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Atheist: justify why this all knowing god of all good, refuses to intervene in pure evil events of the past. If he was aware of the Holocaust and did nothing to stop it, id say this god gets off on our suffering. Assuming he has the capability to stop it. Leaving us with the conclusion he cant be both essence of good and all knowing

Response: Your argument assumes that such a thing as evil exists.... May I ask, whose standard are you appealing to, to determine if something is good or evil? Why is genocide any different than a day at the beach. If there is no God then all actions are equally evanescent. If all is relative, then to Hitler the genocide was good. It was only bad for people on the receiving end. And as a relativist you cannot say one persons morals are better than another's since there is no "better" or "worse", only change. But ironically you are using an argument which assumes objective morality actually exists ... so your argument is self-defeating.

Also evil exists because we want evil, so anything that happens to us on this earth is better than we deserve. Your comment speaks as if humans were by nature innocent and good... and as such God is somehow obligated to help. But the reality is that, sadly, we are hardened rebels who hate God, (myself being the worst offender). If God intervenes to save anyone it is sheer mercy ... not getting what we deserve. That is certainly the case for me, at least.

The question almost always arises from those who doubt the Reformed view of Christ's saving work as to why would God command us and warn us in the Bible if a person cannot lose his/her salvation. On the surface, when we use human reason, such a question seems to make sense, but when we apply the question to Scripture, something else entirely emerges.

There are three major views about how this works out 1) the Arminian view, 2) the antinomian view and 3) the Classic Reformed view..

Arminians (rightly) teach that believers must persevere to the end. 2) the Antinomian view rightly teaches that a person cannot lose his salvation. But both of these views overlook major sections of Scripture and truncate the blessings of the gospel. 1) the Arminian view wrongly believes that Christ's work is not sufficient in itself to carry a person to the end. That our preservation is not part of the redemptive benefits of our salvation in Christ. In this view Christ secures neither our faith nor our preservation, but Christ only provides salvation if we meet the condition of faith and perseverance on our own (or perhaps with some help).  The Antinomian view, on the other hand, wrongly overlooks the clear biblical statements requiring believers to persevere to the end and thinks that people can behave any way they want and still be saved, even if they later leave the faith.

The Bible teaches a much more robust and complete view of all the related texts and while the other views state truth, they only state partial truth, but the part they fail to apprehend has a devastating effect on the message of the gospel.

1) God requires His people to persevere to the end (Colo. 1:21-23; 1 John 1:5-10; 3:3-6; Hebrews 10:26-31; Hebrews 12:1)

2) In Christ, God preserves His people to the end. (John 6:38-40; John 10:28-29; Romans 8:28-39, 11:29; Philippians 1:4-6; Philippians 2:12-13; 1 John 2:19, 1 John 3:9)

Good works and obedience may be the necessary fruit of conversion but they are not the gospel which saves, nor do they play ANY part of what maintains our right standing before God .. That office is reserved for Jesus alone. We contribute nothing to our justification. And if, as some claim, our continued standing in Christ is ultimately conditional, then it would directly contradict any feigned assertion that justification comes through Christ ALONE. Again, fruit is necessary, but it is Christ's fruit.. He chose us and APPOINTED US TO BEAR FRUIT...fruit that will abide (John 15:16)

What about passages which call us to obedience and warn about disobedience. Well, this is what actually happens to true believers who fall into sin:

"But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we MAY NOT BE condemned along with the world." (1 Cor. 11:31-32)

When a believer acknowledges his sin and the righteous judgment of God, God will not judge us, but when we sin we are judged by GOD as a form of discipline SO WE MAY NOT BE CONDEMNED ALONG WITH THE WORLD. Such discipline drives us back to obedience, and never results in causing God to forsake our status as His children. No one, including you or me, would have hope if any of our salvation depended, even a little, on ourselves. The idea that Christ can lose a believer also directly contradicts God's promise that His call is irrevocable to all those he has given Christ. (Rom 11:29; John 6:39)

by Abraham Booth

in .mobi, ePub & .pdf formats

THE gospel of Reigning Grace, being a doctrine truly divine, has ever been the object of the world's contempt. It was of old a stumbling-block to the self-righteous Jew, and foolishness to the philosophic Greek. Paul, who was a resolute asserter of the honours of grace, and indefatigable in preaching Christ, found it so by repeated experience; and that not only among the illiterate and profane, but also among the learned and the devout. Nay, he had frequent occasion to observe, that the religious devotees of his age were the first in opposing the doctrine he preached, and the most hardened enemies against the truth of God. The polite, the learned, the religious, were all agreed to load both his character and his doctrine with the foulest reproaches. Nor was this treatment peculiar to Paul, but common to all his contemporaries, who espoused the same glorious cause, and laboured in the same beneficent work. The doctrine they preached was charged with licentiousness. Their enemies boldly affirmed that they said; Let us do evil that good may come. Thus were their character and their labours impeached: that, as hateful to God; these, as destructive to man.