What I believe (Calvinism)

This is mainly for Lady Adriana a friend from the Door Within Forums but also for anyone else who wishes to read it. This is why I believe that Calvinism is true.

The Bible has a lot to say about predestination and how we are dead in sin. Take for example these verses:

Ephesians 2:4-10

^"4But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
⁵even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
⁶and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
⁷so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
⁸For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
⁹not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
¹⁰For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them."
Those verses are saying that it was God who saved us, while we were still DEAD in our Transgressions or sins. If someone is dead, they have no way to respond to anything, so God raised us up out of this death of sin into His life. it was by the grace and mercy of God that we were saved. In Verse eight it says that we were not saved by ourselves, but by the gift of God.

Colossians 2:13-14
^"13When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions,
¹⁴having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross."
While we were dead in our transgressions He made us alive with Him and forgave us our debt. A debt that we could never have repaid on our own.

John 6:37 & 44
"³⁷"All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.
⁴⁴"No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day."
Notice the words there, "All that the FATHER GIVES ME..." and "NO ONE can come to Me unless the FATHER WHO SENT ME DRAWS HIM..." God is the one who chose us, and we will go to Him if we are among the chosen.

Romans 8:29-30
"²⁹For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;
³⁰and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified."
Notice the words predestined and foreknew in there. God chose us even before time began. He chose who would go and who wouldn't.

Ephesians 1:5-7 & 11
"⁵He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,
⁶to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
⁷In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace
¹¹also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will,"
Again He predestined us and gave us life through his blood.

Those verses (and there may be more) make me believe, with my whole heart, that God predestined us from before time began. That He chose us and we did not choose Him. I have more to say on this subject, but that is all I will say for now.

let us speak about God in school!!!

here's something I want to share with everyone.

http://www.rutherford.org/KeyCases/McComb.asp

http://www.rutherford.org/articles_db/press_release.asp?article_id=793

enjoy...and don't get too angry

Proverbs 13:7-9

this is something I did for youth group after we had a little bit of debate on these verses.

after doing some studying on these verses I have decided to put down my thoughts on them. Proverbs 13:7-9.

Proverbs 13:7

"There is one who pretends to be rich, but has nothing;" I believe that these are people like the pharisees, who on the outside were rich in the spirit and in godliness, but on the inside they had nothing. On the inside they were hideous people. They were rich while on the earth, but their heavenly treasures are nothing.

"Another pretends to be poor, but has great wealth." This one took a little while, but this is what I have so far. These are people poor in the spirit and show it. They covet, they lie, and they do other sinful things. And the part about them having great wealth, welll I don't know exactly what it is, but this is what I read. They are people who are poor in spirit, but have great material wealth.

Proverbs 13:8

I don't think I had to look this one up since there really wasn't any debate on what it meant, but I decided to include it anyways. "The ransom of a man's life is his wealth, but the poor hears no rebuke." I came up with this, men who are rich are always watched and they are the ones that thieves look at, but a poor man is ignored.

Proverbs 13:9 now for verse nine. "The light of the righteous rejoices," The righteous rejoice and have joy, and they have a light of good works which doesn't go out. I think we all agreed with that, although I can't remember because it's been a couple of weeks. This one there was some discussion on though.

"but the lamp of the wicked go out." The wicked put out their own lamps, for it was they who rejected Christ and not Christ who rejected them. They were the ones who sent themselves to hell and still are sending themselves to hell. They chose not to follow Christ, and so they put their own lamps out.

so, those are my thoughts. feel free to comment.

we will live peacefully

There are verses in the Bible that talk about Christians having peace. John 14:27, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." and 2 John 1:3, "Grace, mercy and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love." A lot of people say this means we wont have hardships and that we'll have good lives. That is not true. Matthew 5:10-12, "Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. "Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. "Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." We will be persecuted, but in that time we should rejoice, and God will give us peace, and the endurance to withstand any trials. 1 Corinthians 10:13, "No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it." Praise God, for helping us in this way. James 1 is also a great reminder that He is there for us. " James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad: Greetings. Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. But the brother of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position; and the rich man is to glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass; and its flower falls off and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed; so too the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away. Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who ^"love Him. Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. In the exercise of His will He ^"brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures. This you know, my beloved brethren But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does. If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is worthless. Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world."

This is all I have to say for now. I'll try and write more tomorrow.

living differently

In my last post I said that we need to preach the gospel and not just live differently. Now I wasn't saying that we shouldn't live differently. We should, We need to be different than the world, but at the same time we need to make sure that's not our only goal. James 2:14-18 says, "What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and be filled," and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. But someone may well say, "You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works." Without having works, and living differently our faith is nothing, and that means our preaching is nothing. How can someone who has no works be saved? The answer is, he cant. I can say I'm saved and go around acting like the world, but then you can just look at my actions and whatever my works are and say I'm not saved. In Matthew 5:13-16 it says, "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men. "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven." If we hide our works then we are also hiding our faith. And if our faith is hidden then what good is it? If we hide our faith we are also denying that we know, love, and have a relationship with God. That is like saying we hate Him, so do not hide your works, and do not act like the world, but also preach His name.

People say that we cannot judge a book by its cover, but I say we can. In James, does he not say that those without works have no faith? and in Matthew 7:15-20 it says, "Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. "You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? "So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. "A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. "Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. "So then, you will know them by their fruits." Their fruits will show what they are. If their fruits are bad, then they too are bad. In the same way, if their cover is bad, then they too are bad.

Offending others

there's this blog I was looking at, and the description of the blog says this, "Too many Christians these days go on the attack, using a battle axe to kill weeds instead of spraying the roots. The purpose of this blog is to defend the garden, rather than attack the weeds." I asked the creator of that blog what that means exactly. He said, "Basically, many Christians waste time attacking beliefs both inside and outside the church, when we should be defending Christianity." I replied and told him, "sometimes to defend you need to attack also. We need to show people that all those other religions are false. We need to show them all the mistakes in other religions. And we cant do that without attacking." It's true, if you defend your own faith, then you're attacking, and offending those who don't believe what you do. The writer of the blog then asked me, "Do we need to show them that their religions are false, or do we need them to see that we're not like the others?"

First, if we just act different from everyone else, then we'll be considered Mormons. It's true, I tested it. I'm different from the people at my school, so now they just think I'm a Mormon. We cant go around acting different and not preaching to these people. God command us to preach to the ends of the earth, (Mark 16:14, "He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.") When preaching the good news we are also attacking and offending other peoples beliefs, unless you just preach what people want to hear, like a lot of these so-called "great preachers". You don't preach what people want to hear, you preach what they need to hear. And while doing this you also offend them.

Next, How do we waste time? By attacking the beliefs we're also defending them. Look at Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Aurelius Augustine. Without those men, who attacked and defended their beliefs, we would still be selling faith, and still be selling a way to get in heaven. The bishop would be higher than the Bible. Without people attacking, we cant stop all these wrong beliefs. In order to only defend and never attack, you would have to stay silent your whole life. And even then you wouldn't be defending your beliefs, in fact if you were to always stay silent, you would be attacking God. You would be disobeying His word, and his commands. God commands us, he doesn't ask us, He commands us to go and preach the good news to all creation. I will not back down and stay silent, while people are cursing God. No one should stay silent.

One of the greatest heresies

If you haven't seen the Paul Washer videos, then you need to watch them. If you watched part of them and then got offended by what he was saying, then you need to see the rest, do some research and find out if what he is saying is true. I'll bet that you'll find that what he's saying is the truth, even if you don't want to. You'll also notice that he likes to point out one of the greatest heresies in his sermons.

One of the greatest heresies that Christians teach is that if you pray a prayer to God then you will be saved, forever. This is wrong. Anyone can pray, but there are few that actually mean it. In James 2:14-20 it says, "What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?" If you pray and you don't have faith or works, then you cant be saved. By praying that prayer it is like having faith without works, and works without faith.

I was listening to a sermon by Paul Washer. He said that a lot of preachers these days give 30 minute sermons, and 25 of those 30 minutes sermons are funny stories, finally after they finish their last five of minutes of their sermon, they ask people to pray and become Christians. Those people who pray probably weren't getting saved. They just thought that if they prayed they might look good, or maybe they thought they were getting saved and that was their first sermon, they ever heard. I must say though, if they did get saved then God was really working in their hearts, because there is no way someone can get saved after hearing 25 minutes of jokes, and a small 5 minutes sermon. When I heard Paul Washer preach on that it actually reminded me of one of my the old churches I went to.

America

America has gone from a good place, to a bad place. A lot of Christians have also changed. Sometimes I wonder just how many people that say they're Christians, really are. Here in America we have so much freedom to worship God, and at the same time too little. For now I'm going to talk about why so much freedom can sometimes be bad, later I'll talk about how so little freedom can be bad.

Because we are allowed to worship God, and we are not being killed for it, we don't worship Him enough. We don't read our Bibles enough and we don't preach enough. Some Christians have also decided to go against God and make up their own beliefs about Him, they also make their own Bibles. People are trying to add to the Bible. Why do we need to add to the Bible? It's already perfect, it is God's word. We think that we can help God make new rules, we think we can do more than God. That's crazy talk, God is perfect. You just cant add to God's plan. What we need now is men like Luther and Calvin. We need men to show these "Christians" that they are wrong.

EDIT: There is this one guy I like. His name is Paul Washer. He goes hard on people, check out this video. If you get offended by watching the first part, then you should probably watch the rest, do some research and see if what he says is really true. I'll bet that you're going to find that he's speaking the truth, even if you don't want to.