Listening to the Giants

I rresistible Grace Definition : “It is the work of the Holy Spirit by which He inwardly calls the elect of God and enables them to respond in faith to the gospel of Christ. This special work of the Spirit cannot be resisted and thus cannot fail. It so changes the heart of the sinner that he comes freely and willingly to Christ for salvation.”  Did John Calvin teach this doctrine? Yes, he did. Calvin’s Commentary on John 6:41-45 Unless the Father draw him .  To come to Christ being here used metaphorically for believing, the Evangelist, in order to carry out the metaphor in the apposite clause, says that those persons are drawn whose understandings God enlightens, and whose hearts he bends and forms to the obedience of Christ. The statement amounts to this, that we ought not to wonder if many refuse to embrace the Gospel; because no man will ever of himself be able to come to Christ, but God must first approach him by his Spi...

                                                                 U nconditional Election Definition: God does not base His election on anything He sees in the individual. He chooses the elect according to the kind intention of His will (Eph. 1:4-8; Rom. 9:11) without any consideration of merit within the individual. Did John Calvin teach this doctrine? Ummm…yeah, definitely. Calvin asserts, “Do they ask how it happens that of two men indistinguishable in merit, God in his election passes over one but takes the other? I, in turn, ask: “Do they think that there is anything in him who is taken that disposes God to him?” If they admit that there is nothing, as they must, it will follow that God does not consider the man but seeks from His own goodness the reason to do him good. The fact that God therefo...

This title is likely to “grate” on some of you, especially for those who are still unconvinced of the “sweetness” of this doctrine. But before you stop reading, please read Edwards’ words below: “From my childhood up, my mind had been full of objections against the doctrine of God’s sovereignty in choosing whom he would to eternal life, and rejecting whom He pleased; leaving them eternally to perish, and be everlastingly tormented in Hell. It used to appear like a horrible doctrine to me. But I have often, since that first conviction, had quite another kind of sense of God’s sovereignty than I had then. I have often since had not only a conviction, but a delightful conviction. The doctrine has very often appeared exceedingly pleasant, bright and sweet. Absolute sovereignty is what I love to ascribe to God. But my conviction was not so.” The journey of Edwards, in regards to the doctrine of election, may surprise some. For many, he is viewed simply as the man who preached the l...