumatology in John Wesley's Theological Method.' The Asbury Theological Journal, Volume 58, Number 2 (Fall 2003).
2. Dr. Larry Wood at Asbury Seminary graciously wrote the foreword to the book: Winfield Bevins, Rediscovering John Wesley (Cleveland, TN: Pathway Press, 2004).
3. John Piper, The Pleasures of God: Meditations on God's Delight in Being God (Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 2000), 54.
4. The Openness view concludes that God does not know the future because it has not happened yet. This unbiblical view of God is a heretical doctrine that is a radical form of Arminian teaching and dangerous to the church on various levels. Classical Arminian theology affirms divine sovereignty in general, and many Arminian theologians are rightly suspicious of Openness theology.
5. Micheal Horton, Putting Amazing Back into Grace: Who Does What in Salvation? (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1994). See especially the introduction to the book.
6. Bruce Demarest and John S. Feinberg, The Cross and Salvation (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2006), 214.
7. J. I. Packer, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1976), 22.
8. Demerast and Feinberg, The Cross and Salvation, 346.
9. Charles Spurgeon, Morning and Evening (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1991), 8.
10. Don Carson, Cross & Christian Ministry: An Exposition of Passages from 1 Corinthians (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1993), 26.
11. C. J. Mahaney, The Cross-Centered Life: Keeping the Gospel the Main Thing (Sisters, OR: Multnomah Books, 2002), 23.
12. Jerry Bridges, The Discipline of Grace (Colorado Springs, CO: Nav Press, 1994), 46.
13. Tim Keller, 'The Gospel in All Its Forms', Leadership Journal (Spring, 2008).
14. Tim Keller, 'The Centrality of the Gospel'; http://www.redeemer2.com/resources/papers/centrality.pdf
15. C. J. Mahaney, The Cross-Centered Life, 53-71.
16. Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publications, 2003), 18.
17. Ed Stetzer, Planting Missional Churches (Nashville, TN: B & H Academic Press, 2006), 19.
18. Mark Driscoll, The Radical Reformission (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 2004), 40.
19. See Clark Pinnock, 'From Augustine to Arminius: A Pilgrimage in Theology'; http://www.revivaltheology.net/l_cal_arrn/pilgrim.html
20. Collin Hansen, 'Young, Restless, Reformed.' Christianity Today (September 2006).
21. John Franke, 'Reforming Theology: Toward a Postmodern Reformed Dogmatics', Westminster Theological Journal (2003), 1-26.
....I began to see that God was the Sovereign Creator of all things. He upholds, directs and governs all creation from the greatest even to the least by his sovereign will and holy providence. In his foreknowledge, he also governs and directs the affairs of the nations. He rules over all and is the only Sovereign God. John Piper describes the sovereignty of God in the following way, 'He is the only "Sovereign," and therefore He is the happy Sovereign, because there is none that can frustrate what He aims to do according to His good pleasure."3 Contrary to Open Theism, God's plans and purposes cannot be thwarted or overturned.4 He works all things together for good to those who love him according to his will.
God is at work! Reformed bump and a Merry Christmas!
He was also cross-eyed.
Very beautiful post.
“Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man and is freely offered to all who repent of their sins and trust Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour.”
who repent of their sins... I’m glad to hear of a Baptist who is convinced that man must repent of his sins, not just believe.
Ping
Thanks for posting!
5 Solas!
Utterly unconvincing. Why?
1 - Belief in God’s sovereignty doesn’t conflict with free will. It depends on what God, in his sovereign will, desires. If his highest goal is obedient servants, then his power suffices to make them obey. If his sovereign will is to have sons who obey freely, because they love him, then free will is required - the ability to accept or reject God’s call.
2 - God isn’t a democrat. “Bruce Demarest helps distinguish between the general call to the unsaved that comes through the preaching of the gospel and the special call that is effected by the Holy Spirit’s secret work on the heart.6 The universal call goes out to all through the general proclamation of the gospel. All should hear the gospel message; however, only the elect will hear the inward or special call of the Holy Spirit.” Wayne Grudem also makes this distinction - that God has a revealed will (all be saved) and a secret will (just those I call effectually).
If I say one thing in public while working to ensure something else happens, I am a liar, and probably a democrat.
If God’s revealed will says, “3This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” and “”For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 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.”, but this differs from his secret will, which is “I choose who can believe and force the rest not to...”, then God is a democrat.
Your author writes, “This does not diminish the human responsibility in any way. Divine sovereignty and human responsibility are both in the Scriptures”. Wayne Grudem does the same thing, and says God’s picking who he allows to believe is consistent with men having a genuine choice. Nice claim, but neither man then EXPLAINS how they are consistent.
3. False dichotomy. “As an Arminian, I thought it was all up to me to save people.” Guess that means I’m not an Arminian. I have never thought or believed that it is up to me to convince someone to become a Christian. However, I am responsible to present the Gospel well. As Paul writes:
“19For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. 21To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.
24Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.” - 1 Cor 9
Look at that again: “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.” Who did Paul think he was?!
And what about Ezekiel?
” 1The word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Son of man, speak to your people and say to them, If I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from among them, and make him their watchman, 3and if he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows the trumpet and warns the people, 4then if anyone who hears the sound of the trumpet does not take warning, and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. 5 He heard the sound of the trumpet and did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But if he had taken warning, he would have saved his life. 6 But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any one of them, that person is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.
7 “So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. 8 If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. 9 But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, that person shall die in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.” - Ezek 33
It isn’t that I save anyone, but I cooperate with God’s will.
3 - This article glosses over the idea that God saves us first by creating a new heart, which then can have faith. But what does scripture say?
“6And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.” - Gen 15
” 14 “Now therefore fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. 15 And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” - Joshua 24
6But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) 7or “’Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” - Romans 10
Now, it is a well established rule of scripture interpretation that clear scripture statements be used to illuminate the difficult passages.
There is no doubt that those who believe are predestined to be conformed to Christ. There is not doubt that those chosen by God are called to live holy lives.
The question is how does God choose? Does he do it at random, based on his sovereign choice beforehand? Or is there something else?
And the clear teaching of scripture is that we are saved by grace through faith, not grace through election. In John 6 we read, 28Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”
There is one “work” required: to say yes. “35Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”
That is not works based salvation, but grace through faith.
“I’m glad to hear of a Baptist who is convinced that man must repent of his sins, not just believe.”
There is no belief without repentance. You cannot believe in a God who says “Repent” if you do not repent. And the vast majority of Baptists agree with that statement.
“Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.
A. Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of God’s grace whereby believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus. It is a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith are inseparable experiences of grace.
Repentance is a genuine turning from sin toward God. Faith is the acceptance of Jesus Christ and commitment of the entire personality to Him as Lord and Saviour.
B. Justification is God’s gracious and full acquittal upon principles of His righteousness of all sinners who repent and believe in Christ. Justification brings the believer unto a relationship of peace and favor with God.
C. Sanctification is the experience, beginning in regeneration, by which the believer is set apart to God’s purposes, and is enabled to progress toward moral and spiritual maturity through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in him. Growth in grace should continue throughout the regenerate person’s life.
D. Glorification is the culmination of salvation and is the final blessed and abiding state of the redeemed.”
http://www.sbc.net/bfm/bfm2000.asp
Thanks for the post. My wife said it would not be appropriate to send it to my two Arminian brothers today. Readers might be interested in our Christian Cram course. Go to www.faithfacts.org. Then go to Bible 101.
OK, my scholarly friend, when I lived in Texas a man in our town killed himself, his wife and his kids with a gun. At his funeral the Baptist preacher said it sure was a good thing that he had accepted Christ as his personal Savior, so he could go straight to heaven. I found that type of thinking to be a travesty. There was no repentance involved, as he obviously did not live long enough. Just belief, at some random earlier point in his life.
Answer me that please.
There are at least 70,000 Baptist congregations, all of which are autonomous. So, for example, I once visited a Baptist Church only to hear a sermon about how the KJV is God’s Word, and any other translation heretical.
However, normative baptist belief is that repentance is required. That doesn’t mean we lose our salvation every time we sin, but that someone who has been born again will repent when he does sin. When you are born again, you become a new creation with the Holy Spirit in you, and He won’t give you rest until you DO repent of your sin.
God alone knows with certainty who has or has not been born again. I had a roommate in college who said all the right things and acted very Christian - for 6 months. Then he became a Buddhist. There have been times in my life when I was bitter and refused to go to church - but God hadn’t given up on me. He continued until I repented.
The Baptist preacher you cite was preaching contrary to mainstream Baptist belief. I gave you the Southern Baptist ‘Faith and Message’, which Southern Baptists at least give lip service to. The 1689 Baptist Confession has it:
“Saving repentance is a gospel grace [1] by which we are made aware of the many evils of our sin by the Holy Spirit. [2] By faith in Christ [3] we humble ourselves over our sin with godly sorrow, hatred of it, and self-loathing. We pray for pardon and strength of grace, [4] and determine and endeavour, by [the power] supplied by the Spirit, to walk before God and to please him in all things. [5]
Repentance is to continue through the whole course of our lives because of our ‘body of death’ and its activities. [1] So it is everyone’s duty to repent of particular known sins with particular care. [2]
In the covenant of grace God has made full provision through Christ for the preservation of believers in their salvation, so, although even the smallest sin deserves damnation, [1] yet there is no sin great enough to bring damnation on those who repent. This makes the constant preaching of repentance essential. [2]”
http://www.grbc.net/about_us/1689.php?chapter=15
Is that where the "hoigh toide" people live?
It was FR that moved me from Wesleyan Arminian theology to Reformed Theology..so I understand this mans journey!
Merry Christmas to all the saved on this day set aside to remember the benefits of our salvation through Christ !
Solo Christo !!!!!
LOVE both Whitfield and Wesley, even though Wesley’s theology was imperfect.
“There is one “work” required: to say yes.” “35Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”
But Jesus said “No one CAN come to me UNLESS the Father who sent me draws him.” John 6:44
And to those who would say “yes and God draws all men to Christ”, Christ had already said in verse 37 “All that the Father gives me WILL COME to me, and whoever comes to Me I will never cast out.”
Ephesians 2:8 - “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no on may boast.”
What is the “it” that Paul is speaking about?
“What is the “it” that Paul is speaking about?”
Salvation.
“For by grace (thi gar xariti).
Explanatory reason. “By the grace” already mentioned in verse 5 and so with the article.
Through faith (dia pistewv).
This phrase he adds in repeating what he said in verse 5 to make it plainer. “Grace” is God’s part, “faith” ours.
And that (kai touto).
Neuter, not feminine tauth, and so refers not to pistiv (feminine) or to xariv (feminine also), but to the act of being saved by grace conditioned on faith on our part. Paul shows that salvation does not have its source (ex umwn, out of you) in men, but from God. Besides, it is God’s gift (dwron) and not the result of our work.”
http://www.studylight.org/com/rwp/view.cgi?book=eph&chapter=002&verse=008
Also:
“And that not of yourselves. That is, salvation does not proceed from yourselves. The word rendered that—\~touto\~—is in the neuter gender, and the word faith—\~pistiv\~ —is in the feminine. The word “that,” therefore, does not refer particularly to faith, as being the gift of God, but to the salvation by grace of which he had been speaking.”
http://www.studylight.org/com/bnn/view.cgi?book=eph&chapter=002
John 6 is one of the strongest arguments for predestination as taught by Calvin. The question is how to view “draws”...
44No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. 45It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— 46 not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.
“Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me...whoever believes has eternal life.”
One way to resolve it is to say God gives belief to those He draws. The other way to resolve it is to say God draws those He knows will believe.
I concluded the latter was more accurate because A) there are far more passages talking about our needing to believe, and that God wants all to repent, than there are the reverse, and B) because Romans 8 has the progression as, “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; 30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.”
I’ve also read that the Greek there doesn’t require it to be a progression in time, just that all those things happen...but I don’t know Greek, and don’t know if that is true.
I stay with my interpretation because there are a hundred verses that make clear sense of the text that way, while only a few are confusing. When I try to be a Calvinist predestinationist, I have far too many verses that I have to twist to conform.
Now, from Genesis to Revelations, we are presented as having a choice to make. If someone can reconcile that with God giving us no choice, I’d like to hear it. I’m a Sola Scriptura kind of guy, so I’ll follow whatever the scriptures says. I just find enormous support for our having a real choice to make, and don’t see any way to reconcile that with the idea that God requires us to believe or not.
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