Showing posts with label R.C. Sproul. Show all posts
Showing posts with label R.C. Sproul. Show all posts
Friday, August 4, 2017
Sproul teaches us to look at our works
"The fruit of righteousness is that fruit that is exercised in us by the Holy Spirit. If we want to be holy, if we have a real hunger for righteousness, then we must focus our attention on the fruit of the Holy Spirit." R.C. Sproul, The Holiness of God, pg. 204
Monday, July 31, 2017
What kind or how much sin did Christ atone for His people?
The question relates to how many sins did Christ die on behalf of the elect? Was his sacrifice only geared towards certain amount of sins or types of sins like accidentals vs habituals? Sproul would have us believe that to sin habitually means we are not really Christians.
Tobias Crisp says, "And we may do some good to let you see what advantage there is in Christ for you; for thereby you may be induced not to establish your own righteousness against him, and his. We shall sin every day; in many things we sin all; but the business we are to do, is this, to let you know, that though there be sins committed, yet there is no peace broken; because the breach of peace is satisfied in Christ; there is a reparation of the damage before the ain itself be commitres: Christ had in his eye, and so had the Father too, all the damages that should fall out to the end of the world, by his own people; and he did not pay a price for some that were present only, but he paid the damages of all that shouls come after, from the time of his suffering, to the end of the world. . . ." Christ Alone Exalted, pg. 164 - 165
Tobias Crisp says, "And we may do some good to let you see what advantage there is in Christ for you; for thereby you may be induced not to establish your own righteousness against him, and his. We shall sin every day; in many things we sin all; but the business we are to do, is this, to let you know, that though there be sins committed, yet there is no peace broken; because the breach of peace is satisfied in Christ; there is a reparation of the damage before the ain itself be commitres: Christ had in his eye, and so had the Father too, all the damages that should fall out to the end of the world, by his own people; and he did not pay a price for some that were present only, but he paid the damages of all that shouls come after, from the time of his suffering, to the end of the world. . . ." Christ Alone Exalted, pg. 164 - 165
Sunday, July 30, 2017
Sproul against the Gospel
So I have read the revised and expanded edition of Sproul's The Holiness of God. On pg. 204 Sproul tells us to focus on the fruit of the holy spirit. Sproul basically is telling us to look inward to ourselves for holiness. The problem is that all of this is abstract and conjured. Ultimately speaking if our holiness and sanctification is dependent on what the Spirit does in us then it is no longer Christ alone but our salvation then hinges on what we do.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
On Equal Ultimacy
Scripture says that God hands over the unrighteous men and women to the lust of their own hearts who distort the truth of God and fashion for themselves idols from what has been clearly percieved because God Himself makes it known to them Romans 1:18-32. What does this passage tell us about God? That God does not hide. Scripture says that, "For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them" V. 19. That God gives people over to the lust of their hearts. Three times it is said that He gave them up to the lust of their hearts (Vs. 24, 26, 25). Notice how this action by God is a result of something. So because people supress the truth of God The wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. So these actions are a sign of God's wrath. All men hate God Romans 3 says they do not fear God and because of this they do evil things. But perhaps also because they do evil things they also do not fear God.
This is different from John 4:23-24 which speaks of the opposite side of what is happening here. For here we see that God seeks true worshipers who worship God in spirit and in truth. True worshipers are those who do not supress the truth and also have right emotion or response to the truth of God. Moses Silva in his commentary said that Philippians 3:3 correlates with John 4:23-24, which also correlates well with Thesis of Romans 1:16-17, which is antithetical to Romans 1:18-32. But Silva says that it is by the Spirit of God we worship for it is by the Spirit we are circumcised. J.I. Packer said in his listing of the purpose of the Spirit of God is to glorify Christ Jesus. We are lead by the Spirit when Christ is lifted up high. For the reason is that we are saved by Christ righteousness alone and not anything of our own. This is partly the reason why Islam and Calvinism cannot be united as positing the same god. For in Islam, god is not acting upon his nature. In Calvinism he is and so there is comfort that God will not say one thing one moment and something else the next. Also when God saves His people he does not save according to works done in the flesh, but according to His pleasure. Dr. Giesler is not the first one to say that Calvinism and Islam are the same, I believe there are others who do a cursery reading of the Qur'an and Scripture and Calvinism text.
But going back to Romans we see that God is not working in the individuals to do evil. But God is giving them up to their own lust. Supralapsarianist claim that God elected some for salvation and reprobated others for damnation before either one of the clay lumps did anything good or bad. Then that God created all of them and then that God permitted the fall so that Both the Elect and the Reprobate are fallen and have a need of salvation. So God decreed that Christ who is both God and Man to win the salvation of the Elect, and to apply that salvation to the elect by the Spirit of God. But what you see here is that the Reprobate are fallen, so when God passes them by He does not work anything in them (like evil) but that he leaves them in their sins. For unbelief is not the reason for condemnation, sin is and God is still just for condemning one even if He never hears the gospel news. Which is also what Romans 1 teaches us. While in the elect He works His salvific grace in them so that they will believe, will repent, and become like Christ.
R.C. Sproul in his book Chosen by God pg. 142-43 tells us what Equal Ultimacy is and how it does not fit in the Reformed view of Double Predestination:
"There are different views of double predestination. One of these is so frightening that many shun the term altogether, lest their view of the doctrine be confused with the scary one. This is called the equal ultimacy view.
Equal ultimacy is based on a concept of symmetry. It seeks a complete balance between election and reprobation. The key idea is this: Just as God intervenes in the lives of the elect to create faith in their hearts, so God equally intervenes in the lives of the reprobate to create or work unbelief in their hearts. The idea of God's actively working unbelief in the hearts of the reprobate is drawn from biblical statements about God hardening people's hearts.
Equal ultimacy is not the Reformed or Calvinist view of predestination. Some have called it 'hyper-Calvinism.' I prefer to call it 'sub-Calvinism' or, better yet, 'anti-Calvinism.' Though Calvinism certainly has a view of double predestination, the double predestination it embraces is not one of equal ultimacy.
To understand the Reformed view of the matter we must pay close attention to the crucial distinction between positive and negative decrees of God. Positive has to do with God's active intervention in the hearts of the elect. Negative has to do with God's passing over the non-elect.
The Reformed view teaches that God positively or actively intervenes in the lives of the elect to insure their salvation. The rest of mankind God leaves to themselve. He does not create unbelief in their hearts. That unbelief is already there. He does not coerce them to sin. They sin by their own choices. In the Calvinist view the decree of election is positive; the decree of reprobation is negative.
Hyper-Calvinism's view of double predestination may be called positive-positive predestination. Orthodox Calvinism's view may be called positive-negative predestination."
I found this on google books.
This is different from John 4:23-24 which speaks of the opposite side of what is happening here. For here we see that God seeks true worshipers who worship God in spirit and in truth. True worshipers are those who do not supress the truth and also have right emotion or response to the truth of God. Moses Silva in his commentary said that Philippians 3:3 correlates with John 4:23-24, which also correlates well with Thesis of Romans 1:16-17, which is antithetical to Romans 1:18-32. But Silva says that it is by the Spirit of God we worship for it is by the Spirit we are circumcised. J.I. Packer said in his listing of the purpose of the Spirit of God is to glorify Christ Jesus. We are lead by the Spirit when Christ is lifted up high. For the reason is that we are saved by Christ righteousness alone and not anything of our own. This is partly the reason why Islam and Calvinism cannot be united as positing the same god. For in Islam, god is not acting upon his nature. In Calvinism he is and so there is comfort that God will not say one thing one moment and something else the next. Also when God saves His people he does not save according to works done in the flesh, but according to His pleasure. Dr. Giesler is not the first one to say that Calvinism and Islam are the same, I believe there are others who do a cursery reading of the Qur'an and Scripture and Calvinism text.
But going back to Romans we see that God is not working in the individuals to do evil. But God is giving them up to their own lust. Supralapsarianist claim that God elected some for salvation and reprobated others for damnation before either one of the clay lumps did anything good or bad. Then that God created all of them and then that God permitted the fall so that Both the Elect and the Reprobate are fallen and have a need of salvation. So God decreed that Christ who is both God and Man to win the salvation of the Elect, and to apply that salvation to the elect by the Spirit of God. But what you see here is that the Reprobate are fallen, so when God passes them by He does not work anything in them (like evil) but that he leaves them in their sins. For unbelief is not the reason for condemnation, sin is and God is still just for condemning one even if He never hears the gospel news. Which is also what Romans 1 teaches us. While in the elect He works His salvific grace in them so that they will believe, will repent, and become like Christ.
R.C. Sproul in his book Chosen by God pg. 142-43 tells us what Equal Ultimacy is and how it does not fit in the Reformed view of Double Predestination:
"There are different views of double predestination. One of these is so frightening that many shun the term altogether, lest their view of the doctrine be confused with the scary one. This is called the equal ultimacy view.
Equal ultimacy is based on a concept of symmetry. It seeks a complete balance between election and reprobation. The key idea is this: Just as God intervenes in the lives of the elect to create faith in their hearts, so God equally intervenes in the lives of the reprobate to create or work unbelief in their hearts. The idea of God's actively working unbelief in the hearts of the reprobate is drawn from biblical statements about God hardening people's hearts.
Equal ultimacy is not the Reformed or Calvinist view of predestination. Some have called it 'hyper-Calvinism.' I prefer to call it 'sub-Calvinism' or, better yet, 'anti-Calvinism.' Though Calvinism certainly has a view of double predestination, the double predestination it embraces is not one of equal ultimacy.
To understand the Reformed view of the matter we must pay close attention to the crucial distinction between positive and negative decrees of God. Positive has to do with God's active intervention in the hearts of the elect. Negative has to do with God's passing over the non-elect.
The Reformed view teaches that God positively or actively intervenes in the lives of the elect to insure their salvation. The rest of mankind God leaves to themselve. He does not create unbelief in their hearts. That unbelief is already there. He does not coerce them to sin. They sin by their own choices. In the Calvinist view the decree of election is positive; the decree of reprobation is negative.
Hyper-Calvinism's view of double predestination may be called positive-positive predestination. Orthodox Calvinism's view may be called positive-negative predestination."
I found this on google books.
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