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Post by abraham on May 24, 2008 19:49:03 GMT -5
Charles Spurgeon's quotes on Calvinism
It is no novelty, then, that I am preaching; no new doctrine. I love to proclaim these strong old doctrines that are called by nickname Calvinism, but which are truly and verily the revealed truth of God as it is in Christ Jesus. By this truth I make my pilgrimage into the past, and as I go, I see father after father, confessor after confessor, martyr after martyr, standing up to shake hands with me . . . Taking these things to be the standard of my faith, I see the land of the ancients peopled with my brethren; I behold multitudes who confess the same as I do, and acknowledge that this is the religion of God's own church. (Spurgeon's Sovereign Grace Sermons, Still Waters Revival Books, p. 170).
I have my own opinion that there is no such thing as preaching Christ and Him crucified, unless we preach what nowadays is called Calvinism. It is a nickname to call it Calvinism; Calvinism is the gospel, and nothing else. I do not believe we can preach the gospel if we do not preach justification by faith without works; nor unless we preach the sovereignty of God in His dispensation of grace; nor unless we exalt the electing unchangeable eternal, immutable, conquering love of Jehovah; nor do I think we can preach the gospel unless we base it upon the special and particular redemption of His elect and chosen people which Christ wrought out upon the cross. (Charles Spurgeon, The New Park Street Pulpit, Vol. 1, 1856).
... and I will go as far as Martin Luther, in that strong assertion of his, where he says, ‘If any man doth ascribe of salvation, even the very least, to the free will of man, he knoweth nothing of grace, and he hath not learnt Jesus Christ aright.’ It may seem a harsh sentiment; but he who in his soul believes that man does of his own free will turn to God, cannot have been taught of God, for that is one of the first principles taught us when God begins with us, that we have neither will nor power, but that He gives both; that he is ‘Alpha and Omega’ in the salvation of men. (C.H. Spurgeon from the sermon "Free Will A Slave", 1855).
You must first deny the authenticity and full inspiration of the Holy Scripture before you can legitimately and truly deny election. (Charles Spurgeon, Sermons, Vol. 3, p.130).
When I was coming to Christ, I thought I was doing it all myself, and though I sought the Lord earnestly, I had no idea the Lord was seeking me. I do not think the young convert is at first aware of this. I can recall the very day and hour when first I received those truths in my own soul - when they were as John Bunyan says, burnt into my heart as with a hot iron; and I can recollect how I felt that I had grown all of a sudden from a babe into a man - that I had made progress in scriptural knowledge, through having found, once for all, the clue to the truth of God ... I saw that God was at the bottom of it all, and that He was the Author of my faith, and so the whole doctrine of grace opened up to me, and from that doctrine I have not departed to this day, and I desire to make this my constant confession, I ascribe my change wholly to God. (Charles Spurgeon, Autobiography: 1, The Early Years, Banner of Truth, pp. 164-165).
George Whitefield said, "We are all born Arminians." It is grace that turns us into Calvinists. (Charles Spurgeon, Sermons, Vol. 2, p. 124).
Calvinism did not spring from Calvin. We believe that it sprang from the great Founder of all truth. (Charles Spurgeon, Sermons, Vol. 7, p. 298).
We declare on scriptural authority that the human will is so desperately set on mischief, so depraved, so inclined to everything that is evil, and so disinclined to everything that is good, that without the powerful, supernatural, irresistible influence of the Holy Spirit, no human will ever be constrained toward Christ. (Charles Spurgeon, Sermons, Vol. 4, p.139).
I do not come into this pulpit hoping that perhaps somebody will of his own free will return to Christ. My hope lies in another quarter. I hope that my Master will lay hold of some of them and say, "You are mine, and you shall be mine. I claim you for myself." My hope arises from the freeness of grace, and not from the freedom of the will.
I believe that Christ came into the world not to put men into a salvable state, but into a saved state. Not to put them where they could save themselves, but to do the work in them and for them, from first to last. If I did not believe that there was might going forth with the word of Jesus which makes men willing, and which turns them from the error of their ways by the mighty, overwhelming, constraining force of divine influence, I should cease to glory in the cross of Christ. (C.H. Spurgeon, Sermons, Vol. 3, p. 34).
A man is not saved against his will, but he is made willing by the operation of the Holy Ghost. A mighty grace which he does not wish to resist enters into the man, disarms him, makes a new creature of him, and he is saved. (C.H. Spurgeon, Sermons, Vol. 10, p. 309).
I question whether we have preached the whole counsel of God, unless predestination with all its solemnity and sureness be continually declared. (Charles Spurgeon, Sermons, Vol. 6, p. 26).
To me, Calvinism means the placing of the eternal God at the head of all things. AM337
The doctrines of original sin, election, effectual calling, final perseverance, and all those great truths which are called Calvinism—though Calvin was not the author of them, but simply an able writer and preacher upon the subject—are, I believe, the essential doctrines of the Gospel that is in Jesus Christ. Now, I do not ask you whether you believe all this—it is possible you may not; but I believe you will before you enter heaven. I am persuaded, that as God may have washed your hearts, he will wash your brains before you enter heaven. 12.92
Speaking of Arminians, Whitfield said, “We are all born Arminians.” It is grace that turns us into Calvinists, grace that makes Christians of us, grace that makes us free, and makes us know our standing in Christ Jesus. 69.124
That doctrine which is called “Calvinism” did not spring from Calvin; we believe that it sprang from the great founder of all truth. 385.298
Now, there are certain doctrines commonly called Calvinistic (but which ought never to have been called by such a name, for they are simply Christian doctrines) which I think commend themselves to the minds of all thoughtful persons, for this reason mainly, that they do ascribe to God everything. 572.308
I am not a Calvinist by choice, but because I cannot help it. 1085.692
I believe nothing merely because Calvin taught it, but because I have found his teaching in the Word of God. 2584.402
Some seem to believe in a kind of free agency which virtually dethrones God, while others run to the opposite extreme by believing in a sort of fatalism which practically exonerates man from all blame. Both of these views are utterly false, and I scarcely know which of the two is the more to be deprecated. We are bound to believe both sides of the truth revealed in the Scriptures, so I admit that, when a Calvinist says that all things happen according to the predestination of God, he speaks the truth, and I am willing to be called a Calvinist; but when an Arminian says that, when a man sins, the sin is his own, and that, if he continues in sin, and perishes, his eternal d**nation will lie entirely at his own door, I believe that he also speaks the truth, although I am not willing to be called an Arminian. The fact is, there is some truth in both these systems of theology. 2862.602
Have you ever noticed, in the great summary of doctrines, that, as surely as you believe one, you must believe the rest? One doctrine so leans upon the others that, if you deny one, you must deny the rest. Some think that they can believe four out of the five points, and reject the last. It is impossible; God’s truths are all joined together like links in a chain. 3093.247
They are all Calvinists there, every soul of them. They may have been Arminians on earth; thousands and millions of them were; but they are not after they get there, for here is their song, “Salvation unto our God, which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.” 3403.202
But I think no sincere and earnest student of Scripture will ever believe that God commences to love his people when they begin to love him. 3133.99
ELECTION -DISBELIEF OF
However much this may be disputed, as it frequently is, you must first deny the authenticity and full inspiration of the Holy Scripture before you can legitimately and truly deny it. 123.130
I believe the man who is not willing to submit to the electing love and sovereign grace of God, has great reason to question whether he is a Christian at all, for the spirit that kicks against that is the spirit of the devil, and the spirit of the unhumbled, unrenewed heart. 277.424
Answer me, ye that deny God’s sovereignty, and hate his election—how is it that angels are condemned to everlasting fire, while to you, the children of Adam, the gospel of Christ is freely preached? The only answer that can possible be given is this: God wills to do it. 303.134
Our Arminian antagonists always leave the fallen angels out of the question: for it is not convenient to them to recollect this ancient instance of Election. They call it unjust, that God should choose one man and not another. By what reasoning can this be unjust when they will admit that it was righteous enough in God to choose one race—the race of men, and leave another race—the race of angels, to be sunk into misery on account of sin. 303.134
To this day, men cannot bear that doctrine. Free will suits them very well, but free grace does not. They would not let Christ choose his own wife; I say it with the utmost reverence. 2755.567
Here again, our opponents have tried to overthrow election by telling us that it is an election of nations, and not of people. But here the Apostle says, “God hath from the beginning chosen you.” It is the most miserable shift on earth to make out that God hath not chosen persons but nations, because the very same objection that lies against the choice of persons, lies against the choice of a nation. If it were not just to choose a person, it would be far more unjust to choose a nation, since nations are but the union of multitudes of persons, and to choose a nation seems to be a more gigantic crime—if election be a crime—than to choose one person. Surely to choose ten thousand would be reckoned to be worse than choosing one; to distinguish a whole nation from the rest of mankind, does seem to be a greater extravaganza in the acts of divine sovereignty than the election of one poor mortal and leaving out another. 41,42.318
ELECTION -FORESEEN FAITH
“But,” say others, “God elected them on the foresight of their faith.” Now, God gives faith, therefore he could not have elected them on account of faith, which he foresaw. There shall be twenty beggars in the street, and I determine to give one of them a shilling; but will any one say that I determined to give that one a shilling, that I elected him to have the shilling, because I foresaw that he would have it? That would be talking nonsense. In like manner to say that God elected men because he foresaw they would have faith, which is salvation in the germ, would be too absurd for us to listen to for a moment. 41,42.317
There was nothing more in Abraham than in any one of us why God should have selected him, for whatever good was in Abraham God put it there. Now, if God put it there, the motive for his putting it there could not be the fact of his putting it there. 303.135
If I were to plead that the rose bud were the author of the root, well! I might indeed, be laughed at. But were I to urge that any goodness in man is the ground of God’s choice, I should be foolish indeed. 303.135
The love of God therefore existed before there was any good thing in man, and if you tell me that God loved men because of the foresight of some good thing in them, I again reply to that, that the same thing cannot be both cause and effect. Now it is quite certain that any virtue which there may be in any man is the result of God’s grace. Now if it be the result of grace it cannot be the cause of grace. It is utterly impossible that an effect should have existed before a cause; but God’s love existed before man’s goodness, therefore that goodness cannot be a cause. 501.172
Some, who know no better, harp upon the foreknowledge of our repentance and faith, and say that, “Election is according to the foreknowledge of God;” a very scriptural statement, but they make a very unscriptural interpretation of it. Advancing by slow degrees, they next assert that God foreknew the faith and the good works of his people. Undoubtedly true, since he foreknew everything; but then comes their groundless inference, namely, that therefore the Lord chose his people because he foreknew them to be believers. It is undoubtedly true that foreknown excellencies are not the causes of election, since I have shown you that the Lord foreknew all our sin: and surely if there were enough virtue in our faith and goodness to constrain him to choose us, there would have been enough demerit in our bad works to have constrained him to reject us; so that if you make foreknowledge to operate in one way, you must also take it in the other, and you will soon perceive that it could not have been from anything good or bad in us that we were chosen, but according to the purpose of his own will, as it is written, “I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” 779.621
Recollect also that God himself did not foresee that there would be any love to him in us arising out of ourselves, for there never has been any, and there never will be; he only foresaw that we should believe because he gave us faith, he foresaw that we should repent because his Spirit would work repentance in us, he foresaw that we should love, because he wrought that love within us; and is there anything in the foresight that he means to give us such things that can account for his giving us such things? The case is self-evident—his foresight of what he means to do cannot be his reason for doing it. 1299.341
You are obliged to confess that it is of grace then, and cast away the thoughts, that it was of your foreseen faith, or of your foreseen good works, that the Lord chose you. 3332.592
ELECTION -STUMBLING OVER
But there are some who say, “It is hard for God to choose some and leave others.” Now, I will ask you one question. Is there any of you here this morning who wishes to be holy, who wishes to be regenerate, to leave off sin and walk in holiness? “Yes, there is,” says some one, “I do.” Then God has elected you. But another says, “No; I don’t want to be holy; I don’t want to give up my lusts and my vices.” Why should you grumble, then, that God has not elected you to it? For if you were elected you would not like it, according to your own confession. 42.316
You cannot diminish, you cannot increase the number, why preach the gospel? Now, I thought my friend Mr. Bloomfield anticipated this difficulty well enough. There must be a harvest,—why sow, why plough? Simply because the harvest is ordained to save some. 387.312
I wish that any sinner who is troubled about election, for instance, would wait till God tells him he is not elected, or, if he has any misgiving about whether he may come to Christ, he would wait till he finds a passage which tells him that he may not come. 1123.417
Man is made out to be a poor, weak creature, victimised by a law too rigid for his frailty. It is represented that he has a right to mercy, and a great uproar is made if we deny him any such right; and much anger is felt if we declare that mercy is the sovereign prerogative of God, and may be exercised at his own absolute discretion. Rebellion against divine election is often founded on the idea that the sinner has a sort of right to be saved, and this is to deny the full desert of sin. 1416.301
The other day when we preached the electing love of God, you grumbled and muttered that God was unjust to choose one rather than another. What did this mean? Did it not mean that you felt you had some claim upon God? 2012.136
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Post by abraham on May 24, 2008 19:49:48 GMT -5
CHARLES SPURGEON QUOTES ON LIMITED ATONEMENT
If Christ on His cross intended to save every man, then He intended to save those who were lost before He died. If the doctrine be true, that He died for all men, then He died for some who were in Hell before He came into this world, for doubtless there were even then myriads there who had been cast away because of their sins. . . That seems to me a conception a thousand times more repulsive than any of those consequences which are said to be associated with the Calvinistic and Christian doctrine of special and particular redemption. To think that my Savior died for men who were or are in Hell, seems a supposition too horrible for me to entertain. (Charles Spurgeon, Autobiography: 1, The Early Years, p. 172)
We are often told that we limit the atonement of Christ, because we say that Christ has not made satisfaction for all men, or all men would be saved. Now, our reply to this is that, on the other hand, our opponents limit it, we do not. The Arminians say, Christ died for all men. Ask them what they mean by it. Did Christ die so as to secure the salvation of all men? They say, "No, certainly not." We ask them the next question-Did Christ die so as to secure the salvation of any man in particular? They say, "No." They are obliged to admit this if they are consistent. They say, "No; Christ has died so that any man may be saved if"-and then follow certain conditions of salvation. We say then, we will just go back to the old statement-Christ did not die so as beyond a doubt to secure the salvation of anybody, did He? You must say "No;" you are obliged to say so, for you believe that even after a man has been pardoned, he may yet fall from grace and perish. Now, who is it that limits the death of Christ? Why you... We say Christ so died that He infallibly secured the salvation of a multitude that no man can number, who through Christ's death not only may be saved, but are saved, must be saved, and cannot by any possibility run the hazard of being anything but saved. You are welcome to your atonement; you may keep it. We will never renounce ours for the sake of it. (Charles Spurgeon, Sermon 181, New Park Street Pulpit, IV, p. 135)
I would rather believe a limited atonement that is efficacious for all men for whom it was intended, than a universal atonement that is not efficacious for anybody, except the will of men be added to it. (Charles Spurgeon, Sermons, Vol. 4, p. 70)
A redemption which pays a price, but does not ensure that which is purchased -- a redemption which calls Christ a substitute for the sinner, but yet which allows the person to suffer - is altogether unworthy of our apprehensions of Almighty God. It offers no homage to his wisdom, and does despite to his covenant faithfulness. We could not and would not receive such a travesty of divine truth as that would be. There is no ground for any comfort whatever in it. (Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Sermons, Vol. 49, p. 39)
More of Spurgeon's Quotes on Election
ELECTION
Brethren, the election of grace, which is so often denounced, is a fact which men need not speak against, since they do not themselves desire to be elected. I can never make out why a man should cavil at another’s being chosen when he does not himself wish to be chosen. AM323
I believe the doctrine of election, because I am quite sure that if God had not chosen me I should never have chosen him; and I am sure he chose me before I was born, or else he never would have chosen me afterwards; and he must have elected me for reasons unknown to me, for I never could find any reason in myself why he should have looked upon me with special love. 2LS47
Many persons want to know their election before they look to Christ, but they cannot learn it thus, it is only to be discovered by “looking unto Jesus.” ME398
There will be no doubt about His having chosen you, when you have chosen Him. ME398
Electing love has selected some of the worst to be made the best. ME684
If God has set his choice upon us, let us aim to be choice men. TD105:6
Those who cavil at the doctrine of election should answer this question: “Why is it that God has left devils without hope, and yet has sent His Son to redeem mankind? Is not divine sovereignty manifested here?” TN25
Strange to say, the great number of those who are saved are just the most unlikely people in the world to have been saved, while a great number of those who perish were once just the very people whom, if natural disposition had anything to do with it, we should have expected to see in Heaven. WWa139
We do need someone to choose for us in that matter; we want our Father to fix our eternal destiny, and write our names in the book of life; otherwise, if left to ourselves, the road to hell would be as naturally our choice as for a piece of inanimate matter to roll downwards, instead of assisting itself upwards. 33.254
Your d**nation is your own election, not God’s; you richly deserve it. 239.119
How is it that some of us who were once drunkards, swearers, and the like, are now sitting here to praise the God of Israel this day? Was there anything good in us that moved the heart of God to save us? God forbid that we should indulge the blasphemous thought. 290.34
We see our election by our calling, and not else. 1321.609
It is quite certain that when we read that God will have all men to be saved it does not mean that he wills it with the force of a decree or a divine purpose, for, if he did, then all men would be saved. He willed to make the world, and the world was made: he does not so will the salvation of all men, for we know that all men will not be saved. 1516.49
One would have thought, therefore, that God would have restored the angels before he upraised the human race. But he has not: he has redeemed us, and left the elder race of rebels unrestored. No man knoweth why, and in our amazement we cry,— How is this? Whence this election of grace? Tell me, ye who would leave God no choice, but would deify the will of man, what all this means? Where is your proud theory that God is bound to treat all alike, as if we had a claim on God? I point you to the fallen angels, and what can you say? 1820.59
Whatever may be said about the doctrine of election, it is written in the Word of God as with an iron pen, and there is no getting rid of it; there it stands. 2320.374
I have known some who have said to me, “I am afraid, sir, and this is my daily trouble, that God has never chosen me to eternal salvation; suppose that, after all, I should not be one of his elect.” Now, listen: suppose that you should be one of his elect. Is there not as much sense in supposing the one thing as the other? 2408.171
The way for you to ascertain God’s choice is to talk about Christ to everybody you meet; try to bring everyone to Christ. The Lord will do the sorting far better than you can; he never makes a mistake. 2799.477
Jacob was God’s chosen one; he had set his love upon him, and ere he was born, he had distinguished him as his elect one. Now this is a great deep, and there are many who cavil at and question it; I am not here to answer them. The Book says so; let them cavil with the Book, not with me. 3091.219
If you are God’s chosen ones, you will know it by your trusting in Jesus. Simple as that trust is, it is the infallible proof of election. 3191.165
He knows why he chose us, but that reason is not known to us, and certainly cannot be found in ourselves. I never met with anybody who ever thought that he deserved to be chosen unto salvation; the very fact of the choice proves that it must have been all of grace. 3248.209
While I bless my Lord that he will save you if you seek him, I am more thankful still that there are men and women whom he will seek as well as save; nay, that there never was a soul saved yet but Christ sought it first. 3309.319
It is an inspiration for us all to work for Christ, because we are sure to have some results. 3326.525
They who seek Christ are already being sought of him. 3331.585
Long before time had begun, God had foreknown his chosen, and fore-ordained them unto eternal life. They had not chosen him, for they were not in existence. 3413.314
Spurgeon quotes on FREE WILL
When we shall see the dead rise from the grave by their own power, then may we expect to see ungodly sinners of their own free will turning to Christ. ME505
Despite all the doctrines which proud free-will has manufactured, there has never been found from Adam’s day until now a single instance in which the sinner first sought his God. God must first seek him. TN10
According to the freewill scheme the Lord intends good, but he must wait like a lackey on his own creature to know what his intention is; God willeth good and would do it, but he cannot, because he has an unwilling man who will not have God’s good thing carried into effect. What do ye, sirs, but drag the eternal from his throne, and lift up into it that fallen creature, man; for man, according to that theory, nods, and his nod is destiny. 442.185
Free-will doctrine—what does it? It magnifies man into God; it declares God’s purposes a nullity, since they cannot be carried out unless men are willing. It makes God’s will a waiting servant to the will of man, and the whole covenant of grace dependent upon human action. Denying election on the ground of injustice it holds God to be a debtor to sinners, so that if he gives grace to one he is bound to do so to all. It teaches that the blood of Christ was shed equally for all men, and since some are lost, this doctrine ascribes the difference to man’s own will, thus making the atonement itself a powerless thing until the will of man gives it efficacy. 502.187
It seems inexplicable to me that those who claim free will so very boldly for man, should not also allow some free will to God. 762.412
Whatever may be said about freewill as a theory, it is never found as a matter of fact that any man, left to himself, ever woos his God, or pines after friendship with his Maker. 1707.111
“Oh,” says one, “but men are free agents.” I never thought that they were not, although I am not sure that it is much to their gain that they are. The glorious privilege of the freedom of the will has been terribly overrated: it is a dangerous heritage which has already lost us Paradise, and will lose us all hope of heaven unless the mighty grace of God shall interpose. 1805.565
“Well,” saith one, “have not men a free-will?” Certainly, and the wonder is that free grace does not violate it, and yet the purpose of God is accomplished. Free-will alone ruins men; but free-will guided by free grace is another matter. 1919.503
I never yet knew anybody repent who gloried in his power to repent; I never yet knew a man heart-broken for sin who boasted that he could break his own heart when and where he pleased. 2050.591
That is the sternest blow against free-will of which I know; what a free-willer can make out of that text, I cannot tell. He says that any man can come to Christ, yet Christ said to some, “Ye will not come to me;” and both observation and experience prove that this is still true. Never yet did a soul come to Christ till first Christ came to it. 2880.197
There is no greater mockery than to call a sinner a free man. Show me a convict toiling in the chain gang, and call him a free man if you will; point out to me the galley slave chained to the oar, and smarting under the taskmaster’s lash whenever he pauses to draw breath, and call him a free man if you will; but never call a sinner a free man, even in his will, so long as he is the slave of his own corruptions. In our natural state, we wore chains, not upon our limbs, but upon our hearts, fetters that bound us, and kept us from God, from rest, from peace, from holiness, from anything like freedom of heart and conscience and will. The iron entered into our soul; and there is no slavery as terrible as that. As there is no freedom like the freedom of the spirit, so is there no slavery that is at all comparable to the bondage of the heart. 3240.110
God bless you! -Abraham
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Post by John McGlone on May 25, 2008 9:54:02 GMT -5
Brothers? Give up your doctrines of dead men and read all scripture. Not just the ones that support your pet doctrine and your pet theological idols. You say that men have nothing to do with salvation? Why does Jesus say differently? If God choose just a few for salvation at the beginning why send Jesus to the cross? Just to see him tortured with sin and agony? I thought God is love? I agree He is Holy and just, but He desires mercy! What do you do with Ezekiel 33? If doctrines taught by men is what you desire; why not look to the Ante-Nicean fathers? Clement of Rome, Mathetes, Polycarp, Ignatius, Barnabas, Papias, Justin Martyr, are Irenaeus are great teachers for checking biblical truth against the 'truth' or doctrine we are holding to. See this source: www.ccel.org/fathers.htmlI do agree, if you do, that the Holy Spirit does the initiating and drawing of a man to salvation. Without that influence of the Holy Ghost no man would come. But once He has come to a soul, man must respond properly with repentance that leads to salvation 2 Cor 7:10.
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Post by abraham on May 25, 2008 18:02:57 GMT -5
It is an assumption to say we don't read the scriptures. It was the scriptures and God's mercy that we are convinced of these doctrines. Read the book of Isaiah. I studied that book over and over again without the help of any Calvinist and I became convinced by God’s grace that God’s grace is Sovereign and not a salvation that I caused to be effective with the help of my will and running.
Arminian theology is just a form of humanism mixed with Christian doctrines. Arminian grace is just another way of saying, “God has given you the grace of another chance to save yourself by works of the Law and it is your will and running that merits the mercy of God given to you.” The Arminian gospel is just good advice. It's far from good news.
God has given the grace that effectually works in us by giving us a new heart with fervent love for God expressed in keeping His commandments. It is the finished work of the Cross of Christ the merits mercy upon us and our will and running is an act of love and thanksgiving for what He has done to save our souls from death.
These are not doctrines of dead men. Charles Spurgeon and all the Puritan reformers are well alive in the presence of God rejoicing in His mercy. They give glory to the Lamb and not their will or running. For in heaven they know that it was that Lamb who redeemed them and saved them from their sins.
Furthermore, Paul taught these doctrines in Romans, Ephesians, and all the rest of His epistles. John taught these doctrines in his gospel account and in his epistles when he wrote by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. These men have died and are with Jesus, but their doctrines remain because they are God's doctrines.
If you want to look to the early church Fathers, you need to look to Paul and the other apostles of our Lord. You need to read What David wrote in the Psalms about God’s Sovereign grace. God’s church is earlier than the 1st century.
There have been many heresies that the 1st century church “Fathers” taught. Study their views on other subjects and I think you might be very surprised at how they all differed in such weird views. Just because they were early does not imply they had perfect sound doctrine.
False teaching was everywhere back then just as it is now. “For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.” [Act 20:29]
It's better to present the scriptures that you believe we have not read... and from there reason with us. Is there a specific verse in Eze 33 that contradicts God's sovereignty over all things?
Ezekiel 33 does not teach that it is our fault that people go to hell (if that is what your asking about).
It teaches that we are murderers if we don't warn the wicked to turn from their sin. To not reprove the wicked is to hate and murder them. It's not our job to make them born again, God does that work. It's our responsibility to warn all men. The only reasons why sinners go to hell is because they are sinners and God has chosen not show them mercy. You don’t deserve mercy either my friend. No one does. I know you are thinking, “If that is true, why does God find fault for our sins, for who has resisted His sovereign will for some to be hardened in sin?” God can give mercy to whom ever he will and we are not to accuse God of being unjust.
Did you know that you are in the bible? Look, you are right down there in verse 19. That is you my friend.
Rom 9:18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Rom 9:19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Rom 9:20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
It is true that God delights in mercy and he does show a measure of long suffering, goodness, and kindness to the non-elect. But, it is God's good pleasure to save some by showing everlasting mercy upon them. In His mercies, God saves the elect from the consequence of sin and from the power of sin. My brother, let us come before God and rejoice in His mercy upon us. "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." [Php 2:13]
You are right that man must respond in repentance and faith when the Holy Ghost influences him in the Spirit’s drawing power. But, you must understand that man will not believe in his heart or repent in his heart if his heart is evil. "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil." [Jer 13:23]
You might be one to raise your hand and say, "I know how God, I know... I know... all he has to do is just change his will, mind, and heart. You asked him to repent and that must mean man is able. Isn't that good reasoning, Oh God."
Thus saith the LORD "...what he hath seen and heard, that he testifieth; and no man receiveth his testimony." [Jn 3:32] "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." [1Co 2:14] "...the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God." [Rom 8:7-8]
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