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Recent content by BenjaminRandall

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    Is Salvation by Grace through Faith?

    Just a quick reply to the considered response of heymikey, which deserves much further reply than I can give now. My quick reply is that about 70% of heymikey's discussion fails to appreciate my argument that God's pre-regenerating grace enables the totally depraved person to believe. Also...
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    Questions about Predestination

    I don't get half of what Orthodoxy says, but one thing I'm pretty sure about is that you have to be believe in order to be saved, and that God doesn't breathe life into you until you believe. The dead man analogy doesn't work since the Pauline remedy to being dead is to believe.
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    Questions about Predestination

    By the way, no matter how you slice it, we can't save ourselves. If we are indeed saved through faith, it is God who does the saving.
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    Questions about Predestination

    Here's another Calvinist statement which, in effect, is a denial of "salvation by grace through faith" and an affirmation of the odd formula, "salvation by grace unto faith": Tanelornpete writes, ""We believe because we are saved." I wish you Calvinists would figure out if you believe we're...
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    Federal Headship and union with Christ.

    Heymikey, with some semblance of welcomed sanity (!) writes, This is closer to a classic Calvinistic position, although I think the great Calvinist systematicians would say the following comment differently: "We're allied to Christ Jesus through our faith; on that count God issues the...
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    Questions about Predestination

    Heymikey, your last three comments seem interesting, but I'm not sure I get what you're saying (I might even agree with you!)
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    Questions about Predestination

    If God were to say that atonement is provisional on the condition of grace, would it be any less of an atonement? The notion of an atonement being provided first and then applied second is perfectly logical, and I think I can demonstrate that this is ultimately the position of the great...
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    Federal Headship and union with Christ.

    heymikey writes, Eph 2:8-9 is not about how one comes to the knowledge of his salvation, but the means whereby he becomes saved, thus, "it is by grace you have been saved, through faith...." But beyond this, we have about 20 more, perhaps 30 more verses which say that justification...
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    Calvinism on the Sly

    Heymikey writes, Well, it would be moot so far as the denomination is concerned. I think, given the denominational ethos, the flip-flopped pastor would probably be encouraged by his peers and denominational advisors to start looking for a new church if his newfound theology is explicitly...
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    Calvinism on the Sly

    What the ethics are, is that a church hires the pastor on the presumption of theological compatibility. If the pastor flips, it would seem to be the ethical thing to explain his change of heart openly, and proffer his resignation.
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    Calvinism on the Sly

    Good thoughts, heymikey. This issue involves ethical issues. Is it ethical for a pastor to subvert a church's stated doctrinal position? In my denomination, as part of our code of ethics, if pastors have a change of theology which goes contrary to the denomination, we are ethically obliged...
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    Federal Headship and union with Christ.

    Ron's scenario ends up saying that the elect were never under condemnation and that there was never a time that the elect was alienated from God. In this scenario, the elect person was already born justified, and born again and saved at the first birth. Actually, to be precise, Ron's...
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    Federal Headship and union with Christ.

    Sorry to be so slow to respond, as I have been away for a few days. Ron writes, Here is another statement which denies the Pauline statement of Salvation by Grace through Faith. Instead of God having established faith as the condition of salvation, it is merely the conduit by which we...
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    Calvinism on the Sly

    But, what if I'm an Arminian who is actually elect? Would I still be serving a different God? And, isn't it possible that someone who is elect could be simply mistaken about his theology? And, isn't it true that we are saved by grace through faith, and not by correct theology?
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    Calvinism on the Sly

    Cards on the table: I'm an Arminian, specifically, a Reformation Arminian (not a Wesleyan Arminian--much closer to Arminius than many "Arminians"). One of the practical issues facing many American churches is the resurgence of Calvinism among Baptist pastors. Pastors flip over to a 5 point...
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