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Message in a JPEG, Inc.

How can anyone ‘agree to disagree’ on something that is ‘so’ wrong, and then call it a mystery.

Soon the whole Bible becomes a mystery; one that only scatters and confuses the sheep of the flock.

I have seen too many churches that had good preachers who taught that salvation was a life or death decision for us, who died or left and replaced with deformed semitary thinking, or went to user conference and came back with things like ‘God’s Chosen are practicing holiness for the millennium’.

When the Truth of God’s Word is confused, the Spirit of God cannot convict the world of sin. Hence the world we live in today. There is no conscience among unbelievers and the believers are huddled together, struggling for holiness.

New Dort 5 Calvinism (same dog, same Pied Piper). They are sending out disciples two by two to inflict churches with their ‘agree to disagree’ philosophy. Confusing the issues and eventually breaking up Church Unity and focus on ‘The Great Commission’ and a lawful culture for us and our offspring.

Preaching the Gospel is the Keys to the Kingdom in humility, not some selected verses, misfit and prideful theology. Chinese, watch, man, your knees. And who you bow in worship to.

If we put Origin, Augustine, Arminius, Calvin in a discussion room we might have a consensus opinion:

Intellectually (to some degree) we hear the Gospel, Emotionally (to some degree) we make a decision in our soul or being – Salvation. And this, an ongoing process, especially for ‘those He foreknew, those He predestined’.

To totally ignore the intellectual or the emotional is demonstrating insincerity before God. I suppose this is ‘will of the creature’ or ‘election and predestination’ thinking. But to say ‘we have no choice’, is rejecting the Words of Jesus, ‘the whosoevers’, and Jesus Himself. Don’t know how else to say this.

? Chosen or Calling ?

Seems like the Pharisees of Jesus’ time mistook chosen or calling for salvation rather than what they were supposed to do in life, according to the Scriptures, as Paul learned and recorded about what he learned from Jesus.

Acts 9: 11. So the Lord said to him, "Arise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he is praying. 12. "And in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him, so that he might receive his sight.'' 13. Then Ananias answered, "Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem. 14. "And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name.'' 15. But the Lord said to him, "Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. 16. "For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name's sake.

Pharisees (if they go) go kicking and screaming, to Jesus. As RC Sproul said at the end, on broken glass, on their hands and knees. As Paul did.

I listened to RC most of my Christian life. Generally I heard ‘election and predestination’.  

But, I have to go along with Arminius. ‘If grace is not cooperative, everything is meaningless’. And so is God. 

And maybe the bottom line in this argument is ‘are we resisting the Holy Spirit by not looking at God’s Word in context’. Ie, the Pharisees of Jesus’ and Stephen’s time, or any time. Oh you foolish Galatians 3. Dismissing and distorting important parts of Scripture to support your total depravity.

Even NIV and ESV. Rev 22:18-19 – Adding unto and taking away: billions of years in the Beginning and some ending futuristic kingdom (1000 years or whatever). Millennial thinking has been around for a long time, maybe even since Adam and Eve. If we view Rev 20 as the first thousand years of the Church and Rev 12 as Church History, then we have to believe that the Kingdom is now, or Nowmil. We got work to do, like The Great Commission.

Not to mention the Big Addon: you must confess that ‘it was not your choice’, but ‘God’s Sovereign Choice’ (Romans 9 heading and even changing key words, phrases, and potential meaning).  

Are we humbly confessing our belief in Christ and the surrender of our will, or are we pride fully confessing our predestination and winning lottery number?  

The Epistles (ie Ephesians 1) are doctrinal and remind us of ‘the whosoevers of the Gospels’, or ‘those He foreknew, those He predestined’ (Romans 8:29).  

Demonstrating the security of our decision and of our calling, what we are to do and how to do it. Not ‘called or chosen to salvation’ but to ‘fulfill Christ’s Great Commission’. 

Heroes of Faith: trashed by what I would call ‘cowards of the faith’ with a victim mentality and not a victor’s.

Sounds like our church and culture right now: liberal victims. Whose leadership is compromising God’s Word by eliminating vital parts that explain the whole.

When I first read Romans 9, perplexed. I grew up spiritually on ‘election and predestination’. Today Bible translations (and seminaries) have chosen or elected to muddy the water. I heard the calling, volunteered, ran for office, and am now serving in God’s Kingdom. God knew this since the foundation of the world.

Then I looked at Moses who chose to be with people of God, Pharaoh chose to persecute them. God had mercy on Moses request to see God's glory (Ex 33). Moses' whole life really. Found ‘favor in God’s sight’.

(I do not like what I do always, but God motivates me with trials, like Moses. Potter and the clay. Some for honor, or others for dishonor.)

Esau despised his birthright, Jacob earned the Spiritual Birthright. Walk a mile in his sandals. Good read, with open mind. Hebrews 11 too.

Ephesians 1, perplexed also. But God's people chosen for a purpose when they choose to believe. With necessary instructions, like all epistles.

OT Israel, like church, not all saved (Rom 9:6), but chosen to bring an Advent of Christ. First done, and await Second.

Pharisees of Jesus time thought they were chosen and waiting for military messiah and his kingdom, not like Jesus, die for their salvation and they take on Rome.

Judas when he heard the truth, sold out. Dishonor. The other 11 held onto promise. Honor.

Church took Rome in first 1000 years. Rev 20. Rev 12, etc is that history. Then they had an ism breakup. After 1000: 1054 Ism Schism.

After that came the dark or middle ages, after that came the Reformation. After that came the Calvinist/Arminian controversy. After that came the religious wars of Europe, Pilgrims to America, followed by the Puritans, followed by the Calvinist/Arminian controversy, followed by religious wars in America, liberalism, cultural chaos. Next?

Seen to many good churches go down to isms. Sheep confused, unproductive, and scattered. Waiting for Kingdom, instead of focusing on the Great Commission.