Understanding God’s election

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studier

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Apr 18, 2024
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Oh oh, could this mean you do not understand Reformed soteriology like moi!

:rolleyes:
Probably just slow this morning and brain-weary of the lack of unity of the Faith. One God, one Spirit, one Lord, one Book and a bazillion different minds. After watching numbers advance from million, to billion, to trillion in my years, I figure I'll just get ahead of the game and use a word that better seems to represent the number of interpretations of the unity.
 

Cameron143

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No, the overarching problem which your system denies, is the very condition/responsibility that God Himself has set.

This is actually the very essence of the Gospel ... that it requires a response, that is how God set it up not the cherry picked and reconstructed, reformulation of Reformed doctrine.
A response an unbeliever cannot give. That's why salvation is by grace through faith. One who has the mind of Christ is able to respond positively to the gospel. You have individuals who cannot please God pleasing God. That's what your human reasoning has led you to, contradicting the word of God.
 

HeIsHere

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May 21, 2022
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The unbeliever has only a carnal mind.
Yes but you are trying to make this passage about unregenerate people it is not... much like this one it is about believers.
3 For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?

But the carnal mind/person is not born unable to believe in/trust in and have faith in Christ Jesus and the Good News... no where does scripture state this.

This is the hurdle you have not in all these pages, actually dealt with using scripture to support this Reformed claim.
 

HeIsHere

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Probably just slow this morning and brain-weary of the lack of unity of the Faith. One God, one Spirit, one Lord, one Book and a bazillion different minds. After watching numbers advance from million, to billion, to trillion in my years, I figure I'll just get ahead of the game and use a word that better seems to represent the number of interpretations of the unity.
I hear ya.
 

HeIsHere

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A response an unbeliever cannot give. That's why salvation is by grace through faith. One who has the mind of Christ is able to respond positively to the gospel. You have individuals who cannot please God pleasing God. That's what your human reasoning has led you to, contradicting the word of God.
Saving faith is not the gift,..... salvation is the gift....the grammar in Ephesians makes that clear.
 

lrs68

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Dec 30, 2024
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All of these have people coming to faith apart from God. That doesn't happen...Romans 8:7-8.
You obviously have not truly read these accounts but actually they came because they heard about the God of the Hebrew People. I would not expect those unfamiliar with the Tanakh to understand the Hebrew meaning but these Scholars and Theologians are going directly by what the exact wording means.
 

Cameron143

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Yes but you are trying to make this passage about unregenerate people it is not... much like this one it is about believers.
3 For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?

But the carnal mind/person is not born unable to believe in/trust in and have faith in Christ Jesus and the Good News... no where does scripture state this.
This is the hurdle you have not in all these pages, actually dealt with using scripture to support this Reformed claim.
No I'm not. I'm simply pointing out that unsaved people always act carnally because they can do no other. Nowhere have I said that saved individuals cannot be carnally minded.
 

HeIsHere

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A response an unbeliever cannot give. That's why salvation is by grace through faith. One who has the mind of Christ is able to respond positively to the gospel. You have individuals who cannot please God pleasing God. That's what your human reasoning has led you to, contradicting the word of God.
It does not take having the mind of Christ to trust in/ have faith in the Redeemer and the Gospel message, that is why there is a message to begin with, my goodness!!!
 

HeIsHere

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No I'm not. I'm simply pointing out that unsaved people always act carnally because they can do no other. Nowhere have I said that saved individuals cannot be carnally minded.
Again that is not what I stated, I stated you are making Romans verses about the unregenerate when it is not.
 

Cameron143

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It does not take having the mind of Christ to trust in/ have faith in the Redeemer and the Gospel message, that is why there is a message to begin with, my goodness!!!
Again, you have individuals who only operate carnally pleasing God. This is in direct contradiction to Romans 8:7-8. Should I trust your understanding or the word of God?
 

Cameron143

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Again that is not what I stated, I stated you are making Romans verses about the unregenerate when it is not.
No I'm not. I'm merely pointing out that those who are carnally minded cannot obey God nor act in faith. This can be true of those who are saved or unsaved, but IT IS ALWAYS TRUE OF THOSE NOT SAVED.
 

HeIsHere

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Again, you have individuals who only operate carnally pleasing God. This is in direct contradiction to Romans 8:7-8. Should I trust your understanding or the word of God?
Believing the Gospel does please God, that is what He requires.
So clearly seen starting with Abraham.
 

Cameron143

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You obviously have not truly read these accounts but actually they came because they heard about the God of the Hebrew People. I would not expect those unfamiliar with the Tanakh to understand the Hebrew meaning but these Scholars and Theologians are going directly by what the exact wording means.
So you believe carnally minded people can obey and please God?
 

Cameron143

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Believing the Gospel does please God, that is what He requires.
So clearly seen starting with Abraham.
Believing the gospel is commanded by God. To do so is an act of obedience. That would certainly please God. The carnally minded cannot please God. Again, your understanding is contrary to the plain teaching of scripture.
 

HeIsHere

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No I'm not. I'm merely pointing out that those who are carnally minded people cannot obey God nor act in faith. This can be true of those who are saved or unsaved, but IT IS ALWAYS TRUE OF THOSE NOT SAVED.
cannot obey God nor act in faith

Paul was carnal and he obeyed along with countless others in scripture.
Once again ... death means separated not unable.
No one is born unable to believe in/trust in/have faith in the Good News of Christ the Redeemer.

Faith comes before salvation.

Once we repent from dead works and believe, then we are then born again, and immediately (I John 5:1).
Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.


That is right "believe" is something the person does.
 

Cameron143

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cannot obey God nor act in faith

Paul was carnal and he obeyed along with countless others in scripture.
Once again ... death means separated not unable.
No one is born unable to believe in/trust in/have faith in the Good News of Christ the Redeemer.

Faith comes before salvation.

Once we repent from dead works and believe, then we are then born again, and immediately (I John 5:1).
Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.


That is right "believe" is something the person does.
Hebrews 11 teaches without faith it is impossible to please God.

Romans 8 teaches that the carnal mind cannot please God.

All unbelievers possess always a carnal mind.

Do the math.

When Paul was murdering Christians, what mind do you believe he was operating in? Had God not intervened in his life, you believe he would have stopped? Did he believe he was pleasing God?
 

HeIsHere

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Believing the gospel is commanded by God. To do so is an act of obedience. That would certainly please God. The carnally minded cannot please God. Again, your understanding is contrary to the plain teaching of scripture.
LOL
Is this where I say ...
"But your position is people cannot beleive unless God acts first."

And then you say...
"You do not understand Reformed theology."

Suffice it to say this doctrine requires that unbelievers are in Christ, so that they can believe.
Not in scripture
 

studier

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Apr 18, 2024
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Your overarching problem is that you believe man is capable of reconciling himself to God in his natural estate. That incrementally he will come to a fuller understanding of God and reason his way to faith in God. But this is impossible according to the scripture. Romans 8:7-8 teach that the carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God and cannot be subject to it. From this estate, it is impossible to please God. But you proffer that such a one will recognize the authority of God, transfer that recognition to the Son, and obey God. The word of God says that cannot happen. The gospel is foolishness to such folks and the gospel is not the power of God unto salvation for them. Even if they make a pretense of religion, they deny the power thereof.
If you truly want to understand the depravity of man and his helplessness before God, spend some time meditating on Romans 8.
According to you this my problem, and I understand why you think this. And I think you are misreading His Word and the 1Cor2 verse you are referencing, at least in part. Thus, I think it's you who has the problem.

In Paul's mind and throughout his writings, especially Romans, is a kind of duality in men - there are men of faith who believe God and unrighteous men who in early context are the not men of faith who reject God. There is also his perspective that even though there are men like himself who believed YHWH - or had faith in YHWH (as Hebrews 11 tells us) - and who lived blamelessly, righteously under law, under sin, from God's ultimate perspective of perfect righteousness and holiness, all men, both Jew & Greek, men of faith and unrighteousness men, need Christ and His Righteousness from God. This is what Paul is building in Rom1 that sets the course for the rest of the document.

When you read Rom8, which is instruction to believers - men of faith in Jesus is YHWH's Christ - in living the spiritual life of a man of faith - what he says about the fleshly mindset does not negate the fact that there have been Jews for centuries living pursuant to God's Law with its sacrificial system for dealing with sin(s) and there are Gentiles who showed the work of the law in their hearts with functioning consciences. Paul has also just come out of Rom7 explaining how the Law had been instructing re: sin and making him able to perceive the struggle going on inside him as a man who desired to live as God willed. Paul will bring in the concept of the Remnant from the Hebrew Scriptures to go along with this and the Remnant was of OC men who did not bow in obeisance (same word Jesus used emphatically in John4 re: who God is seeking) to idols but lived albeit imperfectly in belief in God.

The problem IMO with this view of depravity that you share with TULIPism is that it works very hard to negate the truth that there have been men of faith from Abel on. These are men and women of Gentile and Hebrew heritage throughout history and the message of belief in God has been progressive and has been believed since the Garden by people before Jesus was sent.

So, I do not find it difficult to see in Scripture how some of the believing Remnant easily transitioned from belief in YHWH to being convinced by God and His people that Jesus was the God promised Messiah whom they were anticipating for centuries. Nor do I see it as impossible, as others do, to transition from belief in God to belief in His Son especially with His Spirit functioning in the world, His Word being in most of the world and having been so for millennia, consciences working to give a sense of good & bad & judgment, and other such factors, including living a life over time in a world that one can realize is an absolute mess while having in our hearts a sense of eternity - something better and greater than this catastrophe we're living out now - including death that just does not make sense if one believes in the Creator of Rom1 and the powers He has.