Page 219 - Way of Life Encyclopedia of the Bible Christianity. Based on the King James Bible

ELECT

The order of salvation is also made clear in Ep. 2:8-9 Consider the World before the Flood. Ge. 6:3 -- “And
-- “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with
of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an
man should boast.” Faith is the means whereby we are hundred and twenty years.”
saved; it is the hand that reaches out to accept God’s God strove with men before the flood and had Noah
Gift. preach to them for 120 years while the ark was being
What, then, does 2 Th. 2:13 mean, when it says we built, but they resisted God and rejected his warning.
are chosen to salvation “through sanctification of the Consider Israel of Old. Ro. 10:21 -- “But to Israel he
Spirit and belief of the truth”? In light of the previous saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto
passages, it is obvious that this verse is not stating the a disobedient and gainsaying people.”
exact order of things. We have already learned that We see that God wanted to save Israel and
belief of the truth precedes the new birth. At the same continually reached out to them, but God’s salvation
time, from God’s perspective the sanctification of the was resisted and rejected.
Spirit and the belief of the truth occur simultaneously.
Though we are saved through faith, that faith is Consider Israel of Christ’s Day. Mt. 23:37 -- “O
exercised in the context of the Spirit of God Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets,
enlightening and drawing and convicting and finally and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often
regenerating and sanctifying. It would therefore be would I have gathered thy children together, even as a
humanly impossible to separate the “belief of the truth” hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye
from the “sanctification of the Spirit.” would not!” John 5:40 “And ye will not come to me, that
ye might have life.”
The Bible vs. the Calvinist Doctrine of the Total
Here we see that the sovereign will of the Son of
Depravity of Man God, who desired to save Israel throughout her history
The Bible teaches that man is morally corrupt (Je. and who often sent His prophets to her, was refused.
17:9; Ro. 3:10-18) and dead in trespasses and sins (Ep.
2:1) and spiritually blind (1 Co. 2:14), but it nowhere Consider the Unsaved of our Day. 2 Co. 4:3-4 -- “But if
teaches that man cannot respond to the gospel. When I our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In
have challenged Calvinists to provide me with even one whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of
verse that says man is dead in trespasses and sins in them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious
SUCH A MANNER that he cannot even believe the gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine
gospel, they have never provided such a verse. One unto them.”
suggested Ephesians 2, but nowhere does Ephesians 2 Here we see that men are blinded because of their
teach such a thing. One has to read the Calvinist own unbelief and they are lost because they reject the
doctrine of “total depravity” into the Scripture. gospel. It is God’s sovereign will to save every sinner (1
The Bible teaches, rather, that God enables men to Ti. 2:3-4; 2 Pe. 3:9), but sinners can resist Him.
respond, giving them light (Jn. 1:9), drawing them (Jn. Consider the Unsaved during the Reign of the
12:32), convicting them (Jn. 16:8), calling them Antichrist. 2 Th. 2:10-12 -- “And with all deceivableness
through the gospel (Mk. 16:15-16; 2 Th. 2:14), and of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they
commanding them to repent (Acts 17:30) and believe received not the love of the truth, that they might be
on Christ (Acts 16:31). saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong
The Bible vs. the Calvinist Doctrine of Irresistible Grace delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all
might be damned who believed not the truth, but had
Consider Cain. Ge. 4:6-7 -- “And the LORD said unto pleasure in unrighteousness.”
Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance
fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? Why will these sinners perish? The reason is stated
and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And plainly, and it is not because they are not among the
unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over elect and is not because they were sovereignly
him.” reprobated. It is because they resist the gospel and
reject the truth.
God spoke to Cain and urged him not to act on the
jealous anger that was burning in his heart, and yet The Bible vs. the Calvinist Doctrine of Limited
Cain resisted God’s will and murdered his brother. God Atonement
gave Cain a clear choice. There is not a hint in this God loves all men (Jn. 3:16).
passage that would make us conclude that God had God has commanded that the gospel be preached to
predetermined that Cain be reprobate. every person (Mark 16:15).
God wants to have mercy upon all men (Ro. 11:32).

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