lesjude said:lesjude, on 05 Mar 2013 - 12:22, said:
You continue to attack Calvinism which was never the issue of the OP.
This is because you clearly are imbibing the same spirit behind Calvinism regarding Total Depravity/Inability and Unconditional Election. Calvinism is just a referential belief system that most here are aware of. You are not the first one to come up with this erroneous belief though you say it is Biblical.
The Bible depicts a God who sets specific limits on our lives and choices, but we are free to choose among those choices. This world was created with certain parameters and limited choices and within these parameters and choices we are allowed to use our freedom of choice. At the same time, God is reaching out to man in as many different ways as there are individuals, all confined within His character and word.
For instance, Adam is the one that CHOOSES the name for every animal, but it was God that decided which animals to create.
Consider Acts 17: 26 From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. [27] God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us."
So, God may predestine the amount of choices we have (good, evil, life, death, blessing, curse) but He leaves the choice up to us. Kind of like a menu. And God has preset those conditions or parameters in how we come to Him and on what basis we relate to Him. God has not hidden himself. He has set specific conditions in place so that we may find him, if we want to. The question is want or desire, which is choice.
God does not force us to choose; rather, he offers us pre-made choices that we can accept or reject.
Consider 1 Tim. 2:4 God our Saviour wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
God wishes, desires, hungers, wants all people to be saved.
God wants EVERYONE, not a handful of pre-determined, pre-destined people. And this is where the TULIP principle fails miserably.
Have we forgotten John_3:16?
Joh 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
verse 18, also affirms...
John_3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Nothing about "he that is elected or he that is not elected". The scriptures are implying that some will choose to believe and some will choose not to believe. It squarely puts the emphasis on MAN NOT GOD!
Here is a non-determinist passage of scripture along with many others (Matthew 21:32, Mark 16:16a, John 1:7, 6:29, 11:26; and 19:35 (to name a few), and is also confirmed in the Pauline writings such as Romans 4:4-5 and 24, 16:25-6; 1 Corinthians 1:21; Galatians 3:7; 3:22; and 1 Timothy 2:3-4 to name a few).
2Pe 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
What is the LORD's WILL?
- That NONE shall Perish
- ALL should come to repentance!
- But, you don't believe the ELECT need to repent, do you?
Axehead