Hello brothers and sisters,
Below is my reply to Brytni's comment
on my last post, Hell Part II.
Where do I read about a decision for
Christ? Let's start at the beginning of the book. First we must
establish that man has a free will. In Genesis 2:16-17 God gives man
his first choice, he tells him not to eat of the tree, if he does, he
will die. In chapter 3 man decides to eat of said tree, thus
exercising his free will.
Again we see in Deuteronomy 30:19 Moses
lays before the children of Israel the blessing and the curse and
tells them to Choose. If they did not have a free will why would he
tell them to choose?
Similarly Joshua in chapter 24, they
are told to choose who they will serve. Time and time again through
the old testament we see people given the choice of serving God or
the devil, life or death, so, in the old testament man clearly has a
free choice. If he did not God would not be calling Israel to choose
who they would serve, or calling them to return to him, not ordering,
but pleading with them to return
Let's have a look at the New Testament
now.
Matthew 9:13 Jesus came not call the
righteous but sinners to repentance. Why would he call if they had
no choice but to come?
Mark 2:17 repeats this
Read the Parable of the sower, the
people had to receive the word sown.
Mark 16:16, you must believe to be
saved. What does "believe" mean? You cannot believe
without choice. You have to make a choice to believe.
Ok, let me cut this short, and just
say, all over scripture, man has a free will to do as he pleases, he
can choose good or evil, God or Satan and so on.
Back to your question, well, sort of,
first let us look at the definition of believe. "Believe: To
accept something as true." Therefore, "That whosoever
believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so
loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For
God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world; but that
the world through him might be saved.He that believeth on him is not
condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he
hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And
this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men
loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For
every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the
light, lest his deeds should be reproved." John 3:15-20
And, further: "That if thou shalt
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine
heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the
mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith,
Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no
difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all
is rich unto all the call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved How then shall they call on him
in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him
of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a
preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is
written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of
peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! But they have not all
obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our
report? So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of
God." Romans 10:9-17
These are just two of the many passages
on this, we must believe to be saved, and believing is a choice. To
believe you must accept it as truth, and to accept you must make a
choice, a decision.
Where does God offer salvation to the
wicked? What is your definition of the word wicked? Are not we all?
Let us see: Wicked: Evil. What does evil mean? Morally
reprehensible, sinful. Think of the scripture: "The heart is
deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"
Jeremiah 17:9. Think on this: The Lord is not slack concerning his
promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to
us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come
to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9 Notice it says any? God came to call
sinners, in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, not some sinners, all
sinners. In the book of Revelation, during the great tribulation God
once again calls all men to serve him. All men, not just some, not
just the non-wicked, but all men. All have sinned, and come short
of the glory of God. Romans 3:23. If all have sinned, and God came
to call sinners, then, He must be offering salvation to all because
he is calling sinners.
From your post, I understand that you
believe that Christians are the Elect, and all the rest are un-Elect?
You come from the position that God Elected certain people to be
saved, and the rest are damned, and that I assume also, that you
believe that we are sinful by nature. If I am correct in all of
this, please answer this one question; What is Justice? We both
agree that God is a God of Justice. Let me define the word, Justice:
The quality of being just, impartial, or fair. Okay, let us look
closely at election...
Right off we have a problem, God is
just, but, election is not. You see, if we humans are sinful by
nature, that is, we have no free will, we sin just as we breath, we
have to, because it is part of us, how can God if he is just, send
anyone to hell seeing he created us this way? How can he judge us
for sin we had no choice but to commit? Let us look at it from
another angle. All have sinned, that is made very clear in scripture
so, that means that God chose a certain group of sinners arbitrarily,
and they go to heaven, everyone else to hell. Is that just? I mean
really? We all sin, but some of us for no reason other than God
deciding it go to heaven, and everyone else, just as bad as us, are
all going to hell. Um, we have a problem of justice here. It is
like four gangsters are brought before a judge for murder, all four
are totally guilty, but the judge chooses to save one of them and
sends the rest off to execution. Would that be just? How can he
punish some of them, and let one go? They are all guilty. Same with
God, it would not be just for him to punish some, and have mercy on
some would it? If God is just, election as I believe you see it
cannot work, it would violate the very nature of God, it violates
scripture which repeatedly speaks of God being righteous and just,
long-suffering and merciful. Would you call it merciful for God to
give mercy to a certain group of people and not even give the chance
to everyone else?
I have a question to ask you: Why did
Jesus die? If God chose who should be saved from the foundation of
the world, why need Christ die since they were already chosen?
I hope that in this post you will see
that, God calls all to repentance, since all are sinners and he calls
the sinners. That, salvation is a choice, not forced, we choose to
believe, or not. That election is unjust, unfair, and unrighteous,
and if God is Just and Righteous, then election could not happen.
This post may come across as harsh, I don't mean it so, I just mean
to speak the truth, if I am wrong, show me how from scripture, I am
open and listening.
On closing, I implore all of my readers
this day, please read your Bible. Read it carefully from beginning
to end, please, read it without any bias from doctrines of men, just
read what it says, and believe it, don't just listen to men tell you
what it says, check on them, check every doctrine in the light of all
of scripture, please don't for anything base your doctrines on just
part of scripture, don't just use a few verses use the whole of
scripture.
God Bless,
Flame of Jah
