The Gospel Is The Good News, But Is It Good News For Everyone?

I had this thought as I was driving home. I wondered at the idea of the intersection in reality that evangelism is required, and the transliteration of the word gospel is "good news", especially in contrast to the wicked. I thought, "is it good news for everyone?".

Is there any possibility that it is in fact good news, even for the wicked?

Perhaps therein lay some of my misgivings about modern day evangelism and how it's conducted. The perishing have no sense or desire for God. How can it be good news for them? Unless we believe that even by living Godly lives, their living experience will improve. It's true, it will. But, it's not good news for them, in the sense that it, it no way saves them. Nor can it, it's purpose in their life is to harden them and reveal their hatred for God in the day of judgement. They are damned.

But then, when we think of the damned and the wicked, we think of Hitler, Manson and Barney....oh, sorry about that last one. That's just me. My Christian experience has proven to me that the wicked are just as much a part of your church as they are out in the world. Today, it costs literally nothing to call yourself a Christian; and with so many definitions of what that means, combined with the unpopular method of "testing the spirits, to see if they be of God" what you are left with is wheat and tares raised up together. Hmmmm, someone said that would happen didn't they....?

It's my position that the Good News is only good news to the sheep. It's never good news to the wicked and the perishing. They hate it, even if the feign appreciation of it; and you can prove that by watching and paying careful attention to how people treat the good news; especially in application. They will omit parts they don't like; gloss over interpretations that don't suit them; deny the Lordship of Christ in their life by their actions and condemn themselves with their own words, unknowingly.

Their foolish hearts are darkened. They are not wise. They think themselves wise, but they are fools and the good news serves only to condemn their wickedness to their lying, foolish faces. We should have nothing to do with such as these, who with tears confess to you that they are saved, but by their actions they deny Him. We should not apologize that they don't understand, or think us arrogant. We should not be ashamed of the gospel. It says what it says. We should fiercely defend the gospel, lest weaker sheep believe that the good news is just a pile of facts about some distant, but cool, hipster who had long hair and called himself "Hey-Soos" and never really experience the good news...which is the Truth, The Life, and The Way. Accept no subsitutes.

 

Difficult Times Will Come

Author - Andy Smith

“Difficult Times will come”

2 Timothy 3:1-7

“But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; avoid such men as these. For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to knowledge of the truth. 

Who is this passage talking about? If you are looking for a boogie man to stand up in pulpit and claim that Jesus is Not the Christ, I’m afraid you have missed the point of this passage entirely. I don’t have to go very far to find someone that fits this description, or least used too. I’m talking about me. I look down the list of sins mentioned here and I find myself wincing as it gets farther down the list. In fact I am guilty of all of them. In fact I suggest you look in the mirror of God’s word and see yourself for who you are. My question to you is this. Do you love God with your whole being? Do you Love His Word and I’m not just talking about on Sundays when you find it and wipe a weeks’ worth of dust off it so you can go to church. Do you work out your salvation with fear and trembling (Phil 2:12)? Paul also said in 2 Cor. 13:5 “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you- unless indeed you fail the test”                 This idea must be pretty important for Paul to mention it in two different gospels.  I confess that this was not something I did until after I got saved. See, I was too afraid of the answer. I look at a lot of churches in America and I see a social club! A physical representation of your Facebook account; I used to say things like “I must be a Christian because I love Christians”, and I would tell you “I Loved His Word”, but I didn’t read it. And who wouldn’t like Christians. They are for the most part descent folk. Who dress nice and talk about good morals and even live them out, at least on the outside appearance. Let me bring out another dynamic. Do you Fear God? Proverbs 9:10 “The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” Hebrews 12:29 “ For our God is a consuming fire”. If you read God’s Word, do you only read the good verses? Do you skip over the parts that you don’t like or understand. See, I suggest that we are all much more guilty of breaking the first two commandments. 

Exodus 20:3-6 “You Shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God,” 

If you create a false god in your mind based on incomplete theology, and then you attend a church and worship your created god. You are guilty of this. And so was I.

So what is my point? That if you are going to claim the name of Christian, there are things that should be true in your life. Start by Loving God with your whole heart, soul, mind and strength.  If you love Him you will obey Him. You can’t make Him LORD! He is LORD!

Read His Word, start in Mathew stop when you get to Revelations. And then throw in a few old testament books!  2 Tim 3:16-17 “All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”

And start working out your salvation with fear and trembling! Test yourself to see if you are in the faith. Your eternity depends on it.

Why I'm A Calvinist

I know some people who think that the word Calvanism is equal with arrogance, or maybe even ignorance. I know others who used to think Calvanism was wrong purely on anecdote. I know still more who have never even heard of Calvansim, but I'm not a calvanist, nor do I delcare so, for any of these people or reasons. The reason is because I don't judge doctrine  by how sinful, utterly sinful people live it out. That would be dumb.

I call myself a Calvanist for the same reasons I call myself a Christian. I'm trying to identify with a belief system, in the hopes that through communication  you might understand more quickly what I believe. This is a problem for a language like American-English.

Yes, it's a problem because while words do have meaning, even in the strictest sense, Calvanism doesn't mean the same thing to everyone. Nor should it really, since it has so many definitions. "Why....don't you Calvanists believe that you don't have to preach the Gospel?" You might hear someone say. I've heard people say that before, but I've never met ONE calvanist who believes that. I even know of a famous hyper-calvanist, whose particular brand of hyper calvanism predisposes him to the non-evangelizing type...yet at every funeral for american soliders and at gay parades, there he is; evangelizing.

There are so many things to think about but if I boil it down to the simplest component, it's hard determinism. God plans and executes his sovereign, immutable will on his creatures. This is what I spend the most time thinking about. Why? Because it affects every part of the way I think about things. Does evangelism do that? Hardly. Does feeding the poor? Hardly. And like I said, I don't go around trying to create false dichotomies, whose evidence for veracity is rooted in sinful people not adhereing to the true and right doctrine of the Gospel. My belief is, thinking about God's sovereign, immutable will, eventually creates a disciple. And those disciples WILL go forth and preach and teach and feed the poor. I'm living proof to myself that, that is true.

To believe any different is to assume God doesn't have all this under control; or worse...you DO!

Improper Feelings About Doctrine

I was traveling through my various links of inspirational material this morning and I came upon a post, whereupon I was confused by something that the author of the site said.

You can read the post here; I like this site and in particular it's been useful to me, but something about today's post smacked of humanism...and while I do not judge the author, in the sense that I think there's anything more wrong with him, more so than any of us, and also in the sense that he may have violated some rule of faith that only I abide by, I am forced to correct what seems in error with the scriptures.

He speaks of an experience, to which I can relate, which is working with Arminians. In his case he says it's an Arminian pastor. The author of this site relates; 

" I know he is a good man who is concerned for the souls of men. He weeps for souls. " 

Wait...first issue. We've got a logic problem. What is a good man? Why do you call him good? There is none good but God..."Jesus".

Perhaps he means to relate his 'former' sentiment and not be specific to his doctrinal thesis and thus imprecise. Perhaps. Yet, we have more evidence of humanistic arguments that follow. If that were all, I might be well enough to leave it alone. Yet there is more.

The Arminians belief system is not rooted in logic nor the scriptures. His weeping is not for having the truth, but for his emotional in ability to accept reality; namely that men are born unto vessels of wrath. Since there is no truth in him (at this moment at least), why would we expect to believe his weeping? "For many walk...and now tell you weeping, they are enemies of the cross....who's end is destruction..." (Paul)

So then, he has no heart for the lost because he has no mind for truth. He rejects truth and replaces it with his own vain philosphy and elementary principle of the world. How hard is it to be sad that someone will not understand the root principle that hope alights the soul of fear?

Then the author, when he hears "Jesus Loves You", questions it. Rightly so...and says "does He really?"

Let's finish with the evidence...

Here is the remainder of his work - un-edited. First, he makes his case on so-called 'hyper-calvanism, thereby setting up his straw-man argument and then he attacks it. As-if his definition of hyper-calvanism, yet undefined is equal with all untruth...yet no explanation of why Arminans can be "good" and "love people". Yet, unbeknownst to him, he attacks his own unscriptural application of his theology.

I grew up a typical Southern Baptist, which means I believed in Jesus and eternal security, but that was about it. After my conversion, I met a man who was a pastor of a Primitive Baptist church. He loved Jesus, and he was the only one who would talk to me about Romans 9. This pastor was a hyper-Calvinist, though I did not have a category for such a thing at the time. I testify that such men exist, and not just as boogey-men in the dreams of Arminian evangelists. He was the first man to ever tell me God had no intention of saving every man, and even that God did not love all men. After all, God hated Esau. 

I hear the pastor plead with us. He tells us that God will save whoever will come to him, but I know that when he says it he doesn't just mean the elect. This pastor wants all men to come. This pastor believes God might save every man who hears him; he believes that Jesus loves every child in VBS; this man would have pled with Esau even if he had read Romans 9. 

I decided that day that I would plead for the souls of men as if God could and would save every man that I talked to about Christ. I decided that God's love for every child is genuine, even if they do not number amongst the elect. I decided that election would be a comfort to me and not a sorrow; it guaranteed the salvation of many, and yet damned no man to hell. Only sin can do that, and every man's sin is not due to his status in election. 

It was in this way that I finally began to be Reformed. Not simply by confession or creed, but by an overwhelming need for the gospel to be good news to all men, especially for those that believe.

"I hear the pastor plead with us, he tells us that God will save whoever will come to him"...

This is a TRUE STATEMENT! The pastor is right in so saying. Preach the gospel and make disciples. Who cares what the pastor "MEANS"...he does rightly to plead with the wicked to turn to God. He must!

Then in the final analysis, the thesis statement comes forth. "I decided that God's love for every child is genuine, even if they are not numbered among the elect"...

"I decided [calvanism] would not be a sorrow, but a comfort...[calvanism] guaranteed the salvation of many and damned no man to hell. Only sin can do that and every man's sin is not due to his status in election.

If we replaced calvanism, since it's implied here and stated elsewhere with "the gospel", I wonder if he would believe his thesis to stand up? The Gospel states that, so that the counsel of God's own will would stand, he would, have mercy on whom he desires and harden those he desires.

God does not love everyone in the same way. It could be said that even giving you life is to love you, by common grace. However, the Bible is repleat with examples of God hating the wicked and saying so! He HATES the wicked. It would be better that they were never born, yet save his immutable purpose...he provides them as vessels of destruction. While that author may know that, what he appeals to his humanistic argumentation and emotion rather than the scripture. The falsity of his claim is that somehow Calvanism or even Hyper-Calvanism erodes the loving nature or the decree of God to expound the gospel to all men. You are to share with all. The problem that this person has is that they cannot seperate the biblical exegesis of sound evangelism and the popularly taught "Come to Jesus" movement of America.

Jesus doesn't want and will not accept the wicked and the apostate. He only accepts his elect. It just so happens that only He knows who they are, and we're to love everyone until they prove to be wicked and support, by means of your capability, everyone, regardless of their status as you understand it. Period. Get over the traditions of men, they send people to hell.

From Sea To Shining Sea!

Amos 8:12 People will stagger from sea to sea And from the north even to the east; They will go to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, But they will not find it.

It is a dubious honor to be one of the only nations in the world where, in concurrence to the time in which it was written, this prophecy largely describes the United States. The very idea that in America, you could go anywhere, and not hear the word of the LORD is akin to saying that I could be dropped in the ocean and not feel it's wetness. Yet, often times we do not consider the possibility that the 'hearing' of the word of the LORD is not merely the passing of words over our ear canals, but rather the sound exposition of the word of the LORD.

We know, if we have indeed read the scriptures that "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing, by the word of the LORD". What most in this age have been taught is that faith is a mountain of dirt that I myself must erect and maintain; and when they hear this text they hear that faith "magically" puts more dirt on "my" hill.

Yet, this is not even close to the meaning of the text. The text is making abundantly clear that faith - which is a gift from God - is, via meta-physical means, routed to your spirit through the secondary means of hearing. And hearing, is enabled and made possible through the first cause of GOD HIMSELF! By His very word, your ears percieve those things which are spiritually appraised. This is why he can call those who are spiritually broken down and dilapidated on the side of the road, in a heap of moral and sinful ruin - dull of "hearing"!!!

So then, we think of nations that are less educated, perhaps less enlightened, perhaps bereft of a McDonalds, as being under the plight of traveling from sea to sea - which is a metaphor at the least of intense searching in every place - and not hearing the word of the LORD. Yet, in our country, people or inundated with sermons and mesasges and teachings that seem to have their root in honoring this person named Jesus Christ. How can it be then that I say that we travel from sea to sea and do not hear the word of the LORD.

Do you not know and have you not read of ancient Judah? Judah was not hauled off to captivity in Babylon because they didn't honor God with their speeches, loud prayers and public humiliations of themselves, that certainly had their resemblence to Godliness. No! They did not honor God because they knew him not! They faked their abiding in God. They used rituals and sacrafices as a means to cover what their hearts desperately wanted. And they wanted, not to serve the living God in strict obedience to His command. For this, they paid dearly. They were hauled to Babylon.

In our country, we do the very same. We falsify the testimony of Jesus Christ, we empty the power of His word and we defame his name with our ignorant, yet boastfully arrogant words. We speak mightly against the Most High God. We utter claims of ignorance and tell jokes at His expense. Did not the people of Judah's time, do the same? Where is your God? Is He delaying?

We have stupid and ignorant people leading the weak and the helpless. They hate God and they desire to kill the sheep. If your Pastor tells you something that's illogical and doesn't square with the scriptures, he's wrong.

If he tells you that you don't make God Lord, but you "let" him be LORD of your life...he's a LIAR! God does not ask your permission; HE demands your OBEDIENCE. And all who aren't obedient are cast in to hell.

Monergism V.S. Synergism

Monergism: In theol., The doctrine that the Holy Spirit is the only efficient agent in regeneration - that the human will possesses no inclination to holiness until regenerated, and therefore cannot cooperate in regeneration. The Holy Spirit, who joins us to Christ, quickens us through the outward call cast forth by the preaching of His Word, disarms our innate hostility, removes our blindness, illumines our mind, creates understanding, turns our heart of stone to a heart of flesh. Only then do we apprehend the beauty and excellency of Christ. This gracious Spirit wrought work in the heart gives rise to a delight in His Word -- all that we might, with our renewed affections, willingly & gladly embrace Christ. Monergism is when God conveys that power into the fallen soul whereby the person who is to be saved is enabled to receive the offer of redemption. It refers to the first step (regeneration) which has causal priority over, and gives rise to, the moral and spiritual desire/ability to comply with all the other aspects of the process of being united to Christ, (i.e., the ability to apprehend the Redeemer by a living faith, to repent of sin and to love God and the Mediator supremely) It does not refer to the whole process that it gives rise to (justification, sanctification), but only the granting of the spiritual capacity to comply with the terms of the covenant of grace. As Michael Haykin says, "The Reformation was not merely about justification through faith alone but, more importantly, it considered "...whether sinners are wholly helpless in their sin, and whether God is to be thought of as saving them by free, unconditional, invincible grace, not only justifying them for Christs' sake when they come to faith, but also raising them from the death of sin by His quickening Spirit in order to bring them to faith."

Synergism: "...the doctrine that there are two efficient agents in regeneration, namely the human will and the divine Spirit, which, in the strict sense of the term, cooperate. This theory accordingly holds that the soul has not lost in the fall all inclination toward holiness, nor all power to seek for it under the influence of ordinary motives." The synergistic doctrine of prevenient grace does not resolve this issue, but only pushes it back, for if all have grace and only some believe the gospel, then what makes them to differ? Jesus Christ or something else in them? According to the synergist, something other than grace makes men to differ. This unscriptural view is the greatest threat to a true understanding of salvation in the Church today.

The following chart highlights some of the major points of difference in these systems:

Synergism	Monergism
Cause of Regeneration
Regeneration is the work of Christ plus the good will of unspiritual man. What makes men to differ from one another is not the grace of Jesus alone, but Jesus plus the good will of unspiritual man.	Regeneration is the work of the Holy Spirit alone applying the the effectual crosswork of Christ to the unspiritual man. What makes men to differ is Jesus Christ alone.
Faith is the cause that triggers regeneration	Regeneration has causal priority to faith (Just as a person must have eyes before they see and ears prior to their ability to hear, so one must first have a new heart in order to understand spiritual truth)
Faith and affections for God are produced by the old nature.	Faith is not produced by our unregenerated human nature. It is the immediate and inevitable product of the new nature. The new heart (by nature) loves Christ.
God and Man work together to produce the new birth. God's grace takes us part of the way to salvation, man's unregenerate will must determine the final outcome. In other words belief in Christ gives rise to the new birth.	God, the Holy Spirit, alone produces regeneration with no contribution from the sinner (A work of God). The new birth is never spoke of in the imperative (not commanded), rather man must be born again by God.
God is eagerly awaiting the sinner's will.	God effectually enables the sinner's will.
The persons of the Trinity have conflicting goals in accomplishing and applying salvation: The Father elects a particular people; The Son dies for a general people and the Holy Spirit applies the atonement conditionally on those who exercize their autonomous libertarian free will.	The persons of the Trinity work in harmony - The Father elects a particular people (Eph 1:3-5), Christ dies for those the Father has given Him (John 17:9, 15; Rev 5:9) and the Holy Spirit likewise applies the benefits of the atonement to the same. (Regeneration is one of the redemptive benefits of Christ's work)
Restoration of spiritual faculties comes after the man without the Spirit exercizes faith with his natural (innate) capacities. Has the ability to see spiritual truth even before healed. (see 1 Cor 2:14). Has spiritual capacity/desire to receive the truth, prior God's granting any spiritual ability.	"Light" itself is not enough for a blind man to see, his vision must first be restored. (John 3:3,6). Needs spiritual ability to receive truth prior to receiving it (1 Cor 2:12; John 6:63-65 & 37).
View of Humanity
The fallen sinner has the ability and potential inclination to believe even prior to the new birth	The fallen sinner has no understanding, moral ability or inclination to believe prior to the new birth. (1 Cor 2:14).
There is enough good left in fallen man to turn his affections toward Christ.	Fallen Man has a mind at enmity with God; loves darkness, hates the light and does not have the Holy Spirit. "There is no one who seeks God" (Rom 3:11); Sinner would never turn to God without divine enablement and new affections.
Sinner needs help, is spiritually handicapped.	Spiritually dead sinner needs new nature (mind, heart, will), regeneration.
Natural man is sick and disabled like a drowning man so God would be uncaring if He didn't help by casting a rope.	Natural man is spiritually impotent and morally culpable for sin. Our moral inability is not like a physical handicap or a drowning man for which we would not be culpable but, rather, it is like a man who cannot repay a squandered financial debt. Inability to repay, therefore, does not relieve us of the moral responsibility to do so. God, in His mercy, does not merely throw us a rope, He dives in to make certain we do not drown.
Needs salvation from the consequences of sin - unhappiness, hell, psychological pain.	Needs salvation to remove the offense we've made against a holy God and from the power and bondage of sin.
The natural man is sovereign over his choice to accept or reject Christ - God conditionally responds to our decision. God's love for the sinner is, therefore, conditional.	The natural man can contribute nothing towards his salvation. Faith is a response rendered certain following the efficacious work of the Holy Spirit. We respond to God's unconditional love. (Acts 13:48; John 6:37)
Those fallen men who are saved, either created a right thought, generated a right affection, or originated a right volition that led to their salvation while some others did not have the natural wherewithal to come up with the faith that God required of them to obtain salvation. Therefore salvation is dependent on some virtue or capacity God sees in certain men. Not Jesus alone, but Jesus PLUS...	No Fallen man will create a right thought, generate a right affection, or originate a right volition that will lead to his salvation. We would never believe unless the Holy Spirit came in and disarmed our hostility to God. Therefore salvation is dependent on God's good pleasure alone (Eph 1:4, 5, 11), not some virtue or goodwill He sees in us.
Man's nature & affections do not determine or give rise to their choices. Even without the Holy Spirit working change in his heart, the sinner can still make a saving decision to believe the gospel. In this scheme God gives enough grace to place man in a neutral position which can swing either for or against Jesus. (An act of chance?)	Man's nature determines his desires/affections and give rise to the choices he makes. Jesus bears witness to this: "No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit." Luke 6:43 Only Christ can "make a tree good and its fruit will be good." (Also see John 8:34, 42-44; 2 Pet. 2:19).
View of the Gospel
The Gospel is an invitation	The Gospel is not merely an invitation, but a command (1 John 3:23)
Christ died for all our sins except unbelief	Christ died for all our sins including unbelief
Sinners have the key in their hands. Man's will determines whether or not Christ's death is efficacious.	God has the key in his hand. God's eternal counsel determines to whom the benefits of the atonement apply.
It would be unjust of God to not give everyone an equal chance.	If God exercized His justice then none of us would stand, since each of us is in active rebellion against an infinitely holy God. He owes us nothing and is under no obligation to save any person. Regeneration is, therefore, an act of pure, undeserved mercy because the justice we deserved, He poured out on His Son (thereby turning His wrath away from us).
After God makes one's heart of stone into a heart of flesh the Holy Spirit's call to salvation can still be resisted.	After God makes one's heart of stone into a heart of flesh, no person wants to resist. By definition our desires, inclinations and affections have changed so we willingly and joyfully turn in faith toward Christ.
Salvation is given to fallen sinners (unregenerate) who choose and desire Christ of their free will.	Apart from grace, there is no fallen sinner (unregenerate) who fits that description. A desire for God is not part of the old nature.
The grace of God is conferred as a result of human prayer	It is grace itself which makes us pray to God (Rom 10:20; Isa. 65:1)
God has mercy upon us when we believe, will, desire, strive, labor, pray, watch, study, seek, ask, or knock, apart from his regenerative grace.	To desire and seek God prior to the new birth is an impossible supposition. (Rom 3:11; 1 Cor 2:14) It is the infusion and quickening of the Holy Spirit within us that we even have the faith or the strength to will, desire, strive, labor, pray, watch, study, seek, ask, or knock and believe in the finished work of Christ.
Commands to repent and believe the gospel imply the ability of the sinner to do so.	The Command toward sinners to repent and believe does not imply ability. Divine intent of the Law, according to Scripture, is to reveal our moral impotence apart from grace (Rom 3:20, 5:20, Gal 3:19,24). The Law was not designed to confer any power but to strip us of our own.
God helps those who help themselves.	God only helps those who cannot help themselves. (John 9:41)
Unregenerate man contributes his little bit.	Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to Thy Cross I cling.
Repentance is considered a work of man.	Repentance is a gift of God. (2 Tim 2:25)
One of the greatest gifts God gives humans is to never interfere with their free will.	The greatest judgment which God can inflict upon a man is to leave him in the hands of his own free-will. If salvation were left in the hands of the unregenerate sinners, we would indeed despair of all hope that anyone would be saved. It is an act of mercy, therefore, that God awakens the dead in sin to life since those without the Spirit cannot understand the things of God at all. (1 Cor 2:14)
With Man's will salvation is possible.	With man's will salvation (repentance and faith) is impossible, but with God all things are possible. (Matt 19:26; Rom 9:16; John 6:64,65) "Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit." John 3:6

Note: God acts unilaterally, taking the sole initiative in a free act of sovereign grace toward the sinner—grace that is altogether prior to, and effectually produces, justifying faith. The response of faith from the sinner is penultimate as it stands next to the ultimate sovereign grace of God in monergism. As the first act of a newborn baby is to breathe, so the act of faith is the first act of the regenerated sinner, in his/her new birth in Christ.

For more on this topic
A Simple Explanation of Monergism by John Hendryx
The New Birth: Not the Consequence of Human Faith by John Hendryx (exegesis)
Ordo Salutis @monergism
What is Monergism? by John Hendryx
Monergism vs. Synergism by John Hendryx
The Work of the Trinity in Monergism by John Hendryx 
A Defense of Monergistic Regeneration by Gannon Murphy 
The New Genesis by R.C. Sproul 
A Short Response to the Arminian Doctrine of Prevenient Grace by John Hendryx

Multimedia
Monergistic Regeneration - Part I (MP3) Dr. Arturo Azurdia III
Monergistic Regeneration - Part II (MP3) Dr. Arturo Azurdia III

May I Dwell In The Tent of The LORD Forever.

I don't know how to attribute this. I was exploring some feelings and emotions I have and I wrote this as a result. I don't know what it is and I only partiall know why I wrote it. In either case, it's here now.

---- May I Dwell In The Tent of the LORD Forever ----

I do not understand the feelings of my contempt; seeming anti-oblation.

I desire to know and follow my LORD, yet am I like Saul who desires his will in the following of the LORD? Yet I know that I am a sinner; a sinner complete. The time of my transgression not yet complete but the scale weighted down to justice. I implore you my Father, who can stand if God holds man to account?

Yet I know you hold fast the foot of the righteous and they shall live by faith. I give thanks to you God, that you have, for the glory of your name, exchanged your perfect Son's obedience for my disobedience, His faith, for my doubt, His righteousness for my unrighteousness. Father, with all the strength that I have, I have none that you have not given. My you grant that I believe in Him whom you have sent. The power is not within me, but flows from you. Father without you granting this, I am certainly lost.

Thank you Father for I know that you establish the righteous; you have placed your word on my tongue. I will proclaim your name and your glory forever. For your loving kindness is everlasting. Fram age to age, may I offer back in persevering praise to you and your name.

May I dwell in the Tent of the LORD forever.

Learn Facts About Jesus And You Can Be Saved

It's interesting to me, to comment on the state of affairs of modern Christianity, the framework of it's belief system and how it's currently propogated.

If I would say to you, "Learn Facts About Jesus and You Can Be Saved" I wonder how many people would agree this is true. The statement implies at its root that knowledge, even cursory knowledge is enough for salvation. But surely something that is such a high reward requires more effort than simple arithmetic expressions...does it not?

Yet, this is what the synergist will say. "Do not the scriptures teach us that if we are to confess with our mouth and believe in our hearts and thou shalt be saved!" Yet, what is meticulously overlooked, seemingly on purpose, is the idea that to believe in the absence of the power of God is to simply know facts. But, if we admit this, then we must and can only examine what the scriptures mean when they command us to "believe".

What does it mean to believe?

Is belief the same as knowledge?

Then, are you sure you believe? For instance, if a belief is never tested, can it be said that you actually believe it? You may well...but how could you know for sure. The answer can only be that you couldn't.

So then, is this the belief that is being talked about? A conglomeration of knowledge and untested tenants of a system of thought, which at it's very core gives comfort to the holder by way of status, but no comfort by way of inner peace or even knowledge of it's truth. For it's truely the state of things a belief untested is no belief to be trusted, it's simply a hypothesis and all hypothesis must be tested if they are to be proven true. You would no more repel down a mountain with an untested rope, or jump out of an airplaine with an untested chute, but so many today are doing that exact thing with their faith. Hoping without evidence that they have decided correctly, having never looked back, perhaps even once to be sure. Using that system, you would not survive very long in deep sea diving. Accordingly, is this what we're called to? A system of thought that is a conglomeration of facts, indisputable by almost anyone in the community? How is it then that even muslims are not saved? Do they not also believe that Jesus died, was a prophet and rose again? I tell you, there are that do!

And mormons?

And roman catholics?

and JW's...

Oh I know you all have at one time or another made the joke that mormons or JW's were at the door. How do you know that they aren't your spiritual brothers or sisters?! How dare you make fun of them, when they promote the kingdom and you do not?? Do they not confess? Do they not believe?

OR

Is the issue much simpler than that?

Col 2:8 - see to it that no one takes advantage of you through philosophy or empty deception, according to the traditions of men, according to the elementary principles of this world, rather than according to Christ.

Well, what does Christ have to say on the matter? First lets consult brother Paul on what belief is.

Eph 2:8-9 For by grace are you saved not of works, lest any man should boast, it is the gift of God.

So belief is not knowledge of facts, it's a gift of God. Why does believing in God need to be a gift?

1st Cor 2:14

The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

It would appear that if it were not a gift, no one would understand it at all...since it's spiritually discerned.

So then, what does Christ say about how to believe in God?

John 6:28

Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?

This is the work of God, that you believe in Him who He has sent.

Wait...didn't Paul say that belief is a gift?

Yeah, he did. How does someone earn a gift through the recompense of effort? They do not, it can only be given freely by the giver. So then, what many call belief and faith, is simply a mental ascent to facts about Jesus and they are no more saved by these facts than are muslims, mormons, roman catholics, hinduists and any who claim religiosity but deny the saving Act of God, the power and right of His choice and the requirement to be in absolute and unequivocal submission to His will and authority. Friend, if this is you, you're not saved. But then, only the spiritually enabled will hear that...