GRACE ALONE

GRACE ALONE
He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness,
but according to His mercy,
by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,
whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
so that being justified by His grace
we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Titus 3:7

But the free gift is not like the offense.
For if by the one man's offense many died,
much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man,
Jesus Christ, abounded to many.
Romans 5:15

I think it well to turn a little to one side that I may ask my reader to observe adoringly the fountain-head of our salvation, which is the grace of God. "By grace are ye saved." Because God is gracious, therefore sinful men are forgiven, converted, purified, and saved. It is not because of anything in them, or that ever can be in them, that they are saved; but because of the boundless love, goodness, pity, compassion, mercy, and grace of God. Tarry a moment, then, at the well-head. Behold the pure river of water of life, as it proceeds out of the throne of God and of the Lamb! What an abyss is the grace of God! Who can measure its breadth? Who can fathom its depth? Like all the rest of the divine attributes, it is infinite.
- Charles H. Spurgeon, All Of Grace

Cambridge Declaration - 5 Solas of the REFORMATION

Sola Scriptura - Scripture Alone
Solus Christus - Christ Alone
Sola Gratia - Grace Alone
Sola Fide - Faith Alone
Soli Deo Gloria - The Glory of God Alone

Unwarranted confidence in human ability is a product of fallen human nature ... God's grace in Christ is not merely necessary but is the sole efficient cause of salvation. We confess that human beings are born spiritually dead and are incapable even of cooperating with regenerating grace. We reaffirm that in salvation we are rescued from God's wrath by his grace alone. It is the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit that brings us to Christ by releasing us from our bondage to sin and raising us from spiritual death to spiritual life. We deny that salvation is in any sense a human work. Human methods, techniques or strategies by themselves cannot accomplish this transformation. Faith is not produced by our unregenerated human nature. 

When Arminians steal God's promise to Calvinists!

During my 25 years in nominal American Churches I remember hearing one promise from God's Word more than any others. Please, open your Bibles to Romans 8:28 and follow along with me.

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,
I've probably heard 300+ sermons that reference this one promise of God, but NOT ONE Arminian Free-will "church" will preach it in context of either the chapter or the book. So let's look a little further: does the Word of God say that God will work out everything for good for everyone? Are things in Hell working out well for damned sinners?! Is Hitler snuggled up tight in a soft bed in Heaven tonight?
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. So it is not a Universal promise for all, but only for a select - only for those whom He has called according to His purpose? I don't remember being taught that in the Catholic/Church of Christ. Does God's Holy and inerrant Word say more on the subject? For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He (Jesus) might be the firstborn among many brothers. WOW, that sounds just like those crazy Reformers John Calvin and Martin Luther! Does God's Word continue...tell me more. And those whom He predestined He also called, and those whom He called He also justified, and those whom He justified He also glorified. So everyone whom God Predestined gets Called and Justified (Biblical word for Saved) and all those whom He Justifies gets to be Glorified in Heaven? That's Unbelievable! Why didn't anyone ever tell me? Its like He's had all this planned from the Beginning!
(This is where you should turn to Ephesians and read chapter 1 - to the Glory of God!)
 Well surely that's all there can't be more right? But wait! what if my sin keeps dragging me down won't Satan gain the upper hand in even 1 case and that Elect sinner will have to go to hell? Nope; What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all(us here is speaking of the Elect, Predestined, Called and Justified), how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's Elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So Arminian Pastors- you who don't believe in any of this Calvinism (with its Election, Predestination, and Limited Calling) don't steal our promise - that is the promise to the Elect, Predestined or Called. If your not one of these - that promise is not for you! Amen.

Unbelievers & The Chosen

1 Peter 2: 6-10

Christ Jesus

“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious,
and whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame.”

Unbelievers - predestined to stumble

So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,

“The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”

and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.”

They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

The Chosen (the Elect, those Predestined for Faith, the Called, the Saints, the Church)

 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Thomas Watson slams Bob Rell!

A Never-dying Appetite for Sin!

They were seared by intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues - but they refused to repent and glorify Him. Men gnawed their own tongues in agony and cursed the God of Heaven because of their pains and their sores - but they refused to repent of what they had done! Rev 16: 9 & 11

If God would let men live forever - they would sin forever!

Some think it harsh, that for the sins committed in a few years - they should undergo eternal torment. But here lies the justice and equity of it - it is because sinners have an everlasting hunger for sin in them. Their stock of corruption is never fully spent. They have a never-dying appetite for sin - which is justly punished with a never-dying worm! Their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched! Mark 9:48

Sin is worse than Hell! Torment has its epitome in Hell - yet nothing in Hell is as bad as sin. Hell is of God's making - but sin is not of God's making. Sin is the devil's creature. The torments of Hell are a burden on to the sinner - but sin is a burden to God!

In the torments of Hell, there is something which is good, namely, the Execution of Divine Justice. There is justice to be found in Hell - but sin is a piece of the highest injustice. Sin would rob God of His glory, Christ of His purchase, and the soul of its happiness.

Sin is the most hateful thing - for it is worse than the torments of Hell. 

You just got schooled by a Puritan punk!

Gay & Christian?

first the bad news- Romans ch 1, 1 Corinthians ch 6 and Jude (Jesus' Brother) read them - please;

By Thomas Brooks 1669
One Sin allowed, wallowed and tumbled in!

To Turn from some sins - but not from all, is gross hypocrisy!
One sin stripped the Fallen Angels of all their glory!
One sin stripped our First Parents of all their dignity and excellency!
One Fly in the box of precious ointment, spoils the whole box.
One Thief may rob a man of all his treasures.
One Disease may deprive a man of all his health.
One strong Tornado may blow down and blow away all a man's comforts.
Just so - one Sin delighted and wallowed in, will make a man miserable forever!

One sin allowed, wallowed and tumbled in, is all sufficient to deprive a man forever of the glorious presence of God! In the Law, the person who had but one spot of leprosy in any part of his body was accounted a leper, although the rest of his body was sound and whole; and accordingly he was to be shut up, and shut out from the society of the people of God, Leviticus 13. Just so - one sin, one leprous spot, allowed and beloved - will forever shut a man out from the glorious presence of God!

One sin wallowed in, will as certainly deprive a man of the blessed vision of God, and of all the treasures, pleasures, and delights which are at God's right hand - as a thousand sins! What can be the outcome of this, but ruin and damnation?

It was a sore vexation to King Lysimachus, that he lost his earthly kingdom for one drink of water. O Sirs! it will be an everlasting vexation to such, who for one lust shall at last lose not an earthly kingdom - but a heavenly kingdom!


finally the good news -  Are you a Sinner? Christ died for Sinners; Believe on Him for Justification: 
Romans 5:6 & 8-10 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life. 

I Corinthians 6: 9- 11 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,  nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

The Emergent Church Creed

I believe, but not with absolute certainty,
in a majestic mysterious divine being who cannot be comprehended,
the initiator of Darwinian Evolution.

And in Jesus, whom we agree to follow with a humble hermeneutic,
who was conceived by the Mother Spirit (aka Sarayu from The Shack)
born of Mary who probably wasn’t a virgin 
(it really wouldn't matter if she was or wasn’t)
who was crucified under Pontius Pilate
in order to expose the evils of the Roman Empire and motivate 
us to defect from all Imperial framing stories.
On the third day He/She rose in the hearts of His/Her followers 
(getting hung up in Modernist arguments for or against Jesus' 
bodily resurrection entirely misses the point and the beauty 
of the resurrection narratives) 
He/She ascended into heaven and
He/She is dreaming and hoping that we’ll follow His/Her 
examples of feeding the poor, embracing the “other” and 
non-violent passive resistance and thereby dismantle the 
theo-capitalist suicide machine and create an economically 
sustainable and socially just Kingdom of God on Earth  
(aka Global Marxist Socialism)
so that He/She can return, glorify us and give us all a big group hug.
 
I believe the mysterious divine being embraces all of us in community
through questions and conversations. 
(Answers are not needed and only impede the journey.)
Homosexuality is a gift to be embraced instead of a sin to be repented of,
and that there are also followers of god in the way of Allah, Buddha, and Vishnu.
 
I believe that Love Wins and
that the divine being will ultimately help us all embrace the divine spark 
(Imago dei) within all of us so that we can become one with the great 
mysterious majestic spirit and experience self-actualization, the next 
evolutionary leap and the life of the ages.
Peace out.
Namiste