Friday, June 6, 2014

Common Grace and Abraham's children

Interesting thought but that common grace is not found even in Genesis 17. So as long as Abraham's child Ishmael remains faithful to the covenant established there will not be any wrath. This is not the covenant of grace as many suppose. It is conditional. In this covenant both the elect and reprobate are in national Israel.

God's Word and the Bible

Considering this subject, as a Calvinist, I agree with Calvin and others like him who would say that the word of God is contained in the Bible for our modern English speaking folks I do not mean in the sense of Barth. God's word is the Bible alone and the Bible alone is the word of God. What is written is God's word. But how does that relate to the fundamental thought of conversion? Would it not be better to say that God's word is different than what is written on the pages of Scripture? My response is no. God is God and so has authority. His word because he spoke it is authoritative because God is authoritative. Therefore, whatever is said in the Bible has authority and should be headed because God says it.
When God converts the sinner he is not coming to the sinner with different words than what is revealed in the Word. God commands sinners to do lots of things, including to love Him with their whole minds. As the word of God is spoken and God speaks to us by the preached word - we hear God speak.
The thing is we do not all head the commands to repent and believe. Indeed no one can do that unless God Himself does. God removes the heart of stone and gives a heart of flesh so that there is no more enmity against His word and so the mind of man receives the things of God. Until this happens, God's word is not headed and we do not receive them and we remain responsible as disobedience sinners.

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Supralapsarian

Only the Supralapsarian scheme can be said to be Trinitarian. God decrees his Glory which is the final cause for why He does anything. From this God decrees to that end.