Follower of Jesus wrote: So I do not see how I am claiming a share in the glory by believing that I am saved by grace through faith. No matter what the calvinist says, faith on the part of the believer is a biblical requirement for salvation, and if one does not have faith then they will receive the consequences of that lack of belief. I believe that faith in Christ is not an automated predestined characteristic that is programmed into certain people, but a genuine belief in Him and a desire to follow Him.
Ah! There you have it you wretched ARMINIAN. YOU did all the BELIEVING !
For us TRUE CALVINISTS, we have a NEW FACULTY of faith given us. So WE don't do the BELIEVING, it is a GIFT!
HOW do we KNOW that your believing was not a gift? Its easy. By your telling us that YOU believed, and that is a WORKS religion!
Yoxford wrote: #1 "Not all Israel is Israel" Paul tells us. Thus the situation in Israel when Jesus arrived was as God had ordained it so to be. #2 God is the one who sends and creates His Prophets. Therefore this was not the "Jews" fault. #3 You are not very impressed with Cornelius. Yet God records him as one of the Elect and uses his story in teaching the Word. #4 What Cornelius "saw" when he met Peter was - in his experience - the result of a direct command of God brought to him by an "Angellos" (Greek) for a messenger of God, who told him to go send for and hear from Peter. Pretty powerful sequence of events for this "nobody" you dismiss so lightly, which began with God's direct intervention.
You are not coming to terms with 2 things:
1. The Angel came to warn C (10:22) 2. P rehearsing the words of the Angel to C stated that C was to call for P "Who shall tell thee words, WHEREBY THOU and all THY HOUSE shall be SAVED!"
Perhaps God knew more than you do where C. stood with him!
John UK wrote: DJC49 is quite right on this, Michael. I know what you mean, though. Some Christians go into seminaries believing in Christ and come out doubting, because most seminaries are now liberal. But imagine if born again, Spirit filled, loving Christians were teaching in the seminaries. Now that would be all right, wouldn't it? Mind you, there's hardly any biblical warrant to build a seminary and teach there, unless you count the school of prophets in the old testament.
These are hardly a commendation for the seminary system. Just look at what they produced? And where was their warrant for these anyway?