What Changed?
Assuming that you are a child of God, What was the event that resulted in this change?
All people are conceived in sin and are born children of wrath, unfit for any saving good, inclined to evil, dead in their sins, and slaves to sin; without the grace of the regenerating Holy Spirit they are neither willing nor able to return to God, to reform their distorted nature, or even to dispose themselves to such reform.
Something had to change
Did you overcome this condition in your own strength, or were you drawn to Christ by the power of the Spirit? If you were drawn, were you able to resist being drawn?
Assuming that you are a child of God, What was the event that resulted in this change?
All people are conceived in sin and are born children of wrath, unfit for any saving good, inclined to evil, dead in their sins, and slaves to sin; without the grace of the regenerating Holy Spirit they are neither willing nor able to return to God, to reform their distorted nature, or even to dispose themselves to such reform.
Something had to change
Did you overcome this condition in your own strength, or were you drawn to Christ by the power of the Spirit? If you were drawn, were you able to resist being drawn?
Wow! You must be a huge fan of Calvinism. That sounds like a direct quote from his doctrine—and that is just what it is—a doctrine of man, originating with John Calvin in the 16th century. That means this doctrine was not around in the first century when the apostles were living and the Bible was being written. It was 1500 years too late to be from God. God says in 2 Timothy 3;16 that the Bible is INSPIRED and COMPLETE. Thoroughly furnishing a man or equipping him with all he needs.
Ezekiel 18 makes it very clear that we do NOT inherit sin. Jesus used little children as examples of purity and said they are in the kingdom of heaven. Psalms 136:38 says children are “innocent.”
2 Thess. 2:14 says we are “called” to God by the GOSPEL; not by some mysterious force nor by the Holy Spirit directly—only indirectly as it was written by the Spirit. We are all “called” to God in the same way—by His word in the gospel. God is no respecter of persons. He calls us and saves us all the same way. No one has any advantage over the other.
Examples of this happening in the scriptures is in Acts 8; Phillip preached Jesus to the eunuch and he asked to be baptized. In Acts 16 Paul “spoke” the word of God to the jailer and he and his house were baptized immediately. 1 Cor. 10 Peter taught Cornelius the gospel and he and his house were baptized. In Acts2 Peter preached a sermon to the Jews and they asked “ What must we do?” In verse 37. In the New Testament, people who came to Christ heard the word of God first —it called them or drew them— and as a result, they obeyed the gospel. Just like 2 Thess. 2:14 says. The Bible is harmonious and does not contradict itself. We are either convinced that God is real and the Bible is true and we want to go to heaven and not spend eternity in hell so we obey God’s gospel OR we are unbelievers and we don’t care what God says and we choose NOT to obey. We have a choice and it is solely ours. We are not forced to obey God. He wants willing hearts to obey Him.
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