Agent Causation, Divided Sense of Freedom and God does what's Best

Here's my response to Turretinfan's latest post.

Gabcast! Dan's blog #10

I also wanted to extend Turretinfan the offer once again to join me in a conference call.

God be with you,
Dan

Comments

Anonymous said…
Dan,

I posted this over at Turrinten Fan's blog. Is this a definition of Arminianism you would embrace?

Let me pose my understanding of Arminianism and see if it is correct:

Arminians believe in total depravity but explain it away tacitly because "once" they attain to a relationship perfection with God equal to our first parents, Adam and Eve before the fall as described in Genesis Three they believe that all their good works after such perfection is attained are acceptable to God and acknowledged by God at the Judgment as acceptable, i.e., the wheat and tares and the sheep and goats found at Matthew 13 and 25?

That definition may be an over simplification and board in reach in defining the Arminian's faith??
July 17, 2008 at 4:55 PM
Godismyjudge said…
Dear Michael,


That's not the way I would explain Arminianism. Perhaps this post will help?

link

God be with you,
Dan
July 19, 2008 at 8:51 AM
Anonymous said…
Well Dan

none of the above works for me!

Fortunately for both of us, I hope, I have two real true stories that establish the Truth about Salvation. Both involve me.

The two stories.

Story number one.

I went camping with my dad, some friends and neighbors.

We got set up at the campsite.

There was a watering hole large enough for us to swim in. It was deep enough to drown in in some areas.

One day in the late morning around 11 a.m. I went in for a swim across this watering hole. On the side that I entered the watering hole, there was a shore. On the opposite side, the side I was swimming towards there was not.

I decided to go swimming but forgot to tell anyone. I told no one I was going to go swimming so no one was aware of it.

I swam across ok. It was an effort doing it though and I needed to get out of the water for two reasons. One, I cramped up in one leg. Two, I was tired of swimming and did not feel like I could turn around and swim back to the shoreline side where I began my swim.

I then realized the problem. On the side I was now on there was no shore, just about a two or three foot ledge. I attempted to pull myself out. As I tried and tried, it became impossible because of the muddy nature of the ledge. I would get up part way and slip right back into the water. Now I was indeed in trouble for an 8 year old. I was gulping up muddy water and hollering and gulping and panicking. My cramped leg got worse and things were going from bad to worse! I became horribly frightened tiring out quickly trying and trying to get out of the water.

All of a sudden I hear a splash and then I am quite literally being lifted out of the water from underneath thrown onto the dry ground above me. Then as I laid there exhausted I see a fifteen or sixteen year old girl, a part of our camping party, crawl up over the ledge and sit up next to me.

I got saved!

Story number two.

The next story is when I was training for water rescues as a part of the training I was required to go through to be a volunteer fireman for the district I was living in. We were an all volunteer force and the largest district in the county. One of the things I was taught is if the one being rescued fights with you, back off until they stop, calm down or go unconscious, because you run the risk fighting them to tire out or cramp up and now there would be two needing to be rescued not one.

I am now a Spirit filled Christian. Until God came to me I was not seeking God. I did not Love God nor did I know who Jesus Christ really was though I came to a knowledge of Christ at the age of 4 and a half.

I say it like this. I had an idea who Jesus was and what He did for me. I just did not know it in the same way God knows.

It wasn't until one day when, by the Sanctification Work of the Holy Ghost, He opened my mind up to understand that "Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God" and that I could, should and from that moment on would call upon His name "Jesus", for it is He who would "save" and continue to "save" His people from their sins, cf. Matthew 1:21.

I have since come to understand something more of what these verses mean:

Rom 5:14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
Rom 5:15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.
Rom 5:16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.
Rom 5:17 For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
Rom 5:18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.

and

Eph 2:1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
Eph 2:2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience--
Eph 2:3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Eph 2:4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
Eph 2:5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved--
Eph 2:6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
Eph 2:7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
Eph 2:9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.


Now I understand more of God and His working in my life today. What Adam lost in relationship with God, I gained through Christ because of the Faith that came into me as I heard the Word and it came alive in me.

Now I understand more of "Who" the Way, the Truth and the Life of Christ in me is; He now is the Hope of Glory in me.

Now I want to know and understand what others believe and what they mean when they claim to "know" Jesus Christ and Him crucified, daily.

It is a daily walk now.

Now I am alive in Christ. It is not me that "keeps" me alive in Christ but it is God with Christ and the Holy Ghost daily coming to me the sinner/Saint that keeps me in the Love of God and commissions me to good works in Christ:

Eph 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Eph 2:11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called "the uncircumcision" by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands--
Eph 2:12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
Eph 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.


Now I can daily lay hold of Eternal Life and daily I can make my calling and election sure.

It seems to me the words above: "now I can" "lay hold of" and "I can make my" are the issue.

Though I say "I can". I know it is not me but rather it is now Christ in me, the Hope of Glory and the "life" I now live I live by Faith in another, my God, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, these three. They lead, I follow.

That there is much easier typed out or said than experienced fully!

Not in this lifetime will I realize fully as I will when I too pass to my place in that Place of Glory prepared for me and for everyone who dies covered in the Blood of the Lamb!

Joh 8:21 So he said to them again, "I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come."
Joh 8:22 So the Jews said, "Will he kill himself, since he says, 'Where I am going, you cannot come'?"
Joh 8:23 He said to them, "You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.
Joh 8:24 I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins."


God be with you
michael
July 19, 2008 at 4:28 PM
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