COURTNEY WRITES: How would you describe the gospel in 140 characters or less? This question was part of an internship I did this summer. It challenged my understanding of the gospel a lot more than I’d like to admit. Anyway, I’d love to see how you each put the good news.
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This isn’t original to me; I heard it at a summer camp I counseled at. It’s the gospel in three words:
Jesus saves sinners.
I think that gets to the heart of it pretty well. Obviously it’s not complete, but it’s a good way for those of us who are already Christians to boil it down and see what’s really important.
Ok, my gospel in 140 characters….
God gave us the Bible for a reason. Read it, you won’t regret it. There’s way too much to summarize in 140 characters. =P
Apologies for the sarcasm lol, but there’s no way that I can boil the Bible down to 140 characters, no matter what you’re gonna leave something out. =)
I’m a sinner. Jesus paid the price for my sin. Three days later he rose again. He rose never to die again. So we can live in Heaven with Him. If you believe in your heart, and confess with your mouth that Jesus has forgiven your sin. One day you will live in Heaven with Him. (Not sure if this is less than 140 characters, I didn’t count.) 🙂
God’s holy. I’m not. I’ve earned punishment. But just because he wanted to, God took it and adopted me so I can have the joy of knowing Him.
Wow…I’m going to ponder this for a while and see what I come up with… 😉 This is a challenging question!
A good God chose to save rebels against their will through His death, making them Sons. They can do nothing to earn it so that all the glory goes to Christ for His mercy.
“Against thier will”? I’d be careful saying that. It’s kind of true, but really God changes our hearts to want what we need.
Yet that is what the Bible teaches. “You did not choose me, but I chose you” means that He chose us (and saved us) while we were in rebellion against Him and had no desire for Him, literally against our will. But I will adjust it for the sake of clarity.
Jesus came, lived, died, and rose again. That everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.
John 3:16 Acts 16:31 Romans 5:8
Oh, you’re right. Sorry for being a jerk about it.
You weren’t a jerk! You were quite polite! 🙂 No harm, no foul. I appreciate your pointing that out to me.
Jesus was born in a
manger. After living a perfect life, he died on the cross, ascended to the
depths and took the keys to death. He rose from the dead and now offers forever life.
… Upon using Microsoft characters counter, I’m five characters over…. oops.
Okay, good. Thanks!
Oh, Rachel, how could you?! Five characters over! For shame…
Bad news, we’re all sinners. Good news, Jesus payed the
price now we’re redeemed!
Even though I don’t think the gospel can be summarized in under 140 characters, I have to upvote this #CalvinistAtHeart XD
God wanted love, so he made people to love Him. They sinned, so the sinless Jesus taught them and died for them so they could be forgiven.
I don’t think it can either. It took an Almighty God an entire book. 🙂 But I thought I could put down a very short presentation of some of the more important posts.
Okay, just to be clear I don’t think this dq meant to ask for the whole counsel of Scripture. Try to stick with what we need to know for salvation.
Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead.
It’s not asking for a summary of the entire Bible, just the most basic Gospel message.
Creation Fall Redemption
God created us good. We fell into evil. God redeems us.
God’s perfection means he cannot be with sinful people & must punish sin. We’re sinful. Jesus was punished so we can be counted righteous & have a relationship with God.
It came out to exactly 140!
Humans were created good but became sinful. God is perfect
and cannot overlook sin, so Christ came to take the punishment and make a way
for us to live forever with God.
But I also agree with aforementioned point that while you can summarize the basic message, there is so much more to it and it’s impossible to get at it all in 140 characters.
But I do really like this question!
-Grace (trueandpure.wordpress.com)
God made us. Sin separates us from God. God loved us and provided a way for us to be saved. We can be saved by giving up control and accepting His free gift.
I think that’s about 140 characters.
I actually disagree with Taylor as much as I respect Him. You can see my thoughts on Calvinism and what the Bible says about it here:
thesoldiersofgod.com/calvinism-what-does-the-bible-really-say/
Sorry…
I’m a full fledged Calvinist, so… I think he’s definitely right. I just got a bit confused with the wording.
We are sinners who can’t ever attain righteousness, so God sent his Son to save us from eternal separation from Him. Because he loves us he gives us this choice.
Okay. I respect that. If you ever would like to look at things from the Indirect-Control perspective instead of the Direct-Control perspective, feel free to let me know bro. Have a good one!
Well said.
You did good, even with five extra characters. 🙂 I like your explanation!
Lol, a quintessential Josh answer…
Thanks! I have actually, but when I look at the Word I’m convinced that God is totally in control. If he wasn’t actively leading all things, there would have to be something he wasn’t controling. That would make God not only a wimp, but, by definition, he would stop being God.
Okay. I strongly believe that God created man and has complete power, but allows us to have free choice. If he didn’t, and he controled our actions, he would be responsible for our sin, and would be a sinner, thus making Him not God. In addition, the verses on used for Calvinism are vague and can be interpreted either for Calvinism or free choice.
I have so much more about it’s negative effects on Evangelism and humility as well, but regardless, I am so overwhelmed by work and school recently that I can’t handle participating in another online debate. However my hope is that anyone reading these messages would see the truth, no matter which of us are right. 🙂
I can respect that. Since you’re busy I’ll try to be quick. God doesn’t force us to sin. We are rebels, he wouldn’t have to. But we’re so caught up in our rebellion that we couldn’t choose him even if we wanted to. God has to do everything, and he gets all the glory. (Also I didn’t mean to sound like Calvinists make perfect Christians, or that we have a flawless understanding of Scripture. We’re still sinners, that’s why we all need grace in the first place.) Hope this makes sense. Thanks for your thoughts!
For God shows his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.(Romans 5:8)
Wait, Trent, you mean people have tried to debate you online about this? Weird… I wonder who they could have been! 😉
God created a perfect man. Sin made a chasm between God & man. Jesus is God’s solution to the chasm. He’s the only Bridge between God & man.
Characters with spaces – 140.
Ok, not meaning to cause a debate or anything, but if are in rebellion with out Gods choice, as in that’s our default position. Doesn’t that mean God created Rebels, ie Sinners. How can all Good, all Love create, Evil and Hate.
Also if God Only chooses a select few, why does it say in John 3:16 that Jesus died for the whole world, and that they who believe in him will have eternal life. Just in that verse it said Jesus Died for everyone not just those who God chooses, and that people will only be saved if ‘they’ believe in him. I’m not sure I’m I’m misunderstanding what you guys mean, but that’s just two points I wonder what you guys thought about it. I’d like to hear what you guys think 🙂
Good created us in his (good) image, but when we fell that image was corupted. Sin is our default because we’re fallen. God let it happen to show his goodness by saving us in the Gospel. John 3:16 shows that being saved happens through faith. But where does faith come from? That’s the thing. Our sin is so ingrained in us that we can’t choose God. He has to produce faith in us. If someone trusts in Jesus to rescue them from themselves that’s an act of the Spirit not them, and they will be saved.
I know. I mean listen, I’ve witnessed over texting before. My phone has a 140ish character limit, and it took me several messages to convey what I needed to, lol.
*bows*
I know right? That’s totally ridickerous. *runs and hides*
Just to tack on to what @disqus_oyvaFwmD2o:disqus said, if you look at the context, John 3:18 says “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” 😉
Thank you!
Ok. I’m sorry if you thought I was attacking you. I wasn’t. Just trying to clarify. My response was in reply to you saying, “there’s no way I can boil the Bible down to 140 characters.” I agree with that. But you can summarize the Gospel in 140 characters. It may take a lot more than that to explain it, but in answer to ‘What is the Gospel?’ I think you can do it in that. Hope this clears things up 🙂
I agree with you wholeheartedly Trent!!! Like you said, IF Calvinism were true, then Christ would be responsible for our sin…I believe God DID predestine us, but not in the “i’m gonna force you” sense…More like, He knew that we would be His children and through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we would desire to come to Him. I believe God uses people’s wrong choices to work together to glorify Him (Rom. 8:28), but I know he doesn’t CAUSE bad things to happen…He just allows them to happen; just like the story of Job. However, I also know God intervenes to prevent things from happening that are outside His perfect plan…(like the discussion on a previous question, understanding what people mean with “will” vs. “Plan” is important). God doesn’t force us to do anything, but when we are His children, our ultimate desire is to please the Lord so His will is naturally our desire….And if someone believes we can never go outside of God’s will, then they are saying (in my opinion) that we never sin; and that, as everyone here knows, is false. Or if they say we can never go outside God’s will, but we do sin…then I believe that’s a contradictory statement right there…..Anyway, hope this makes sense to all who read it! =)
Hey, Megan! I’m not going to debate you; this has been debated enough over here and on SOG, and I tend to get myself into the thick of it trying to give all the answers when I don’t know them all. But it is undeniable from Scripture that God does make people sin.
In Gen. 45:8, Joseph says to his brothers, “So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house…” Who was the one who sold Joseph into slavery? God did. He wasn’t just planning; He was sovereignly ordaining the brothers to do what they did to such a degree that Joseph’s conclusion was that it was as if they hadn’t even done it themselves, but it was totally God!
Isaiah 10:5-15 (I don’t have time to write the whole passage, but that’s better. If you have time, look it up and read it!) says, “O Assyrian, the rod of my anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few.”
Assyria had no intention of invading and destroying Israel. Those were not the intentions of their king’s heart. But we see that it was God who commissioned them against Israel (which remember is a sin, none can touch Israel and remain blessed) and God’s righteous anger that was being wielded by them.
Do you have alternate explanations for these passages?
As I told Megan above, I’m not going to get in a debate. Heaven knows I’ve been in too many of those on this topic around here, though I do believe it’s a very important one. But you asked a question, so I’ll try to answer it.
Okay, I don’t understand your first question. We chose in the fall to embrace sin, and in doing so, our nature’s have been contaminated and are now fallen. I was just discussing this with someone else last night. How could He create evil and hatred? Well for starters, God claims several times throughout the Psalms to hate the wicked, so hate is an essential part of His character. It wasn’t created, it’s always been as long as God has (which is forever). Secondly, the only reason I can think of that God would create evil is so He can be glorified through the saving of some and the righteous punishment of sin in others.
John 3:16 is usually interpreted through whatever lens you’re looking at the rest of the Bible through. If you believe we come to God by free will, then yes, you will read it that God loves everyone and it’s up to everyone. But as someone who believes “you did not choose Me, but I chose you” (can’t get much more clear than that), I would read the verse to say that He is explaining to Nicodemus that His salvation extends over all the world, not just Jews, not just Pharisees, but everyone.
You got to ask your question; now I’ll ask mine. 🙂 How do you deal with Rom. 9:22-24, “What if God, willing to show His wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction: and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles.”
Hi Taylor! In response to your Genesis passage, I would say Joseph is NOT saying God sold him into slavery…he’s saying God used the sin of his brothers for His glory and worked it out for His good plan. (Romans 8:28). And can I just ask, if you believe God “makes people sin”, then how can we trust Him? How could we trust a God who is going to punish us for our sins on Judgement Day and punishes us now in ways here on earth (Jonah for example) but we claim MAKES us do those things?? And using Jonah’s story: God was obviously displeased with Jonah’s rebellion and punished him..So are you saying God MADE Jonah sin and then just turned around and punished Him?? How can I trust a God who would do that??
In response to the Isaiah passage with which I’m not as familiar but I just reread, I would say this: Why is it a sin that Assyria would destroy a nation God sent them to destroy? Unless you are a pacifist, then do you not agree that fighting isn’t always a sin? Yes, if I’m interpreting that passage correctly, God sent Assyria into battle. It wasn’t in the plan of the King to go into battle but God put that in His heart because it was right in God’s eyes for a battle to take place at this time. I would say this was NOT an example of God making someone sin, but rather, to use someone (I don’t know if the King of Assyria was a christian or not) to accomplish His work.
To refer to verse 12 and so on where God is saying “Woe to the KOA (King of Assyria)” I would remind you that God is angry with the King becuase he was being arrogant and taking credit and glory when the glory should be given to God. Can I ask, why would God want the glory if what took place was sin? Do you really think God would be angry at the KOA and say, “Give ME the glory for this sin!!!” NO! That just doesn’t make sense!! Why would God want glory for sin?? and if he DOES make us sin, then why is he any more/less deserving of our respect that Satan? In fact, I’d say he’d be LESS deserving if He MADE us sin! Why?? Because the Devil doensn’t MAKE us sin…He tempts us and he tries to deceive us, but he doesn’t FORCE sin…So by what you are saying about God, and if you agree with what I’m saying about Satan, then you are saying Satan offers free will and Christ does not….
I’d also like to point you to the verse James 1:13 which says this: “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God
cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.” If you read verses 12-18 it provides much more context….
Hope this all makes sense…and I hope you aren’t thinking I’m being rude or harsh or anything!! I LOVE debates so feel free to refute what I have to say from your perspective! 😉 =D
Also, can I ask, where in that passage did it say that Assyria rose up against Israel?? (i forgot to address this part) and if it’s true that “no one can touch Israel” LITERALLY then why were they continually sold into slavery and involved in war??
Hey, Megan! So, let me be perfectly clear. I am not a theologian. I do not have a perfectly organized and consistent system of thought here. I simply see predestination in the Bible, so I believe it’s true.
I’m going to be blunt here, but is that what Joseph said? Joseph didn’t say “God worked through you”. He said “You did even do it; God was the one who did it.” There’s a big difference. Maybe that’s how you read the passage, but it’s not what the passage actually says, word-for-word.
How can I trust this God? Well, that’s kind of funny/ironic. I was just asking someone else that question last night who holds that God does not sovereingly make His plans happen, only hopes they do. Since we’re both wondering about this, I’ll return the favor and answer yours. So how can you trust a God who doesn’t make His will happen and whose desires are thwarted over and over again by man? How can you really call Him sovereign?
In answer to your question, I believe God’s sovereignty and man’s free will walk together. In the big picture, we can’t see God’s ordaining hand, so we make free will decisions that coincide perfectly with what He has ordained. How that works, I couldn’t tell you, but it seems to be Biblical.
So, my trust is in a God who promises to work things out for my good, even if I don’t see how. Let me give you an example. Let’s say tomorrow I get news my brother was killed in a car accident by a drunk driver. Now, consistently speaking, I can find my comfort in the fact that God’s will is happening, He has promised to work it out for my good, and that God has a bigger plan in this than I can see.
You can’t say that in your worldview, because God didn’t ordain the drunk driver to hit my brother, because that would be wrong. So… the drunk driver went out and killed him. So how can I trust a God who isn’t powerful enough to protect His children? This drunk driver just overruled God’s plan for my brother’s life!
My trust in God is that He’s sovereign! Not just able to enforce His will, but doing it. Being able to enforce His will, but allowing men to trump it does not sound sovereign to me, and certainly not like a God I’m inclined to put my faith in dangerous circumstances. Maybe He has a plan in this… or maybe some dude with a switchblade in his free will is doing what God doesn’t want to happen. Oops, sorry, Taylor. That wasn’t in God’s plan, but you’re a casualty on the stage because man’s free will trumps God’s purposes.
Israel is mentioned as Assyria’s target in V. 12. Now, hold on a moment! 🙂 Certainly God gets glory from sin at times! Was crucifying Jesus a sin? Yet is not God greatly glorified (so much so that Jesus rose and is sitting on the right hand of God, mission accomplished) through it? God is not enslaved to find His glory only through good behavior.
As I’ve said, I don’t know where man’s free will meets God’s sovereignty. But I offered two cases in which we see God ordaining man to sin, Joseph’s brothers to sell him into slavery and the king of Assyria to invade Israel.
Oh, and about your PS. 🙂 People can touch Israel (people do it all the time), it’s just a sin to.
About your verse in James. I don’t know. I honestly cannot explain it. But I also can’t deny that God’s sovereignty is seen overwhelming man’s free will, thank God! Because salvation is impossible to men who are slaves to sin unless God steps in and opens their eyes!
Let me also clarify: I too believe in predestination! However, I think it’s possible to believe in predestination and not believe God forces salvation. He does have ultimate control! I agree with you.! Actually, I agree with you on many things you say!!! There’s just one thing I disagree with you on and that is God making us sin vs. not…
In your example of the drunk driver incident: here’s my philosophy. Yes. it was in line with God’s perfect “plan” however, it was not according to His “will”. God never wants us to sin….but he allows sin to take place because he has given us free will; but the sin of people will never NOT have something good come from it (Romans 8:28 again..). So I would say this: the drunk man was sinning. Yes. God knew he was sinning. He ALLOWED that sin to happen, but he didn’t CAUSE it….Satan tempted the person and they fell into sin. God only allowed it. If something ultimately good wasn’t going to come from it, God wouldn’t have allowed it to happen. Does that make sense??
In response again to your Joseph example, I would say this: First of all, my wording in my last comment was bad….I do believe God DID send Joseph there…but it was through the sin of Joseph’s brothers which God used for His glory, but didn’t CAUSE…..Basically the same argument I used above…and same vers (Rom. 8:28).
To answer your question about God’s sovreignty, here is what I would say: There is a difference between God’s WILL and God’s PLAN….God allows Satan to tempt us and sometimes we falter, Christain or not. But GOd will NOT alow someone to sin in a way that brings ultimately no glory to God or has some ultimate purpose. (Not saying we’ll always know that purpose either). That’s where I think God’s sovreignty meets free will….We have the free will to do what we want, but God can and will prevent things from happening that bring no glory to Him. But I believe he doesn’t do this in a forceful way….but more so, causes other things we may or may not recognize to take place that prevent that thing from happening. Or, he changes hearts to give that person the DESIRE to do the right thing….He has the ultimate power, but he allows us free will!
So I think you and I agree on most things, but differ on the belief of “will” and “plan” and how God’s sovereignty is played out in day to day life. I agree with you that God causes all things to work for good even if I don’t see how…I agree with you there! I just believe the sins in the world aren’t CAUSED by God, but instead, ALLOWED by God….However, he will put his foot down (so to speak) when there is something that will not ultimately be used to glorify Him.
Let me explain what I mean about getting glory for sin: God gets the glory for the overcoming of sin…Where did the glorifcation of God ultimately lie in the crucifixion?? If it stopped there, then the truth is, God DIDN’T get the glory because he was defeated by sin..But it didn’t stop there!! Christ ROSE from the dead and conquered sin…!!! THAT’S where he was glorified…And that brings up a point: If Christ is pleased, glorified, and is the author of our sins; then why on earth (pun intended) would Christ need to come and die for us?? Christ is DISPLEASED with sin, but because of free will, he allows sin to happen.
And where in the Bible does it say “no one can touch Israel”?? I don’t feel like I can properly refute that until I understand it better…. =)
So here’s what I believe: God uses situations,people, what have you in our lives to give the evidence of His love and our need for Him, but it’s up to us to accept that…The Holy Spirit works to change our hearts and lives, but only when we desire to accept it….THe Lord ultimately works in our lives to GIVE us that desire…but he doesn’t force it….
I haven’t reread through this, so I hope it sounds okay and makes sense… =)
Okay, I’m going to have to think over the implications of your plan vs. will idea. Your question about Israel though. The Old Covenant says that God will curse those who curse Israel, and bless those who bless. I think invasion, mass murder, tearing down cities, and rape qualified as cursing Israel. 🙂 The references for that are Gen. 12:3, Zech. 12:1-14, and Zech. 2:8.
So we got off track discussing whether or not God makes people sin (which I confess I’m not positive about), but honestly, it’s really inconsequential to the discussion about my original comment. The issue that was taken was that I said “God chooses, overcoming their will”.
So since you believe in predestination, but don’t believe God overcomes our will, can you explain what you mean by predestination?
Here is my thought process. The Bible says lost people are slaves to unrighteousness and dead in sin. Rom. 3:9-12 says that no lost person chooses to do good, and Rom. 8:7-8 says that they are actually unable to do so. That is why I believe that a view of man’s lostness demands a God who sovereignly opens some people’s eyes from their enslavement and not other’s.
Oh, and quick tack on here. I do not consider myself a Calvinist at this point. I believe in sovereign grace. I’m not positive enough on several Calvinist doctrines to call myself one. Just so you know.
Hi Megan, I agree with you right up to the last paragraph.God definitely uses situationa like that and it’seems beautiful. But I think you might be misunderstanding the message of Calvinism. What you’re talking about, the doctrine of radical corruption, (sometimes called total depravity) doesn’t make God guilty for our sin. It just means that we are so corrupt by the fall that we can’t choose God. If there’s anything depending on us for salvation then God is limited by people. If that were true God wouldn’t be God, we would be. When we are saved he DOES overcome our wrong desire, but it is his chioce. If he didn’t force it I would still be carelessly running to my torture. In my sin I don’t want what I need but he gives it and I find out just how good He is.
Maybe look up Desiring God, the Gospel Coalition, or Tim Challies, they all have some great articles on these doctrines; where they’re found and how they are to be understood.
Well, I believe that when Paul tells us we are not to say we are followers of Apollos or of Cephas but of Jesus Christ, I think he would be the first to tack Calvin on there as well. So while I may say I agree with the doctrine of predestination and total depravity, I also have started trying not to call myself a Calvinist; rather a Christian who believes in this doctrine or that doctrine.
Hi Okie Gal! This is where I believe the position of the Holy Spirit in lives is being forgotten….The Holy Spirit works to change our hearts and give us the desire to serve the Lord…I admit, where I live, it’s late, so I’m not as fit for debating unfortunately…But I don’t believe things are DEPENDENT on us for salvation..but God, through the Holy Spirit, puts the desire in our lives for Christ and then when we accpet our hopless condition without Christ, we realize our need for a Savior and run to Him, but it starts with the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives…However, we still makes mistakes as Christians. We still step outside of doing God’s will…Yet, he never lets things happen outside His plan…Does that make sense?
That makes sense. For me saying I’m a Calvinist is just a sorter then saying I’m that girl that believes the Catholic doctrines of the faith and the doctrines of grace and ect.
Right, and I don’t hold anyone else to that conviction. It’s just a personal one. 🙂
Okay, that makes a lot more sense actually. God is making us trust him. I guess that was a lot of words to find out that we actually agree. Sorry to keep you up.
haha! No! You’re not keeping me up! I’m just upset my brain function is dying… =P
Okay, this is interesting. I agree with everything you said. Almost all Calvinists would. That’s almost predestination. 🙂 Interesting!
=) I’m still working on a response to your other comment… 😉 And you’ve given me a few passages to study more in depth… =)
Genesis 12:3 isn’t actually talking about Israel. If you look at the context of that verse, God is addressing Abram…As for the Zechariah passage, tbh, I don’t even understand what I was reading when I read it… =P I’m going to try and study it more to understand what it’s saying! Sorry I’m unable to answer that one…
So, like you are thinking through my will vs plan thing..I’m going to think through your Israel scenario!! I don’t have a lot of knowledge on the situation and I want to learn more!
Does my comment under Okie Gal answer your other questions and address your other comments clearly or no??
Not completely, but I’m ready to drop it. 🙂 I think the only difference between our views is that God chooses to open only some people’s eyes in mine, everyone’s in yours. Honestly though, I don’t have time to go any deeper. Take care!
Same here! I’m headed to bed soon! 😉 LOL….but I jsut want to clarify: I believe God is the one who opens the eyes of all believers; but I don’t believe God opens every person’s eyes because I don’t believe all people are christians…Not exactly sure what you meant when you said that, but I just wanted to clarify just in case… 😉 Thanks for the challenge and for giving me something to study and think about! =)
Ha, ha, what you just described in your last two comments is predestination. 😀 You’re not a Calvinist, since you one of the precepts is that God ordains every little thing that happens, but you just described sovereign grace theology. Ha, ha! We basically spent the morning arguing past each other on a topic we agree on.
@@TrentBlake7:disqus, I would like to invite you to our predestination debate on Revive. It seems you are more fit and have more time for debating the issue than 2/3 of the free will team, and we’d be more than happy to accommodate. I don’t feel that it is appropriate for you to continually bash people’s views and then run away when people begin to debate. I thereby think it would be to everyone’s benefit that you joined team free will in our structured debate — you can find the debate section in Revive, and if you aren’t there, I’ll invite you. 😀 I respect your views and your rights to hold those opinions, but it is not beneficial to everyone for us ( both we predestinationalists and free willers) *cough cough* to continue to just tweak each other off and never work through it fairly. All are welcome to watch, but participation is limited by the rules of engagement which are posted, again, in the Revive debate section. For those unfamiliar with Revive, you can join and view it at: http://www.revivingtheredeemed.org/index.php?r=user/auth/login
Thank you Danny for inviting me! I am a little concerned though. You said:
I apologize if that’s the way that came across but I don’t recall any circumstance where I have bashed anyone for their beliefs about predestination on this site. In fact, If anything, I believe I have been more restraintful than many of the other comenters who are in favor of Calvinism. All I’ve don’t is turned around the same type of arguement to certain commenters. If I were to respond to every Calvinist comment on this site, than I might see where your accusation would be valid. But right now, I’m having a very hard time seeing any circumstance (much less “continually”) where I have bashed anyone.
As for my “closing the discussion”, I do not have the power to do that except on my website, where I have control. Even there, I have allowed some commenters to spread their beliefs that I disagree with on topic to a limited degree. However it being my site, I will not let it be used to advocate any doctrine or belief that I feel goes against scripture. This includes not only Calvinism, but Athiesm, Mormonism, and Relativism as well to name a few. If you don’t agree with that, that’s fine, but you must respect that as my choice.
As far as the debate, like I said, I have become extremely busy to the point of extreme anxiety and depression. This os why I back out of dabates. not because I am unwilling to defend my faith. However because you publicly decided to challenge me, I will sincerely pray about thid an seek God’s guidance on whether or not I should accept your proposal. Until then I hope God helps us both grow closer to Him and accept His truth.
Now we’re tweeting the gospel? That sounds like fun! I’ll think about that. 🙂 by the way, y’all who have Twitter accounts, you should tweet what you came up with!
Are you new? I haven’t seen you before.
We welcome you to munchkin land. Oops, I mean the Rebelution. 😛
Yep! Plus it’s always good to have a quick way saying it so you can slip it into everyday conversation.
I’m terribly sorry. I came off way too strong in that. I acknowledge you have that right, and that some people have been jerks about it. I won’t push the issue about the debate — but I think it would be beneficial us all. I apologize for the way that came across, will you please forgive me for offending you?
I also meant to take the continually out of that, but it slipped my notice at the end. Terribly sorry about that!
I hope I wasn’t a jerk about Calvinism.
Well, I live in munchkin land (hehe Short people nation!) but I’m not new. I just changed my name and haven’t been on in a while. School….yeah. But Thank you for that welcome. I feel welcomed now :)/;P
You’re fine! =)
I will be praying as well, Trent. This is your call. Don’t get pushed into something you don’t want to do or don’t feel God wanting you to do either. As much as I would love to see a good, thoughtful discussion on the topic, it’s much more important that we please God in everything we do, you, me, and Danny. I will definitely be praying for wisdom for you!
Immorality ⇒ Immor†ality
The cross makes all the difference.
(I can’t exactly claim credit for this one, just so you know.)
Deus nos amou tanto, que enviou Seu Filho para salvar a todos aqueles que O aceitarem e logo virá nos buscar para viver a eternidade com Ele no Céu.
I love how you pointed not to just what we are saved from but what we are saved to 🙂 –the hope of His return and being face to face in His presence. ~AnnaGrace
Eu amo como você apontou não apenas o que somos salvos de mas o que somos salvos para 🙂 –a esperança de Seu retorno e estar cara a cara em Sua presença. ~AnnaGrace (googletranslate)
(That’s weird – I wrote another comment here, but it disappeared…)
Haha, yeah. 🙂
God. Man. Jesus. Response.
In the beginning god created the heavens and the earth. And while we were still sinners Christ died for us 3 days he rose alive again in heaven. He lives in me
( exactly 140 words )
“Do what I say or else I’ll torture you the same way I did my son”
-God
Hey guys, great discussion! It’s good to see you guys willing to discuss your differences – it’s so important to know what you believe and why. I would consider myself Calvinist, but I had dated a guy a couple of years ago that came from a different point of view. Though I don’t agree with his point of view concerning predestination and man’s relationship to God, it was insightful to understand His perspective and challenged me to study more deeply into the Scriptures, to dive into context, to ask opinions and views from both sides, and to know what I believe and why.
So, just wanted to say good on you for being able to have a tricky discussion like this!