Predestination is misunderstood...
- Thread starter Genez
- Start date
-
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.
Spurgeon-
Some tools are so common and useful that they need neither advertisement nor defense. For personal Bible study and sermon preparation, commentaries are invaluable tools, helping the hungry student or pastor to decipher textual background and meaning. Yet, these tools are sometimes forgotten, ignored, or even demeaned.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon consulted commentaries in his own sermon preparation. He thought enough of their usefulness that he read over three thousand volumes in an effort to compile a catalog to guide “ministers of average attainments”. He lauded commentaries not as “a substitute for our own meditations, but as water poured down a dry pump” to stimulate and assist our work.
Published in 1876, his helpful volume Commenting and Commentaries contains three reasons students of the Bible should learn from the work of others.
1. Use commentaries to benefit from other Spirit-gifted teachers.
In Spurgeon’s day, some voices spoke out against using commentaries. Exposing their arrogance, he wrote, “It seems odd, that certain men who talk so much of what the Holy Spirit reveals to themselves, should think so little of what he has revealed to others”.
Rather than ignoring commentaries, we should consider the labors of scholars who have already plowed “in the field of exposition”.
A number of the commentators endorsed by Spurgeon, such as Matthew Henry and John Gill, still bear the fruit in helping readers understand the Scriptures. When we consult good commentaries alongside our own prayerful study of the text, we exercise humility and enjoy the benefit of what the Spirit of God has taught others.
2. Use commentaries to avoid novelty and error.
Proud neglect of other teachers may lead into dangerous paths of originality and misunderstanding. Spurgeon warned of the tendency toward “empty pretensions to novelty of sentiment” and “wild interpretations and outrageous inferences”. Studying the Bible apart from any other helps may lead to an explanation of the text that is out of harmony with “the faith which was once delivered to the saints”. Although fallible, quality commentaries provide checks and balances against the witness of faithful interpreters of the past.
3. Use commentaries to discover a treasure of real learning.
For the usual despiser of commentaries, Spurgeon said, “in their case, it is the opposite of familiarity which has bred contempt”.
While some commentaries “are hardly worth shelf room,” those of excellent quality contain veins of precious ore. Spurgeon’s burden was to help readers quickly get to the gold.
Spurgeon’s list in Commenting and Commentaries is marked by a selective and practical approach as well as by his humor and candor. To help preachers study the text, he omits extremely rare or worthless finds and excludes authors known for unbelief or false doctrine. To catch the reader’s eye, he highlights the “books most heartily recommended” with the largest type. Books of average usefulness appeared in medium-sized print and the “least desirable in the smallest letter”.
In these selections from Spurgeon’s list of expositions of the Psalms, see if you can suppress a smile when reading his witty warnings. Note also his humility concerning his own commenting labors and his gushing recommendation of the treasures he discovered in others labors.
383. [J. A. Alexander] Occupies a first place among expositions. It is a clear and judicious explanation of the text, and cannot be dispensed with.
397. Calvin is a tree whose “leaf also shall not wither”; whatever he has written lives on, and is never out of date, because he expounded the word without bias or partiality.
455. For reading at family prayers. Alas, poor families! Ye have need of patience.
473. The author was Wake, but not awake, or he would never have wasted so much paper.
467. We hope they benefited the printer; they will not help the reader much.
468. [His own Treasury of David, which had only four of six volumes published at that time] Reviewers have handled this book with remarkable kindness, and the public have endorsed their judgment by largely purchasing the volumes already issued. It would not become us to say more.
488 Luther needs no trumpeter.
536 Sibbes never wastes the student’s time; he scatters pearls and diamonds with both hands.
Study with the Learned
The preacher who wants to learn well will study with the learned. Spurgeon asked, “Who can pretend to biblical learning who has not made himself familiar with the great writers who spent a life in explaining some one sacred book?”.
Quality commentaries are tools of help, protection, and education for the reader who seeks to understand and delight in the Word of God. Spurgeon taught us that nothing can substitute for one’s direct reading and study of the biblical text, but he did not forget or ignore the help of good tools. Let us follow his example.
Each one to his own.
J.
It's important to know exactly what Grace means seeing as your saved by Grace.
Paul states Grace and peace to you.
So Paul can not be saying unmerited favour and peace to you, can he
Would you not think Paul is saying Good will and peace to you
Now here is an insertion in a the bible
Ephesians 1:2-4
Amplified Bible, Classic Edition
2 May grace (God’s unmerited favor) and spiritual peace [which means peace with God and harmony, unity, and undisturbedness] be yours from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Why Should they Not insert May grace (Gods Good will) and spiritual peace be yours from God.
Why would God want to give an unmerited favour over his good will.
χάρις
charis
khar'-ece
From G5463; graciousness (as gratifying), of manner or act (abstract or concrete; literal, figurative or spiritual; especially the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life; including gratitude): - acceptable, benefit, favour, gift, grace (-ious), joy liberality, pleasure, thank (-s, -worthy).
LXX related word(s)
H1420 gedulah
H2505 chalaq
H2580 chen
H2617 chesed
H2896 tov
H7356 racham
H7522 ratson
Thayer Definition:
1) grace
1a) that which affords joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, loveliness: grace of speech
2) good will, loving-kindness, favour
2a) of the merciful kindness by which God, exerting his holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of the Christian virtues
3) what is due to grace
3a) the spiritual condition of one governed by the power of divine grace
3b) the token or proof of grace, benefit
3b1) a gift of grace
3b2) benefit, bounty
4) thanks, (for benefits, services, favours), recompense, reward
Part of Speech: noun feminine
A Related Word by Thayer’s/Strong’s Number: from G5463
The OT. In the OT the experience and expression of joy are close, as the terms for joy (usually smh) and its expression show. Joy expresses the whole person and aims at sharing, as in festal joy. God's work of salvation is a chief occasion (Psa_5:11; Psa_9:2; Psa_16:9, etc.).
The law is an object in Psa_119:14, the word of God in Jer_15:16. Joy is a reward for faithfulness to the law in Isa_65:13-14. There is joy at weddings (Jer_25:10) and at harvest (Isa_9:2). God himself rejoices (Isa_65:19), and thanksgiving demands joy (Deu_16:13 ff.). Feasts offer occasions for joy before God (Deu_2:7).
Hymnal jubilation expresses devotion to God (Joe_2:21). In accordance with its inner intention, OT joy culminates in eschatology (Psa_14:7; Psa_126:2; Isa_9:2; Isa_12:6, etc.). High points in the prophets carry the call: chaire (Zep_3:14 ff.; Joe_2:21 ff.; Zec_9:9-10).
C. Judaism.
1. Qumran. At Qumran we find the OT motifs of joy in God, of God's own joy, and of eschatological joy. The elect can rejoice in spite of present suffering because they know that they are in God's hand.
2. Rabbinic Writings. Here, too, we find festal joy, which God gives and into which it is a duty to enter. Joy is joy before God. The meal is part of the joyful festival. A significant thought is that of perfect future joy.
3. Philo. The group is a significant one in Philo. He relates joy to religious "intoxication." Joy is a supreme "good mood." It is the opposite of fear. Isaac is its OT symbol. God is the giver of joy, and its objects are health, freedom, honor, the good, the beautiful, and worship. While joy is a "good mood" Philo does not view it in Stoic fashion as a self-achieved harmony of soul. Joy is native to God alone; we find it only in God. It comes with virtue and wisdom. But this is possible only on the presupposition that by way of the logos God himself is the giver.
D. The NT.
1. Usage. In the NT chairo is the secular term and agalliaomai the religious term, but the two may be synonymous (cf. Rev_19:7), and they are associated, e.g., in Mat_5:12; 1Pe_4:13. The participle means "full of joy" in Luk_19:6. Various constructions are used, e.g., accusative, dative, epi with dative, dia with accusative, en, hoti, and participle. The greeting with chairein occurs only in Act_15:23; Act_23:26; Jas_1:1. The greeting chaire (Mar_15:18; Mat_26:49; Mat_27:29; Joh_19:3) may mean "rejoice" rather than "greetings" in Luk_1:28, where kecharitomene ("favored one") gives it special significance. The meanings of both verb and noun are to be sought in the contexts in which they are used.
2. The Synoptics and 1 Peter. The group is common only in Luke, which refers to joy at finding what is lost (15:5ff.), at one's name being written in heaven (10:20), at the coming of the Savior (1:14), and at the acts of Jesus (13:17).
The mood of the people is one of joy in 18:43, as is that of the disciples after the ascension in 24:52. There is joy at epiphany in Mat_2:10. Even trials are an occasion of joy (Jas_1:2). Suffering is a testing of faith (1Pe_1:6-7) with a christological basis (2:20ff.; 4:12ff.). One should not just rejoice "in" suffering but "at" suffering (Act_5:41). Already in Mat_5:11-12 Jesus forges a link between joy and persecution. The hope of future glory adds an eschatological dimension in 1Pe_4:12 ff. Heb_10:32 ff. presents another version of the same tradition that one should suffer with joy for faith's sake and with the hope of imminent deliverance.
3. The Pauline Corpus.
a. For Paul chara is the joy of faith (Php_1:25) and a fruit of the Spirit (Gal_5:22). God's kingdom is joy (Rom_14:17). Joy and hope are related (Rom_12:12). Its opposite is affliction (cf. Rom_5:1 ff.). Joy actualizes freedom and takes shape in fellowship (12:15). Paul wants to come with joy (15:32). Joy is reciprocal (Php_2:28-29). Joy is in God (1Th_3:9) or in the Lord (Php_3:1). In the relation between Paul and the church, joy is eschatological; the church will be his joy (1Th_2:19). The mood of Philippians is one of joy (1:4). This is joy at the preaching of Christ (1:18). It is future joy experienced as joy in the present (4:1). As the joy of faith it includes a readiness for martyrdom (1:25). This joy maintains itself in face of affliction (2Co_7:4 ff.). Paul himself, like the Lord, is an example in this regard (1Th_1:6). Paul's apostolic authority works for the joy of the church (2Co_1:24). He rejoices in his own weakness when it means the church's strength (13:9).
b. There is nothing new in later works. chairo occurs in Col_1:24; Col_2:5, and chara in Col_1:11; 2Ti_1:4. The most important aspect is that of joy in suffering.
Feeling better?
J.
in all these definitions how many times can you see an unmerited favour, because I see none.
What I see is good will.
"Grace to you and peace" The normal salutation in Greek letters was the word "greeting" (charein, cf. Acts 15:23; 23:36; James 1:1). Paul characteristically changed this to a very similar sounding but Christian term, grace, (charis). Many have assumed that Paul was somehow combining the Greek greeting and the Hebrew greeting, peace (shalom). Although this is an attractive theory, it may be reading too much into this typically Pauline introductory phrase (cf. Rom. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:3; 2 Cor. 1:2; Phil. 1:2; and Philemon 3).
"Grace" was the special word which described the loving, merciful character of God. Humans are right with God because of who He is, not because of who they are. It is God's kind, generous, loving, forgiving, slow to anger, abounding in compassion mercy that forms the only hope for fallen mankind (cf. Exod. 34:6-7; Neh. 9:17; Ps. 103:8-14; Joel 2:13; Mic. 6:18-20)! Christianity is rooted in the unchanging character of God (cf. Mal. 3:6; James 1:17), the finished work of Jesus Christ (cf. Mark 10:45; 2 Cor. 5:21) and the ministry of the Spirit (cf. John 14:25-26; 16:7-15).
"Peace" is the result of understanding the character of God and the promises of the gospel (cf. John 14:27; 16:33). Peace is an internal joy and stability apart from circumstances, disruptive false teachings or persecution (cf. Phil. 4:7; Col. 3:15).
Why are you nit picking? If you want to say"goodwill" and I prefer "unmerited grace-or grace" we are still speaking biblical language-are we not?
I have joined this Forum to be edified-not majoring on minors.
"Nuff zed!"
J.
"Grace" was the special word which described the loving, merciful character of God. Humans are right with God because of who He is, not because of who they are. It is God's kind, generous, loving, forgiving, slow to anger, abounding in compassion mercy that forms the only hope for fallen mankind (cf. Exod. 34:6-7; Neh. 9:17; Ps. 103:8-14; Joel 2:13; Mic. 6:18-20)! Christianity is rooted in the unchanging character of God (cf. Mal. 3:6; James 1:17), the finished work of Jesus Christ (cf. Mark 10:45; 2 Cor. 5:21) and the ministry of the Spirit (cf. John 14:25-26; 16:7-15).
"Peace" is the result of understanding the character of God and the promises of the gospel (cf. John 14:27; 16:33). Peace is an internal joy and stability apart from circumstances, disruptive false teachings or persecution (cf. Phil. 4:7; Col. 3:15)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The term "unmerited favor" is a common way to describe grace, which is the free and undeserved goodness and favor of God towards sinners. The phrase "unmerited favor" emphasizes that salvation is not earned through human effort or merit, but is rather a gift from God. The term "unmerited" refers to the fact that this favor is not based on merit or earned through human effort. It is a gift from God that is freely given to those who believe in Him
The origin of the term "unmerited favor" is not explicitly mentioned in the Bible, but the concept of grace as unmerited favor is supported by various biblical passages, such as Ephesians 2:8-9, which states, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast"
. The term "unmerited favor" has been used to describe grace for centuries, and it is a fundamental belief in Christianity, emphasizing the unearned and freely given nature of salvation.
Why are you nit picking? If you want to say"goodwill" and I prefer "unmerited grace-or grace" we are still speaking biblical language-are we not?
I have joined this Forum to be edified-not majoring on minors.
"Nuff zed!"
J.
I don't see any essential conflict between the meanings "goodwill", "unmerited favor" or even "kindness". The fact that God's particular "goodwill is "unmerited" is because we did nothing to deserve it.
If this is going to be a toe to toe over ONE word-grace-I shudder to think what will happen next.
You have just made my mind up-I will be very selective with brothers and sisters in Christ on this Forum-where I can be edified and stimulated and cause me to grow more deeply IN Christ.
Dogmatism is the norm-I have NO time for that.
Shalom
J.
no I don't go toe to toe in the ring,
I keep my distance, untill there's a blip in concentration, then it's ding ding.
So, the entire world is only to repent of its sins against the first and second commandments? And the rest its the sinful lifestyle is okay to keep? And when "the man he (God) has appointed" comes to judge the world, his judgment will be limited to just those two commandments?
To be honest-that's what you are waiting for-"a blib in MY concentration" then ekpeiradzo-NOT dokimazo.no I don't go toe to toe in the ring,
I keep my distance, untill there's a blip in concentration, then it's ding ding.
I also think you have my character confused with the profile pic-that's not who I am.
Have a good day.
J.
It actually means a lot to me.
I have never in all my life understood being saved by an unmerited favour.
I have however understood being saved by Good will.
Honestly I really think all the people who save themselves have believed there saved by an unmerited favour..
I see unmerited favours taken all the goodness out of good will, and not truly appreciating exactly what good will stands for.
Honesty my life time experience of those who say unmerited favour, has been one of turmoil, where by I have never come across such person who has been humble when under correctness.
honestly your jabbing like cissy now, put em up, put em up.
Without a fight the warrior may as well be dead, you should know that kid.
"Favor" is one of the definitions of Strong's. So, then the question becomes: Is this favor that God grants to some due them? Is grace a debt that God owes anyone?
If the Law can only give sinners what they deserve, then grace must differ since there is no man who doesn't sin. Grace must give men what they don't deserve, i.e. unmerited favor. And this understanding comports well with the contrast being made in Jn 1:17.
Don't know you from a bar of soap-and familiarity breeds contempt.honestly your jabbing like cissy now, put em up, put em up.
Without a fight the warrior may as well be dead, you should know that kid.
J.
i don't see many people here who are willing to keep disagreement here friendly, do you.
On Top of that I don't see many here humouring disagreement either, do you.
On top of that, I don't don't see many people who have disagreed with people here, being nice to you personally.
Well when you've woke up let me know.