Worth the ten minutes. I'm not Baptist but James White is a great apologist for the Christian faith. Here he defends the doctrines of grace in his closing remarks of a debate he was in. Watch it and be blessed. I've posted this before but now is your second chance.
"Justification by faith only is a truth that needs interpretation. The principle of sola fide [by faith alone] is not rightly understood till it is seen as anchored in the broader principle of sola gratia [by grace alone]; . . for to rely on one’s self for faith is not different in principle from relying on one’s self for works."
Michael Horton - "We cannot find God for the same reason a thief cannot find a police officer."
Rom 3:11 - "no one understands; no one seeks for God."
10. A woman already crossed, and he would be in sin if he followed
9. The road is not safe if it wasn’t built between 1500-1700 AD
8. He believes that “road crossing” has ceased
7. The crossing guard was only helping people cross from one side, so he suspiciously thought he was denying double pre-destination
6. Romans 9 says nothing about crossing roads
5. The “Walk” sign was gender neutral
4. The road was called Tiber Ave
3. John Wesley said that God’s prevenient grace would pave the way, but he had to take the steps himself
2. He wasn’t elected to cross before the foundation of the road
1. Piper said that God is most glorified when we are most satisfied where we are
B. B. Warfield wrote this:
He who comes to God in prayer, comes not in a spirit of self-assertion, but in a spirit of trustful dependence. No one ever addressed God in prayer thus: "O God, thou knowest that I am the architect of my own fortunes and the determiner of my own destiny. Thou mayest indeed do something to help me in the securing of my purposes after I have determined upon them. But my heart is my own, and Thou canst not intrude into it; my will is my own, and Thou canst not bend it. When I wish Thy aid, I will call on Thee for it. Meanwhile, Thou must await my pleasure." Men may reason somewhat like this; but that is not the way they pray.
The Holiness of God - R.C. Sproul - http://www.ligonier.org/
"The Lord Jesus Christ is a gift of free grace. Christ is the greatest, the sweetest, the choicest, the chief gift which God ever gave; and yet this gift is given by a hand of love. The only ground of God's love is His love. The ground of God's love is only and wholly in Himself. There is neither portion nor proportion in us to draw His love. There is no love nor loveliness in us that should cause a beam of His love to shine upon us. There is that enmity, that filthiness, that treacherousness, that unfaithfulness, to be found in every man's bosom, which might justly put God upon glorifying himself in their eternal ruin, and to write their names in His black book in characters of blood and wrath."
~ Thomas Brooks
Anyone who has debated the free-will issue or just had questions about it should watch these videos. This is really good! I realize none of you have 30 minutes (10 minutes each) to watch something like this (the amount of time it takes to watch one sitcom). Maybe you can try skipping just one rerun of "Friends" or "Seinfeld" and watching this.
Happy Reformation Day!
Today is the 490th anniversary of the day Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the Castle Church doors. A small deed that sparked the great Reformation. This is the day that we should be celebrating doctrines and deliverance not devils and demons, solas (sola-fide, sola-gratia, sola-Christus, sola-Deo gloria, sola-Scriptura) and salvation not spiders and spooks, TULIP and truth not tricks and treats, Calvinism and creeds not costumes and coffins. Martin Luther gave his famous speech at the Diet of Worms (a place not a weight-loss plan): "Unless I am convinced by proofs from Scriptures or by plain and clear reasons and arguments, I can and will not retract, for it is neither safe nor wise to do anything against conscience. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen." All the doctrines that brought on the Reformation need to be preached and proclaimed, once again, to the the modern church. Today we need to remember and rejoice for men like like Martin Luther, John Calvin, Jan Huss, Ulrich Zwingly and John Wycliffe.
Luther wrote, "God has surely promised His grace to the humbled, that is, to those who mourn over and despair of themselves. But a man cannot be thoroughly humbled till he realizes that his salvation is utterly beyond his own powers, counsels, efforts, will and works, and depends, absolutely on the will, counsel, pleasure and works of Another - God alone. As long as he is persuaded that he can make even the smallest contribution to his salvation, he remains self-confident and does not utterly despair of himself, and so is not humbled before God."
There are some today, in reformed circles, that are saying that a misunderstanding of the doctrine of justification by faith alone (sola fide) is a sign of apostasy. In other words, you are not justified by faith alone, you are justified by properly stating the proposition of justification by faith alone. We are justified by faith alone, not by a perfect understanding of justification by faith alone. We are saved by grace through faith, and not through a propositional understanding of grace through faith. It's kind of ironic that some, by fighting fiercely to protect the doctrine of sola fide, are actually denying it.
Doug Wilson explains, "We are not saved by works, and this includes our intellectual and doctrinal works. There are people who would do poorly on the "justification by faith alone" portion of their theology exam who are nonetheless saved people. And there are people who would ace that section who are damned. We are not saved by works. Not by willing, not by running, not by smiling, not by thinking, not by catechizing, not by affirming, not by Westminster-confessing, nada, zilch, zip. All our works have corruptions in them and are received by God because they are presented to Him in the perfections of Jesus. This includes our doctrinal works, which are frequently all screwed up. We sin daily in thought, word, and deed."
Here is the second question I gave in my poll that I did a little while ago. This is my brief answer and explanation to poll question #2 of 3. Again, I know my poll questions were too broad and that it is not fair that all you had was the yes/no or true/false option. Well now is your chance to give your opinion in the comment section.
Here is mine:
Should you follow your heart? Yes or No?
In spite of Disney's attempt to persuade me otherwise I believe the answer to this question is no. I do not mean, by this, that you have to only do things that you hate to do or that you cannot have dreams and desires. I believe that, through Adam's sin, man inherited a fallen and sinful nature. This fall effected man's heart in a bad way. Jer 17:9 says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" The Bible makes it clear that "the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead." (Ecc 9:3) The Psalmist reveals the state of all of us in our natural state when he says: "I was brought forth in iniquity,and in sin did my mother conceive me." Adam was our perfect representative in the garden (chosen by God) and as the old children's schoolbook says: "In Adam's fall we sinned all." Following your fallen, deceitful and evil heart is only going to lead you into further destruction. How many times do people, who know what's right, get misled by their deceptive feelings and emotions? "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death" (Prov 14:12). Of course, Christ can redeem one's heart and turn it, once again, from a heart of stone into a heart of flesh. That is when we can truly love God and our neighbor with all our mind, body and heart.
I realize that my poll questions were too simple (yes/no and true/false). Hopefully I'll become a better pollster. I am going to give a brief explanation to my answers starting with the first one.
Jesus died for everyone? True or False?
I believe the answer to this one is false. Christ did not just make it possible for someone to be saved. His blood actually saved those whom he came to save. Matt 1:21 reveals, "She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save HIS people from their sins." Matt 20:28 says that "the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for MANY." Jesus said, in John 10:14-15, "I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me... and I lay down my life for the sheep." He came for his people, not all people; for many, not all; for his sheep, not goats. Jesus also made it clear that he will not lose any of his sheep (John 10:28). If he died for his sheep and will not lose any of his sheep and not all people receive eternal life (Matt 7:13-14) it is clear that he did not die for all people. Jesus went so far as to say to God in his high priestly prayer, "I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours." We cannot conclude that Jesus died for those whom He would not even pray for.
To put it simply, Christ died only to save the elect and He secured, in no uncertain terms, their salvation. That does not mean that the power of God is lacking as if He is not able to save all men. Rather, God's Word reveals that it was the Father's intention that his Son was to suffer and die only for his chosen people, atoning for their sins alone. Christ's atonement was limited only in extent, not in power, according to the sovereign will of God. Unless you believe in "Universal Atonement" (that Christ died for everyone and everyone will definitely be saved) than you believe that the atonement was limited in one way or another. You either believe that Christ's work on the cross was limited in its power (it was not powerful enough to save everyone - only make it possible) or you believe that it was limited in its extent (it was not intended for everyone - only those whom he predestined)
Greg Bahnsen put it well: "If redemption were indefinite and potential, then none would be saved. For man, who is dead in sin and unable to receive the things of the Spirit of God (cf. Eph. 2:1; I Cor. 2:14), would never be able to appropriate that potential redemption for himself. No man is able to come to Christ except that Father draw him (John 6:44). The sinner drinks iniquity like water and does not seek God (Job 15:16; Rom. 3:11), so he can no more choose to come to Christ and gain for himself the benefits of the atonement than a leopard can change his spots (Jer. 13:23). Praise be to God who did not make only partial atonement for the sins of his people, who did not allow the salvation of His elect to be thwarted by leaving it up to them to respond, who fully saved us by having His Son actually obtain salvation for His sheep!"
by John Owen
The Father imposed His wrath due unto, and the Son underwent punishment for, either:
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Eph 2:8-9) It is important for us to see here that it’s not saying we are saved BY faith but, rather, we are saved by grace THROUGH faith. Not only that, even that faith is a gift of God. It is God’s grace that gives us the gift of faith. Because God is gracious, therefore wicked and sinful men are forgiven, reborn, sanctified and saved. It is not because of anything in them but because of a merciful, gracious, good and loving God.
As Charles Spurgeon said, “Grace… is the fountain and source even of faith itself. Faith is the work of God's grace in us… Faith, which is coming to Christ, is the result of divine drawing. Grace is the first and last moving cause of salvation; and faith, essential as it is, is only an important part of the machinery which grace employs... Faith occupies the position of a channel or conduit pipe. Grace is the fountain and the stream; faith is the aqueduct along which the flood of mercy flows down to refresh the thirsty sons of men.”
"In Romans 3:28 Paul says, "For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law." In James 2:24 we read, "You see that a man is justified by works, and not by faith alone." If the word justify means the same thing in both cases, we have an irreconcilable contradiction between two biblical writers on an issue that concerns our eternal destinies. Luther called "justification by faith" the article upon which the church stands or falls. The meaning of justification and the question of how it takes place is no mere trifle. Yet Paul says it is by faith apart from works, and James says it is by works and not by faith alone. To make matters more difficult, Paul insists in Romans 4 that Abraham is justified when he believes the promise of God before he is circumcised. He has Abraham justified in Genesis 15. James says, "Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?" (James 2:21). James does not have Abraham justified until Genesis 22.
This question of justification is easily resolved if we examine the possible meanings of the term justify and apply them within the context of the respective passages. The term justify may mean (1) to restore to a state of reconciliation with God those who stand under the judgment of his law or (2) to demonstrate or vindicate.
Jesus says for example, "Wisdom is justified of all her children" (Lk 7:35 KJV). What does he mean? Does he mean that wisdom is restored to fellowship with God and saved from his wrath? Obviously not. The plain meaning of his words is that a wise act produces good fruit. The claim to wisdom is vindicated by the result. A wise decision is shown to be wise by its results. Jesus is speaking in practical terms, not theological terms, when he uses the word justified in this way.
How does Paul use the word in Romans 3? Here, there is no dispute. Paul is clearly speaking about justification in the ultimate theological sense.
What about James? If we examine the context of James, we will see that he is dealing with a different question from Paul. James says in 2:14, "What use is it, my brethren, if a man says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him?" James is raising a question of what kind of faith is necessary for salvation. He is saying that true faith brings forth works. A faith without works he calls a dead faith, a faith that is not genuine. The point is that people can say they have faith when in fact they have no faith. The claim to faith is vindicated or justified when it is manifested by the fruit of faith, namely works. Abraham is justified or vindicated in our sight by his fruit. In a sense, Abraham's claim to justification is justified by his works. The Reformers understood that when they stated the formula, "Justification is by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone.""
R. C. Sproul - Knowing Scripture; InterVasity Press, p. 83, 84
The following was written by Steve Camp. It's very good. Compare the old "TULIP" to this modern "TULIP"
I’m sick and tired of people portraying and describing the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Alpha and the Omega, the victorious Son of God who reigns on the throne of heaven, as some effeminate, weak and neglected Arminian hippy that is just standing there knocking on the door and waiting for sinners to invite Him into their life and heart. Our view of evangelism has to change. Is Jesus really standing there, anxiously and helplessly, on the outside of the sinner’s heart? Is He powerless and stuck on the outside until the “decision” is made and the door is opened from the inside?
