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To: Bainbridge; RnMomof7; xzins; HarleyD; Gamecock; CondoleezzaProtege; blue-duncan; the_conscience; ...
But you won’t get anywhere: they are elect, and are predestined to believe that.

"They?" Do you consider yourself among God's elect, a member of His family?

All Trinitarian Christians are elect. Whether or not they know that for sure, or only guess at it, isn't really the question. God's grace through faith in Christ is what saves. Grace saves, which often brings with it a confident assurance of the power and intention of the Triune God to redeem those whom He has named as His own from before the foundation of the world.

Sometimes that assurance is hid from men, and that's too bad. But if they are Trinitarian Christians, they are still among the elect of God since true faith in Christ is the emblem of our adoption by God.

I always say that I will be more willing to listen to a Calvinist who says he believes in the 5 points and that he is not one of the elect.

While that sounds clever, it is gibberish. To believe the Gospel is to be saved. And THE FIVE POINTS OF CALVINISM are simply a clear declaration of Biblical teaching. Nothing more; nothing less.

1) All men are fallen and none is righteous, save Jesus Christ. 2) God saves whom He will for His glory by imputing Christ's righteousness to His family. 3) Christ has redeemed His sheep, the children of God, through His obedience and His righteousness and His good work on the cross. 4) Grace accomplishes all God intends; grace does not fail. 5) Christ will lose none whom the Father has given to Him.

That's the assurance found in Scripture in which we rejoice.

A BRIEF AND UNTECHNICAL STATEMENT OF THE REFORMED FAITH
by Benjamin B. Warfield

50 posted on 02/28/2010 2:15:08 PM PST by Dr. Eckleburg ("I don't think they want my respect; I think they want my submission." - Flemming Rose)
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To: All
I attended a Sovereign Grace church at one time. It seemed like all they wanted to talk about was election. It was boring, dreary, and somewhat cultish.

The preaching message an old minister once gave there said that at the beginning of time and the ages, the Father, Son, and Spirit sat down and decided who was to be saved through predestination and that we had made it. They gave no invitation at the conclusion of services.

I dislike Calvinism and its attitude. It disposes of free will and denigrates into long winded arguments that are based on a few Scriptures in Romans and Ephesians.

If you believe it, I bless you, but I cannot.

118 posted on 03/01/2010 7:30:24 AM PST by Luke21
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To: Dr. Eckleburg
Interesting, you have abandoned the actual TULIP for a
more pr friendly description of your beliefs. I do not agree
that Calvinism is just what the Bible teaches. That is why
I am not a Calvinist. It appeals to an arrogant cast of mind:
and the tone in your writings exhibits that.
But then, you do not think you need to be winsome or funny
or charming or anything other than what you are because
you have no responsibility. Deterministic fatalism has
you holding the eternal lottery ticket.
148 posted on 03/01/2010 7:48:21 PM PST by Bainbridge
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