It’s one thing to try to encourage someone to pray during tribulations
but there goes James…”Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you
encounter various trials…” Why is he saying this? Does he have some
sick fascination with tribulations? What are you talking about James?
({{James 1:2}})
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Russ on the Sovereignty of God
In my last several posts, we began the process of looking at each of the components of TULIPS in order to see how well this model of salvation aligns with Scripture. In looking at Total Depravity, we agreed with much of the traditional position though we found no Scriptural evidence for: regeneration prior to faith; an understanding that death means spiritual inability to act; and that the non-believer is unable to exercise faith. Thus, we stated that a person will never seek God in their sinfulness. However, through the conviction of the Holy Spirit, God seeks each individual making them aware of their standing before Him. It is at this point that a person does or does not exercise their faith in Jesus. Once they believe, they are given life which is the presence of God through the Holy Spirit living in them. All the benefits of salvation are immediately bestowed upon them (though final fulfillment awaits our resurrection).
Well, Jerry and Sozo BOTH memed me. For the sake of other bloggers I will not
meme you but if you so wish you can leave a comment, take the meme and run with
it and link back to me (or not). This way the meme doesn’t outright die and can
continue to be propagated like the online virus it is. I will also include some
cool links throughout the meme to make it a bit more snazzy.
We left off in our study on baptism performing an
examination on one of the key proof-texts by supporters of baptismal salvation.
In our brief overview of that section we experimented with big fancy words: differential diagnosis. Realizing that all it meant was having all the
details and drawing different conclusions based on those details we now move
forward in our study spending a short time questioning baptisms in the book of
Acts.
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Russ on Perseverance
Believe it or not, this post is near the 1,000 word maximum (woo hoo!!!). Since most of us will agree on this one (I haven’t seen too many Arminians involved in our discussions, so this should draw them out if they are out there), I’ll forego the beginning joke…just the fact that I’m staying in my word limit should make you smile :) .