Mike Winger's "Why I think Calvinism is Unbiblical"

Hearing the Gospel preached leads to believing. So hearing the Gospel is what opens the ears. 5 examples in the Bible where they heard and then Believed. That is what Jesus said in the 3 verses I provided. They hear and then decide what to do. So hearing opens the ears. Then after the ears are opened you can choose to accept or reject. We have 5 Bible examples of acceptance after hearing, 1 example where they heard and chose to stop hearing, and the verses of what Jesus said.

It perfectly harmonizes.

The first sign of a False Doctrine is ignoring the verses that come before or after the "cherry picked" verse. Let's look at "Regeneration" a bit closer here.

4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared,
5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,
6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.


Look at verse 7. The first 3 verses shows that God Regenerates all people. But verse 7 tells us it's not a guarantee everyone gets saved. Verse 7 clearly states " we might become heirs."

Might become does not mean will become.


So it goes back to what I have said in my previous 8 posts.
We HEAR and then we choose to accept or reject.
If we HEAR and accept, we will BECOME heirs.
If we HEAR and reject, we won't become heirs.

That's why Paul wrote, "we might become heirs."

I agree.

Thank you for filling in the surrounding texts!

I am glad God allowed me to add them

I shared that it is the heart that is the wellspring of life. It is the source of our thoughts, words and deeds. I also explained that this is why the natural man is contrary to God continually. I also explained that God calls this contrariness evil.
It is this propensity of the natural man that causes him not to seek after God. He knows God exists through nature and conscience. But he is ill-disposed toward God.
In this estate, simply hearing the Gospel cannot produce salvation. Why? Because it is foolishness to him. His heart remains contrary to God. It's not that he can't understand the gospel, or his condition before God. His faculties work. The problem is that he is slave to his nature. He can't just suddenly change what he is. Thus, he can't just suddenly change how he responds.

I spent the better part of yesterday explaining all this. If you don't believe that the natural man is slave to his fallen nature, and what the estate of the natural man is, you will continue to see salvation as just a matter of man making a choice. But if that's the case, why pray for God to save someone? Wouldn't that mean God will have to override a person's choice? Why are you asking God to do something you say He never does, right?

If you pray for the salvation of others, and you believe God will never do anything to affect men's choices, you are either a hypocrite or you haven't given the matter enough thought.

Might there doesn't mean may or may not. It means it is made possible. Wow.

Exactly and I like where we are reminded that God is no respecter of persons!! There are not elite with God! My grandmother always put it this way " we are all level at the foot of the cross".

Ahh, but you are using Erasmus who took the Latin back to Greek and to a different Greek because the koine Greek became extinct 1200 years before Erasmus had access to. And when we take Jerome's Greek to Latin we see how far off you actually are. But I am well aware from our debating that you use the Textus Receptus. I will continue to trust the facts here that I have already presented. Have a good evening

Amen!
What You have posted is so true indeed

I'm not using anything but the plain reading of the text.

From which Bible?

I got it from your quotation. So whatever you were using.

I already gave the Greek meaning but you I guess are giving your own interpretation of the English composition of Might.
When all alone, the word "Might" means = "Strength - Champion - Mighty" in the Bible.
You claim it means = made possible.

But in this verse it's not all alone it's connected to complete phrase or action verb "Might Be."

"Might Be" in the Bible means = "used to express the possibility that something will happen or be done."


Now, I will meet you half way with "Made Possible" because it still does not mean it is going to or guaranteed to happen. Which depends up like Jesus said, those who hear will either accept or reject. Or using your term, those who hear have been made possible to accept or reject. But not a guarantee they will 100% be made heirs. It's possible they will be but not guaranteed they will be.

The passage is talking about salvation, and what is being made known is how salvation has been made possible. It's not talking about any individual salvation but what God has done so that people could be saved. Might become heirs is just another way of saying salvation is made possible. How? By the grace of God coming to mankind.
It doesn't support predestination or freewill. It simply says the grace of God has made salvation possible.

God has either made a way or He has not and I know that He has.

So how the Holy Spirit has Paul write it clearly shows us this hinges upon acceptance or rejection.

If this was a set in stone it would say we will guaranteed become.

But we know God made a way and those who believe will become heirs. Therefore, might be indicates not everyone will become heirs. And since this is a Gift from God those who accept will become and those who reject will not become.

You can argue this as much as you like but it is not written in a guaranteed format anywhere. It's written that it can happen. So for it to happen is like Jesus has said multiple times by accepting or rejecting and based upon [whosoever BELIEVES].

There seems to be many that believe that it is impossible for them to be wrong but, yet, with God nothing is impossible.

I never said otherwise. I merely pointed out that the rendering of the verse was incorrect, and that that particular verse wasn't dealing with predestination or freewill.

It's dealing with anyone who might become an heir. It purposefully shows us it's not a guarantee and verse 8 shows Paul has been talking in verses 3 thru 8 about ""those who believe in God."" Hence me saying the reference to John 3:16 [Whosoever Believes].

If you Believe you are an heir.
If you do not believe you are not an heir.
Just like Jesus said about who hears and chooses to accept or reject.

When the Gospel finally gets preached to the world, which it basically already has been. We have statistics that show 2.5 Billion have accepted and the rest have rejected it. But everyone get's to hear and choose for themselves like Jesus said.

That is why Paul wrote the verse using the phrase...might be or like I agree with you on made possible to.