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No real Christian can be at peace with his sin. However, this is not to say that real Christians have overcome all the sins of their lives. Some struggle horribly with the same sins for many years. The real issue is whether they are united with Christ. It is union with Christ that produces...

Union with Christ teaches that no one, outside of a union with Christ, produces spiritual fruit. Period. Being joined to Christ, and made one with him, is what produces spiritual fruit. Spiritual fruit can only be produced by the Spirit, which requires that the person be joined to Jesus...

By the way, anyone who has studied the Bible knows that mankind is not presented as knowing good from evil perfectly. It is true that man was created in the image of God, but this image has been marred or distorted. Additionally, his intellect has been damaged through the Fall. He deceives...

Great. :) I don't savor arguments with free-willers. However, it is the difference between glorifying God for salvation and continually glorifying one's own free will decisions as the deciding factor.

It is amusing that some legalists will fail to see what you have pointed out, and will claim that Paul was talking about his pre-conversion life exclusively in this section. They seem to imply that they themselves do not sin anymore, but we know this cannot be true. My conviction is that the...

I hold the conviction that salvation is the work of the Triune God. The Father elects certain individuals to give to his Son, the Son redeemed them on the Cross, and the Holy Spirit applies this redemption in time. God the Holy Spirit regenerates the sinner, giving him a new heart of flesh to...

(continued) By the way, another thing they do is simply deny that God chooses. They will twist the Scriptures around, in some way, to claim that God didn't choose at all..man chooses himself. That is the net effect of their explanations. They might as well say the Bible contains errors...

You need to read in context. For example, Deuteronomy 30 cannot be read out of context with the rest of Deuteronomy. While Moses commanded that Israel choose to follow God, he plainly indicate that Israel did not have the spiritual equipment to do this, and prophesied about a day when they...

I find this post to be so amusing that I have modified my signature in order to address it. :D Sorry you sensitive free-willers are so offended by someone who is strongly convicted that God is not the passive, weak, effeminate creature that you think he is. Sorry that you are offended that I...

By the way, the reason I quit using the word "Arminians" to describe free-willers is because the term is insulting to Jacob Arminius. Arminius knew that a specific act of grace needed to be performed in order to enable man to respond to God. However, many free-willers today won't even...

By the way, if you want to follow some sissy-boy free willer type, I suggest Leighton Flowers. He has made it his full-time ministry to criticize Reformed theology. His view is nothing short of Pelagian by now. I imagine most free-willers here listen to his videos.

The gift of God in Ephesians 2:1-10 is the entire package, including the faith, and there is no reason to boast. You are correct that Reformed individuals believe that God gives the person a heart of flesh, to replace the heart of stone, and it is this heart of flesh which produces the faith...

It doesn't make me wrong either. If you only like to listen to milquetoast, effeminate, freewiller, Sunday school teacher traditionalists, you might put me on ignore. :) I've spent about 35 years thinking through these issues as a believer and studying the Scriptures to see whose view aligns...

How much is God dishonored by the weak, pathetic creature they claim him to be? In their worldview, he is a weak, pathetic, old man who cannot accomplish his will in mankind. He tries as hard as he can, but he still cannot accomplish his decreed will in their lives. The free-willer god is...

The real issue is that you apparently deny that faith is a gift of God. You believe that an unsaved man, with a stony cold, dead heart, can somehow generate faith and repentance from it, in order to receive a heart of flesh. Reformed people do not believe this. They believe God gives the...

You are correct in my assessment that what he didn't say is the issue. However, behind this once incidence is an overall trend in Osteen's teachings. He is little more than a motivational teacher who has a man-centered gospel. I will note that in this message he is giving a head-nod to God by...

Right, I certainly wouldn't claim that there is not a physical component to addiction, and that some secular techniques such as isolation would not help it. However, the primary issue is that addiction is misplaced worship, like Jeff Durbin suggests in the articles that I posted in my...

Definitely I'm in the first camp, although I think it is possible for a person to obtain instantaneous delivery from a sin. As an example, when I became a believer, I was delivered from cigarette smoking. I tried over and over again to quit and failed at it. I never smoked again. But, I...

I'll agree with you but he systematized the theology at some level. However, Lewis Sperry Chafer was likely more important in this regard. He came along later and "cleaned up" some of Scofield's more radical views. Anyways, your point is well taken, but if you read my words, I admitted that...

The argument that clean/unclean laws are moral issues and not related to the Mosaic Law is faulty. Genesis 9:3-4 3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. 4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood...