Subject: LEFT BEHIND? |
Bible Note: May the Good Lord bless you Ed, You wrote: "No John it does not. I believe God gives each man and woman this opportunity or spiritual awareness at least once in his or her life. I think what that person then does at that moment determines whether they then accept Jesus as Lord and Savior or not. As I said this is all a mystery to me." The problem is, and I know you agree, there is no teaching in Scripture that will support the idea that carnal people experience moments of spiritual understanding whereby they may take advantage of, or reject, Jesus as Lord and Saviour. Your statement above is scripturaly unsupportable. 1 Cor 2: 14 as well as many other verses teach just the opposite. A few verses later Paul says: 1 Cor 1:18 "For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." Notice the tense of the verbs perish and save. They indicate that there are those who are in the process of "perishing" and others who are in the process of being "saved". I understand the difficulty that those who disagree (as I did at one time) have with the doctrine of Election. They feel it makes God to appear unjust. But that is not the case. We all fell in Adam, did we not? We are all equally guilty and deserving of eternal damnation. Would it have been unjust for God to save none? No! It would have been just. Is it then unjust for Him to extend mercy to some and not others? Afterall, He is King and judge over all and is free to do as He wishes (See Romans 9). He is the Potter and we are the clay. In His wisdom He has permitted the reprobate to continue to do what they want, which is to sin and rebel against Him. He does not force them to sin, it is the nature of fallen man to be wicked. Others He mercifully chose for Himself and paid a tremendous price for their salvation. Remember, God owed none of us anything. The mystery of election is why did God save anyone, especiallly me! Brother Ed, can you offer any scripture to support your contention that their is no contradiction between 1 Cor 2:14 and Rom 8:29,30 if one adheres to "freewillism"? John |