“First of all, Bret… just because one has a disagreement as to your “covenant theology” doesn’t make them less “covered by the blood” of Jesus. According to your theology, it doesn’t matter what they believe as to “who” Jesus is, because if they are the chosen “covenant” people they have a free passage into heaven anyway… looks to me like being a “Calvinist” is just a bonus… Oh wait, Calvinists are the only ones who get into heaven, right?
I’m not arguing that you actually have to read the Bible to find out how you are to be a follower of Christ… But what you fail to realize is that Jesus taught Old Testament Scripture, and without a firm foundation in that, you are paddling with one oar in the water just going around in circles.
And yes, Jesus calls us first… but we have to be willing to pick up the phone. When you look at the story of the prodigal son, the son had to come back on his own. The father didn’t go out looking for him, but waited for him to come back. That son had to make that decision to come back. Had he not have come back, he would have remained outside his father’s house…. See More
I have given countless Scripture stating that “if a righteous man turns from his righteousness, that none of his righteousness will be remembered” Ez. 18:24 and when you sin willfully you “trample grace underfoot” and “if you sin willfully, no sacrifice for sin is left” Hebrews 10:26-31… “‘… who sins defiantly, whether native-born or alien, blasphemes YHVH, and that person must be cut off from his people. (31) Because he has despised the Lord’s word and broken his commands, that person must surely be cut off; his guilt remains on him.'” Numbers 15:30-31.
And yes, when it comes to the “idol Jesus” you refer to, He is the object of my worship as my Savior, so ya, you can call Him my idol. You on the other hand idolize your intellectualism and worship your own “ME” god, the god of your own design instead of YaHuVaH of Scripture.
You can sit perched on your little mustard tree and gaze at the centuries old olive tree that I am grafted into.
“Do not be haughty, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off” Romans 11.”
Renee Stevens
Bret responds to these objections from Renee,
Renee,
You clearly have no idea of what you are talking about. No idea at all. Not even close.
1.) First, as to covenant theology, well, if people don’t embrace covenant theology then they are likely going to embrace a Jesus of their own making since the Bible is structured tectonically as covenant. Strip Jesus from the covenant context of the Scriptures and by default you must put Him in a context that is alien to who the Scriptures say He is.
Now, clearly, non-covenantal Christians can be saved but it will certainly be the case that their Christianity will be a blight to one degree or another upon the Christian faith while they are alive.
2.) Reformed Christians believe that the elect are chosen to believe in the Christ of the Bible. I challenge you to find a Reformed Theologian who ever taught that people can go to heaven living and dying while never knowing Jesus. Yours is a loopy accusation to try and discredit that Biblical theology which your desperately trying to stave off.
3.) Reformed Christians aren’t the only ones to get to heaven but those non-Reformed Christians who get to heaven will get their because the Reformed Jesus has saved them by the Reformed Gospel that was preached and that they embraced just enough of to be saved.
4.) The whole of Reformed theology is posited upon the Old Testament. I have no earthly idea why you would suggest otherwise.
5.) In the story of the prodigal, you’re forgetting that the prodigal was a son. The Son returned to what was always his. The prodigal son is a Parable Renee w/ only ONE overarching point. That overarching point is the willingness of God to receive repentant sinners. You are trying to turn it into a allegory. It is not an allegory Renee. There is a difference between allegory and parable. Look it up.
(See, it is these kind of mistakes on your part that end up putting your well intentioned but misguided interpretive efforts into the ditch.)
6.) When Jesus calls (internal call) His people, His people always pick up the phone. (and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed Acts 13:48). When Jesus issues the external call to those who aren’t His people they never pick up the phone because dead people can’t hear the phone ringing (John 10:26 “But you do not believe, because you are not of my sheep, as I said to you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”)
7.) Ezekial 18:24 — CONTEXT, CONTEXT, CONTEXT, Renee.
The book of Ezekiel as a whole speak of God’s sovereignty in salvation. Go to the chapters just before…go to Chapter 16 and see that sure destruction was upon Israel, and the Lord came by and said, “Live!” Then to 33 where your passage is repeated…then on to 34 where the Lord says that He will seek out His sheep. Then to 36 and 37 where God says I will give them a new heart not for their sakes…and 37 with the dry bones.
There is no good in proof-texting Renee, as you are doing for I suspect your simply going to do this to other passages to bend them to say what you want them too say.
Secondly, you seem to be assuming that the “he shall die” reference refers to eternal death when in point of fact the idea of dying may only refer to temporal death.
8.) Hebrews 10:26-31
First, it should be noted that Calvinists have taught that people can fall from the covenant of Grace. Noting this is important since the context of Hebrews 10:29 finds just a comparison being made between the old and renewed covenant. Here we find a lesser to greater argument. If one died without mercy for rejecting Moses’ law how much more grievous will be the penalty of one who tramples the Son of God underfoot. However, we need to hear the language of Hebrews here. In this context the hypothetical person being referred to was ‘sanctified’ (that is ‘set apart’) by the blood of the covenant. Now we must ask; ‘How is it that this person was sanctified (set apart)? The answer is by being put into the covenant. This is the same covenant that throughout the Scripture is characterized as having wheat and tares in it. Now in as much as Christ died for the Church, everyone in the Church (wheat and tares alike) can be said to have had a ‘sacrifice for sins,’ and so it is true that should the wheat, being externally but really related to the one covenant of Grace, sin willfully after receiving the knowledge of the Truth (and lots of people have a non-saving knowledge of the truth – cmp. James 2:19) there is no sacrifice for sins.
Now the reason may be asked why we read this text this way.
1.) We cannot read this passage the way that Renee desires and remain faithful to the book of Hebrews where elsewhere the perseverance of the saints is upheld by the teaching that, “Therefore Jesus is also able to save forever those who come to God through Him.” Also after Hebrews 10 we are taught that Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith. Now, if our faith doesn’t finish, then how can it be rightly said that Jesus is the finisher of our faith?
2.) We believe that the explanation above does honor to the covenant language of Scripture. Just as all of Israel was not of Israel, so all of the Church is not of the Church and yet, if a unregenerate person is a part of the Church then when speaking in corporate categories it is proper to say that Christ died for the Church and that includes all who are in the Church who are not of the Church. Just as on the Day of Atonement where the Sacrifice of the lamb was for all of Israel didn’t negate that ‘not all of Israel was of Israel’ so the Sacrifice of Jesus for the Church doesn’t negate that not all of the Church is of the Church. Just as there were those in the Old covenant who had a sacrifice preformed for them as being part of the covenantal whole that did not apply to them individually so there are some in the Church who had a sacrifice preformed for them as part of the covenantal whole at Calvary that does not apply to them individually. But of course we do not know who those are and so if some in our congregations were to sin willfully after they had received a knowledge of the truth we would have to warn them that there remains no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment.”
Numbers 15 works much the same way. You must simply wrap your head around the idea that the covenant has people who are only externally related to the covenant but who can genuinely said to be part of the covenant.
As for the last few paragraphs in your missive Renee … well, that is just you playing the role of the fish on the hook, thrashing about trying to avoid being reeled in. But the hook is set Renee and you are being reeled in.