zzub's Fifteen Minutes Are Up
zzub's Fifteen Minutes Are Up
This is a serious difficulty. The Calvinist's entire system of soteriology is founded on the grand assumption that Adam was created morally impeccable. He lost perfection through sin and assumed a nature totally corrupted and alienated from God, a nature imparted to all mankind as a curse. But the Scriptural evidence for these contentions is, at best, scant.
If you are going to steal from the guy, at least have the integrity to credit him:
http://www.auburn.edu/~allenkc/openhse/calvinism.html#Introduction :AMR:
If Adam was not any different, why would we need to be renewed in the image of God (Eph. 4:24, Col. 3:10)? When Paul tells us in what the image of God consisted and says we are renewed in that, it's not hard to see that when Adam begat a son in his own image, the image of God in which
Adam had been created was not transmitted to Seth in its original glory (Gen. 5:1-3). As in your frequent snippets of others' efforts, there's a lot more assertion than demonstration in the article.
The decree of God
establishes the
free will of the moral creature:
the ability to choose according to one's greatest inclinations at the moment they so choose. This is the
liberty of spontaneity, not the
libertarian free will claimed by the anti-Calvinist. In fact, had God not established free will in His decree there would be no free will at all.
Unfortunately, most complaints about
free will are actually attempts to determine
how God pulls off being wholly sovereign and holding man responsible. Scripture provides no special revelation about the
how, only what
is. When God shuts His mouth, so should we.
Some argue that God should be
fair and
impartial in the distribution of His grace. But what do the Scriptures say, “
Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad... [Rebekah, their mother] was told, 'The older will serve the younger'” (Romans 9:11-12).
Those that would argue for "fairness" ignore the fact that throughout the scriptures we find God choosing over those that should, if things were “
fair”, “
impartial”—according to our feeble mortal reasoning—be chosen: Abel over Cain, Isaac over Ishmael, Jacob over Esau, and Judah over Joseph.
In virtually every example of God's sovereignty in the scriptures we see Him choosing the unmerited over whom we would assume the merited. Yet, why then would some appeal to God that He should be "fair" in His dealings and "
give"
everyone something? The very breaths we draw are more than fallen man deserves from our Maker, yet we continue to demand He give us more, for after all, we are made in His image.
Persons have frequently used the
image of God within us, the ability to know some things about God,
to reason away God's kingship, preferring to cast Him as a “
fair” God, where the standards of fairness are defined not by God, but by His creatures. Yet, as God has continually shown throughout the history of His recorded revelation, God's ways are not our ways, and He will do as He judges rightly, not making Himself subject to our own notions of
how or
why He should act in relationship to us.
Persons on the one hand, while claiming that “
God is love”, forget that He is also a consuming fire.
Any belief system which omits or under-emphasizes either of these or other truths will be a mutilated system, no matter how plausible it may sound to men. To formulate the doctrine by giving preeminence to, say, 1 John 4:8, is a classic unwarranted example of using a
locus classicus to interpret the rest of Scripture.
Now some will no doubt claim that while God did not base His choice on anything that they had already done, that perhaps God based His choice on
foreseen faith or works. Such foolish reasoning was anticipated by God, for Paul clearly writes that God announced His decision before the twins were born “
in order that God's purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls” (Romans:11-12). By denying that election was based on something that the twins had already done, Paul does not leave open any possibility that election was based on something that the twins would do. Instead, Paul explicitly denies that election was based on anything in them, but that it was based upon "
him who calls" and "
God's purpose."
Moreover, in Ephesians Paul relies on the same argument. God chose certain individuals not because of any foreseen faith or works in them, and not because of their decisions or merits, but election to salvation is based solely on
his will (Ephesians 1:5),
his pleasure (Ephesians 1:5),
his grace (Ephesians 1:6-7),
his purpose (Ephesians 1:11), and
his plan (Ephesians 1:11). Again, the emphasis is that God's choice of individuals was done completely apart from anything foreseen in the individuals themselves. It was God “
who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began,” (2 Timothy 1:9).
Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1:27-30, “
But God chose ... so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.” Paul speaks directly against any foolish reasoning that implies that only Christ is the object of election, and that whoever comes into Christ becomes God's elect. Read the passage again, "
It is because of him"—i.e.,
because of God—that we are
in Christ Jesus.
God decides, not us, who becomes "
in Christ," and
God is the one who then puts us in Christ by His will and power.
Finally, from Ephesians 1 no matter how hard one may try, one cannot interpret “
in him” (vs. 7, 11, 13) to mean that somehow we are able to place ourselves “
in him” (Christ) anymore than one can claim
they chose to be “
in Adam”, the federal head of mankind, through whom all entered into sin (1 Cor. 15:22).
Some apparently find in their “
freedom” a warrant to question everything more from the post-modern ethos of relative truth than a desire for Biblical accuracy. But where does it say that God owes anyone the stimulation and satisfaction of their mind? Did Job receive any direct answers? God tells me
to love Him (
that is,
to obey Him) with my mind and at some level that has to mean subjecting my mind to His revealed Truth. No matter how much others mutilate the text, Paul meant what he said when he wrote (Romans 9:20) to the Romans concerning election, “
who are you, O man, who answers back to God?”
AMR