Did Jesus Die on The Cross for The Just/Elect/Saved Whose Names Are Written in The Book of Life OR

  • Christian Chat is a moderated online Christian community allowing Christians around the world to fellowship with each other in real time chat via webcam, voice, and text, with the Christian Chat app. You can also start or participate in a Bible-based discussion here in the Christian Chat Forums, where members can also share with each other their own videos, pictures, or favorite Christian music.

    If you are a Christian and need encouragement and fellowship, we're here for you! If you are not a Christian but interested in knowing more about Jesus our Lord, you're also welcome! Want to know what the Bible says, and how you can apply it to your life? Join us!

    To make new Christian friends now around the world, click here to join Christian Chat.

Rufus

Well-known member
Feb 17, 2024
2,374
255
83
Free will as people speak of it is simply not found in the Bible. What is taught of the natural man is rejected by so many here who wish to cling to their belief that man is not the creature he became in Adam, who spread sin to the entire human race and death to all humanity. A multitude of verses have been repeatedly given and exposited to show the truth of the natural man, and ignored regularly by those whose man-made traditions mean more to them than the actual Word of God. Total depravity does not mean that all humankind is as evil as it possibly could be; rather, it means that sin affects the whole person and is an accurate description of the spiritual state of fallen man before a just and holy God. The human will is corrupted and in bondage to sin, which some call free, whereas Scripture teaches that it is in Christ that we are set free. There are none righteous aside from Christ, but some will tell you they did not need His help at all. Some will say that for God to move unilaterally in order to enable a person to respond positively to God, that He has kidnapped you against your will, making Him an unjust tyrant and His offer of repentance fraudulent. Or if they do not say it, they agree with those who say such things! These assertions have been explicitly put forth, but when I have mentioned them, I was told I am mischaracterizing what was said. In other words, lies are told with impunity, and lack of integrity abounds to the point we are basically told it is Christians who are said in Scripture to be without the Holy Spirit of God! Suck lack of logic and twisting of what is put forth in our holy book is unconscionable but becoming commonplace if it was not already. We have even been told that a person of their own free will can choose to believe in God and then they, by means of making that choice, retroactively become one of God's elect. They elect themselves, in other words. It seems some believe they can circumcise their own hearts and ears and unblind themselves. Of the natural man:

the Bible teaches that we sin because we are sinners
all our righteous acts are like filthy rags
there are NONE righteous
a bad tree cannot produce good fruit
all are under the control of the evil one
we need to be rescued
man’s heart is deceitful and desperately wicked
man is born dead in transgression and sin
he is held captive by a love for sin
will not seek God
he loves the darkness
does not understand the things of God
suppress the truth of God in unrighteousness
continues to willfully live in sin
sinful lifestyle seems right to men
rejects the gospel of Christ as foolishness
hostile toward God in their mind
does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is unable to do so


I thank God for circumcising my heart, and opening my ears and eyes.
You go, girl! You rock! (y)

Isn't it amazing how many here complain about things not found in scripture!? This isn't found in scripture. That is isn't found. And the megabytes of irony is that while specific terms or phrases are not found that Reformed folks use, the concepts certainly are. Yet...in the case of "free will" neither the phrase or concept is to be found anywhere in scripture!

When God "came down" to rescue the ancient Hebrews, through Moses, in Egypt, they were in bondage to Pharaoh. They had no power to escape on their own. But so many people here don't want to make the connection between the type and antitype. It's precisely because man is totally powerless to fix what Adam broke that salvation is so often portrayed in supernatural language, e.g. "resurrection", "circumcision made without hands", etc.

But this rejection of the miraculous nature of salvation, overt, tacit or otherwise, is truly the way of the world, isn't it? This is why all the world's religions, all the ungodly collective "wisdom" of religious people insists that each of us build our own Tower of Babel to reach God in Heaven through our "good" works, through law-keeping, through our faith, through our "free" will, through our conscience, etc. All the world's religions, save for biblical Christianity, teach that man can redeem himself or contribute to our own redemption by "collaborating" with God or by some other means.
 

Rufus

Well-known member
Feb 17, 2024
2,374
255
83
I don't quite follow your logic and reasoning. I didn't make any assumptions. I was asking a question based upon the words of others.
I beg your pardon, then. Then you're not a free willer in the autonomous sense?

For your info, I am and I'm not! I maintain that God's image-bearers have the same moral capacity that our Image Maker does! That is to say, God cannot sin and Man cannot not sin precisely for the same reason: Their Essence or Nature. Their wills are controlled by their nature. God is free to do all that is in accordance with his nature; and so is man. But neither the Law of Identity or Scripture gives either God or Man the power to transcend or circumvent their essence. Therefore, in the cases of God and Man, both have wills that are free from external force. But those wills are not free internally, i.e. in the autonomous sense.
 

selahsays

Well-known member
May 31, 2023
2,796
1,484
113
Hello, @Rufus — I’m wondering about something. So what happens to those who were not chosen? I mean why is it that we evangelize? If they hear the gospel and genuinely accept it, can they be saved?
 

cv5

Well-known member
Nov 20, 2018
22,853
8,328
113
https://christianchat.com/threads/m...k-calvinism-is-unbiblical.215127/post-5311987

Mem said:
How should we receive Jesus' declaration that He stands at the door and knocks? That for some those knocks are muted?

@cv5 said:
Oh its worse than that.

According to @Cameron143 and @Magenta ,
-God's offer of repentance is fraudulent
-repentance never actually occurs
-the repenters are the victim of an hoax and have actually been kidnapped
-the kidnap victims are headed to a shotgun wedding far beyond their choice or control
-those that God does NOT kidnap are the losers in the VIP kidnapping lottery
-these losers were created by God and then purposely abandoned, so that they will spend eternity in the lake of fire

In other words, they think that Holy God is a scheming tyrant, unjust judge, kidnapper with wholly nefarious attributes.
 

cv5

Well-known member
Nov 20, 2018
22,853
8,328
113
Unfortunately they conflate being able to make choices with having a will that is free ... when that is exactly the opposite of what Scripture actually teaches.
Magenta said:
I am of the mind that free will does not exist and is nowhere presented in the Bible in the way people use the words.

@cv5 said:
Except for unfallen Adam and Eve, fallen Adam and Eve, unfallen Satan, fallen Satan, unfallen Angels, fallen Angels, and the Trinity.

Rev 22:17
And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
 

cv5

Well-known member
Nov 20, 2018
22,853
8,328
113
Cameron143 said:
I never said that fallen man cannot respond to God, the Gospel, his surroundings, or any other stimuli. But he can only respond according to his nature.

@cv5 said:
Your pretentions in the matter are utterly demolished effortlessly in just a few of passages.
And there are HUNDREDS more to back these up.

Mat 12:41
The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.

Rev 2:22
Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.

Act 3:19
Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;

Act 17:30
And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:

Gen 15:16
But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.

God gave the land of Caanan at least 400 years to repent (more like 642). They did not. Then came the judgement.

Except for the Gibeonites. Who DID repent. They believed God (doubtless their spies had the Scriptures themselves!), recognized their CERTAIN DOOM, heeded God's warning, sued for peace, no conditions. Were acquitted, and secured a covenant of peace and life. Which they scrupulously maintained throughout their entire history. The most loyal and committed group of GENTILE believers in all of the Bible.

Bet you did not know any of that.......right @Cameron143 ?
 

Cameron143

Well-known member
Mar 1, 2022
19,027
6,534
113
62
https://christianchat.com/threads/m...k-calvinism-is-unbiblical.215127/post-5311987

Mem said:
How should we receive Jesus' declaration that He stands at the door and knocks? That for some those knocks are muted?

@cv5 said:
Oh its worse than that.

According to @Cameron143 and @Magenta ,
-God's offer of repentance is fraudulent
-repentance never actually occurs
-the repenters are the victim of an hoax and have actually been kidnapped
-the kidnap victims are headed to a shotgun wedding far beyond their choice or control
-those that God does NOT kidnap are the losers in the VIP kidnapping lottery
-these losers were created by God and then purposely abandoned, so that they will spend eternity in the lake of fire

In other words, they think that Holy God is a scheming tyrant, unjust judge, kidnapper with wholly nefarious attributes.
It doesn't bother you in the least to bear false witness against someone?
 

Magenta

Senior Member
Jul 3, 2015
59,918
29,299
113
According to @Cameron143 and @Magenta ,
-God's offer of repentance is fraudulent
-repentance never actually occurs
-the repenters are the victim of an hoax and have actually been kidnapped
-the kidnap victims are headed to a shotgun wedding far beyond their choice or control
-those that God does NOT kidnap are the losers in the VIP kidnapping lottery
-these losers were created by God and then purposely abandoned, so that they will spend eternity in the lake of fire

In other words, they think that Holy God is a scheming tyrant, unjust judge, kidnapper with wholly nefarious attributes.
You really ought to stop lying, though it is doubtful that you will.
 

PaulThomson

Well-known member
Oct 29, 2023
3,470
452
83
It doesn't bother you in the least to bear false witness against someone?
Have you ever clearly stated you agreement with or your objections to the popular in some quarters Total Depravity/ Omin-faceted Imperfection doctrine?

Have you ever clearly stated your agreement with or your objections to the popular in some quarters Irresistible grace doctrine?

Are you willing to do so now? What if anything do you object to in those two doctrinal claims?
 

HeIsHere

Well-known member
May 21, 2022
5,822
2,268
113
-God's offer of repentance is fraudulent
I also cannot understand how those who follow this system cannot see this! :unsure:

How does one feel okay making Jesus a liar. "Believe" but you can't believe.....oops!!
 

PaulThomson

Well-known member
Oct 29, 2023
3,470
452
83
Interesting interpretation of things.

First, when Onesimus escaped, he was not . . . NOT a child of God. However, when he was converted by God through Paul's teaching, Paul urged Philemon to take him back "forever." Was that the Plan of God for anyone else in captivity? No.

Philemon 1:15 NLT - "It seems you lost Onesimus for a little while so that you could have him back forever."

This place is filled with nearly 100% chiefs and very few Indians. So exhausting!
What point is there to the "slave of sin" analogy, and the claim that a slave of sin cannot escape from master sin on their own, if it has no bearing in the slave of Philemon reality, and on the reality of many slaves and POWs who have been able to escaped their masters on their own.

It seems disingenuous to bolster one's theological claims using analogies that one has every intention of disclaiming, if someone notices the reality behind the analogies actually contradicts his claims.
 

HeIsHere

Well-known member
May 21, 2022
5,822
2,268
113
Cameron143 said:
I never said that fallen man cannot respond to God, the Gospel, his surroundings, or any other stimuli. But he can only respond according to his nature.
Amazing, so the fallen man is given a new heart, but he still is a fallen man, so now in this fallen state with a new heart he can respond to the Gospel and since he responds he is regenerated.

So the fallen man with a new heart is still a fallen man until he is regenerated, correct?

That works well because then you can make the above statement.
 

Cameron143

Well-known member
Mar 1, 2022
19,027
6,534
113
62
All of this is waaaaaay past your pay grade buddy. Always has been, probably always will be. Sad really.
You obviously have some problems going on in your life. Anything in particular I can pray about for you?
 

Cameron143

Well-known member
Mar 1, 2022
19,027
6,534
113
62
Amazing, so the fallen man is given a new heart, but he still is a fallen man, so now in this fallen state with a new heart he can respond to the Gospel and since he responds he is regenerated.

So the fallen man with a new heart is still a fallen man until he is regenerated, correct?

That works well because then you can make the above statement.
A new heart is regeneration. A new heart has a different nature.
 

HeIsHere

Well-known member
May 21, 2022
5,822
2,268
113
A new heart is regeneration. A new heart has a different nature.
This seems a little different that what you have stated in the past, seems to me you had stated the new heart had to precede regeneration?
 

Cameron143

Well-known member
Mar 1, 2022
19,027
6,534
113
62
Have you ever clearly stated you agreement with or your objections to the popular in some quarters Total Depravity/ Omin-faceted Imperfection doctrine?

Have you ever clearly stated your agreement with or your objections to the popular in some quarters Irresistible grace doctrine?

Are you willing to do so now? What if anything do you object to in those two doctrinal claims?
You read what he wrote. It does not reflect what I believe. He knows it isn't what I believe, and yet he has no problem saying it is what I believe. That is simply bearing false witness.
If you want to have an honest discussion, I'll answer your questions. But don't bias the questions by using Calvinist terminology. You say you don't believe in Calvinism or TULIP. Fair enough. I'm sure you believe you came to your beliefs by an individual assessment of the Bible. I have done the same. So rather than frame doctrine in terms that the Bible doesn't employ and you don't acknowledge as true, ask questions using biblical terms that you acknowledge as biblical and true.