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How to become a Calvinist in 5 easy steps

Clare73

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It sounded like that was one of your arguments why God has decreed everything, so He could foreknow everything. If you didn't mean anything like that it was a misreading on my part.
Indeed, that was a serious misreading on your part. . .

I was simply explaining the nature and operation of divine foreknowledge as it is presented in Scripture.
 
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zoidar

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Indeed, that was a serious misreading on your part. . .

I was simply explaining the nature and operation of divine foreknowledge as it is presented in Scripture.
I know that. I was also reading between the lines I suppose.
 
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Mark Quayle

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Philemon‬ ‭1‬:‭14

New International Version
But I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that any favor you do would not seem forced but would be voluntary.

New Living Translation
But I didn’t want to do anything without your consent. I wanted you to help because you were willing, not because you were forced.

English Standard Version
but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own accord.

Interlinear
Apart from however - your consent nothing I wished to do so that not as according to necessity the good of you may be but according to willingness.

The Berean Literal also says "according to willingness". The Berean Standard, and several others are wrong on this one. Philemon 1:14 does not mention free will.
 
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Mark Quayle

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And so, you have whereof to boast.
 
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Mark Quayle

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@J Mick I hope you can recognize bias when you see it. Read with a strong dose of skepticism
 
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Mark Quayle

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Then your comment concerning the church fathers while scripture was still being written does not apply to the conversation.
 
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Mark Quayle

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Because the just God that I know tells us HOW we can come to salvation.
If God doesn't tell HOW He picks it means He doesn't care if we're saved or not.
That would not be a merciful God or a just God.
At first read what you wrote here made no sense to me. At second read, I started to understand: You think God does whatever he does as a result of what we do. You assume that if God doesn't tell us how he picks then we have to make a guess how to get picked. You assume getting picked is OUR responsibility! It is not.
Then, since none of us earned salvation, why must we do something to get picked? God doesn't walk into the SPCH, to adopt us.
Your whole post is incomprehensible to me, except in small unrelated doses, unless I consider that you assume we must put ourselves in the way of the juggernaut of God's salvation (or something). You actually think that in the end, our salvation is our responsibility.
 
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Mark Quayle

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The "because" is a poor translation. It is literally "in that" or "for that". If 'because all sinned' is preferred, it should be understood as a shortened "[I say this] because all sinned". The 'because', in this verse, is not causal of death spreading to all men. The fact that all have sinned is not how death spread, but evidence that death spread.
 
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BNR32FAN

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What’s your point here? What do you think Romans 5:12-15 is saying?
 
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Mark Quayle

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This is no scriptural argument, but why do you think God needs to decree something for Him to know it before hand. For man that might sound logical, but God is God.
Consider the notion that God decreeing it IS him knowing it, i.e. that they are one and the same thing for him.

You seem to think that God's decree is like a king making an announcement to his subjects, us. Not so. It is him speaking a fact into existence.
 
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Mark Quayle

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Read my response again. . .you are "misunderstanding" it. . .again.
I'm beginning to think that some people get sarcastic as a method of answering when they have nothing of substance to answer what they have been told. It's a form of ad hom, and not altogether honest.
 
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Mark Quayle

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To the reader: As Clare's "official editor", I enter this note:

Above, where she says, "Imputation is not the "inheritance" by natural birth of Eze 18:17, as is our fallen nature. We do not inherit Adam's sin, it is imputed to us, as the pattern of Christ (Ro 5:14)." She spoke as she does sometimes. Don't take her to believe that we do not "inherit" a fallen nature. She knows very well that we have "inherited" a fallen nature. After all, she just said in the sentence before that Eze 18:17 spoke of this inherited fallen nature. What she is saying is that Romans 5, though not denying "inheritance", is speaking of another way in which we have acquired our sin guilt —that of "imputation".
 
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Mark Quayle

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Ha! Is your passage better than mine? Do the two disagree with each other? Are they mutually exclusive? Does Scripture contradict itself?Numbers 14:18
‘The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.’
 
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GodsGrace101

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God is punishing YOU for the sins of your father?

So I guess you better hurry and confess all your father's sins...and HIS father's...etc
 
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Mark Quayle

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God is punishing YOU for the sins of your father?

So I guess you better hurry and confess all your father's sins...and HIS father's...etc
So you do disagree with the word of God, as expressed here in the Bible?

Numbers 14:18
‘The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.’
 
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GodsGrace101

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Try to find out what that means.
I'm not here to teach anyone.

We are only responsible for our own sins.
Have you asked forgiveness for your father's yet.

Do you realize that scripture has to make sense?
 
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Clare73

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What’s your point here?
My point is that, contrary to your assertion, sin is imputed to us, per Ro 5:12-15.
What do you think Romans 5:12-15 is saying?
Good question. . .Paul is demonstrating that since,
where there is no law there is no sin, yet
all those born of Adam between Adam and Moses, when there was no law to sin against,
died anyway. . .it was because the sin of Adam was imputed to them (they were made sinners, Ro 5:19)
and which Ro 5:14 states is the pattern of Christ. . .
of Christ's righteousness likewise being imputed (they were made righteous) to all those born of Christ (Ro 4:1-11, Ro 5:19).

Ro 5:19 parallels the contrasting imputations of both sin and righteousness.
 
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John Mullally

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Concerning did Christ pay the ransom for all men? I say yes (see also 1 John 2:2 and 2 Peter 2:1). Many do not benefit from it as it is received through faith (Hebrews 4:1-2). Mark 16:16 also shows redemption offered to all and received only by those who believe.

Paul's letters to Timothy were written to a man he travelled with and was investing time in. He is writing to someone who he trusts and who trusts him, and so he uses plain language. The letter is purely instructive and He is being as straightforward as possible. If you are trying to find hidden meanings in the letters to Timothy, you going about it wrong. When Paul says "all men" in 1 Timothy 2:1-6, he is not alluding to "some men". Paul tell Timothy to pray fro all men in 1 Timothy 2:1. And then in 1 Timothy 2:2-6 he states why he is to pray for all men. Verse 2 shows the benefit of praying for those in authority - so there will be peace. Other reasons given for praying for all men is because God desires all to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth (v4), and because Christ paid the ransom for all men (v6). Even though Christ paid the ransom, the ransom is only received through faith - so we can pray that men come to understand that in put their faith in Christ.

The letters to Timothy are much different than those to Romans, Corinthians, and Galatians - those letters are more challenging to understand because of context. In Romans he is trying to convince those who are not necessarily on his side - in that letter he frequently takes up two sides of an argument to make points using the OT. In Galatians, he is correcting serious error and uses sarcasm. In Corinthians, he also gives much correction and also uses sarcasm.
 
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zoidar

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Don't know about your king analogy. I think God needs to foreknow our libertarian free will choices to make His decrees come to pass. I think He is using foreknowlege to decree things.

And no, God doesn't need to look into the future to know our libertarian free will choices.
 
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