Calvinist Kitchen...stirring the pot

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GrimmBro3

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Jul 10, 2020
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I love what you say here...the fruit of the Spirit..that should be at the forefront of a believer and focus.

More of you Jesus less of me.....you will recognise them by their fruit.
Exactly my point. We need an "Amen" reaction button.
 

Chester

Senior Member
May 23, 2016
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Glorious and humbling. Who am I that I should be chosen? I am but dust. Praise be to God, glory!

This is all my hope - not that I should choose Him, but that He chose me. I love Him but He loved me first - even when I was still an enemy of God, lost in my sins... totally incapable of choosing Him... yet, not because of anything in me, nothing to the cross I bring - even my faith itself is a precious gift of grace. That I should be numbered among the elect... That I should have that incomprehensibly beautiful light of the gospel shown on my dead, dark soul, and be made alive! Never to be lost - for even the work I do, it's not me that lives - but Christ that lives in me! I am His, and can never be lost.

I GLORY in the truths of TULIP. These truths are all my hope and stay - because they tell me of the glorious, sovereign love of Christ for me.

Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,

yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.

God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer's;
he makes me tread on my high places.

To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.

Habakkuk 3:17-19
Welcome to CC - I followed your progression on the "Not By Works" thread a little and had to laugh a bit to see how you stepped into the middle of "lively discussion"!

I myself mostly stay out of that thread: it has a good point and I agree with its thrust that salvation is not by works. But when it gets pushed to the extreme it becomes a "let's talk about faith only; and don't bring works up at all". So I mostly stay away because I do not want to undermine the thread topic and emphasis.

I am not a Calvinist (far from it) and if you stick around here I will probably wind up getting into deep (not "heated" :p) debacles with you, so I am not sure why I give you any encouragement to stay - actually I suppose it is because I sense you have a good spirit about you!

To start with you may as well not try to pin me down with some sort of man-made doctrinal statement. I just go by what the Word says: no less and no more (and there are about a half-dozen on here whose hackles will go up if they read that: they will say I don't! LOL!). I believe that we need to read each and every Scripture and interpret each one in its context: none of this having a doctrinal statement by which I interpret the individual verses.

So you come in here touting the 5 solas - you may do that - but you won't find those five listed anywhere as the five cornerstones of the Bible. :);)

Take just this one "faith alone" - Those words are never found in Scripture except in James 2:24 where it says "not by faith alone." And furthermore salvation is not by "faith alone". Whose faith? well, your faith? so you save yourself? And if it is "faith alone" then grace, God's love, Jesus, the cross, and the resurrection have nothing to do with salvation because it is by "faith alone." Now of course you are allowed to use "faith alone" as a doctrinal statement and I am sure you can explain eloquently and probably very soundly what it means: and I might have little issue with your explanation. But you won't find "faith alone" in the Bible. I won't say what the founders meant by "faith alone' is wrong, but I will say that the wrong overflow and use of that cry of "faith alone" has caused much lukewarmness and passivity in the American church.

There you have it: Now I will sit back and see what you are made of . . . ???? ;)
 

Chester

Senior Member
May 23, 2016
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Amen, and amen. This is all my faith - all my Calvinism. Glory.

I only wish I could articulate it well enough to show the beauty of what we see here. I feel totally inept to do so. But, these are truths that the Holy Spirit must place within our hearts, I think.

How beautiful our God is. And that He should invite us to call Him, "Abba, Father."

Beautiful post! Amen!
Except why the "all my Calvinism"? :cry:
 

oyster67

Senior Member
May 24, 2014
11,887
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I am all 100% for love and good "fruitworks", but why drag in all the extra baggage. I could wave the flag of the Armenians or Anabaptist or Mennonite if I wanted to, but I don't and I won't. Divisions are divisive at best. We don't need them. No one will punish you for letting go of the Calvin label.
 
May 19, 2020
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I am all 100% for love and good "fruitworks", but why drag in all the extra baggage. I could wave the flag of the Armenians or Anabaptist or Mennonite if I wanted to, but I don't and I won't. Divisions are divisive at best. We don't need them. No one will punish you for letting go of the Calvin label.


I am a pretty simple follower of Christ...I have been called to bear the Lords fruit...lean on him not my own understanding.......trust him and to walk each day in faith......

He’s in my heart...so therefore I want his glory to shine out from it...Jesus must be seen in a believer.
I have also been told by a member that the Love I show for the Lord is gut wrenching..I found those words very disturbing and worrying.
 

Chester

Senior Member
May 23, 2016
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Faith can only come from God..how else would I know I have faith?
Exactly! Faith comes from God - and that is why salvation is not by "faith alone" - because God is involved too - not just faith!
 
Dec 28, 2016
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Amen, but we agree that faith can be rejected. Calvin did not believe this.
Sorry, but this isn't completely true under the teaching of irresistible grace. It's actually a straw man argument.
 
Dec 28, 2016
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I am all 100% for love and good "fruitworks", but why drag in all the extra baggage. I could wave the flag of the Armenians or Anabaptist or Mennonite if I wanted to, but I don't and I won't. Divisions are divisive at best. We don't need them. No one will punish you for letting go of the Calvin label.
Hmmmm.

Armenians? I'm sure Armen Sarkissian would be proud if you'd fly that flag. :)
 
May 19, 2020
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I do not believe that faith can be rejected..not if God draws and saves you.....my saving was 100% irresistible......nothing dirty in that what so ever.

I received the pure Love of God into my Spirit..I recognised the Holy Spirit straight away....it was natural,nothing forced,just a natural receiving of his Love.

His timing was absolutely perfect.....,,I don’t believe I would be here today,if God hadn’t saved me.

Nothing biblical here...my testimony.
 
May 19, 2020
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Amen, but we agree that faith can be rejected. Calvin did not believe this.

If God draws and saves you my friend....you cannot reject the Love of God......I don’t believe a true believer in Christ could ever reject him....it’s incomprehensible for me.

So hope as friends we can agree to disagree.xx
 

oyster67

Senior Member
May 24, 2014
11,887
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I do not believe that faith can be rejected..not if God draws and saves you.....my saving was 100% irresistible......nothing dirty in that what so ever.

I received the pure Love of God into my Spirit..I recognised the Holy Spirit straight away....it was natural,nothing forced,just a natural receiving of his Love.

His timing was absolutely perfect.....,,I don’t believe I would be here today,if God hadn’t saved me.

Nothing biblical here...my testimony.
Are you saying that you never decided to follow Jesus?
 
Dec 28, 2016
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I really hope that you do turn out to be right on this.
It's absolutely true, the derogatory accusations of "force" "robots" and "fatalism" are each based upon that false assumption. Each are all baseless assertions and are grounded in unfamiliarity.
 
May 19, 2020
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Are you saying that you never decided to follow Jesus?


No I did not..I never had a choice when the Holy Spirit manifested into my heart....it was pure,beautiful and irresistible,.......I even felt him coming into my Spirit..
Not biblical,God poured his Love/Spirit into my heart.

My dear friend.....what God gives...you should know no one can steal it from you.

Because it was God given..God has a plan for my life I watch it unfold...nothing can stop or thwart his will.....No One!.

Again my testimony.
 
Dec 28, 2016
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I do not believe that faith can be rejected..not if God draws and saves you.....my saving was 100% irresistible......nothing dirty in that what so ever.

I received the pure Love of God into my Spirit..I recognised the Holy Spirit straight away....it was natural,nothing forced,just a natural receiving of his Love.

His timing was absolutely perfect.....,,I don’t believe I would be here today,if God hadn’t saved me.

Nothing biblical here...my testimony.
God's grace will effectually draw and save all that belong to him. :)
 

oyster67

Senior Member
May 24, 2014
11,887
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Do Calvinists believe that some people are born predestined to go to hell?
 
May 19, 2020
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God's grace will effectually draw and save all that belong to him. :)



Amen! Amen! Amen!.....we are a child of God we belong to him and he is a jealous God....no one comes before our Lord.....so lovely to see you here preacher,xx...love you bro,xx
 
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