Questions about Reformed Theology

[Knight]

I've seen quite a few people on the forums who have honest questions about what Reformed Theology/Calvinism is all about. Unfortunately, these questions frequently get swallowed up in debate and discussion.

I thought it would be a good idea to provide a place for these questions to be asked and answered.

Ask away.

 

[phantasma]

I don't know what others think on this site, but I find http://www.mslick.com/ to be a very useful tool for learning about Calvanism.

 

[Mary_Magdalene]

ok, im game.

i have been saved for about 7 yrs. was always taught anyone can come to Christ (im sure all of you know the Scripture verses). I do have questions, but i asked in another area but i will post (as someone over there suggested) here so maybe you can all help me understand. This predestination thing has been on my mind for weeks now and i just am having a hard time with it.
so here goes:

-if we are predestined, why evangilize? and please dont tell me (like others have) that because Christ commanded us to. If it was that simple, He never would have given us the commission.

-what about all thru the OT up until now. God has always given us choices that are clear. He told the Israelites, obey Me= blessing, disobey me= curses. Why wouldnt He just make them obedient and burn all the other nations?

-what about in the NT it speaks of a woman being a witness to an unsaved husband so that he may come to salvation?

thats it for now...let me think some more (have a wicked sinus headache).

Thanks for the help. i dont really care what "theology" i end up at, as long as it is the correct one in God's eyes.

 

[BBAS 64]

ok, im game.

i have been saved for about 7 yrs. was always taught anyone can come to Christ (im sure all of you know the Scripture verses). I do have questions, but i asked in another area but i will post (as someone over there suggested) here so maybe you can all help me understand. This predestination thing has been on my mind for weeks now and i just am having a hard time with it.
so here goes:

-if we are predestined, why evangilize? and please dont tell me (like others have) that because Christ commanded us to. If it was that simple, He never would have given us the commission..

Good Day, Chosen

The Election of God unto salvation is copleted by some sort of means. The preaching of the word is one of those means, Witnessing is an other.

.

-what about all thru the OT up until now. God has always given us choices that are clear. He told the Israelites, obey Me= blessing, disobey me= curses. Why wouldnt He just make them obedient and burn all the other nations?.

Our disobeying still carries some consiquiences, and correction.

For whom the Lord loveth he..

.

-what about in the NT it speaks of a woman being a witness to an unsaved husband so that he may come to salvation?.

Cite this verse please.

.

thats it for now...let me think some more (have a wicked sinus headache).

Thanks for the help. i dont really care what "theology" i end up at, as long as it is the correct one in God's eyes.

Hope you feel better soon

Peace to u,

Bill

 

[Mary_Magdalene]

Cite this verse please.

1 Corinthians 7:14-16


For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband; for otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy. 15 Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave; the brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us to peace. 16 For how do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife?

 

[Beoga]

ok, im game.
-if we are predestined, why evangilize? and please dont tell me (like others have) that because Christ commanded us to. If it was that simple, He never would have given us the commission.

God wants to use as to bring people to him. God for seem reason chose us, as weak and as foolish as were are, to reach out to his elect.

 

[Mary_Magdalene]

little,

the way i see it, if they are "elect" and predestined to come, they will eventually come. we should not have to intervene to bring Gods plan to fruition. I am sure He is able to do that on His own, right?

 

[frumanchu]

1 Corinthians 7:14-16


For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband; for otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy. 15 Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave; the brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us to peace. 16 For how do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife?

Understand that the purpose of the believing partner sanctifying (literally "setting apart") the unbeliever is to that their children might be holy (again, literally "set apart"). This is meant in the covenant context. Both parents need not be believers for the child to be accepted into the covenant community. A good example of this principle is in the practice of infant baptism as a covenant sign (which most Reformed denominations practice) similar to OT circumcision. I know of no Reformed church who would baptize the infant of two non-believing parents. To do so would signify the placement of the child into a covenant family which the parents are not a member of.

Now do understand, inclusion in the covenant family (that is, the visible church) does not automatically confer salvation upon them. But as members of the covenant community it does expose them to the means of grace present in the church.

Does that clarify?

 

[frumanchu]

little,

the way i see it, if they are "elect" and predestined to come, they will eventually come. we should not have to intervene to bring Gods plan to fruition. I am sure He is able to do that on His own, right?

Think in terms of causality.

Take a scupltor creating a sculpture. One may ask "Who or what causes the sculture?" Most people would say, "The sculptor" and they would be right to a degree. But there are actually multiple causes of the sculpture.

You have the formal cause (design or idea), which is the mental image the sculptor has of the finished work. You have the sufficient cause (equal to the task of bringing it about) which is the scupltor himself. You have the efficient cause (chief agent causing it), also the scupltor, or more specifically his hands. You have the material cause, which is the marble from which he is sculpting it. You have the instrumental cause, which is the tool (chissel, etc) he uses to create it. And you have the final cause, the purpose for which it was created.

The preaching of the Word is the instrumental means by which God brings about our salvation. It is the means by which the regenerated heart, suddenly alive and aware, is brought to conviction, faith and repentance. Election in and of itself is not sufficient to save. If God elected people, but did not bring them to faith (and thus salvation), then His purpose in election would fail.

Keep in mind He does not HAVE to use the preaching of the Word by men to bring the elect to faith. Paul did not come to faith by the preaching of men, but by the very direct intervention of the Lord Himself. But God has ordained the preaching of the Gospel as the instrumental means by which He will bring men to faith. That we are commanded to preach the Word is quite sufficient as a reason for doing so, and keep in mind that that is the very essence of the Great Commission...to preach the Word everywhere. It was not a polite request

 

[Cal]

ok, im game.
-if we are predestined, why evangilize?

Scripture answers this very clearly:

ACT 13:48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.

We evangelize because God has determined to bring in those whom He has ordained to eternal live to believe through hearing the word of the Lord.

 

[Foundthelight]

The Gospel message is necessary for salvation.

As Paul said in his letter to the Romans:
Ro 10:13 for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

Ro 10:14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?

Ro 10:15 And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"

We need missionaries and evangelists to spread the gospel that all who are foreknown by God may be saved.

Again, quoting Paul:
Ro 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Ro 8:29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Ro 8:30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

Eph 1:13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,

Eph 1:14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.


We are called through the action of the Holy Spirit in us upon hearing the Gospel.

How do we get the Gospel?

Eph 4:11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers,

Eph 4:12 to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up

It is God's plan that we will have evangelists to spread the Gospel and pastors and teachers to guide us on the path to sanctification after the evangelists have done their work.

I hope this helps.

Yours in Christ,

Willis

 

[rnmomof7]

ok, im game.

i have been saved for about 7 yrs. was always taught anyone can come to Christ (im sure all of you know the Scripture verses). I do have questions, but i asked in another area but i will post (as someone over there suggested) here so maybe you can all help me understand. This predestination thing has been on my mind for weeks now and i just am having a hard time with it.
so here goes:

-if we are predestined, why evangilize? and please dont tell me (like others have) that because Christ commanded us to. If it was that simple, He never would have given us the commission.

The question is why did Christ command us to?

God determined the means and the method of salvation before the foundation of the earth .

The means was having Jesus be the propitiation for the sin of man. Only God himself could assuage the wrath of God.

In His gracious consideration of man , He allowed us to participate in the method of salvation (even though He controlled to results).

The method He chose was His word and the preaching of the Gospel.

What is your understanding of Election?

-what about all thru the OT up until now. God has always given us choices that are clear. He told the Israelites, obey Me= blessing, disobey me= curses. Why wouldnt He just make them obedient and burn all the other nations?

God did and does allow us to chose many things, but as you know that is not a universal principle. There are many things we can not choose .

When we sin we choose to disobey God. But even our sin and rebellion is a result of Gods purposes. Yet we are still subject to the consequences of that sin , both physical and spiritual, because it was our choice

-what about in the NT it speaks of a woman being a witness to an unsaved husband so that he may come to salvation?

Is all your witness successful? Some how I doubt that :>) So what is the difference in one that comes and one that does not come?
As the wife of an unsaved man I have presented the gospel , taken him to church over the 27 years I have been a Christian .
It has all been without effect.
So what failed? Did I fail? Did the word of God fail?
Why do some here and come and others hear and not come? The answer is in the scriptures.

thats it for now...let me think some more (have a wicked sinus headache).

Thanks for the help. i dont really care what "theology" i end up at, as long as it is the correct one in God's eyes.

Just remember that your salvation is built on Jesus Christ and nothing less.

I was saved as a Wesleyan and I am saved as a Calvinist.
I believe Calvinism is correct because it is taught in the Old and the New Testament and it is a doctrine that gives all honor and glory to God and none to man

 

[rnmomof7]

little,

the way i see it, if they are "elect" and predestined to come, they will eventually come. we should not have to intervene to bring Gods plan to fruition. I am sure He is able to do that on His own, right?

God is sovereign over not only who will come, but when and where they will come.
The elect are predestined to come in Gods time and way.

 

[Knight]

Good responses everyone.

Well done.

 

[Gamecock]

ok, im game.

i have been saved for about 7 yrs. was always taught anyone can come to Christ (im sure all of you know the Scripture verses). I do have questions, but i asked in another area but i will post (as someone over there suggested) here so maybe you can all help me understand. This predestination thing has been on my mind for weeks now and i just am having a hard time with it.
so here goes:

-if we are predestined, why evangilize? and please dont tell me (like others have) that because Christ commanded us to. If it was that simple, He never would have given us the commission.

You're right, why should we do something that is so simple as follow the command of the Creator of the universe?

-what about all thru the OT up until now. God has always given us choices that are clear. He told the Israelites, obey Me= blessing, disobey me= curses. Why wouldnt He just make them obedient and burn all the other nations?

And who were the Israelites? God's elect. He was telling them what he expected, nothing less. The elect still need God's word, all of it, to included the rules.

-what about in the NT it speaks of a woman being a witness to an unsaved husband so that he may come to salvation?

The unsaved still need to hear the Word. It is God, in the person of the Holy Spirit who softens the heart so that they may believe. Have you consided that God uses the elect professing woman to unpackage the Gospel to the elect, but still unbelieveing spouse.

thats it for now...let me think some more (have a wicked sinus headache).

Hope you feel better!