Reformation Theology Blog

Does Not God Have the Right to Do Whatever He Likes With His Own?

When you ask an Arminian friend if it would just if God left us all in our sin and saved no one, most answer yes, we are sinners and justly deserve God's wrath. But then turn around and ask, if God decided to pardon a number of these ill deserving sinners, but gave over the others to the justice they deserve, these same people suddenly cry out "that makes God unfair". Yet how can the former be okay in their eyes, but not the later? Does not God have the right to do what He wants with His grace? And are not those rebels getting their just deserts?

10 reasons to slow down and listen in evangelism

by Aaron Shafovaloff

1. Restraint shows wisdom. “Whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding.” (Proverbs 17:27)

2. Patient listening is contrary to a quick temper. "Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly." (Proverbs 14:29) “My dear brothers and sisters, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger.” (James 1:19)

Our True Identity is Not Found in Our Sin

"The Blessedness of Adam in his creation ... makes plain what humankind's identity as creatures ought to be. The fundamental identity of every man, woman and child is that of a divine image bearer. That is what human beings were created to be. What that means for us today is that our identity is not found in our sin. Often the most difficult part of turning away from a particular sin that has infiltrated your life is the feeling that, in rejecting that sin, you are rejecting part of who you are.

OT Eternal Moral Law

It is worthwhile to note that the commandments in Leviticus 20 against such things as Child Sacrifice (v 20:2), consulting mediums and necromancers (v.20:6), Sexual Immorality (adultery, men lying with a male as with a woman, (v 20:10), bestiality (v. 20:15), were given to Israel to set them apart from the nations around them. God declared that he was judging these OTHER nations because of these things. So this standard was not for Israel alone. See Leviticus quote below:

Two Hesitations About TULIP.

Visitor: 

I have two hesitations about TULIP. It starts with total depravity while the Bible starts with God, and man made in his image. Second, we as finite beings, live in a time bound world. We cannot begin to explain a perspective from outside of time. God knows the end from the beginning but we make choices everyday. We are not puppets. We don’t explain away these choices because God knows the end. As Joshua said, Choose you this day who you will serve.

Response:

What are the principal propositions that constitute the federal theory?

by Francis Turretin

a) Adam by nature was obliged to obey God, without thereby having any right to a reward. 

b) God had created him mutable, and he also possessed no right to an immutable state. 

c) His natural relationship to God already included the he, if sinning, must be punished by God.

d) All this was a natural *relationship* in which Adam stood. Now to this natural relationship a *covenant* was added by God, which contained various positive elements.

e) These positive elements were the following. 

God Saves Sinners

J. I. Paker has made the point that all the tenets of Calvinism--that faithfully biblical system of theology that joyfully embraces the rich, comforting, God exalting, self-abasing, Christ-honoring, scriptural message of the  sovereignty of God in salvation and all things--reduce to one overarching claim: "God saves sinners." Each of these words is important for understanding what the Bible teaches about salvation. First, God saves sinners. God, not man, saves. He does not make us potentially savable. He does not enable us to save ourselves. He saves.

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