Romans 9 has always been a place that Calvinists often turn to in debating unconditional divine election. They see in Romans 9 unconditional election dripping nearly from every verse. John Piper so strongly sees Romans 9 as a place that teaches the Calvinistic view of unconditional election that he wrote a book based on his exegesis of Romans 9:1-18 called The Justification of God. Likewise Calvinist apologist James White from a...
PREVENIENT GRACEBefore taking up the discussion of prevenient grace, it may be well to call attention to the fact that the grace of God is in itself infinite, and therefore cannot be limited to His redemptive work, unspeakably great as that may be. (1) Grace is an eternal fact in the inner relations of the Trinity. (2) It existed in the form of sacrificial love before the foundation of the world. (3) Itextended order and beauty to the proces...
I heard a Calvinist radio program today and the very first call they took on the program was a woman asking the two gentlemen what Calvinism was and who are Calvinists. The two men proudly said that they both were Calvinists. Then the program went something like this:Calvinist Pastor: We follow the teachings of John Calvin that are completely biblical. We don't worship John Calvin but we do believe that he, being a reformer, hel...
What is the main issue that divides Arminians and Calvinists? To many the issue is the issue of free will. Calvinists often assert that this is the main issue for Arminians. For some Arminians the main issue is predestination. They see the issue of God's predestining some to salvation and others to damnation as the main issue that separates them from Calvinists. In all honesty, I believe the heart of the issue for Arminius...
The following notes come from The Apologetics Study Bible with Dr. William Klein writing the notes for the book of Romans. The following notes are based on his excuses on Romans 9:13-14, 21.These verses may give the impression that God acts arbitrarily and apart from human cooperation, suggesting God disregards human freedom, and consequently could not hold people responsible for their actions. None of this fairly represents Paul...
A Calvinist friend of mine wrote recently that the Arminian position regarding the possibility of apostasy leads one to believe that eternal life is not really eternal. He makes his case for the security of the believer by taking the words "eternal life" such as in John 3:16 or John 5:24 or Romans 6:23 and he builds his case that if the words of Scripture are true then we receive eternal life the moment we are justified by grace through fai...
DISPUTATION XIVON THE OBJECT OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION: AND, FIRST, ABOUT GOD, ITS PRIMARY OBJECT, AND WHAT GOD ISI. The object of the Christian religion is that towards which the faith and worship of a religious man ought to tend. This object is God and his Christ -- God principally, Christ subordinately under God -- God per se, Christ as God has constituted him the object of this religion.II. In God, who is the primary object of the Christian r...
DISPUTATION XIVON THE OBJECT OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION: AND, FIRST, ABOUT GOD, ITS PRIMARY OBJECT, AND WHAT GOD ISI. The object of the Christian religion is that towards which the faith and worship of a religious man ought to tend. This object is God and his Christ -- God principally, Christ subordinately under God -- God per se, Christ as God has constituted him the object of this religion.II. In God, who is the primary object of the Christian r...
One common argument from Calvinists about Arminians is that in Arminianism there is no assurance of our salvation or at best the Arminian must live in fear that they will fall from grace and "lose their salvation." The line of reasoning goes that since we believe that personal apostasy from the faith is possible then it follows that we are never really sure if we are saved and we live in fear that God will cut us off at the drop of a hat if...
One common argument from Calvinists about Arminians is that in Arminianism there is no assurance of our salvation or at best the Arminian must live in fear that they will fall from grace and "lose their salvation." The line of reasoning goes that since we believe that personal apostasy from the faith is possible then it follows that we are never really sure if we are saved and we live in fear that God will cut us off at the drop of a hat if...
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