No it must not be due to a decree of God. It is due to teh4 sin nature being completely unable to repent unless acted upon by god HImself. The bible is clear the natual man cannot please god (Rom.8), repentance pleases God, ergo the natural man in and of thmelves cannot repent.
This would make God culpable for the impenitent when He is not. Those who are lost are so for their own free will choice in choosing to not repent. Then on judgment day, God will hand them a sentences of eternal condemnation which fits the free will choice those men made not to repent.
Ronald Nolette said:
Yes Paul was saying that all men are sinners, but He also said this:
Romans 3
King James Version
3 What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?
2 Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.
God had a covenant relationship with teh nation of Israel! that did not mean every Jew born in th eold covenant was automatically saved. but the age of grace began with the church! Though God has shown grace since Adam. God dealt with Israel far differently than He deals with th echurch.
Well I am only dealing with what is called teh five points of Calvinism known by the acronym TULIP. And God never forsakes those He elects to salvation. The five points does not deal with this so therefore your argument is moot.
Exactly! He is showing than man made beliefs do not override the word of God! Just like christians man made belief that unsaved man has free will and that believers can lose their salvastion !
Paul is simply showing that god is in control of all choices on earth!
And He never did! Having a covenant relationship with the nation did not mean automatic salvation!
YOu need to learn the meaning of how Jews use the word hate. Here it simply means Jacob is preferred!
You tried to use Romans 9 to "prove" the Calvinistic idea of salvation by election when Romans chpts 9-10 show elect Jews being cast off and once non-elect Gentiles being saved. Now you are backing off that when you post "
God had a covenant relationship with teh nation of Israel! that did not mean every Jew born in th eold covenant was automatically saved.'??? So now just
some Jews were elected and not all???
-- I demonstrated from the Bible giving examples that "hate" does not refer only to an emotional type of hate in the Bible but does refer to less favor or less love. Paul quotes From Malachi 1 and the individuals Esau and Jacob had been dead fro centuries by this times. So the words 'hate' and 'love' are being directed at the descendants of Jacob and Esau not at the two individuals. In the context, the Edomites are the ones "hated" and they are being called by the name "Esau" (Genesis 36:1; Genesis 36:8). It is not uncommon in the OT for a nation (Edom) to be called after its progenitor (Esau). There is no "hate" to be found in Malachi 1 for the individual Esau.
-- if the choice of Jacob over Esau implies Esau being eternally lost and Jacob saved, then that holds true for their descendants....all Edomites are lost for
none were chosen and all Israelites saved for they were
all chosen. Yet Calvinistic election contradicts Paul for Paul goes on to point out most of the CHOSEN Israelites were lost, just a remnant saved. So most of Jacob's elect descendants were lost. And the thrust of Romans 9 is Paul arguing and
justifying God in casting off elect people. Then we have God choosing to save the once
non-elect Gentiles.
Romans chpts 9-10 is very anti of Calvinisms' idea of salvation by election.
-- even though Esau and his descendants, Ishmael, the Gentiles were
not of God's chosen under the OT law, even though they were
alienated from the chosen commonwealth of Israel and were
excluded from that "
covenant of promise "(Ephesians 2:12) this did not mean they were all automatically, unconditionally lost. For we know that believing Gentiles at that time, though not of the elect,
found justification from God as Rahab, James 2.
-- God made a distinction between children with the same father but different mothers (Isaac and Ismael). God made a distinction between children with the same father and mother (Jacob and Esau) and God made distinctions between Jew and Jew. And God's distinction is nowhere said to be based upon merit, not based upon physical descent, not based upon a random, unconditional choice God made before the world began but based upon
faith (Romans 9:32) and it was within the free will control of each and every Jews to have faith or not. Again, faith is the dividing line between God's chosen (those who
choose to have faith) and the lost (those who
choose not to have faith) and not a random, unconditional choice God made for each man before the world began. Not a hint of Calvinism in Romans 9 - 11.
