John tower
The Called Out
Always putting the works in mans hands : this is exactly what is wrong with this doctrine : it always exalts man instead of God !!!Calvinists say Christ died only for the elect.
Arminians say Christ died for everyone potentially, that is Christ died for those who would freely respond to the Gospel positively.
Lutherans say Christ died for everyone. Full stop. That means the work of Jesus Christ is finished and completed, all the sins of every human being from Adam until the End are forgiven. But without the efficacious appropriation of Christ's work to us as individuals this work would be lost and unknown, and therefore the Holy Spirit appropriates and brings home to us what Christ has done. Christ's work is not efficacious only when I accept it, it is efficacious in and of itself--but it affects me personally when in Word and Sacrament the Holy Spirit brings these home, creates faith in me, and I trust upon what Christ has done.
Men are not damned because God wills that some should be damned. Men are damned because they refuse the gifts of God's gracious salvation even to the point of everlasting misery on their part.
Evangelism is, at its core, nothing more than the proclamation of what God has done in Jesus Christ for the world. This holy and precious Gospel goes forth from the lips of the Church to the nations, and the Holy Spirit brings it home to sinners, transforming them from nonbelievers to believers. Thus conversion is nothing other than the work of the Holy Spirit creating faith in faithless sinners.
-CryptoLutheran
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