No one who believes in the Bible disputes the fact that election is taught there. It isn’t the reality of election, or even its source, author, time, or goal that has elicited so much venom among professing Christians. It is rather the basis of divine election, that is to say, why and on what grounds some are elected to salvation and life and others are not. There are essentially only three options, the first of which is more pagan than Christian. 1. It has been argued that God elects those who are good. In this view, election is a debt God is obliged to pay, not a gift He graciously bestows. It is on the basis of inherent or self-generated righteousness that God elects men and women. This is the doctrine of Pelagianism, named after the British monk Pelagius who popularized the view in the fifth century. One would be hard-pressed to find an advocate of this perspective within the professing Christian church. 2. Others contend that God elects some who are bad who, notwithstanding their being bad, choose to exercise faith in Jesus Christ. It is on the basis of this foreseen faith that God elects them. This is the doctrine of Arminianism, named after the Dutch theologian James Arminius (1560-1609). It has also been called Wesleyanism because of the influence of John Wesley. 3. There is the view that God elects some who are bad who, because of their being bad, are not of themselves able to exercise faith in Christ. It is on the basis of His own sovereign good pleasure that God elects them. This is the doctrine of Calvinism, named after the French theologian John Calvin (1509-1564).
Sam Storms

Credentials Of The Bible

Credentials Of The Bible Credentials

So what are this book’s credentials? I could say to you, “I have just written a book, and it is the Word of God. It’s a great book, took me a year to write it.” And you would have every right to say, “PROVE IT!”

There are 30 or 40 books in the various world religions, each one claiming to be a superior revelation. Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words shall not pass away” (Matt.24:35). How important do you think the earth is? Well, Jesus says, “Heaven and earth will pass away…”

The Bible does not attempt to defend its inspiration. You will not find any verse that says, “This book is really true, so you better believe it!!” But here is an interesting thing. Genesis opens with the words, “God said,” 9 times in the first chapter. The statement, “Thus says the Lord” appears 23 times in the last Old Testament book — Malachi. So you have “God says” from Genesis to Malachi.

“The Lord spoke” appears 560 times in the first five books of the Bible alone. Isaiah claims at least 40 times, his message came directly from the Lord; Ezekiel, 60 times, and Jeremiah, 100 TIMES! And at least 3800 times in the Old Testament, “The Lord spoke” appears. And the Lord Jesus quoted from at least 24 different Old Testament books — that’s right, He just quoted.

These are facts that will be valuable for a person with an open heart — not that you have to throw your head away in order to believe these facts; but, if you do not want to believe, nothing will convince you. Voltaire, 250 years ago, held a copy of the Bible in his hand and said, “In 100 years this book will be forgotten, eliminated.”

What is hilarious is that 100 years later, to the day, his house was made the headquarters of the Geneva Bible Society, and they were distributing Bibles out of his house! God has an incredible sense of humor!

Say you were going to write a book, and this was how you had to write it: take 40 different writers for a start, totally different writers — some highly educated, even doctors. Then get some farmers. Go and dig a guy out of a ranch and say, “I would like you to help me write a book.” Then you find some fishermen — you go down to the wharf — a couple of guys from San Francisco, and say, “Hey! listen, help us write a book.”

And they
say, “Sure, fine…we will help you.” And then you get them to write on the following things: religious themes, poetry, ethics, science, pholosophy, the creation of the universe and where it’s going (throw in a few things about where they think it will all end.) You collect all that, and then … oh, by the way, you have to separate these people so they can’t communicate by phone or telegram.. .only possibly word of mouth, passed down over the years.

Ah yes, years…you collect all this stuff over about one and a half thousand years, and compile the whole thing in one book. What would you have? I suggest you take a biology textbook from 60 years ago, and compare it with one today. And that is just 60 YEARS! I know what you would have, you would have the most motley junk you have ever seen in tour whole life — with people totally contradicting each other! But that is not what you have when you read your Bible. The more you read this book, the more incredible the unity of it. Because the more you get into it, the more incredibly detailed it is, and you find there are not 40 people who wrote it, but one person. ‘ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͸ ³ ****** ON**LINE VISALIA ****** ³ ³ 3/12/2400 24 Hours a Day FidoNet 205209 ³ ³ OVER 300 BIBLICAL TEXT FILES ³ ³ BIBLE STUDIES, CULTS, NEW AGE, CREATION TO ABORTION ³ ÔÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ209-734-9412ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ&fraq34;