Understanding God’s election

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Rufus

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Feb 17, 2024
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I just explained: God is love and works lovingly through those who seek/repent/cooperate with His HS.
What is YOUR explanation?
Read Rom 3 some day. No one seeks God except the ones God has given to his Son and whom God effectually draws to Him!
 

Rufus

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Feb 17, 2024
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Part of the disagreements between traditions is shown in how they "spin" a.k.a. interpret differently.

At the end of all this you're simply saying/spinning/interpreting John3:16 as filial - familial - covenantal vs. beneficent, when another spin/interpretation says it's beneficent and includes Matt5:44-48 as I previously stated.

In the end the spin/interpretation of beneficent encompasses all, which IMO better represents that God is Love and that we are all still in need of Paul's prayer in Eph3:14-21 in regard to the love of Christ.

In continuing disagreement with your spin/interpretation, I remain with the spin/interpretation that kosmos in John3:16 is all men.
So...just to be clear: You believe that Jn 3:16 teaches that God loves all men w/o exception, even all the God-haters of this world?
 

Musicmaster

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Feb 8, 2021
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Unfortunately, Pelagians twist, ignore, deny, and contradict, possibly hundreds of verses to justify their warped beliefs.
Fortunately, not all who disagree with the subjective rules for hermeneutics practiced by followers of TULIP are followers of Palagian. I'm an Israeli, and even the ancient followers of Judaism would disagree with TULIP. So, the false practice of labeling ends up being a practice in futility.

MM
 
Oct 19, 2024
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Resurrected to heaven? What? What about the millennial reign on earth with Christ after the resurrection? and what about the church descending from the new heaven to dwell on the new earth after the second resurrection?
Who cares about the millennial reign compared with eternity in heaven?
(wherever that may be)
 
Oct 19, 2024
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Fortunately, not all who disagree with the subjective rules for hermeneutics practiced by followers of TULIP are followers of Palagian. I'm an Israeli, and even the ancient followers of Judaism would disagree with TULIP. So, the false practice of labeling ends up being a practice in futility.

MM
Yes, and I follow neither Pelagius nor Arminius but base my MFWism on Scripture
I have cited numerous times.
 

PaulThomson

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Oct 29, 2023
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PaulThomson said:
Who chooses which gifts each believer gets for them to use in the kind of SERVICE he will be doing?

The Man in the Moon. Who else? :coffee:
I would have said the Holy Spirit.
1 Cor 12:4 Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.
5 And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord.
6 And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.
7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.
8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;
9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;
10 To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:
11 But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.

But I am not surprised you have a different opinion from scripture.
 
Oct 19, 2024
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Read Rom 3 some day. No one seeks God except the ones God has given to his Son and whom God effectually draws to Him!
If you mean God determines human behavior, then you make man not responsible for repenting and God a hater of the ones not rescued from hell, which borders on blasphemy, because God is love; it is Satan who hates. Read the whole NT some day without projecting your own sinful hatred onto the HS!
 

PaulThomson

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Oct 29, 2023
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Who cares about the millennial reign compared with eternity in heaven?
(wherever that may be)
Who cares about what God has prepared for those who love Him? Those who love Him do.

Eternity in heaven? Is there a scripture that says that?
 

studier

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Apr 18, 2024
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So...just to be clear: You believe that Jn 3:16 teaches that God loves all men w/o exception, even all the God-haters of this world?
I believe that in the sense of what you've called beneficent love, yes God loves all without exception and this is the sense of John3:16.
 

bluejean_bible

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Feb 15, 2025
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PaulThomson said:
Who chooses which gifts each believer gets for them to use in the kind of SERVICE he will be doing?


I would have said the Holy Spirit.
1 Cor 12:4 Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.
5 And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord.
6 And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.
7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.
8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;
9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;
10 To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:
11 But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.

But I am not surprised you have a different opinion from scripture.
You asked a question and answered yourself there. Did you confuse your accounts?
 

Rufus

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Feb 17, 2024
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Who cares about the millennial reign compared with eternity in heaven?
(wherever that may be)
You apparently share Peter's anticlimatic sentiment about this so called earthly, millennial reign in 2Pet 3, as he urged his audience to look past it and to to eagerly look forward to the promise of the restoration of the universe (new heavens and new earth).
 

Rufus

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Feb 17, 2024
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I believe that in the sense of what you've called beneficent love, yes God loves all without exception and this is the sense of John3:16.
Okay then...does God love anyone in the filial sense? If so, who?

And I take it that you see no difference between God's common grace which generally benefits all men in temporal reality and God's saving grace which spiritually and eternally benefits many men?
 
Oct 19, 2024
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Who cares about what God has prepared for those who love Him? Those who love Him do.

Eternity in heaven? Is there a scripture that says that?
Only the entire NT, but JN 3:16 is perhaps the best known.
Do you think EPH 1:3-23 that we are studying is about a vacation in Kalamazoo?!
 

PaulThomson

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Oct 29, 2023
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Only the entire NT, but JN 3:16 is perhaps the best known.
Do you think EPH 1:3-23 that we are studying is about a vacation in Kalamazoo?!
John 3:16 does not mention us spending eternity in heaven.
Jhn 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Eph. 1 does not mention us spending eternity in heaven.

4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
8 Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;
9 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
12 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
15 Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints,
16 Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;
17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,
20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,
21 Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:
22 And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.