Righteous men: The Righteousness of Noah, Daniel, and Job to deliver their own souls
Righteous men: I want to make it very clear from the beginning that I do not believe that a man can “make himself righteous” before God. This making one’s self righteous in order to find or fabricate merit before God in relation to gaining salvation is simply a false doctrine.
Having said that, once a person trusts God’s provision of a Savior, he is saved, and then the righteousness of a person becomes very real in the pleasing of God.
The argument of Ezekiel is keyed on “every man”, or each individual person.
Ezek 18:2What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge?
Again the elements repeat themselves. In Daniel’s time, Israel was corrupt again, and this corruption seemed to be a very common thing, that “everyone” had turned from God.
The second element of a single individual Christian or believer stands apart from the crowd with a devote and holy life before God is what God points out to us.
Again the examples of the Bible is to live holy and devout lives of sacrifice and obedience before God even though or especially when you are in an atmosphere of total ungodliness. God calls us to this, and this is something that the individual HAS TO DECIDE WITHIN HIMSELF. While God provides strength (ability) and a long list of other things (patience, compassion, love, energy, endurance, etc.), everything is hinged on your deciding and doing this.
Dan 1:8But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himselfwith the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.
In this post we example how Job’s righteousness was declared by God to Satan, and Satan did not presume it to be “all of God”, but God attributed it to Job’s will and actions. The piety of Job (Jobs Piety) is a problem for Calvinists because in God’s eyes, Job was just. Not just to get into heaven, but just in his life before God.
Gen 6:5And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
IF ever there were a verse to teach total depravity, it is this one. God declares that he is displeased with every imagination.. thoughts of mankind. He saw it as continual evil. But what is the context? While this is true, men sin, and the grossness of their sin at times comes to a climax which causes God to respond with wrath (the flood), there are individuals which do not fit in that mold (Noah). Calvnists don’t like to use this verse to prove their Total Depravity theory because within it is Noah and his family, people who broke the mold of total depravity by their righteous lives.
Men are depraved, and that is totally true. But it is a jump which is not necessarily so to say that because men are depraved, they are totally depraved, and there is nothing that any person could ever do that would please God. When a person repents and believes in Jesus Christ, does that please God or not?
The issue we have with Calvinism is that Calvinism deposits man’s salvation as being controlled and triggered by election and predestination. That point is never proved by Scripture. Election is a broad term which includes “selection” to many different things, not just salvation. Being elect to salvation does not absolutely mean we personally have nothing to do with it.
The truth of the matter is that the Bible represents a person getting saved, first because God provided a way for them to be saved, and then secondly, because they individually respond to that way, embracing it. It is always “repent and believe”, and never, ever is it “look to see if you are elect”. What triggers salvation is not a realization that you are elect (never does Scripture present entering salvation because you “realize” something about your election), but rather a personal action of believing. Repentance is turning from whatever else you are embracing to embrace the salvation of Jesus Christ. Continue reading Total Depravity: 2. Counter Examples of Noah and Abraham→
One of the pillars of Calvinism is the doctrinal of Total Depravity. The doctrine is stated simply as man is totally depraved or evil, and there is no good in him. From Wikipedia.org they define “ Continue reading The Calvinist lie of Total Depravity→
Acts 13:48And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.
A cursory reading of Acts 13:48 appears to imply very clearly that Calvinism’s view of election and eternal life is true. In this post I will investigate what I can find about “ordained” tasso (Strong’s G5021).
Literary from the Greek, this verse reads something like this…
But hearing the Gentiles they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord, and they believed which were ordered unto eternal life.
(Note: This post is a work in progress, and I will be adding to it over time, so please check back regularly to see if I have added new “chapters”.)
In this post, I am simply listing and examining different verses that in my opinion teach doctrine directly against Calvinism. Continue reading Verses against Calvinism→
Total Depravity: What does the Bible really present?
Total Depravity. I think www.gotquestions.org presents a good, clean presentation of the Calvinist position, so let’s start there:
While often misunderstood, the doctrine of total depravity is an acknowledgement that the Bible teaches that as a result of the fall of man (Genesis 3:6) every part of man—his mind, will, emotions and flesh—have been corrupted by sin. In other words, sin affects all areas of our being including who we are and what we do.
It penetrates to the very core of our being so that everything is tainted by sin and “…all our righteous acts are like filthy rags” before a holy God (Isaiah 64:6). It acknowledges that the Bible teaches that we sin because we are sinners by nature. Or, as Jesus says, “So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.” (Matthew 7:17-18).
The total depravity of man is seen throughout the Bible. Man’s heart is “deceitful and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9). The Bible also teaches us that man is born dead in transgression and sin (Psalm 51:5, Psalm 58:3,Ephesians 2:1-5).
The Bible teaches that because unregenerate man is “dead in transgressions” (Ephesians 2:5), he is held captive by a love for sin (John 3:19;John 8:34) so that he will not seek God (Romans 3:10-11) because he loves the darkness (John 3:19) and does not understand the things of God (1 Corinthians 2:14). Therefore, men suppress the truth of God in unrighteousness (Romans 1:18) and continue to willfully live in sin. Because they are totally depraved, this sinful lifestyle seems right to men (Proverbs 14:12) so they reject the gospel of Christ as foolishness (1 Corinthians 1:18) and their mind is “hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is unable to do so” (Romans 8:7).
The Bible teaches the sinfulness of man, and what the Bible does teach is that when it comes to being accepted before God for salvation (entering the presence of God), we have nothing “good” to offer God in exchange for our salvation, i.e. we have “no merit” in ourselves. We are bankrupt spiritually. I do not doubt that many Calvinists believe in this, and this is totally true. Continue reading Total Depravity: 7. What does the Bible really present?→
To some people, just the title of this article would be blasphemous. God is against Calvinism. Let me expand on the why of this statement. This article is dual posted here and at http://www.davidcoxmex.com/archives/why-god-hates-calvinism
God wants man to move morally
From what we see and understand in Scripture, God wants man to move morally. By “moving morally” I mean God wants man to repent of his sins (moral activity), and have faith in Jesus Christ as his Savior (moral action). This moral action IS THE WILL OF GOD. In parlance of Calvinists, this is the perfect will of God, not the permissive will of God. Calvinism, in itself, admits that man believing God is good and is what God wants. The Calvinist will attribute this to his concept of irresistible grace acting on the individual, but even so, it is a good thing.
Is the Calvinist doctrine of Total Depravity really biblical? Basically, the doctrine as explained by Calvinists is that this doctrine means that “there is no good within man.” Man has no “spark of divinity within him” whereby he has something good to offer God for salvation. Continue reading Is Total Depravity Biblical?→
