"Saved" Out of Calvinism? Really?

Stalwart Calvinist James White from Alpha & Omega Ministries deals with an interesting question that was posed by a former Calvinist "saved" from Calvinism at the recent John 3:16 Conference (Arminian). It's 22 minutes and 19 seconds long, but I strongly encourage you to watch, listen, and learn. I guarantee you that it'll be time well worth investing in. See it here: Click Here!

The New PDL

Check out new The Porpoise-Driven Life: Click Here! Sadly, this satire's hermeneutical approach to Scripture, or more accurately its lack of it, is not very different from the original PDL and other Christian books similar to it.

John 3:16 Conference Examines Calvinism

Check out this article from Baptist Press: Click Here! It's seems like an Arminian alternative to the Together for the Gospel Conference which is obviously Calvinistic (Note: I am most adamantly opposed to the former and very strongly adhere to the latter). No doubt that these are godly men, but I wonder what they would say about John 3:16 in light of 3:5-8: "Jesus answered, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.'" The basic point is that being born again (AKA, regeneration) precedes belief/faith.

Wayne Grudem writes:

"The idea that regeneration comes before saving faith is not always understood by evangelicals today. Sometimes people will even say something like, 'If you believe in Christ as your Savior, then (after you believe) you will be born again.' But Scripture itself never says anything like that. The new birth is viewed by Scripture as something that God does within us in order to enable us to believe. The reason that evangelicals often think that regeneration comes after saving faith is that they see the results (love for God and his Word, and turning from sin) after people come to faith. Yet here we must decide on the basis of what Scripture tells us, because regeneration itself is not something we see or know about directly: 'The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or wither it goes; so it is with every one who is born of the Spirit' (John 3:8)" (Systematic Theology, 703).

J.I. Packer writes:

"Infants do not induce, or cooperate in, their own procreation and birth; no more can those who are 'dead in trespasses and sins' prompt the quickening operation of God's Spirit within them (see Eph. 2:1-10). Spiritual vivification is a free, and to man mysterious, exercise of divine power (John 3:8), not explicable in terms of the combination or cultivation of existing human resources (John 3:6), not caused or induced by any human effort (John 1:12-13) or merits (Titus 3:3-7), and not, therefore, to be equated with, or attributed to, any of the experiences, decisions, and acts to which it gives rise and by which it may be known to have taken place" ("Regeneration," in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, 925).

Robert L. Reymond writes:

"Regeneration is not the replacing of the substance of fallen human nature with another substances, nor simply the change in one or more of the faculties of the fallen spiritual nature, not the perfecting of the fallen spiritual nature. Rather, it is the subconscious implanting of the principle of the new spiritual life in the soul, effecting an instantaneous change in the whole man, intellectually, emotionally, and morally, and enabling the elect sinner to respond in repentance and faith to the outward or public gospel proclamation directed to his conscious understanding and will" (A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith, 721-722).

Jesus Christ says:

"No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent me draws him... (John 6:44)."

The Preciousness of Time (Part 3)

Here is part 3 of this series:

2. Time is very short, which is another thing that renders it very precious. The scarcity of any commodity occasions men to set a higher value upon it, especially if it be necessary and they cannot do without it. Thus when Samaria was besieged by the Syrians, and provisions were exceedingly scarce, "an ass's head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung for five pieces of silver." 2 Kings vi. 25.—So time is the more to be prized by men, because a whole eternity depends upon it; and yet we have but little of time. "When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return." Job xvi. 22. "My days are swifter than a post. They are passed away as the swift ships; as the eagle that hasteth to the prey." Job ix. 25, 26. "Our life; what is it? it is but a vapour which appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." Jam. iv. 14. It is but as a moment to eternity. Time is so short, and the work which we have to do in it is so great, that we have none of it to spare. The work which we have to do to prepare for eternity, must be done in time, or it never can be done; and it is found to be a work of great difficulty and labour, and therefore that for which time is the more requisite.

A New President!

Here is a good Christian commentary on the presidential election. Read it from The Riddleblog: Click Here!

The Preciousness of Time (Part 2)

Here is part two of the series, "The Preciousness of Time" (Note: you may not like the older style of writing because it is different or makes the content a bit more difficult to comprehend, in which case I strongly encourage you to read it slowly, chew it, digest it, and repeat the process as necessary):

SECT. I.
Why time is precious.

TIME is precious for the following reasons:
1. Because a happy or miserable eternity depends on the good or ill improvement of it. Things are precious in proportion to their importance, or to the degree wherein they concern our welfare. Men are wont to set the highest value on those things upon which they are sensible their interest chiefly depends. And this renders time so exceedingly precious, because our welfare depends on the improvement of it.—Indeed our welfare in this world depends upon its improvement. If we improve it not, we shall be in danger of coming to poverty and disgrace; but by a good improvement of it, we may obtain those things which will be useful and comfortable. But it above all things precious, as our state through eternity depends upon it. The importance of the improvement of time upon other accounts, is in subordination to this.
God and silver are esteemed precious by men; but they are no worth to any man, only as thereby he has an opportunity of avoiding or removing some evil, or of possessing himself of some good. And the greater the evil is which any man hath advantage to escape, or the good which he hath advantage to obtain, by any thing he possesses, by so much the greater is the value of that thing to him, whatever it be. Thus if a man, by any thing which he hath, may save his life, which he must lose without it, he will look upon that by which he hath the opportunity of escaping so great an evil as death, to be very precious.—Hence is it that time is so exceedingly precious, because by it we have opportunity of escaping everlasting misery, and of obtaining everlasting blessedness and glory. On this depends our escape from an infinite evil, and out attainment of an infinite good.