Calvinist Culture

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Calvinist Culture Dying in your Wooliness
http//www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/september
/42.32.html
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Grace
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Arminian System

• 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.
• The Holy Spirit cannot regenerate fallen man
  until he believes. The Holy Spirit does all He
  can to bring every fallen man to salvation, but
  until fallen man responds in faith, of his own
  free will, the Spirit cannot give life. Faith
  preceded and makes possible the New Birth. Faith
  gives Life.
• Christ's death was designed to make salvation
  possible for all people. Christ's death made
  salvation possible for everyone, but it did not
  actually secure or guarantee the salvation of
  anyone. Fallen man determines whether or not
  Christ's work will be effective by his faith.

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Biblical System Thus Far

• 1) Total Depravity -
• 2) Irresistible Grace -
• 3) Definite Atonement -
• 4) Unconditional Election

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Conditional or Unconditional Election

• Arminian Position God's election is based on
  man's foreseen faith. Before the foundation of
  the world, God chose certain individuals for
  salvation based on His foreseeing that they
  would, of their own free will, choose Christ.
• What do the Scriptures teach us?

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God has an elect people

• John 635-37 Jesus said to them, "I am the bread
  of life whoever comes to me shall not hunger,
  and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
  But I said to you that you have seen me and yet
  do not believe. All that the Father gives me
  will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will
  never cast out.
• John 644 No one can come to me unless the
  Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise
  him up on the last day.
• John 664-66 64 But there are some of you who
  do not believe." (For Jesus knew from the
  beginning who those were who did not believe, and
  who it was who would betray him.) 65 And he
  said, "This is why I told you that no one can
  come to me unless it is granted him by the
  Father." 66 After this many of his disciples
  turned back and no longer walked with him.
• Romans 828-30 28 And we know that in all things
  God works for the good of those who love him, who
  have been called according to his purpose. 29
  For those God foreknew he also predestined to be
  conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he
  might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30
  And those he predestined, he also called those
  he called, he also justified those he justified,
  he also glorified.

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Election is not rooted in God foreseeing faith or
works, but simply in his own good pleasure will

• Deuteronomy 76-8 6 For you are a people holy
  to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has
  chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of
  the earth to be his people, his treasured
  possession. 7 The LORD did not set his affection
  on you and choose you because you were more
  numerous than other peoples, for you were the
  fewest of all peoples. 8 But it was because the
  LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your
  forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty
  hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery,
  from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
• Ephesians 14-5 4 For he chose us in him before
  the creation of the world to be holy and
  blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined
  us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus
  Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will
  
• Ephesians 111 11 In him we were also chosen,
  having been predestined according to the plan of
  him who works out everything in conformity with
  the purpose of his will,

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Election is not rooted in God foreseeing our
faith or works, but simply in his own good
pleasure will

• Romans 910-15 10 Not only that, but Rebekah's
  children had one and the same father, our father
  Isaac. 11 Yet, before the twins were born or had
  done anything good or bad-- in order that God's
  purpose in election might stand 12 not by works
  but by him who calls-- she was told, "The older
  will serve the younger." 13 Just as it is
  written "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." 14
  What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at
  all! 15 For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy
  on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion
  on whom I have compassion."
• 2 Timothy 18-10 8 So do not be ashamed to
  testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his
  prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the
  gospel, by the power of God, 9 who has saved us
  and called us to a holy life-- not because of
  anything we have done but because of his own
  purpose and grace. This grace was given us in
  Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, 10
  but it has now been revealed through the
  appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has
  destroyed death and has brought life and
  immortality to light through the gospel.

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• Romans 111-8 ESV Romans 111 I ask, then, has
  God rejected his people? By no means! For I
  myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham,
  a member of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not
  rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not
  know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he
  appeals to God against Israel? 3 "Lord, they
  have killed your prophets, they have demolished
  your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek
  my life." 4 But what is God's reply to him? "I
  have kept for myself seven thousand men who have
  not bowed the knee to Baal." 5 So too at the
  present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace.
  6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the
  basis of works otherwise grace would no longer
  be grace. 7 What then? Israel failed to obtain
  what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but
  the rest were hardened, 8 as it is written, "God
  gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not
  see and ears that would not hear, down to this
  very day."

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Faith works are the result not the grounds of
election

• Acts 1348 48 When the Gentiles heard this,
  they were glad and honored the word of the Lord
  and all who were appointed for eternal life
  believed.
• Note it is not all who believed were appointed
  to eternal life but all who were appointed
  believed
• 2 Thessalonians 213-14 13 But we ought always
  to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord,
  because from the beginning God chose you to be
  saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit
  and through belief in the truth. 14 He called
  you to this through our gospel, that you might
  share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
• 2 Peter 110 10 Therefore, brothers, be all the
  more diligent to make your calling and election
  sure, for if you practice these qualities you
  will never fall.

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Errors and Applications

• Sum God's election is unconditional. God's
  choice was not based on any foreseen response of
  obedience on their part, but was based solely in
  His good and sovereign will.
• Unconditional depends on the referent
• Hyper-Calvinism far worse than Arminianism
• Hyper-Calvinism is all house and no door
  Arminianism is all door and no house John
  Duncan, Life of John Duncan by David Brown
  (Edinburgh, 1872), p.404
• What should the doctrine of unconditional
  election do for us?