- Apr 5, 2007
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Why do you always feel the need to be antagonistic? Zoidar and I have had no issues in discussing this topic. Just wondering. And letting you know that if you can’t be nice, I won’t respond.False. You never referenced any of my points other than to dismiss them in bulk.
This type of Romans 8:5 Calvinist argument is a common one. He isolates a section of text addressed to believers and from that crafts a state machine with “in the Spirit” and “in the flesh” states where unbelievers have no path to "in the spirit" and please God outside of a pre-faith regeneration. But that is not what Paul is trying to convey, because the text is addressed to believers. Pre-faith regeneration is the Calvinist teaching that the Holy Spirit must cause a person's spirit to be born-again and alive to God in order to believe the Gospel.
Paul identifies that which keeps the lost from believing the Gospel in 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 and there is no mention of grace, regeneration, or Calvinist Total Depravity.
2 Corinthians 4:3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.The passages from Jesus and Paul that I quoted in Post 234 show that the transition into the kingdom of God occurs when we believe. If pre-faith regeneration is required to believe, I would expect it to be plainly stated in scripture.
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