YES! Grace is the power to make our depravity to not rule over our souls!!!
The souls still hold the potential for good!
Calvinism is Gospel !
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The souls still hold the potential for good!
Grace is the power that actually saves us, and not just makes salvation possible.
The Proper way to Preach or witness the Gospel as a Calvinist: Its not an Offer !
We preach to everyone. Indiscriminately. Without qualification. Without knowing who is elect and who is not.
But the content of what we preach is different from what the mainstream teaches.
We do not say: “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.” We don’t know that. It might not be true for the person standing in front of us. The person standing in front of us might be a vessel of wrath, fitted for destruction, for whom Christ did not die. We can’t see the decree. We don’t know who is who.
We say: “Christ has saved His people. He accomplished redemption on the cross. He died for His sheep. He was raised on the third day. He did not lose a single one. And if you are one of His, the Spirit will give you the faith to believe it.”
That’s the gospel. Not a conditional offer. A declaration of accomplished fact. We announce what Christ did. The Spirit applies it to whom He will. We plant. We water. God gives the increase (1 Corinthians 3:6-7).
And this is actually more honest than the mainstream approach. The mainstream approach tells every person in the room that God loves them. That’s a claim you can’t verify. The proclamation approach tells every person in the room what Christ accomplished. That’s a historical fact. One approach might be a lie (if the person is reprobate, God doesn’t love them). The other approach is always the truth (Christ did accomplish salvation for His people). Which one is more honest?
We preach the facts. We proclaim the accomplishment. We announce the good news. And the Spirit takes the announcement and uses it as the occasion to flash the firmware of the elect sitting in the room. We don’t need to know who they are. God does. And He’s never missed one. https://inthemindofgod.com/mind/chapter/19
How Then Do We Preach?
If the gospel is proclamation and not offer, if faith is a gift and not a duty, if there is no common grace and God doesn’t love the reprobate, then how do we preach? What do we say? To whom do we say it?We preach to everyone. Indiscriminately. Without qualification. Without knowing who is elect and who is not.
But the content of what we preach is different from what the mainstream teaches.
We do not say: “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.” We don’t know that. It might not be true for the person standing in front of us. The person standing in front of us might be a vessel of wrath, fitted for destruction, for whom Christ did not die. We can’t see the decree. We don’t know who is who.
We say: “Christ has saved His people. He accomplished redemption on the cross. He died for His sheep. He was raised on the third day. He did not lose a single one. And if you are one of His, the Spirit will give you the faith to believe it.”
That’s the gospel. Not a conditional offer. A declaration of accomplished fact. We announce what Christ did. The Spirit applies it to whom He will. We plant. We water. God gives the increase (1 Corinthians 3:6-7).
And this is actually more honest than the mainstream approach. The mainstream approach tells every person in the room that God loves them. That’s a claim you can’t verify. The proclamation approach tells every person in the room what Christ accomplished. That’s a historical fact. One approach might be a lie (if the person is reprobate, God doesn’t love them). The other approach is always the truth (Christ did accomplish salvation for His people). Which one is more honest?
We preach the facts. We proclaim the accomplishment. We announce the good news. And the Spirit takes the announcement and uses it as the occasion to flash the firmware of the elect sitting in the room. We don’t need to know who they are. God does. And He’s never missed one. https://inthemindofgod.com/mind/chapter/19
If you were penniless and I offered you one million dollars, all you have to do is accept it and you’re an instant millionaire. If you say no thank you, you remain penniless.
Placing our faith in Jesus Christ is how we say thank you to God and receive His grace. If someone says no thank you, they don’t receive His grace.
And therein is your error. You believe the response of the individual is the determining factor in salvation. That isn't grace. Grace is what God does.
When the gospel is preached, God isn't declaring what is available to an individual. He is declaring what He has already done for the individual. And by applying His power through faith, belief is the result. It is by God exercising His power through faith that belief is achieved. And this is the power of the gospel to whom? It's only exercised towards those who believe.
In my analogy, a plumber uses a wrench to fix the leaky faucet. The plumber is God. The wrench is faith. The faucet is the individual God is saving. Being saved by grace is no more complicated than that.
FYI, you will be wasting your time. It is because of this>>> a system of eisegesis firmly in place over the eyes.
Grace grants the ability to do and become what is impossible on one's own.
1 Corinthians 15:10
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect.
No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.
2 Corinthians 12:9
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.
That's what it be!
That isn't what the text says though. Your quote actually states the opposite of what you are tying to fly with because you quote scripture for a brief moment.
Seems God actually does always have the last word.
If Noah FOUND grace in the eyes of the Lord, then how did God grant him the grace?
Puzzle for the ages but no worries if Calvinism has its hand up your back.
Your dog (cute little pup) has more sense than a Calvinist who states he is not a Calvinist, yet defends Calvinism because he believes the same way but likes to believe he is original and a great scholar.
Are you aware of what Calvinism is or have you waundered into a thread seeking only to defend the gospel according to scripture?
Why do I see you sitting in a corner with your back to the class?
How many times, I said, HOW MANY TIMES, do I boldly have to go where no Arminian or Calvinist has ever gone and state I am neither?
If you were able to retain information we could have a different conversation but it seems the hounds of Calvinism ride you very hard and have taught you to never color outside the lines.
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Grace is the activity of God. If we are saved by grace, we are saved by what God actually does, and not by our response to what God does.
The verses you shared affirm this. What Paul does is the result of God exercising His power in him.
The only thing I believed when I was born, is that I was hungry. I know that, because my mother told me that and also because it is the same for every single creature born on this planet.
I was not dead. I actually was a very active child and people were sure I was going to doing myself harm. A few times I did.
At 5, being introduced to Jesus at Sunday School, I came to believe. While kneeling by a picture window on a cold winter night, I watched my dad trying to get the car out of a big snow drift and it was just not happening. I decided, in my 5 year old little brain, that if God were real as I had been told, I would find out by asking Him to help my dad get the car out of the drift. We were going to go to visit my mom who was in the hospital.
The car practically shot out of the drift and I immediately bowed my head and, like children do, asked Jesus to 'come into my heart' and be my Savior, dispicable, unregenerate reprobate that I was. I did not see angels and no one put a crown on my noggin but I believed and God answered me.
So you know what there man on a journey? You have many many more miles to go in your journey before you experience the great 'I AM' as I have, so pack a big lunch, get your camel saddled, and pray God grants you safety and directs you on HIS path and not the path of those who pray to the golden calf they made of their Calvinism
The phrase simply means that God exercised grace or power in/on/through an individual. Noah didn't go out on a grace excursion. God met Noah where he was. That you require an explanation the verse is actually very sad.
Well you are still wrong.
People who have to insult others as you do constantly, reveal their inability to actually converse on an adult basis. That you continually do such things, explains your hesitation to be an adult for a change, stop being nasty and childish, and have an honest exchange.
Oh the things I might say if I were not constrained.
You like to edit Scripture.
One more time...
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me
was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them
—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.
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.
Grace is power from God to enable believers to do well...
For doing good things that will merit his favor!
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works,
which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10
......No error on my part. I’m simply acknowledging John 3:16–19. For God
so loved the whole world … Not a few individuals.
Thank you HIH. I’ve been watching this thread since I joined a few weeks ago and you’re right, trying to share the Gospel with Calvinists is a lesson in futility. I appreciate everything you have share. God bless you.FYI, you will be wasting your time. It is because of this>>> a system of eisegesis firmly in place over the eyes.
Calvinism having a hand up my back was a compliment; not an insult?Well you are still wrong.
People who have to insult others as you do constantly, reveal their inability to actually converse on an adult basis. That you continually do such things, explains your hesitation to be an adult for a change, stop being nasty and childish, and have an honest exchange.
Oh the things I might say if I were not constrained.
And please show me from my posts where I was nasty? I am unaware of any post I have made that fits such description. I'll gladly apologize for any such offense. While you are searching, you will come across some insults directed at me. Please exhort them stop as you have done with me.
First you will need to define world and we can investigate why your understanding of John 3 might be further informed. In the meantime, we were dealing with what Ephesians 2 actually means by grace. Is grace what God does or what an individual does in response to what God does?
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