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Many non-Calvinists still believe God elects certain people to service for the sake of His eternal plan. And that God sends His Holy Spirit at times to influence people for the sake of that plan (Saul, John the Baptist, etc.)

Fellowship is important. However, deep fellowship is always going to trump shallow fellowship. That is, having lunch with another believer is going to be more beneficial than shaking hands with strangers in the foyer. Having a small prayer group that meets once a month is going to be more...

Exactly, which is why I said 'in general' and not 'in every instance.'

Matching tree rings becomes less and less accurate over long periods of time. It is somewhat easy to reconstruct a chronology of a few decades, but it is nearly impossible to be accurate over centuries or millennia. Too many chances for error and assumption are introduced, and those errors...

That's circular reasoning, not proof. Irene us only uses 'church' a couple times over his 30+ 'books.' It's a rare synonym. He uses the righteous and saints and believerso refer to the living believers of his day many times. There is no reason to assume he thinks the 'church' is a different...

Interesting. Fossils are one of the strongest supports for Young Earth creation. And there are serious hurdles for those promoting the evolutionary 'geologic column.' Sorry this won;t be more in-depth but I don't have a lot of time for a long answer: 1. The 'geologic column' is a diagram, not a...

Even if her claim of a 3.5 trillion economic boost were true (which it isn't...) it still pales in comparison with the 60-200 trillion net drag on the U.S. economy from abortion. [And that's not even to get to the moral considerations...]...

Does Irenaeus ever even use the phrase 'great tribulation?' He talks about believers going through tribulation an awful lot, but never a single 'great tribulation' that the church is not a part of. For example, write after his section proclaiming that Christ will return after 6,000 years since...

Why not finish the sentence? If, however, any shall endeavour to allegorize [prophecies] of this kind, they shall not be found consistent with themselves in all points, and shall be confuted by the teaching of the very expressions [in question]. For example: "When the cities" of the Gentiles...

Irenaeus did not teach a pre-trib rapture. There's a quote of his often used (out of context) to support that: "And therefore, when in the end the Church shall be suddenly caught up from this, it is said, "There shall be tribulation such as has not been since the beginning, neither shall be."...

That really doesn't change anything. In the Greek the word can refer to a mountain or a hill; in Apocalyptic literature the imagery is highly symbolic; 7 legendary kings were said to have ruled Rome from 753 BC until 509 BC and 'mountain' is a frequent symbol for king; "Mount Zion" is actually a...

My husband found this interesting article the other day: http://jcfreak73.blogspot.com/2011/04/apocalyptic-pie-american-pie-as-modern.html The premise is analyzing the song 'American Pie' as apocalyptic literature, but he has a great breakdown of apocalyptic literary forms used in Revelation...

That link just shows Darby started off as an amillennial historist. It doesn't show anything one way or another about how he arrived at his views on a pre-trib rapture. I'm not sure this relates at all. The poster seems to believe that Darby's doctrine has contradiction with Jesus' gospel -...

Those are some reasons people 'lose faith,' sure. But hardly the only reasons. I've talked with a lot of homeless people in my area through a local Search/Rescue program, for example. Some tell tales of others letting them down (family kicking them out, the legal system failing them, abuse...

Trying to *earn* something is indeed works. Wanting to *gain* something that is freely offered by the work of someone else? That is not a work of the law, of righteousness, or of personal merit. We can desire to receive the gospel of salvation when it is freely offered to us - that doesn't mean...

Why would continuing in faith be akin to "continuing in the flesh' or trying to be perfected by the flesh? That idea is opposite what Gal 3, which I assume you are making a reference to by 'begins by the Spirit' says: "I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit...

That's a false dichotomy, as 'works based' or 'eternal security' are not the only mandated options by scripture. Believing one can reject salvation, by rejecting faith, is not the same as t holding that *believers* can lose it or misplace it or have it taken away. And Jesus alone gives and...

Actually, consistency of symbols varies in scripture, most notably by literary type. For example, in parables the same symbols are often used in different ways - as what made the symbol was where it fit into the narrative analogy. (This is also reflected in Jewish parables and writings. For...

I'm not sure how Arminianism can be construed as a 'legalistic gospel of works' since it very clearly teaches that salvation is from Christ alone and based in faith, not works. Even their belief on security in Christ is based in the person believing/trusting in Christ and remaining in...

"Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." II Thess 2:4 (The Greek text here doesn't demand that he actually claim to 'be' God, but rather that he is showing off by taking the honors...