Fan photographer, Toby Mallet, spotted Benny Finney helping out during a flood in some European town. Mr. Mallet won't disclose the location because Mr. Finney paid him $207 to keep it a secret. Rumor has that Benny Finney is starting a church outside of the U.S. and is hoping to return to blogging in a few months. We will keep you posted.
Is BF on FB?
ReplyDeleteTHE ELECTED!
ReplyDeleteCan those elected by God resist that calling?
ELECT-ELECTED-ELECTION: Defined (Adjective, signifies picked out, chosen.) (Noun, denotes a picking out, selection, then, that which is chosen).
Elected means chosen. There is a view held by many that when God elects or chooses people that they cannot resist God's calling. Israel was God's elect or chosen people. God did not just select certain Jews to be saved and other Jews to be lost. Salvation was offered to the whole nation of Israel.
Deuteronomy 7:6 For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the people who are on the face of the earth.
The Jews were God's elect. Did any of them ever reject that election? Yes they did; because they had free-will.
1 Samuel 8:7 The Lord said to Samuel, "Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being king over them.
They rejected God as king.
Numbers 14:11 The Lord said to Moses, "How long will this people spurn Me? And how long will they not believe in Me, despite all the signs which I have performed in their midst?
These people were the elect of God, but they would not believe in Him. Even though they were God's elect He did not force them to believe and obey Him. THEY HAD FREE-WILL.
Acts 7:51 "You men who are stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did.
Israel was God's chosen people; they were His elect, however, they always resisted the Holy Spirit. Most of them rejected Jesus as the Christ. THEY HAD FREE-WILL.
Does God arbitrarily condemn some men to hell and elect a chosen few for salvation? NO, HE DOES NOT!
WHO ARE THE ELECT OF GOD TODAY?
Acts 10:34-43 Opening his mouth, Peter said: "I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, 35 but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him. 36......Jesus Christ....43 Of Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness from sins.
WHO ARE THE ELECT OF GOD TODAY? All who believe in Jesus Christ. Yes, everyone has the chance to become the elect, the chosen of God.
Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
WHO ARE GOD'S CHOSEN PEOPLE? WHO ARE GOD'S ELECT? EVERY JEW AND EVERY GREEK WHO MEETS GOD'S TERMS FOR PARDON UNDER THE NEW COVENANT ARE THE ELECT OF GOD. THEY ARE ALL GOD'S CHOSEN PEOPLE.
GOD HAS OFFERED SALVATION TO ALL WHO BELIEVE IN JESUS THE CHRIST.
You are invited to follow my Christian blog at: steve-finnell.blogspot.com or you may google search steve finnell a christian view.
The reason I want to answer this question is because recently I've heard criticism of the doctrine of irresistible grace. The criticisms usually sound like this "The doctrine of irresistible grace doesn't work because people resist God everyday" and "Irresistible grace teaches that we are forced into accepting Christ." So I wanted to clear up these misconception about irresistible grace to all six of you that read this blog ;)
ReplyDeleteIrresistible grace does not mean that we cannot resist God's grace or the Holy Spirit's moving. The Bible does not teach this. Pharaoh resisted God's call to let his people go (Exodus 5:2). Jonah resisted God's call to go to Nineveh (Jonah 1:3). We're exhorted by Paul not to grieve or quench the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30). What irresistible grace does means is that at any time when God so chooses he can overcome our resistance. In the case of Pharaoh all God needed was to take the lives of all the firstborn sons of Egypt (Exodus 12:31). It took a storm and a big fish for God to break Jonah's resistance (Jonah 1:12). The same is true in God's pursuit of his elect. Jesus says all that the Father gives me will come to me and I will lose nothing of all that he has given me (John 6:37; John 6:39). If God gives you to Christ you will not be lost - it may be at age 4 or 104, but God will overcome your resistance according to his time.
Secondly, irresistible grace does not mean that we are forced into choosing Christ or that we are some sort of robot with no genuine love or freedom in coming to Christ. The grace that God uses to save his elect is irresistible because of the beauty of Christ and what he has to offer. I am so convinced of the beauty and glory of Christ that no human can resist wanting him once they can see him for who he really is. The problem is that the Bible describes unbelievers as spiritually blind (II Corinthians 4:4), spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1), unable to submit to God (Romans 8:7), and in bondage to sin (Romans 6:17-18). As unbelievers we cannot see the glory of Christ because the god of this world has blinded us to it (II Corinthians 4:4). We must first be healed by God of our spiritual blindness, we must first be reborn (John 3:3) of the Spirit (aka. regeneration) before we can see the beauty of Christ and once we see him we cannot help but want him because we can finally see the treasure that is Christ (Matthew 13:44). I love how the Puritan theologian Richard Sibbes put it, we are "not compelled to Christ's service otherwise than by the sweet constraint of love." You are no more forced into accepting Christ than you would be forced into accepting a billion dollars if it were freely given to you. And Christ is infinitely more valuable than a billion dollars. We freely and willingly come to Christ because we are irresistibly drawn to him by his supreme and infinite worth. That is grace - that is Irresistible Grace!
This...this picture is amazing.
ReplyDeleteIs that the Wittenberg door, centre right?! (Well the road signs do look German!)
ReplyDeleteI hate to admit this...but, I have no earthly idea.
Delete