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Starting today August 7th, 2024, in order to post in the Married Couples, Courting Couples, or Singles forums, you will not be allowed to post if you have your Marital status designated as private. Announcements will be made in the respective forums as well but please note that if yours is currently listed as Private, you will need to submit a ticket in the Support Area to have yours changed.
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CF has always been a site that welcomes people from different backgrounds and beliefs to participate in discussion and even debate. That is the nature of its ministry. In view of recent events emotions are running very high. We need to remind people of some basic principles in debating on this site. We need to be civil when we express differences in opinion. No personal attacks. Avoid you, your statements. Don't characterize an entire political party with comparisons to Fascism or Communism or other extreme movements that committed atrocities. CF is not the place for broad brush or blanket statements about groups and political parties. Put the broad brushes and blankets away when you come to CF, better yet, put them in the incinerator. Debate had no place for them. We need to remember that people that commit acts of violence represent themselves or a small extreme faction.
Amr's Randomata Blog
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Like Leibnitz, others have optimistically argued that creation by God should be for the greatest happiness of all His creatures. Contra Leibnitz, all happiness is not the highest good.
Such a view subordinates the Creator to the creature, the greater to the less, as the means to an end. It...
Paul clearly taught the doctrine of sola fide:
Romans 3:20-22 because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin. But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the...
The Union With Christ
The justified are united with Christ. Righteousness imputed to the believer is not just only pardon or forgiveness. If this were so, then the believer remains at a point of neutrality, with no obedience to the law of God to plead before the holy Judge. The believer is...
Preliminaries
The only person who longs to hear the Good News of a way of forgiveness is a person who knows he has been justly condemned and is helpless. Yet, there are only two types of persons, those that love God or those that hate God, God-lovers and God-haters. There are no neutral or...
Continued from Part I here:
The Incarnation - Part 1 - Christian Forums
In the Westminster Confession of Faith section, VIII/vii, we read:
"Christ, in the work of mediation, acts according to both natures; by each nature doing that which is proper to itself; yet, by reason of the unity of the...
Does the Incarnation show that Christ divested Himself of some of His attributes?
No. Christ is God and cannot divest himself of any of His attributes. God cannot deny His own nature. Thus, Christ did not divest Himself of knowledge or power. The attributes of God are identical with His being...
"I love the doctrines of grace with all my heart, and I think they are pride-shattering, humbling, and love-producing doctrines. But I think there is an attractiveness about them to some people, in large matter, because of their intellectual rigor. They are powerfully coherent doctrines, and...
Every positive attribute of God inheres in all positive attributes of God. We must be careful to avoid separating the divine essence and the divine attributes. We must also guard against false conceptions of the relation in which these attributes stand with each other. This is the most egregious...
As Spurgeon once preached:
“There is no attribute of God more comforting to his children than the doctrine of Divine Sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe troubles, they believe that Sovereignty has ordained their afflictions, that Sovereignty overrules them...
How many times have we encountered the response or rejoinder that in our discussions we are begging the question?
Yet, I maintain that there is no defect of reasoning called "begging the question" aside from a certain prohibited move in the academic game of elenchus.
"A, therefore A" is...
How are a man's inclinations and the decree of God related? Did God decree everything that we are inclined to choose?
Let’s refresh ourselves concerning an earlier portion of my recent post on the decree:
The majority of Calvinists hold to what is known as compatibilistic freedom: the...
On the subject of God's drawing from Scripture, the following questions are often posed:
Who does God say that He draws?
John 12:32 “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.”
Further the conversation goes...
Since Christ was lifted up, therefore we...
An observation that often arises when discussing predestination:
Let's see how this can be properly answered.
Yes, our destiny is determined. It is the execution of the decree that determines your destiny. The decree determines the certainty of all future existence of all things. But...
I think it is important to define carefully what we mean by the “decree of God” as the topic will come up often in discussions of theology proper.
The decree of God is His
1. eternal;
2. unchangeable;
3. holy;
4. wise; and
5. sovereign purpose.
The decree of God comprehends at once...
Anyone with even a casual participation in some of the CF forums, will readily see how many folks have a less than informed view of Calvinism. A great deal of posts related to the doctrines of grace are spent correcting these misunderstandings.
For anyone wanting to know more about Reformed...
A nice chart summarizing the differences between dispensationalism and covenantalism can be found here:
DISPENSATIONALISM AND COVENANT THEOLOGY
A. W. Pink's critique of dispensationalism can be read here:
A Study of Dispensationalism
AMR
Many struggle with forgiveness when they feel wronged. Often these struggles are the result of a poor understanding of the concept of forgiveness.
Forgiveness is dismissing a debt.
In the New Testament, the Greek noun aphesis denotes a "dismissal" or "release."
—When you grant...
Can we be fully assured of our salvation? Yes! Though saving faith inherently contains trust and assurance by definition, full assurance of personal salvation must be regarded as a fruit of faith rather than of faith’s essence. Full assurance grows out of an assurance implicit in the first act...
I am often asked in counseling sessions, especially by husbands, about the submission aspect of the teachings from Scripture.
To the husband, I usually respond:
You see your role as being one of spiritual headship but if the submission doctrine indicates that a woman must acquiesce to her...
PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS - Since God is the Author and Finisher of our faith, man cannot fall away from eternal salvation. Once a man has been born-again he cannot be unborn-again. Furthermore, the elect of God will definitely manifest evidences of their salvation by means of good works. The...