Excellent
I hope more folks adopt your style of bible study. This is how it should be done.
A. Martin
Why, this is called proof texting. It is simply taking passages of Scripture out of context to support a preconceived idea. Let's take a few of those passages and put them in context.
John 6:44, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day."
John 6:37, "All that the Father gives me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out."
What is actually happening here? For one thing Jesus said that He had only come to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Matthew 15:21-24 ( KJV )
Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon.
And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.
But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.
But he answered and said,
I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel
Since the Calvinist applies this to Christians it is incumbent upon him to show us how it pertains to Christians, since Jesus said He had only come to Israel. Then there is the issue of why Jesus said this. Here is a brief explanation of what was happening in Israel at this time.
I would like to explain John 6:37:45, it is not speaking of Calvinistic election.
John 6:37-45 ( KJV ) 37All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. 38For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. 39And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. 40And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day. 41The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. 42And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven? 43Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves. 44No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. 45It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.
First let's set the scene, God was setting the scene for the crucifiction, Jesus is speaking to unbelieving Jews. When Jesus said this, salvation had not yet gone to the gentiles. Jesus himself said,
Matthew 15:24 ( KJV ) 24But he answered and said,I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Matthew 10:5-7 ( KJV ) 5These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: 6But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
So these verses only concern the Jews of Jesus day, also notice what Jesus said in verse 40,
John 6:40 ( KJV ) 40And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.
No one today will see the Son. Now, Jesus said that no one could come to Him unless the Father draws
Him, this is correct. God was setting up the crucifiction and for that to take place the Jews would have to reject the Messiah, God determined that Christ would die for sins,
Acts 2:23 ( KJV ) 23Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:
For this to happen the Jews would have to reject the Messiah, so God blinded Israel,
Jesus
Mark 4:11-12 ( KJV ) 11And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables: 12That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them.
Isaiah
Isaiah 6:9-10 ( KJV ) 9And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. 10Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.
Paul
Romans 11:25 ( KJV ) 25For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
Paul
Romans 11:8 ( KJV ) 8(According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear unto this
day.
Now had they understood, they would not have crucified the Lord.
1 Corinthians 2:8 ( KJV ) 8Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
So since Israel was blinded NO ONE could come to Christ unless they were drawn by the Father, this is shown is verse 45,
John 6:45 ( KJV ) 45It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.
So prior to the crucifiction all those who were drawn by the father come to Christ and he will in no way cast them out. Jesus said that it was the Fathers will that He should lift them up at the last day, Now the question is what does He mean by "it was the Fathers will that He should lift them up at the last day" is this something that must happen or is it what the Father desires to happen? I say that this is what the Father desires to happen but it doesn't have to happen, let's look at it. First the Calvinist would say that those who are drawn or given to Christ are the elect, So let's see who they are, John 17 tells us who they are,
John 17:2 ( KJV ) 2
As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.
John 17:6-8 ( KJV ) 6
I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. 7Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. 8For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.
So we see from John 17 that the ones given to Christ by the Father were the disciples, Now Jesus said He should raise them up at the last day. Is that a guarantee? No,
John 17:12 ( KJV ) 12
While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.
Now Judas was lost He will not be lifted up at the last day, you can say Judas wasn't saved, but you can't say that Judas wasn't one of those given to Christ by the Father. Judas WAS given to Christ by the Father. So it was the desire of God that all be lifted up, but that did not happen.
Now, as I said earlier this all took place so that the crucifiction could take place, after the crucifiction the Gospel was opened to the Gentiles, which is shown by Jesus statement in John 12,
John 12:32 ( KJV ) 32
And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.
So we see that after the crucifiction the gospel has gone out to ALL men, now evryone has the opertunity to receive the Gospel. Which is evidenced in Acts 10,
Acts 10:34-35 ( KJV ) 34Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: 35But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him. (Gentile)
Acts 2:36-38 ( KJV ) 36Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
37Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? 38Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
These same people who just a little while ago were crying out for Christ to be crucified were now cut to the heart and asked Peter what they needed to do to be saved. (Jew)
So, this is why it is so important to read and quote the Scriptures "IN" context.
Here is another,
John 1:12-13, "Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God- children not born of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God."
First, let me say that there is evidence that verse 13 has been tampered with. The Early Church claimed that the Gnostics changed this verse from the singular to the plural in order to apply it to those who received Him. The Early Church said that it was written in the singular as pertaining to Christ. In other words when John said, 'who was born not of the will of man, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of blood, but of God', he was speaking of Christ, not those who received Him.
However, even apart from this evidence the phrase itself as written does not support the Calvinist view. If we look at verse 12 John say as many as received Him. The Greek word translated received means to take hold of and it is in the active vioce which means that it is the subject who is performing the action. Therefore those who received Him were actively taking hold of Him. If it was God causing them to receive Christ receive would be in the passive voice. This shows that it was those who received Him that took the action.
Let's look at this passage.
Acts 13:48, "All who were appointed for eternal life believed."
The Greek word translated appointed can also mean disposed, it can mean that someone was dispose to believe. The Calvinist says that God ordained these to believe. It that is the case then I would like the Calvinist to show me where Scripture teaches that the Gentile has no choice in salvation but the Jew does. You see, in the very same passage we have Paul also saying this.
Acts 13:44-48 ( KJV )
And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God.
But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming.
Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you:
but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.
For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.
And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.
Paul tells these Jews that they have judged themselves unworthy of eternal life. They judged themselves unworthy, if their salvation was completely up to God's choosing how could they possibly judge themselves unworthy of eternal life? Another problem is that if the Jews judged themselves unworthy of eternal life, how can it be that the Gentiles did not also have this same option? Is there a different standard between the Jew and the Gentile, or did Paul say there is neither Jew nor Gentile in Christ.
Ephesians 1:4, "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight."
This passage speaks of the Jews, however, for the sake of the length of this post I will not go into explaining it. If anyone is interested in the explanation please let me know and I will be happy to supply it.
Romans 8:29, "For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son."
This passage also speaks of the Jews, again for brevity I'll not post the explanation, but will supply it for those who are interested.
I think this is sufficient to show the necessity of posting and reading the Scriptures in context. If we take Scripture out of context we can appear to support just about any doctrine.