1) God knows who will choose him, because God is all knowing.
2) We do have a freewill, without one there's no sense in preaching the Gospel because you were either elected for Hell or Heaven before the foundations of the earth. We'd all be God's little robots.
‎3) This also allows people to live a life of sinful pleasures since if we consider ourselves "elected" and fall-away from the faith it doesn't matter, we are "in" and sin is irrelevant, we'll just sin and repent indefinitely without trying to become more like Christ and improve ourselves.
4) False conversion ratio for people who believe this is high for the reasons mentioned. A lot of people think they are saved and do a complete 180 and denounce God because they never really new him and thought God was all love and would allow them to continue in their sins without repentance... :/
I'm sure this will spark Calvanist/Arminian/Synergists debate, but I don't wish to comment further on this. Read the Bible for yourselves, and prayerfully consider scriptures on both sides.
In The DVD by Dave Hunt called ‘What Love Is This?’, he made a very interesting observation. In order
for Calvinism to be true, they would have to change the meaning of words in certain verses to fit their
theology. For example:
‘World’ must be changed to ‘Elect’ 20 times
‘Whoever’ must be changed to ‘Elect’ 16 times
‘Whosoever’ must be changed to ‘Elect’ 16 times
‘All’ must be changed to ‘Elect’ 16 times
‘Everyman’ must be changed to ‘Elect’ 6 times
That is over seventy times that they must change the meaning of certain words in Scripture to fit their
doctrine. None of us have the right to destroy Scripture this way. Changing the meaning of words to fit
your doctrine is something false prophets do and something that the Bible warns us about specifically.
Changing Scripture is something the devil would be the author of and not God.
John 3:14-17
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
2Peter 3:14-18
Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness. But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.
Whosoever means whosoever. It is really that simple. Let the Bible determine what you believe and
don’t let what you believe determine what you think the Bible says.
"Christ died for all men, but His death benefits the non-elect only in a temporal sense.
Because they aren't instantly destroyed. He did not really pay the penalty for their sins."
(
Objections to Unlimited Atonement, Part 3, Citing, Dr. John MacArthur, see Tape GC
56-19, "Saving Grace" - Part 2, Titus 2:11, distributed by GRACE TO YOU, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama
City, CA 91412)
With this one statement, Mr. Macarthur goes completely against Scripture. So are you filtering your ideas
and the Bible through Reformed Theology, or do you trust the Word of God to do all of the filtering for you
in deciding what is right and what is wrong?
In the Reformed/Calvinistic teaching, when God’s irresistible grace comes upon you, there is nothing you
can do about it. So before anyone can believe, God must first choose to send His irresistible grace upon
that person, so they can believe. So again, you have no choice in the matter.
But in the great story of Stephen in Acts 7, people do have the ability to resist God. Verse 51 says, "Ye
stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did,
so do ye." Yes, you can resist the Holy Ghost. People do it all the time. The question is when will you
surrender to the Holy Ghost?
Galatians 3:1 "O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth,
before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?"
Who has bewitched you to follow this false doctrine? One of the amazing things I have found when I talk
to both Calvinists and people who have left Calvinism is that they never tell me they found Calvinistic
teachings reading their Bibles. They always tell me they found them reading someone’s book or listening
to someone’s teaching tapes! Who has bewitched you?
Colossians 2:8 "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the
tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ."
The manmade philosophy of Calvinism is just that: manmade. You do not find it by studying the
Scriptures.
“And what is the heresy of Arminianism but the addition of something to the work of the
Redeemer? Every heresy, if brought to the touchstone, will discover itself here. I have my own private
opinion that there is no such thing as preaching Christ and Him crucified, unless we preach what
nowadays is called Calvinism. It is a nickname to call it Calvinism; Calvinism is the gospel, and nothing
else.”
(The Autobiography of Charles H. Spurgeon, Curts & Jennings, Cincinnati, Chicago, St. Louis, 1898, Vol.
I, p.172,
CHARLES SPURGEON: C. H. Spurgeon, Defense of Calvinism Refuted)
This is one of the saddest statements I have ever heard. Calvinism is not the gospel or the good news.
1 Corinthians 15:3-6 tells us what that good news is!!