Recent content by Rufus

Still haven't signed up for GA counseling, heh?

You wouldn't be able to exegete a passage if your life depended on it.

No doubt due to OT prophecy that predicted that the Messiah's "close friend" would lift up his heel against him (Ps 41:9). But was Judas truly a friend? Or was he a "friend" in name only -- because he was part of a Jesus' circle of true friends? With friends like Judas, who needs enemies, right?

Yeah...unbelievers "hear" the same words but unlike the elect do not understand them (Rom 3:11) ! And I suppose you think that Peter's term of endearment, e.g. "dear friends" was also directed to the ungodly of this world as well, right?

According to Jackson, when an unbeliever reads 1Pet 1:1 that addresses the "elect", the unbeliever has every reason in the world to believe he qualifies as being one. Or in Peter's second letter whom he wrote to "dear friends" in the faith (chapter 2), any unbeliever is justified to believe...

Most of all with you; for you are the Master at Eisegesis precisely because you cannot accept the truth. So...you just make it up as you go. The way you interpret Rom 8:29 is a great example of this fact.

"How", you ask? By God's effectual grace! "ALL that the Father gives me, shall come to me". Does the text above say that goats hear his voice? Yet, both sheep and goats will stand before Christ one day to be judged.

But who effectually opens the door? Knocking doesn't save anyone but...door opening does, right? And then there is this: Rev 3:7 7 "To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut...

Oh...so he rewarded godly people with kingship, did He? What about all the ungodly kings or rulers or officials God raised up? God determined in eternity who would be rulers in this world and who would never be. As I recall God raised up more than a few UNGODLY rulers in the Land of Canaan!

And the reason God knows the end from the beginning is because he has decreed all things from before the foundation of the world. God is running this world. Not man!

The king chose not to because God was going to very shortly remove him from his throne. God raises up kings and sets them down, as he sees fit! And it doesn't have anything to do with their choosing anything. Don't you remember what Jesus answered Pilate when he boasted of his authority over...

I did. What part of Dan 5:23 can't you understand? To deny that God held the king's ways in his hand, you would also have to deny that God didn't hold his life in his hand either -- or anyone else's life for that matter.

But your view on foreknowledge absolutely makes God's will contingent upon man's because God must FIRST learn what man is going to do...THEN God reacts! You have it all backwards, as usual.

No, those verses say what they say. GOD DIRECTS man's ways! But they don't teach that God "forces" anyone. That is your own carnal conclusion and, therefore, a problem of your own making. Dan 5:23d But you did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways. NIV

God's will is not contingent upon man's. God work all things according to the counsel of his own will (Eph 1:11). God hates sinners because they're evil. God cannot love what is evil. And I, for one, take much comfort in this fact and praise God for his goodness, righteousness and holiness...