Understanding God’s election

  • 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.

HeIsHere

Well-known member
May 21, 2022
5,992
2,317
113
You must begin to think in a near-Eastern mindset to really grasp what Scripture is saying. That is how they butcher Romans 8 and 9 and so-called "predestination" and their total fail to comprehend the absolute Scriptural requirement of free will in created beings.
There is some irony in this failure.

The "mind set" that insists God had to bestow "ability to believe" ironically contains all types of doctrinal errors.

And yes that is a huge failure and I can see that from personal experience of connection to that "mind set."
 
Oct 19, 2024
1,318
340
83
Man certainly has a will, but it is no longer free. Adam and Eve and Jesus are the only ones whose wills were not encumbered because they were not under the bondage of sin. The rest of us, and Adam and Eve after sin, are subject to a sinful nature. That nature inherent in fallen man impacts all a person does unless another nature is added that is greater than the other.
An unfree will makes man no different from (and no more accountable for behavior than )animals that are not created in God’s image so that definition is not Scriptural.
 

Cameron143

Well-known member
Mar 1, 2022
19,548
6,715
113
62
An unfree will makes man no different from (and no more accountable for behavior than )animals that are not created in God’s image so that definition is not Scriptural.
Sure it is. Animals largely run by instinct. Preprogramming. Humans maintain the ability to think and reason, but their cognitive processes have been made subject to corruption. They maintain the ability to choose, but their choices are markedly different given the corruption.
 

MeowFlower

Well-known member
Aug 25, 2024
834
381
63
youtube.com
All Calvin did was systematize the Five Doctrines of Grace to make them easier to understand. Those doctrines have always been in the bible.
Amen.

There's a hatred for Calvinism in most Christian forums that defies reason. And you will never reach those type people with the fact that "Calvinism" is actually the Reformed Doctrine of Christianity. And it predates John Calvin.

It's very likely the opponents you encounter here are Catholics or Arminians. You will never ever persuade them the Bible,God, teaches Election of the Saints. Which is God's predestination. Just as Jesus repeatedly taught.

Those who argue against this insist we can choose to accept the Gospel on our own.

Which calls Paul and Jesus liars.

Paul said the natural man cannot understand the things of God,they are foolishness to them.

You witness the truth of that regularly when reading anyone who condemns God's Election. And predestination.

Paul further said the only way the natural man's mind changes is when the Holy Spirit enters by God's will and leads our consciousness into understanding God's will and word.


Jesus said,no one comes to him unless God leads them.

Christianity itself teaches all of this besides just the particulars. We are spiritually dead in our sin by our human nature. Separated from God.

It is contrary to that natural condition to then argue,insist, we can understand Holy Spirit inspired Scripture reporting our condition God says we cannot recognize in ourselves unless he chooses to give us his Spirit and open our understanding.

Really? You might consider those you are aguing with who insist they do possess the ability to choose and understand God's word while they deny God's Election and predestination example the truth in just 1 Corinthians 2:14. Because they are declaring that passage is untrue of them and their condition.
 
Oct 12, 2017
3,087
446
83
An unregenerate man who does not want to sin, but can not stop sinning, has his will just the same.
It's just a will that is impotent to do what he wants to do.

But, in spite of his impotence, disabling him to do what is right?
In his mind, he still freely wants not to sin!

Grace is God's granted power to a humble believer (like spinach was to Popeye) to enable his will to be done, not to sin.

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may
rest on me. " 2 Corinthians 12:9​



......
 
Oct 12, 2017
3,087
446
83
Good insights there on.....insight.

Really the millstone around the neck of the clueless hyper-Cals is their penchant for linear limited Greek type thinking and foolish sophistry. You must begin to think in a near-Eastern mindset to really grasp what Scripture is saying. That is how they butcher Romans 8 and 9 and so-called "predestination" and their total fail to comprehend the absolute Scriptural requirement of free will in created beings.

To this day @Magenta insists that permission was not asked of Mary by Gabriel.
But given Mary's response there is no doubt that it was.
As if every word of their conversation had to be recorded to make any sense. Preposterous.
They need a good teacher...

Like we all do.

But they want to be their own teacher.

so be it...
 

Rufus

Well-known member
Feb 17, 2024
2,588
297
83
Calvinists are the byproduct of Satan shiting his major corruptive influence from the Catholic church that he knew many were getting frustrated with, to grabbing onto disciples of John Calvin, as to distort and create a new way to present corrupt dogmatism to people who were sick of the corrupt dogmatism of the RCC. They had become accustomed to such a form of autocratic authority.

John Calvin did not concoct TULIP. That was arranged by his disciple Theodore Beza after Calvin's death.
Theodore Beza led his committee to create and arrange a dogmatic system to be used to rule a people who hated
the previous dogmatic system the RCC had set up. Believers back then were just used to being treated that way, because
of the Roman Catholic Church's long held practice.

TULIP Calvinists seek to set themselves up as "kings of the hill" in the body of Christ.
Calvinism, as it had become degenerated into, was designed to please a certain kind of self righteousness
that grants license to a form of irrational religious arrogance. Like we see with some posting in this forum exhibiting.

:mad: You have no fee will!

:unsure: Then why do you leave it to me to believe that?


Its all about a failure to understand how God's grace is God's antidote for man's fallen state.

In Him.....
Now you're catching on. Man's will is bondage to his sin nature which is why no man can will himself to never sin.
 
Oct 19, 2024
1,318
340
83
Sure it is. Animals largely run by instinct. Preprogramming. Humans maintain the ability to think and reason, but their cognitive processes have been made subject to corruption. They maintain the ability to choose, but their choices are markedly different given the corruption.
You can believe Moses and Jesus were being disingenuous when they spoke DT 19:30 and MT 23:37 if you want since you are free to do so, but I choose to believe they were serious.
 

Cameron143

Well-known member
Mar 1, 2022
19,548
6,715
113
62
You can believe Moses and Jesus were being disingenuous when they spoke DT 19:30 and MT 23:37 if you want since you are free to do so, but I choose to believe they were serious.
I could, but I don't so choose. I do, however, choose to believe you are. I've already posited that people can make choices.
 

Rufus

Well-known member
Feb 17, 2024
2,588
297
83
An unregenerate man who does not want to sin, but can not stop sinning, has his will just the same.
It's just a will that is impotent to do what he wants to do.

But, in spite of his impotence, disabling him to do what is right?
In his mind, he still freely wants not to sin!

Grace is God's granted power to a humble believer (like spinach was to Popeye) to enable his will to be done, not to sin.

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may
rest on me. " 2 Corinthians 12:9​



......
You should pay much closer attention to what you write. In fact, you should let your fingers catch up to that maze you consider to be your brain.

Since you say that sin-filled unregenerates "don't want to sin" still have a will, however that will is just "impotent" because they can't get it to cooperate with their desires, i.e. what they "wants", then this logically mean that the will is not free to act contrary to the unregenerate's sin nature. The sin nature actually restricts the will's freedom.

Smooth move, Mr. Ex Lax.... :rolleyes:
 
Nov 21, 2020
6,399
571
113
An unregenerate man who does not want to sin, but can not stop sinning, has his will just the same.
It's just a will that is impotent to do what he wants to do.

But, in spite of his impotence, disabling him to do what is right?
In his mind, he still freely wants not to sin!

Grace is God's granted power to a humble believer (like spinach was to Popeye) to enable his will to be done, not to sin.

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may
rest on me. " 2 Corinthians 12:9​



......
A unregenerate person is dead to God dead and sin
 

cv5

Well-known member
Nov 20, 2018
23,204
8,422
113
A unregenerate person is dead to God dead and sin
Only "future dead" is truly dead aka the state of permanent separation from God (post GWT judgment in the lake of fire).

Nevertheless, it is clear that many times Jesus frames His assessment of men thusly.
Because of course His perspective includes (but is not limited to) that which is outside of time.
 

cv5

Well-known member
Nov 20, 2018
23,204
8,422
113
They need a good teacher...

Like we all do.

But they want to be their own teacher.

so be it...
They desperately need to drop their MASSIVE Reformer/Reformist/Calvinite baggage that is causing them to fall flat on their faces right out of the gate.
 

Genez

Junior Member
Oct 12, 2017
3,087
446
83
Perfect.
It (small c calvinism or big C calvinism or anything inbetween) is so full of contradictions and convoluted.

To deny that a person has the ability, by God's provision, to believe the truth inherent in the Gospel message is heretical really.
Calvinism snatched away the brutal authority of the RCC to tell its believers made up stuff.
To turn around, and use again brutal illogical thinking to tell Calvinists made up stuff. (TULIP)

But to be fair to John Calvin, who was basically a good exegetical teacher. He did not originate TULIP.
It was after his death that some of his disciples (headed by Theodore Beza) organized and came up with what we find today.
They did it under the banner of the name of John Calvin's accepted good reputation....
(forgetting about him putting some heretic to death)

John Calvin Killed Rival Theologians: Bad Bible Interpretation Justified It.
Calvin specifically justified capital punishment of heretics with Leviticus 24:16.
“The one who blasphemes the name of the Lord should be put to death;
all the congregation must stone him. Any foreigner or native who blasphemes
the Name should be put to death.”


John Calvin could be said, was in a way, somewhat like a Muslim thinking in his feelings about infidels.

Was Calvin promoting? ..... Jesus Akbar!

............ "Any foreigner or native who blasphemes the Name should be put to death."

That might explain why there is that certain emotional pattern we find with the die in the wool Calvinists.
They crave to have a certain kind of power over even the rational thinking of others.


Satan knows. False doctrines are always created with a target audience in mind.

For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine.
Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great
number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
2 Timothy 4:3

Take our pick from those great number of teachers Paul told Timothy about?
And, realize that Jesus said that the road to destruction will be 'broad and wide'.

We are now finding ourselves living in it!

grace and peace ......
 

Genez

Junior Member
Oct 12, 2017
3,087
446
83
Now you're catching on. Man's will is bondage to his sin nature which is why no man can will himself to never sin.
Though he does not have the power to do so?
Man can still wish to never sin!

That is what God saves,.
Because it merits salvation!

God grants impotent men the wish/desire for righteousness!
 

Genez

Junior Member
Oct 12, 2017
3,087
446
83
They desperately need to drop their MASSIVE Reformer/Reformist/Calvinite baggage that is causing them to fall flat on their faces right out of the gate.
With demons reigning them in, down a road they find themselves on.
Rounding them up like sheep.

I was Jewish. I had demons pressuring me to stay with Judaism.