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NASB | 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord does not delay [as though He were unable to act] and is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is [extraordinarily] patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. |
Subject: Debate Arminian/Calvinist views? |
Bible Note: Hi, Ed; Since the Bible does not mention "dispensations", I assume you consider dispensationalism heretical as well. There are pre-millenialists, post-millenialists, and a-millenialists, all of them believing that they took the whole Word and rightly divided it. It seems that at least two groups must be heretical; maybe they all are. God did not give us a theological treatise. He gave us a story. Most doctrines (and most discussions on this forum) result from finite humans trying to understand the infinite mind behind the story. This isn't just an intellectual exercise. The Bible does not tell us how to behave in every situation. One of the reasons the Pharisees got into trouble was that instead of developing a theology - an organized set of principles that might guide people - they came up with rules. One problem with this approach is that every new situation requires a new rule. Grace makes it even harder - how am I to understand and apply the law of the new covenant that God has placed in my mind and written on my heart? (Jeremiah 31:33) Theology and doctrine simply try to organize the events and words of God's story into consistent principles. Luther, Calvin, Arminius, Knox, Wesley, all simply tried to find a way to organize the truth revealed in the Bible - organize it, not alter it. Calvin's TULIP doctrine is distasteful to many people but it is derived only from the Bible, not from any other source, and not from Calvin's imagination. Jesus told me to love my neighbor. That doesn't help me to choose between sacrificial love and tough love in a specific circumstance - Jesus exhibited both at various times. It's fine to disparage doctrine, but every time you offer a panhandler a meal instead of the dollar he asked for, you are applying doctrine of your own or someone else's making. If you tithe 10 percent because you believe that God commands it, you are applying doctrine. If you celebrate Easter or Christmas or sing a Fanny Crosby hymn in church, you are applying doctrine. With TULIP, Calvin did not change the gospel; he harmonized it with the rest of the Bible. I doubt he got it right, but it's not heresy. Much of what I see on Christian TV today comes a lot closer to heresy than Calvin did. Peace and grace, Steve aka Indiana Jones who got most of his doctrine from C. S. Lewis' "Mere Christianity" |