Calvinism Enoch pleased God Total Depravity. In this post, we examine the Calvinist position of man’s total depravity. This is the first in a series. Calvinism Enoch pleased God Total Depravity
Let’s do a quick analysis of this topic. First of all, if nobody can in any wise ever do anything that pleases God, then why try? Why not just live in our sins, and “enjoy” our sins to the best we can? Secondly, if the Bible teaches that nobody ever has ever done anything good at all, an extremist position carrying as far as you logically can, then why does the Bible say that certain people pleased God with their actions and lives? If Calvinist’s Total Depravity is right, then the Bible would contradict itself. Continue reading Calvinism Enoch pleased God Total Depravity→
Pleasing God. The root issue here in total depravity is whether a person or a thing please God. It would behoove us to search the Scriptures to see if there are verses that speak of something pleasing God, and note the circumstances.
I will note an aspect of this. 1) We are sinners. That displeases God. 2) Being sinners, the Bible commends certain people who “tried” to please God. 3) Although we do note that some people “pleased God” this in no way is to say that God accepted them into heaven and as having salvation simply because they pleased God in some aspect of their lives. 4) Pleasing God with your life is not the same as gaining heaven through good works. We need to separate the two ideas as being totally separate and apart. We should not let one “bleed over into the other”. 5) God, in general, instructs all men in how to live morally, and when they follow these moral principles, whether saved or not, God blesses those obedient to his commands and curses those who are disobedient. In general, all thieves have the curse of God on them, and all people who work honestly have a certain “blessing” of God on them. This is not because God has “elected them from eternity past” to be blessed, but God has blessed his moral principles, and by following these principles, one receives a benefit here in this world, but not necessarily entrance into heaven for obeying these other moral principles (the key point then is faith in the work of Christ on the cross as being THE THING that one has to “do” in order to be saved).
1Sam 12:22
1Sam 12:22 For the LORD will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake: because it hath pleased the LORD to make you his people.
What we see here is that it pleased God to make Israel “his people.”
