sorry. the formatting makes it hard....
okay...
Acts 2:21For whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved."
So now we gots a problem huh? whos calling who? And there is alot more text in that same order.
i don't understand what you are saying above.
i suppose, if i am hearing you right, you're saying people are calling on the Name of the Lord without knowing
who He is (without Him calling them first - drawing)?
That was not acts 3:9 but look at it in context and you will see who the called are.
again, don't know what you mean "That was not acts 3:9"
Acts 2:37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the hear(HolySpirits conviction,grace), and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”38 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive(hadnt been regenerated yet)the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”
40 And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved(most versions say "save yourself) from this perverse generation.” 41Then they who gladly received His word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.
okay....but what about
the Lord calling them to Himself?
could you show where that fits? because it's also in there.
Who calls first...and who was he calling (through peter's preaching)?
"
when they heard this"
who was there hearing the sermon? that's what i mean.
why were
those specific people there at that time to hear the message that it was prophesied they were to hear?
Jesus had already blinded the Pharisees - He cursed them.
so they didn't hear. the permanent residents of Jerusalem were the mockers....they were the ones who mocked and didn't hear. not any non-israelites from
and where were all the gentiles around the world at that time?
Paul said they were lost, without hope and God.
no Gospel, no Temple, no knowing the Lord of Creation, nothing.
pagan idolators.
so what i am asking is, you said Romans 9 was not about individual salvation.
but we see in Acts it very specifically was. prophesied to a NATION first, and individuals received the word and were saved.
again i'll ask...what were those specific people doing in that very location on that day to hear that sermon and be saved?
who called them?
how did they come to be in that location?
and that itself was prophesied in Genesis, we now know.
that the serpent cult from Babylon would be in place to conspire with Romans to put Jesus to death.
i know the Gospel (the Spirit's speaking whether through peter at that time, or through the Scriptures to us today
IS the Power unto salvation.) that's not the question for me.
what i am wondering about the calling is....what about all the ppl who were
not called from gentile nations before Pentecost?
did they have a chance
to call on the name of the Lord? they didn't know the Lord. they surely didn't know His Name.
i don't know....what do you think?
(please understand, if we can, between you and i mike .....i do not want to make this about when regeneration in the sequence of salvation takes place, if possible...okay? that's not really going to help me get to what i'm wondering. at this point i'm wondering about CALLING in general - nationally as we see does happen, then individually. )
i may be way off topic.
i'll have to assess it.
All are called John 1:9 That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.
from the beginning?
Ephesians 2
11Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— 12remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise,
having no hope and without God in the world. 13
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off
have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
ephsians 2 says clearly that the gentiles were far off and without hope, and did not have God.
and it says that
they were brought near.
again, this is saying that they (as a multitude...i don't mean proselytes and strangers who were included in the commonwealth)
could not have come until God's Time said so.
doesn't it? isn't that what it is saying?