RANDOR said:
AMEN.................THE WORST OF SINNERS...........MAKE THE BEST DECIPLES............FOR THEY HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN OF MUCH......
THEIR CHAINS........ARE NO MORE..............
EVEN SOME WHO CALL THEMSELVES CHRISTIANS...............WILL BE THE FIRST TO FLIP THE SWITCH ON THE ELECTRIC CHAIR.....
Jesus said blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. It's a teaching so profound that it's understandable that many people miss the reciprocal implication, that those who live lives unmercifully shall NOT receive mercy. God is sovereign and will have mercy on whom he will. He's not a slot machine to be manipulated to a precise result when the right magical incantation is chanted.
Nomad said:
Allusions to Scripture passages ripped out of context lend no support to your protest.
2Pe 3:9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
This verse was not written to the world. It was written to believers as a reminder that God is not slow with regard to his promise of the second coming, but "patient toward YOU, not willing that any should perish." Who is "you" in that statement? It's not difficult to discover.
2Pe 1:1 Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:
and again...
2Pe 3:1 This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance:
Peter is writing to "those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours..." He is writing to ones he calls "beloved." Again, Peter is writing to believers. That's who "you" is in your proof text. It does not refer to the world. Errors like this can be avoided if we're diligent to read our proof texts in context.
Now for your second allusion:
Deu 30:19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
Again, this was not written for the whole world. It was written for Israel. God's covenant was with Israel alone. God sent no prophet to the nations surrounding Israel that they should hear this warning nor did he make a covenant with them.
My position walks a tightrope between Calvinism that claims infallible salvation or perdition based on predestination and the opposite extreme that has God utterly passive in the salvation transaction, as I spelled out further in my previous posts. It's true that Israel was God's own special people, but as Jesus said, the Jews would be the font of salvation for the whole world, for the message of the gospel is "to the Jew first, then also to the gentile" as prescribed in Romans. But Christians, particularly gentile Christians are described in Scripture as being "grafted in" to the covenant.
So no, I don't agree that the cited passages are exclusive only to Christians, because God calls ALL MEN to repent everywhere, as St. Paul said to the Athenians, and the message and the promise is to all men everywhere. God sets before every person living and dying, blessing and cursing and urges every person to CHOOSE LIFE.
But the other side of this is that God may certainly cut off completely those souls that have demonstrated through their actions a categorical decision to reject God for all time. It's why I do battle against the "slot machine" image people have made of God, that casts his participation in the salvation transaction as completely involuntary. God is sovereign and as he says, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy" and he hardens who he desires to as well. There is an evil assumption made about God in some Christian circles that he is bound in his decisions. The "name it, claim it" type of preaching really pushes the envelope on this, thinking in such an ugly American fashion, that we have "rights" to claim God's promises. It's a different symptom of the same problem, the misguided belief that God is a machine that acts in expected ways as programmed to do so.
And the even uglier truth about that is simple. We like control so much that we even attempt to control the Almighty. We're really like children that way, aren't we?