Did Jesus Die on The Cross for The Just/Elect/Saved Whose Names Are Written in The Book of Life OR

  • 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.

PaulThomson

Well-known member
Oct 29, 2023
3,479
455
83
That's one understanding. But I don't care to rehash the arguments I've had with other posters to no avail. We simply disagree on what is decreed and what is described. I can live with that.
So, God only described destroying Nineveh? What does that even mean?
 

Cameron143

Well-known member
Mar 1, 2022
19,322
6,647
113
62
So, you intend to turn back from pursuing this debates course to wherever the facts lead, and you are choosing to stop at this particular look out, and then return home to start tomorrow from the exact starting point that was not able to get you today to the destination of wherever the facts lead.
No. I choose to be led of the Spirit. Jesus did always what He saw the Father doing. Do you see the Father causing division? Do you see the Father implying false motives? Do you see the Father causing confusion?

Sometimes what someone says is exactly what they mean. I get that we have some different understanding of doctrine. I don't get why you think it's your responsibility to change another's point of view. Sure, plant and water, but leave the growing to God. When I see that what I'm sharing is making no impact, I know that it's time to move on. You are free to do as you choose.
 

FollowerofShiloh

Well-known member
Jan 24, 2024
4,321
714
113
I have been around for quite some time, and I would never put them in the same category as reformed. For the most part I would say they would have a works based belief. They would never confess belief in what the Heidelberg Catechism, Westminster Confession, or Canons of Dort proclaim as biblical teaching! Were they to study these works, there would be many areas of conflict.
Perhaps you are confusing them with some Reformed Baptist Church. There are some of those, but they are not SBC.
There have been some on here claiming to be Southern Baptist promoting TULIP.
I just was made to understand that TULIP is a Reformed Doctrine.
Are you saying that your Southern Baptist Church does not preach TULIP or 5 Doctrines of Grace?
 

PaulThomson

Well-known member
Oct 29, 2023
3,479
455
83
Reread the post where I distinguish between prescriptive and descriptive will of God.
When you keep needing to create new terms and categories, and to divide biblical texts so that they fit into your new categories in order to keep your theological boat afloat, you are patching a lot of leaks in your boat.
 

studier

Well-known member
Apr 18, 2024
1,189
233
63
I haven't expanded my definition of freewill. Free is free. There are no limitations, otherwise it's not actually free, but subject to limits.
When Jesus sets someone free, they are free indeed. And if any man be in Christ, he has become a new creation. All things, not some are past. All things, not some, become new.

Are we free to sin without punishment?

It looks like freedom from sin is slavery to righteousness. Is this freedom without limits?

NKJ Romans 6:18 And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.​
This is a command to our volition. It seems we're not completely free to go back into bondage without consequence and thus, once again, our freedom has limitations.

NKJ Galatians 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.​
Obviously this concept of freedom with limitations is biblical. Freedom without limitations is the unbiblical fallacy being used to attempt to prove another unbiblical fallacy.
 

PaulThomson

Well-known member
Oct 29, 2023
3,479
455
83
PaulThomson said:

You haven't given an example. You have merely restated your claim that a lot of people has claimed that "God would be violating the sanctity and integrity of a person's free moral agency if He ever sovereignly moved against that moral agency."

Who has even claimed that there is such a thing as "the sanctity and integrity of a persons free moral agency. Free will does not mean one's free moral agency. Free will means the freedom to keep or change one's own desires. One can keep one'sown desires against doing something while being forced to do it.

But God unilaterally changing our desires ,so that we cannot keep our own desires against doing something even though we want to keep them, is a violation of free will. Free will is not about moral agency, i.e. the ability freely to do moral or immoral acts.

Please try to challenge the definitions others use for free will, not straw man definitions.

I have addressed "free will" often. Some think the will of man is a "neutral" faculty. That man comes into the world not swayed by the other faculties. Some think the will of man is autonomous. That we have this God-given right of self-rule. That we have some kind of right to act independently of other.

Also, you have the will and desires backwards. You have the will wagging the desires, when in fact, it's the other way around. Our minds, passions and consciences constitute our desires which consist of our wants, cravings, wishes, covetings, intentions etc.. This is why scripture speaks so often to man's desires -- far more often than it does to man's will. The NC promise is that God would indeed unilaterally give his people a new heart which is the seat of all man's faculties. The promise includes a lot more than giving just a new will

Also, when God gives a person a new heart, it's for the reason that the old heart that's in natural man is desperately wicked and deceitful above all else! Don't you know that there is NOTHING sound in man? That the whole head is injured, the whole heart is afflicted? That from the sole of man's feet to the top of his head, there is no soundness in him? Don't you know the thoughts and intentions of man are evil continuously? That's there's nothing good in the natural man's flesh? So, how is God violating someone's corrupt will (and heart!) by graciously and mercifully setting him FREE FROM it with a new heart that will have new desires, new wants, new intentions, new thoughts, etc.. When God gives a person a new heart, he is in essence setting a prisoner of his old heart FREE from all its corrupt desires. Yet, in your world God would be doing an evil thing by setting the prisoners free!? Didn't Jesus say, "If the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed" (Jn 8:36)!? What in the world do you think he meant -- setting people free from what: From their virtuous, pious, humble, God-fearing lifestyles?
Often, the same words translated as desire and want are thelO and thelEma., the words used for will as verb and noun respectively. Wisdom/folly, discrimination/ignorance and judgment/instinct prioritise and rein in the competing desires to yield to the one the person decides is the most important desire., which is then pursued.

The heart is the invisible part of a person, their soul and spirit. Giving a new, clean, perfect spirit that is able to commune boldly, guilt-free and shame-free with God is giving a new heart, even if the mind is only changed a little at this stage. Some data about God and ourselves is changed, but most of our operating system continues to need radical upgrading/transformation/renewal.

The unbelieving man is more than his flesh. He is also mind and spirit. The man, whether believer or unbeliever, who sets his mind on what his flesh can experience, is fleshly/carnal/soulish/natural. The man, whether believer or unbeliever, who sets his mind on what his spirit can experience, is spiritual. The one who sets his mind on the things of the flesh cannot please God and is at enmity with God. The one who sets his mind on the things of the flesh can please God, but still might not please God, if the spiritual things he sets his mind are not godly. Scripture does not say that the unbelieving spiritual man cannot receive any teaching from God. It is only because you have forced your Calvinist assumptions into scripture that you believe the unbeliever who is setting his mind on spiritual things cannot receive teaching from God.

God does not show favouritism. Ig God were to unilaterally change the desires of some so that the can be spared hell, but leave others’ desires unchanged so that they must surely be condemned to hell, He would be showing favouritism, and be breaking His own word and be condemned as a sinner. I don’t believe He shows partiality.
 

FollowerofShiloh

Well-known member
Jan 24, 2024
4,321
714
113
Exercise your free will and show that you can stop harassing people.
It seems to me I make posts and then people quote me [YOU quoted me to begin this discussion few days ago - I didn't quote you]. If they don't like what I have to say then why quote me? I am only going to say what I believe the Bible claims.
 

PaulThomson

Well-known member
Oct 29, 2023
3,479
455
83
How is God's drawing explained by Jesus?
Before calvary, God drew men to Jesus through the words and deeds He did through Jesus, which were controversial and attracted attention away from their everyday lifestyles onto checking Jesus out. So, they came to Jesus drawn by the Father, some to be healed, some to hear wise teaching, some to defend their traditions against His innovations, some to find evidence to justify killing Him, some to kill Him. The Father drew people to Jesus so that they might believe and receive aeonous life.

Since His resurrection, Jesus is drawing people to Himself through the words and deeds He is doing through the church and the Holy Spirit, with the same results, to the same end.
 

2ndTimothyGroup

Well-known member
Feb 20, 2021
5,883
1,954
113
It seems to me I make posts and people quote me. If they don't like what I have to say then why quote me? I am only going to say what I believe the Bible claims.
Exercise your free will and make the choice to stop communicating with me. This is my third request.
 

PaulThomson

Well-known member
Oct 29, 2023
3,479
455
83
But not the "reason" of the Natural Man. And...there are definitions of this world ("common parlance") and there are biblical definitions.
You mean definitions made up and imposed upon the Bible to generate and shore up a novel otherwise-unbiblical theology.
 

studier

Well-known member
Apr 18, 2024
1,189
233
63
All that is consistent with what you believe. But your conclusion is assumed.
I appreciate the discussion and your time. Thanks.

Your conclusion is erroneous and you cannot prove otherwise.

There. All done. Copying your form of argumentation is much easier.
 

Magenta

Senior Member
Jul 3, 2015
60,334
29,582
113
Sometimes what someone says is exactly what they mean.
So odd that we can talk about what is possible for the natural man and what is not, and that gets turned around and made about what is possible for everybody regardless of their status before God... this has been pointed out before already also, then they complain about being misrepresented when it is them misrepresenting what we say... and they do this repeatedly, then wish to put themselves forward as reliable teachers and wonder why we do not wish to continue.
 

studier

Well-known member
Apr 18, 2024
1,189
233
63
Exercise your free will and make the choice to stop communicating with me. This is my third request.

I thought this poster had 13 people on ignore. Maybe he's realizing that there's not much content to read and interact with once nearly everyone has been ignored.
 

FollowerofShiloh

Well-known member
Jan 24, 2024
4,321
714
113
I thought this poster had 13 people on ignore. Maybe he's realizing that there's not much content to read and interact with once nearly everyone has been ignored.
He's too busy being a victim.

He starts a conversation and it goes the way he did not intend so he starts posting poor me.
 

Rufus

Well-known member
Feb 17, 2024
2,461
270
83
There is no conflation, slavery doesn't eliminate free will, slavery inhibits it.
If one states there is no free will, meaning man can only act according to causes/influences outside his will than that is determinism.

Hyper Calvinism would fall in the determinism camp.

Now Calvinism-lite seeks to balance this by allowing no free will but limited choice, and no choice when it comes to believing he Gospel.


It really is very convoluted.

The arguments about free will/determinism are philosophical in nature. Augustine liked to philosophize and his ideas still permeate western thinking.

Scripture states "even as were are made slave to righteousness" yet we still sin....... so being "slave to sin" does not negate a will which can act freely apart from outside influences.

There is no scripture that states the impact of the fall was to negate man's ability to hear the powerful Gospel message and be unable to respond to the truth which is heard.
You know not of what you speak, sir. To be under slavery is to be under the submission to a dominating, controlling influence, such as the ancient Hebrews were under Pharaoh in Egypt. So, in one respect you are right: slavery "inhibits" the will, which primarily means the will is prohibited from doing something. The will is discouraged from free or spontaneous activity. For the human will to be truly free, it would have to emulate God's will since His is free from all sinful influences from within and without, which is why he cannot lie, he cannot deny himself, he cannot be tempted. Yet, are you going to deny that God isn't a free moral agent due to the dominating, controlling influence of his holy, righteous and good nature? Are you going to deny that He isn't free because he cannot be a sinful slave and act like one? Because not even God Almighty can be something that He is not!?

With all due respect, your whole idea of "freedom" is satanic and worldly! You NR have turned the biblical teaching of freedom on its head! You call bitter sweet, and sweet bitter. You call evil good, and good evil. You call freedom slavery, and slavery freedom! How is any NR going to handle the eternal, visible kingdom when the saints are in their glorified states? Don't you know that there will be no sin in heaven or the eternal kingdom No one will be able to sin! Just like God cannot choose to sin! So, by your worldly understanding of "freedom", I suppose you would have infer from the eternal state that the saints will have no free will? To be consistent with yourself, you'd have to conclude this -- because in your world real freedom is choosing what we want! Real freedom, according to the worldly wise, can only be had when we get to choose what is right and wrong! True freedom can only exist we have the ability to choose to sin or not!

What in the world do you think Jesus meant in Jn 8:36!? "Free indeed"...from and/or to do what!?

And from all your bragging about how the redeemed saints of God can still freely choose to sin even though, we're slaves to righteousness, you evidently never read Rom 6:14. It's one thing to "stumble" into sin, and something else altoegether to "fall" into the lifestyle of sin.