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.
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!"
"An analogy of God’s work of preservation may be seen in the image of a father holding onto his small child’s hand as they walk together. In the Arminian view the safety of the child rests in the strength of the child’s grip on the father’s hand. If the child lets go he will perish. In the Calvinist view the safety of the child rests in the strength of the father’s grip on the child. If the child’s grip fails, the father’s grip holds firm. The arm of the Lord does not wax short."
This is a "seeker-sensitive" video. This is intended to exalt and be sensitive to the ONE AND ONLY seeker: Jesus Christ who is come in the flesh; the one who has "come to seek and save that which was lost." (Luke 19:10)
by John Owen
The Father imposed His wrath due unto, and the Son underwent punishment for, either:
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?
"...we allow that man has choice and that it is self-determined, so that if he does anything evil, it should be imputed to him and to his own voluntary choosing. We do away with coercion and force, because this contradicts the nature of the will and cannot coexist with it. We deny that choice is free, because through man's innate wickedness it is of necessity driven to what is evil and cannot seek anything but evil. And from this it is possible to deduce what a great difference there is between necessity and coercion. For we do not say that man is dragged unwillingly into sinning, but that because his will is corrupt he is held captive under the yoke of sin and therefore of necessity will in an evil way. For where there is bondage, there is necessity. But it makes a great difference whether the bondage is voluntary or coerced. We locate the necessity to sin precisely in corruption of the will, from which follows that it is self-determined.
(John Calvin, Bondage and Liberation of the Will pp 69, 70)
One great passage of Scripture that is either loved or hated is Eph 2:8-10 - "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. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
In this passage we see a beautiful picture of monergism (Greek mono meaning "one" and erg meaning "work"). Salvation as the work of God alone, from first to last. We've been saved by grace through faith but even that faith is a gift (not something we earn) that no one may boast. But it also says we are created FOR good works. Works follow regeneration they don't earn it.
A similar passage is in Phil 2:12 - "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling..." We are not told to work for our salvation but to work out what God has already worked in us. Paul Jehle put it this way, "The whole Christian life, when you live it, is learning to become what you already are."
