The fourth point of Calvinism is irresistible grace. By irresistible grace, John Calvin meant that God simply forces people to be saved. God elected some to be saved, and he let Jesus Christ die for that elect group. And now by irresistible grace, He forces those He elected, and those Jesus Christ died for to be saved.Incorrect. Even before getting off the ground this gentleman has not correctly handled this doctrine. First of all, it is hard to follw such logic when he identifies John calvin with the doctrine title. John Calvin never came up with the title, rather a group of his followers did in respones to the Remonstance who advocated the aminian stance that set the ball rolling. And a large number of Calvinist came together to repudiate their concepts and came up with the doctrines of grace based on John calvins teachings and scripture.
Now with this as a basis, lets deal with this horrific misapplication: "By irresistible grace, John Calvin meant that God simply forces people to be saved.This is simply a misrepresentation of this divinely revealed truth. The doctrine of Irresistible Grace; holds that since Man is dead in sin (totally draved) and is definitely incapable of coming to Chrst on his own inititive as demonstrated in part 1 of these articles. Then God out of his great mercy and kindness, through outworking of the Spirit and the word of God take a hold of the sinner who has been Chosen and sets them free of their sin through regeneration.. which leads to faith in Christ and his atoning work as the object of the faith and sicere repentance of all the sinfulness that his life had previously led.
So now we have the correct understanding of this beutiful truth, which is nothing more than God's act of regeneration unto to faith. W e can turn to the next claim:
No, the truth of the matter is that Irresistible grace is just a term which is connected to a biblical truth; that being the action in which God takes to set man free from sin and brings them to Christ as a new man. It is known as Regeneration.
The truth of the matter is, there is no such thing as irresistible grace. Nowhere in the Bible does the word "irresistible" appear before the word "grace". That terminology is simply not in the Bible. It is the philosophy of John Calvin, not a Bible doctrine. The word "irresistible" doesn't even sound right in front of the word "grace."
Now lets deal with the bad logic behind this argument, it has been used since this time by the late Dave Hunt and many others. And that is the idea that the term "Irresistible grace" can not be found in scripture at all, such logic would also disqualify a whole host of other doctrines by their names such as the trinity, Deity of Christ, Monotheism, Omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient. Are we also prepared to reject this truths about God is if we prepared to reject what God does in salvation.
Such a move is completely invalid and self refuting that it should never be raised as a serious objection, since th idea of free-will is not biblical.
Grace means "God's unmerited favour." Somebody said G-R-A-C-E- God's riches at Christ's expense. Grace is an attitude, not a power. If Calvin had talked about the irresistible drawing power of God, it would have made more sense. But instead, he represents grace as the irresistible act of God compelling a man to be saved who does not want to be saved, so that a man has no choice in the matter at all, except as God forcibly puts a choice in his mind. Calvinism teaches that man has no part in salvation, and cannot possibly co-operate with God in the matter. In no sense of the word and at no stage of the work does salvation depend upon the will or work of man or wait for the determination of his will.What an interesting statement! And for the most part it is accurate and is held by all Calvinists, especially this statement " Grace means "God's unmerited favour." But now this is the only point that we could agree upon as the rest is just sheer nonsense.
First, indeed the act of regeneration (Irresistible grace) is completely God's work and it is a compelling act wich stimulate and renews the persons out look on life, it does not force, it does not coerce. It simply draws the person who has been dead in sin, totally depraved and unable respond on his own merit.
Second, the Idea that man has "a choice" indeed he does, but man ability to choose has been affected by the fall. It now must be seen that man can only choose that which is in harmony with his sinful nature. His choices are not free, but are contingent upon outside factors.
Third, it is not calvinism that teaches "man has no part in his salvation" that is straight biblical exegesis of all the biblical record. To which calvin and calvinist adhere and believe; we teach it because the bible declare it to be the case, to argue this point is to show you are a disloyal believer -- Ephesians 2:8-10 makes this clear as day.
Now let us consider the many objection offered:
Again Proverbs 1:24-26 says,Once again, the objections fly against another doctrine - it is almost like a cult mentaility in this; there is no real valid objection offererd just a bunch misdirected and misinterpreted verses with the asumptions. Let us consider these carefully:
"Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh."
Here the Bible plainly says, "I have called, and ye have refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof." That doesn't sound like irresistible grace. God calls, and men refuse. Is that irresistible? God stretches out his hand and no man regards it? Is that irresistible grace? No.The Bible makes it plain that some men do reject Christ, that they refuse His call. John 5:40 says, "Ye will not come to me, that ye may have life." That verse plainly teaches that men can and do resist God and refuse to come to Him. In Acts chapter 7, we find Stephen preaching. He says in verse 51, "Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye." To these Jewish leaders, Stephen said, "Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost." God offers salvation to all men. Titus 1:11 says, "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men." But man must make his own choice. He must either receive or reject Christ .
Here the Bible plainly says, "I have called, and ye have refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof." That doesn't sound like irresistible grace. God calls, and men refuse. Is that irresistible? God stretches out his hand and no man regards it? Is that irresistible grace? No.They think they have a good objection but the reality is that they do not have one. It is important to make a crucial point here: all men share one common theme as unregenerate sinners contually do the same thing rebel; it is in their nature to rebell against God. And that is a sure fact.
But even in against all odds, God has his elected people in the world who are called out of the world. And this process is then realised through regeneration of the Spirit.Now as we consider these verses from Proverbs 1, we realise that it is describing depraved sinners:
Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:When one considers this section is simply saying that Man left to own device will never turn to Christ. But when God acts, he stop at nothing to bring those he has chosen into faith in Christ. Even text says something which supports this conclusion: "I will pour out my Spirit to you, and make my words known to you." This is a good witness to God purpose in his Church through the Christ... it is God desire that his word will be known and believed upon.
“How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? If you turn at my reproof,
behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you. Because I have called and you refused to listen, have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded, because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, I also will laugh at your calamity; (Proverbs 1: 20-26)
And this is all due to Mans sinfulness and continual rejection of God (Romans 1 :18-22); But now lets also see How God will act towards these rotten vile sinners:
I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when terror strikes you, when terror strikes you like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently but will not find me. (Proverbs 1:26-28)When these people get to the point that they want to seek God; then in this time "He will not answer .. he won't be found." It is clear, that God will only command men for so long to repent and turn from sin and unto him. Then after that point he will turn them over to their reprobate mind and leave them to be judged for their sin (Romans 1:26-32). And he will bring other to faith in Christ of whom will be a sign of judgement against those who are lost.
The Bible makes it plain that some men do reject Christ, that they refuse His call. John 5:40 says, "Ye will not come to me, that ye may have life." That verse plainly teaches that men can and do resist God and refuse to come to Him.The second text that this man uses is one he has used before then time, and therefore, I will just just provide it here:
You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. I do not receive glory from people. But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”This passage does not teach "free-will" as it does not exist, it does not teach man can choose to come to Christ on his own inititive. It in fact, teaches something complete different. The Jews inability to even recognise their own messiah even after spean their life studying the scripture; they failed to recognise him. Here are important words, "You search the scriptures beause you think by them you will have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness ABOUT ME yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life." The text only explans the pysical reject; it no where gives us the reason. their rejection was of course their choice, but it was due to their love of their sin and being passed over by God the father.
We follow that by this next text from acts 7 which reads as following:
In Acts chapter 7, we find Stephen preaching. He says in verse 51, "Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye." To these Jewish leaders, Stephen said, "Ye do always resist the Holy GhostBefore going through this text, We need to emphasis one thing; which is this there 2 kinds of context: 1 is the didactic text explaining nature of salvation and all related truths. 2 is the historical text which only explain the physical side of truth.
Now we can consider this text in light of its context (a historical narritive):
You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.” (Acts 7: 51-53)Here is what we can call as "the final verdit" But it is not a sotereologic issue, but a rebellion issue. These people (the Jewish leaders) were hypocrical fools; they were the one who acted righteous but were filthy on the inside. (Matthew 23: 25-28). To assume this is to do with salvation.. in particular case, Regeneration is to completely blaspheme the Holy Spirit through misreprenting his word.
Let us consider what has led us to this point; in Chapter 6we find sever charges against the Christians:
And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen. But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking. Then they secretly instigated men who said, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.”And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council, and they set up false witnesses who said, “This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law, for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us.” And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel. (Acts 6:8-15)Here we have the Jewish officials in this section lobby four objection to the Christian way of life: 1st, blaspheme Moses and God. 2nd, The place. 3rd, The law. And this is rebuted by steven in Chapter 7 :1-50 where by through The Spirit Steven makes it cleaar that God is sovereign, the law is honoured, the prophets are revered, and the holy place is a place deep respect because of God who inhabited it.
And as a result, these men (the Jews) through their hypocritical attitudes, gave away the game. Though they claimed to be righteous, though they claim to live and abide by the law and respect Moses, though they claimed that they worshipped God.. the reality was far different as they rejected the one whom it pointed too.
The truth was was they detested, rejected and dispised God and his word through their false traditions. And their rejection of God's son, all served as a judgement upon them.
And this is why we have these words in verse 51,"You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit." The real point is not rejection of salvation and the Spirit, but that they deserted the scripture for the sake of their own personal tradition like in Matthew 15:1-9.
God offers salvation to all men. Titus 1:11 says, "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men." But man must make his own choice. He must either receive or reject Christ.Another misapplication of a verse, which by itself does not get into the real issues. Therefore, let us consider the context for us to gain some insight as to what is being said:
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. Titus 2:11-14.Now we have a little more context to what Paul is trying to highlight in this chapter; and what we learn is the following two things. First, is one of the core changes that a believer is brought to do through the steps of salvation.. that of course, being the recognition of and rejection and acceptence of particular attitudes and actions. to reject "ungodliness and worldly passions" and to accept "self-controlled, upright and godlylives."
Second, Paul is speaking that this will be evident in those who God saves; but who is in veiw when Paul says "all people" is it in fact, all people in all times or is it restricted to a particular kind of people? For us to answer this question we only need to read the previous 10 verses, 1-10. Verse 1 .. "teach what accords with sound doctrine" Verses 2-3 "older men and older women." Verse 4-5 "young women being faith to their husbands." Verses 6-8 "young men in their family life and in their personal teaching." Verses 9-10 "slaves be submissive to their masters"
And this is all to be done within respect to our new found position in Christ as his "people ... purified for himself, for his own possession," in other words, verses 11-14 are explaining the foundation for all the great behaviours that the Christ is brought in line to express by Christ's Spirit.
Irresistible Grace (Regeneration): This is the belief that God is able to raise a spiritually dead sinner to life, when God chooses to bring one of his elect to spiritual life. This is not to say men have not resisted God grace, this doctrine speaks specifically to the grace which brings regeneration, not to individual acts of sin committed by believer or unbelievers. This doctrine is the most mis...represented by non reformers, and yet the simple understanding taken from this brief synopsis is that irresistible grace can be defined as resurrection power or regeneration of the spiritually dead person.
In fact, when we consider
what john 3 as a whole states and not a few out of context verses say,
we begin to get a picture that the Spirits role is seen as an integral
part of the transaction from the darkness to the light. Notice what this
section teaches:Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” 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.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony. If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.” John 3:1-21For any Christian who has an interest in how one is to correctly hand any and all text of scripture. We first must read it context, allow the authors to define his point in Context, and finally we must teach it context. So this means we must exegete the passage in light of these rules (context, context, context). Now when we begin with this passage was are immediately drawn to the father that it is not primarily about Christ, it is in fact discuss the tri-personal relation in salvation. First it is the Holy Spirit and his role: REGENERATION. Second it is the Son and his role : REDEMPTION.
In the first aspect: Regeneration, this is the first step mention in regards to the passage in question. The terms that are used in these fist verses "born again" and "born of the spirit" are both used synonymously to refer to the same truth; in that the believer has been regenerated by the Spirit of Christ and God. We should take notice of a few points in this passage which exclude the natural efforts of man: a) In order for one to see heaven, or enter heaven; they must be born again. This tells us one single fact, that the believer is only a believer because of What God has done in him, it is God who makes one spiritually alive through regeneration. b) the background to this whole act is founded upon the old testament truth as demonstrated by the above mentioned texts from Jeremiah and Ezekiel.
In the second aspect: Redemption, this is the final step mentioned in regards to the passage in question. there is a significant connection with the serpent in verse 14 to that of the Lord in verse 15, if we are to see this fact, then we can follow the rest of this passage with ease. We should first take note that the idea of "believing on the Serpent of our salvation; in other words, Christ seeks us from death in the manner the serpent seeks its pray. To see this we must see that as the serpent release some sent upon the victim in order to track it down, we have been predestine in Christ and he came to die for those he had been given.
Now how are we to understand John 316-21; well there is a simple manner which gives us a true handle on it. a) this is to be seen as a summary of all that is gone before, thereby making it a divine revelation give to John personally. This means that it cannot be used to dismiss all that the chapter has thus far cemented as the pillar of truth. b) the terms that are loosely used to refer to a universalistic atonement in Christ cannot logically find such meaning. As they are related to the rest of the passage. therefore, " world" refers to those in whom are predestined, whom are regenerated unto divine faith and true repentance; and finally are given to Christ and secured in his atoning work.
Along with the above passage, one can go to another set of passages such as the following:
For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are His creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:8-10)
Just one thing: Live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or am absent, I will hear about you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind,working side by side for the faith that comes from the gospel, not being frightened in any way by your opponents. This is a sign of destruction for them, but of your deliverance—and this is from God. For it has been given to you on Christ’s behalf not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him, having the same struggle that you saw I had and now hear that I have.(Philippians 1:27-30)
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Messiah has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father also loves the one born of Him. This is how we know that we love God’s children when we love God and obey His commands. For this is what love for God is: to keep His commands. Now His commands are not a burden,because whatever has been born of God conquers the world. This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith. And who is the one who conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? (1 john 5:1-5)
Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that is imperishable, uncorrupted, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. You are being protected by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.(1 peter 1: 3-5).Based on these above passages we can argue biblically that it is Gods view that he alone has granted men to have faith in Christ, and to suffer for that faith; based on the very act of regeneration. One has to be transformed from darkness to light, from spiritually dead to spiritually alive in Christ: which can only take place through the act of being born again (regeneration).
It is therefore, necessary for us to hold to the reality of the matter: Regeneration leads to repentance and faith, and is the very basis of the our godliness being brought to forefront.
