Good morning to you Nancy
I trust all is well with you and yours. It snowed in Calgary last night but I don't care, I'm going fishing this weekend. You said,
"When I read Calvinism my inner reaction is why witness they are saved anyway so why do it?"
I think that is a very natural response. I can only give you the reasons that I do. First, God has clearly commanded us to do exactly that for instance Matt 28: " And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen" Second, God has ordained that salvation should come by grace through faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ and that this good news is to be proclaimed to the whole world by ordinary people like you and I. Rom 10:, and 1Cor 21: "For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe" He's the boss. Finally if God put a flashing blue light on the head of everyone who would believe, then I would be tempted to preach just to them, but since He has not and I can't tell the elect from the nonelect then we just tell everybody and let God sort it out. Besides that God chooses some real stinkers ( I'm a good example of that) and on my part I would be tempted to pick the ones I thought God would like.
Concerning John 6:35-51 I copied it here in context so you could look at it.
"And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. 36 But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe not. 37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. 38 For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. 39 And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. 40 And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day. 41 The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. 42 And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven? 43 Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves. 44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me. 46Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father. 47Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. 48 I am that bread of life. 49 Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. 50 This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. 51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
The way I see it in vs 37-39 Jesus seems to be saying 1, that the Father gives certain people to the Son to receive salvation 2, everyone that is given to the Son does in fact "come" and receives that salvation. 3, Everyone that is given, comes, receives salvation, and the Son will not let them slip away, but takes them all the way to the resurrection. Vs 40 seems to restate this. Then there is some murmuring and then in vs 44 He says; "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day." No man "CAN" come unless he is drawn and I will raise "him" (the drawn one) up at the last day. There seems to be an unbroken chain from being drawn to being raised up the last day. Reformed theology says that salvation is all of Grace from start to finish. That is to say it is Monargistic one sided on the part of God. That is because man is seen not as simply dull of hearing but spiritually dead. Kind of like an AM radio trying to receive an FM signal. Sanctification is a Synergistic (cooperative) process by which the saved one is daily conformed into the image of Jesus Christ. (Phil 2:12-13) Roman Catholics and for that matter many Evangelicals would disagree vehemently with that position but that is essentially what the reformation was/is about. Fortunately the Bible does not say, what sayeth Luther or Calvin or Rome, but "what sayeth Scripture". Spurgeon's book ALL OF GRACE might be of some help to you in your study of this matter.
As far as Luther is concerned I have some reservations myself when I hear about his "anti Semitism". I would never agree with such a position, however I have not read the remarks myself and so I am a little reticent to condemn him outright. I have heard people say that the Bible itself is anti Semitic, yet Jesus is Jewish, so were all of the disciples and most of the early Church. References to "The Jews" in the N.T. are to the Jewish leaders who rejected their own Messiah and not to Jewish people in general.
Now regarding Rom 8: foreknowledge can have the meaning of knowing the facts before the happen and this is the way that Arminians view it but it can also mean to fore Love. All Christians believe in predestination it is the basis of that predestining that is in question. The first view is that it is based God's knowing before hand who will believe and then choosing those people based on that knowledge. The other view (that I hold to) is that God sovereignly chooses whomever He will, not based on anything that the person does or will do but simply because he wants to. In other words it's all of Grace.
I appreciate your gracious spirit on this thread and I hope you have a blessed day.
I have to go to work now, I look forward to hearing from you.
Greg |
