Sunday, September 11, 2011

Free offer of slavation - guest blog

Today we are blessed to have a special guest interview, Philip the high Calvinist here to discuss the free offer of the gospel. The question before us today is, is the gospel indeed a free offer to the reprobate, or is faith a duty only?
[Begin Transcript]
Good to have you with us Phil.
Likewise.
So lets begin with the most famous verse, you know, the-go to verse for us "moderate Calvinists"
I think you mean you semi-pelagianists.
uh anyhow, it's Isaiah 7:11-13, I'll read it here: "Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz "Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven." But Ahaz said, "I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test." And he said, "Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also?" It sure seems like God is making an offer here to the wicked King Ahab. What do you make of this?
First of all, there is no question that God never makes offers to the reprobate. The verse "seek ye first the kingdom of God" is addressed to believers only, the invitation in Revelation to drink, to take freely, to buy without price, is to believers in the church only.  Seeking and taking come only after regeneration. Ahaz must therefore have been elect. 
But Ahaz breaks into full blown idolatry in 1 Kings 16:3- almost the first time we meet him he's burning his son alive to an idol.  1 Kings 16 is a list of his idolatry and then it ends with him dying.
Well fine perhaps hes reprobate, but my point still stands. But look, I mean, just go back to the text here in Isaiah. What do we have here? The Lord spoke to Ahaz, does that mean it's an offer? Context context context. When we see the word 'all' does it mean 'all without exception'? Clearly not. When we see John 3:16 that God so loved the world does it, world I mean, does that word mean 'sinful mass of humanity' or does it really mean 'elect'? Elect, obviously. So put this in context. The Lord is ordering Ahaz to ask for the sign. It's not an offer, it's a command.
You are really going to assert that this is not the form of an offer? You really think that this is not an invitation to test and see the Lord is good?
Why would God make an offer to the reprobate in the first place? If He knows ahead of time Ahaz will say no and reject the offer then it's not really an offer is it? It's just a vessel to increase his condemnation.
The Lord expressing His goodness, kindness, and mercy causes the reprobate condemnation? 
Yes.
Not the inward depravity of man? Not the rejection of the goodness. The goodness itself is what damns men?
Well yes. I mean God isn't some cosmic welfare program where everyone gets a free ride. He's a person, He created some vessels for wrath and some for mercy.
That's the worst argument I have heard yet, okay you know...
Of course I know, I know much more than you, you idiot. Read the Institutes. Read Owen. Read Gil. If you had half a brain you would know all this stuff. We don't even need to read or interact with the Bible because... 
What!? no, that's just not acceptable, not in this forum do you get to...
Gonna cut me off because you can't take it eh? Don't like the truth when you hear it?  You sound like a reprobate yourself here, rejecting the Bible...
Mute his mic, that's just, okay, let me take a moment to point out something, every time we get more than 1 minute into these interviews the high calvinist digresses into name calling. Now I'm going to unmute the mic, and let you have the floor if you refrain from ad-hominem attacks okay?
... in fact your whole stupid "4 points" of calvinism is a logical absurdity. If you weren't such a pompus imbecilic monkey, or some sort of theological drooling refugee you might know that...
Okay thank you, this interview is over. Well my apologies, that's just the way it goes sometimes. And that's all the time we have left so see you next time.
[End Transcript]

3 comments:

THEOparadox said...

I don't know who this "Phil" guy is, but he sounds a lot like Monty Collier, a.k.a. "Red Beetle."

I'd love to hear the audio of this interview . . . or better yet, see it in the form of an Xtranormal video.

Phil said...

I thought it might be fun to debate myself as a high calvinist. It was.

David said...

Well done, very timely.

Its true about the 1 minute rule. My experience now for about 10 years is that this rule holds good, The exceptions are academics in teaching positions. They tend to be more willing to think through a problem on its own terms, instead of "playing the man."

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