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NASB | Acts 8:13 Even Simon himself believed; and after being baptized, he continued on with Philip, and as he observed signs and great miracles taking place, he was constantly amazed. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Acts 8:13 Even Simon believed [Philip's message of salvation]; and after being baptized, he continued on with Philip, and as he watched the attesting signs and great miracles taking place, he was constantly amazed. |
Subject: How do I make sense of the context? |
Bible Note: "You have such a warm and friendly way of saying things. Makes a person want to warm up to you and just tell you ?" Yeah, it is probably just a sign of me "trying to change God's eternal decree" or "appear pious" like the rest of those who share my distinguished Reformed-yet-praying heritage. Maybe it is the way you form your objections that calls for the stronger response... :) "No I think Paul understood what I was saying and knew people have a choice and therefore was telling us to pray they make informed choice :-)" Well, you can THINK that, but is that what Paul wrote? "How so? If God choose who is saved and who isn't from the foundations of the Earth how is my praying going to change that one way or the other?" Did you even glance at the links I posted? :) "You say their salvation is decided and my prayers which were also known about and were figured into the plan. Then I ask what if I decide not to pray does that mean their lostness was really because God didn?t choose them and my refusal to pray for them played again right into the plan?" Yes. "Either way it was God choice He just made it look like I had something to do with it by praying or not praying." Nonsense, again! Our prayers do not change God's eternal decree from one thing to another. God's decree is what it always has been, but at the same time He has decreed things in eternity past as answer to prayers that I will be making the rest of my life. "Or are you saying their salvation was choose by God because God knew I was going to pray for them. Then we have God not sovereign but reacting to us." Who ever said that God being sovereign meant He doesn't react to us? In time and space there is a constant, causal interaction between God and human beings. What would be unbiblical is to suggest that the causes of His reactions were unforeseen and unplanned by Him. What Ephesians tells us is that God works all things after the counsel of His will. There is nothing saying that His foreknowledge and decree of my prayers are not taken into account in that Trinitarian counsel. In my worldview, I can legitimately pray that God has fixed his saving, electing love on my unregenerate family members, friends, colleagues, and students. God has already determined what He will do, but God also has known about my prayers from eternity past, and the Scriptures do indeed tell us that God delights in answering the prayers of His people according to His will, and that the prayers of a righteous man do avail much. It is not an "either-or," as you suggest. Go back and read the conversation between Prayerless and Prayerful again. What precisely do you have a problem with in that explanation? Please make direct reference to it, because I would like to know exactly what you find to be erroneous about it. "I know salvation is a miracle, that only God can do, but I also know God has given man the ability to reject the Grace once it is offered." And how do you KNOW that? "If not then Adam and Eve had something we didn?t the right to reject God?s authority over them." Well, Adam and Eve did start out with something we didn't: a nature untainted by sin and a curse from God. --Joe! |