Okay today, we're talking about the Calvinist position on predestination and election.
Predestination and election.
They tell us that God is the one that gives us faith, and that's true.
Faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the Word of God.
But it's not selective.
No, it's faith for anyone, anyone who will hear and adhere to the Word of God.
Whosoever, contrary to the Calvinist mindset, God did not choose only a certain few to impart faith.
He knew, he foreknew who would have faith, but he didn't forechoose who would have faith.
Don't confuse these two as Calvinists do.
A verse they ignore is Luke 10:31.
There Jesus said by chance.
I taught on this before.
By chance, there came down a certain priest that way.
By chance, the priest passed by.
It was not predestined in the mind of God.
Listen, if you don't have free will, your will is in bondage.
You're a programmed robot.
Beware of the reformed theology of the five-point Calvinist.
So, we start today by addressing the word, predestinate.
For some reason they have a real issue with this one, and also the word elect.
But it's simple if we just respect the text.
Romans 8:29.
For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate.
For what, Paul?
Predestinate for salvation?
No, let's respect the text.
Did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Being conformed, being saved.
They're different.
Being saved would come first.
But being conformed would be something that would follow.
The quote "us" Paul addresses here are those already saved.
So, this verse says God foreknew all who would be saved, and he predestined them.
Who is the them?
Those who get saved.
He predestined them to conform to the image of his son.
You see that?
Foreknowing and choosing are not the same thing.
It's not about him predestinating certain individuals to be saved.
It's about him predestinating whom ever gets saved to conform.
Just because he knows who will be saved doesn't mean he chose who will be saved.
Just means he knows.
Now, as we go to the book of Ephesians notice Paul's consistency.
His consistency in teaching this.
Chapter 1 verse 4.
Watch.
According as he has chosen us in him.
Stop there.
Who chose us?
God.
In who?
In Christ?
See, that?
It's not the individual that was chosen.
It's those who are in him.
Stay with the context.
Does it say hath chosen us to be in him?
No, hath chosen us who are in him.
See, what the Calvinists have done, don't you?
God knew beforehand.
He foreknew that some would respond to the gospel and some would not.
Those who respond are predestined to conform, not predestined to respond.
It's not about you as an individual being selected to be saved.
Listen, whosoever is saved is in Christ, and it's the in Christ that are predestined for certain things.
Watch the wording carefully.
Paul wrote, Hath chosen those of us who are in him.
He did not say hath chosen those of us to be in him.
Didn't say that.
Now verse 5, Having predestinated us into the adoption of children by, don't miss it, by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will.
We're certainly predestinated.
But as it says by Jesus Christ.
The individual is not predestined.
Christ and his body is.
See that?
Calvinists are lordship salvationists.
They say to be saved you must persevere to the end.
That's a work salvation.
Believing in your own perseverance can only mean one thing, your focus is not on the cross.
You have not believed on Christ in his perseverance to stand for you in your place.
If it's finished, what's left to persevere?
I think it's fair to say they really don't believe it's finished.
They're trusting in the gospel of self.
They think they can finish it because, after all, God predestined them to do so, and the circular reasoning continues.
They're speaking legalistic legalese.
A foreign language to we who understand that we're living in accordance to the dispensation of the grace of God.
This Calvinistic theory is not limited to salvation.
Oh, no their claim is everything's by design.
According to them, God selects those who he wants to bless and and those he don't.
He selects some to be wealthy some to be poor.
Some for sickness, some for good health.
Some women to have children, others to be barren and unable to conceive.
It's seven flavors of nuts no matter what angle you're looking from.
And as crazy as it all sounds some Calvinists will even tell you that if a woman is raped, God arranged it.
What this teaching will do is it'll start to fester and eventually create a barrier between people and God.
They began to compare themselves their circumstances to others, and when they come up with the short end of the stick they blame God for it.
The reason Calvinists arrive at such a conclusion is their lack of rightly dividing the word of truth. When you go to the Bible attempting to understand it through Israel's lenses, you'll come away with scores of wrong beliefs.
You've got to pay attention to two time periods you'll find in your Bible.
Two time periods that you must divide in order for the Bible to make sense.
And it's not Old Testament and New Testament.
No.
It's the time of Israel's rise and the time of Israel's fall.
The time of Israel's rise and the time of their fall.
The time when God made a distinction between Jew and Gentile as you'll see in John chapter 4 verse 22 where Jesus said salvation was of the Jews.
At that time it was, but that time has to be separated from today, a time when there is no more distinction.
Galatians 3:28, no distinction between Jew and Greek not in Christ.
No, in Christ there's no more distinction.
In time past God had a covenant relationship with Israel that has nothing whatsoever to do with anyone alive today.
They were chosen people who God dealt with in a supernatural way, physically and materially.
He was indeed involved in their everyday circumstances at times.
At times he would cause good things to happen.
Other times he caused bad things to happen.
Calvinists cross weave these scriptures written to Israel during their rise with what was later written concerning us the body of Christ during their fall.
This is where the confusion comes in.
That's where they get it.
They pull it from there and apply it today, but that's wrong.
Makes me think of a popular children's song.
I can't remember, I can't remember the name, but it went something like, Every promise in the book is mine, every chapter every verse every line.
I'm standing on his word divine every promise in the book is mine.
Wrong.
We can thank the corrupt religious system for the mass confusion we have today.
From a very early age children are taught to be thieves.
Stealing Bible promises that were made to the nation Israel.
Stealing them and trying to make them fit for the church the body of Christ.
Israel we are not and we were given the dispensation of the grace of God.
Israel wasn't.
They were under a law-based performance covenant.
God's agreement with them was if you do, I'll do, if you don't do I won't do.
They lived a life based on performance.
Now don't get it twisted.
Faith was always involved.
Their faith came first.
But it had to be followed by performance to stay in favor with God in right standing with him.
But our grace it can't be earned.
Once we begin to understand this, it starts to become clear how this Calvinistic view has permeated the minds of so many.
You'll often hear Calvinists refer to men like Augustin and Calvin and so on as being their church fathers.
Even though the Apostle Paul very frankly said for though you have 10,000 instructors in Christ, yet have you not many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.
1st Corinthians 4:15.
Paul is the church father singular.
Oh, there's many instructors who are saved and in Christ.
But only one Church Father who has begotten us through the gospel.
Just believe the Bible.
One group tells us this, another tells us that, and another group comes along with a different theology from both of them.
Meanwhile, God has already addressed it in his word.
It's right here for us to research out for ourselves.
You can always spot a Calvinist by their false ways to be saved.
They'll say, To be saved you need to turn from your sin and then trust Christ.
Wrong.
As you often hear me say that's that's cart before horse.
It's front-loading.
You don't turn from sin, and then trust Christ to be saved, you just trust Christ.
That's salvation.
Trust his finished crosswork and, look at Romans 5:6, When we were without strength Christ died for our sins.
To turn from our sins and then trust Christ is heretical.
It's man-centered philosophy.
To be saved you trust Christ alone.
Any turning that you do following that, well, that has to do with your daily walk with the Lord, not your salvation.
It deals with your day-to-day earthly state, but not your heavenly position.
One's temporal, the other is eternal.
You first have to get in Christ.
Nothing you do prior to that will have any eternal value.
You get in Christ and let him help you turn from sin.
Think about that.
These reformed Calvinist theologians tell us they believe salvation's by grace through faith alone, yet they place a work in front of the gospel.
The work of you turning to be saved.
I fear lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
2nd Corinthians 11:3.
Did you hear that, Ray Comfort?
Did you hear that, Comfort, Kirk Cameron, Todd Frill, John MacArthur, and Paul washer, Matt Chandler, John the Pied Piper?
And Speaking of Piper, he's gone on record saying that he believes Christians shouldn't own guns.
Yeah.
So it's not only theological liberalism, it's also social liberalism.
I mean, I knew he was liberal in his theology, but this sort of surprised me.
Just more evidence of the liberal leftism infiltrating the church.
Trust in Christ and his finished work alone.
Do that without any human effort whatsoever.
No turning from anything.
You don't turn from sin and then get saved, you get saved then turn.
The Apostle Paul said, Wherefore my dearly beloved flee from idolatry.
Now who were the dearly beloved?
That's saved people.
He didn't go tell lost people to flee to be saved.
No.
Flee because you are saved.
Oh, the subtlety of the religious system.
It's nonsense, but Calvinists teach this and millions follow.
The herd mentality.
God indeed knows everything in advance, but he did not elect certain individuals to become members of the body of Christ.
You'd have to abandon the context to come to that conclusion.
The individual's not predestined, Christ and his body is.
Once you get this you'll look at these verses through a different set of lenses.
The quote, "elect," in the Bible is always, now listen, the elect in your Bible is always either Israel,
Christ, or as in 1st Timothy 5:21, elect angels.
So, when you come to these words always remember that one of these will be the context.
In context, it will always be one of these.
Now, since those who are saved today are, what?
In Christ, then we are the elect as well, but we're not elected by our individual status.
We're elected in Christ.
That's how we're identified in Paul's letters.
It's about the, "in Christ."
That's who Paul's writing to.
Who's Peter speaking of when he uses the word, "elect?"
Let's allow the Bible, not the Calvinist, to give us our answer.
1 Peter 2:9, But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people,
that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
The elect here are a priesthood.
The elect here is a holy nation.
Don't confuse Peters writings with Paul's writings.
They're not written to or about the same people.
You've got to rightly divide the word of truth.
Paul writes to the church, which is his body, not a nation.
At this present day, God's not forming a nation.
He's forming a body.
He's not nation building, he's body building.
A nation needs a king.
A body needs a head.
He's currently operating as the head of the church, which is his body.
Not recognizing these little things leads to confusion.
The reason some today think that they can lose their salvation is because you can walk away from a king, but you can't walk away from your head.
You and the head can never be separate.
We've been sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise and to the day of redemption until he returns to get what he's already purchased.
Peter wrote to priests, but we're not priests.
We're ambassadors.
Not the same thing.
Totally different offices.
God's Word is so good when we just allow it room to breathe and bring forth its truth instead of
smothering it with our prejudice.
Another one Calvinists like to use is John chapter 10 verse 27.
Jesus says, My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish.
Never shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
And in John 15:16, Jesus said, Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.
And they'll say See there if he chose you you can't resist.
Wrong.
Have you never heard of something called, context?
This passage deals with no one today.
This is speaking of his apostles.
The same ones that were chosen to not go and to the likes of you or I.
You can read that in Matthew chapter 10 verse 5.
There he said don't go to the Gentiles, but to exclusively the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
And is why he said my sheep hear my voice.
What sheep?
The lost sheep of the house of Israel.
I know some of you want to kick yourself for not seeing this sooner.
Guilty as charged.
I felt the same way many years ago, but better late than never as they say.
In context, these are the lost sheep of the house of Jacob, the house of Israel.
We were never in that house.
We can't be one of the lost sheep of the house of Israel if we were never in that house.
Before the cross and prior to Paul's ministry to us the church of the body of Christ, it was about Jesus coming to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
But through the Apostle Paul, we now learned that things have changed.
Now it's about people being saved and added to the body of Christ.
No longer dealing with the house of Israel.
It's the body of Christ.
When he was dealing with them we read things like, Salvation is of the Jews, John chapter 4 verse 22.
But now that he's not, we read things like, There's neither Jew or Greek.
You're all one in Christ Jesus, Galatians 3:28.
See the change?
It's either the lost sheep of the house of Israel, or it's no longer a distinction between anyone.
Romans 3:24 says being justified comes freely by his grace through the redemption that is in what?
In Christ Jesus.
See that?
It's all about "in Christ."
This isn't about anyone's individual standing.
This is speaking of the "in Christ."
That's who's predestined.
That's who's called justified and glorified.
When we open God's Word and approach the Calvinist claim verse by verse, we quickly start to see that there's nothing here to suggest that God predestined or pre-elected any individual to be saved in this dispensation.
No one was placed in the church of the body of Christ without first hearing the gospel and then
believing the gospel out of their own free will.
Question, how many educations do you get?
Two.
Only two.
The one you're given, and the one you give yourself.
Add comment
Comments