Here is what this Calvinist believes about salvation
charles e whisnant
Yes God does the saving of a lost sinner. A sinner could not be saved without the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the sinner. And the sinner could not be saved without hearing the Gospel presented to him by someone. The sinner needs to know what it means to be lost, what it means to be a sinner, and why he is a sinner and needs to be forgiven.
I believe the person needs to know that he can not saved himself from the wrath of God, there is nothing he can do that would justify God saving him.
I believe the sinner needs to here the preaching or teaching of the Gospel maybe a number of times to know what it is that he is to believe. Yet he is not able to believe it because at this point he is unable to respond in his spirit to this idea of been lost and need to be saved from the wrath of God.
I believe the scripture teaches that only when God opens his spirit to believe will he believe what he has heard about the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Since God does not just zap a person saved without some knowledge of what he is to believe, the gospel must first be preached. But the sinner could not believe the gospel until God opens his heart to believe.
I believe the scripture teaches that when God reveals Himself to a sinner, and opens his mind to the truth, he will believe.
Therefore a sinner believes because God open his mind to believe. And whom ever God open their mind will be saved. Because a man could not believe without the work of the Holy Spirit in him.
I believe the scripture teaches that all those whom God calls will be saved. I do not believe Scripture teaches that a person can reject the inner call of God to be saved. Because God brings about salvation first and then that person is able to believe.
Yes a sinner can reject the presentation of the Gospel, and does. He is unable to receive the truth about himself because he is blinded to the truth. He is unable to believe because he is a sinner.
I believe that the Scripture teaches a person does not have to believe first and then God saved him. He believes because God saves him.
Belief is a inner process. If he has previous rejected in his spirit the gospel of salvation, how could he now believe what he has heard many times? He can not have faith, or trust, or even confidence in someone when he is spiritually dead to the gospel. As hard as he might desire to believe and take faith in, he is unable until the Holy Spirit brings in the light of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the Lord brings about His saving grace in many ways. God leads others to show what been saved is like, God leads a person to a place where they will hear the Gospel. God uses divine Providence to interven into the life of a sinner to bring him to salvation.
But what I do not believe Scripture teaches is that a man must first come to a belief of the gospel before God will save him. And I do not think Scripture teaches that man can reject the inner call of God. But that is not to say that he comes to a full understand of that is happening in his life.
It is possible that God will bring about salvation in one's life and then it may be over a period of time before that person is able to grasp the inpact of this new found salvaltion. Salvation is a process that does take a while to grasp and understand and to obey. And it takes others in their life to bring to reality what God as done for them.
T -Thus we believe that scripture teaches that man can not on his own bring himself to believe with truth and faith and confidence in Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.
U - And that God before the foundation of the world has chosen those whom He will bring to salvation. Man does not one his own choose to be saved without the work of the Holy Spirit in him to believe.
L - When Jesus Christ died on the cross, He actually provided the means whereby those whom God elected would be saved. Christ's death on the cross was not in vain, Jesus did not die for the whole world, if He had all would be saved.
I - When the Holy Spirt comes into the mind of a sinner, and awaken him from this unbelief his receives it, he does not reject the inner call of God.
P - And God will preserve those whom He has choosen aqnd those whom Jesus died on the cross for.
T.U.L.I.P
. TOTAL DEPRAVITY
A. Arminian Position: Man is spiritually sick. Fallen man was seriously affected by the fall but he still has the ability to choose spiritual good. He determines his eternal destiny by either accepting or rejecting God's mercies.
B. Reformed or Biblical Position: Man is spiritually dead. Because of the fall, man has become spiritually dead, blind and deaf to the things of God and is therefore unable of himself to choose spiritual good and determine his own destiny.
Scriptural Support for the Reformed Position
1. The fall has resulted in spiritual death to all men.
Gen.2:16 - And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;17 "but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."
Romans.5:12 - Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned
Eph.2:1 - Eph.2:3 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
Col.2:13 - Col.2:13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,
2. Fallen man is now blind and deaf to spiritual truth.
Gen.6:5 - Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Gen.8:21 - And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in His heart, "I will never again curse the ground for man's sake, although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.
Ecc.9:3 3 This is an evil in all that is done under the sun: that one thing happens to all. Truly the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil; madness is in their
hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.
Jer.17:9 - "The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?
Mark.7:21 "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,22 "thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.23 "
All these evil things come from within and defile a man."
3.Fallen man is now under the control of Satan and in bondage to sin
John.8:44 "You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.
Eph.2:1-2 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience
2Tim.2:25-26 25 in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth,26 and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.
1John.3:10 -10 In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.
1John.5:19 We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.
Rom.6:20 - For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
Titus.3:3 - For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.
4. Fallen man, left in his dead state, is totally unable to repent, to believe the gospel, or to come to Christ.
John.6:44 "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. [Note: The word here translated draws is translated as drags in other passages, such as John 21:11, Acts 21:30, and Acts 16:19.]
John.6:65 - And He said, "Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father."
Rom.3:9 What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.10 As it is written: "There is none righteous, no, not one;11 There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God.12 They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one."
Rom.8:7 -8 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
1Cor.2:14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
To be continuted
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