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Summary

In this episode, Stephen Atnip delivers a compelling lecture on the topic of Calvinism, addressing its core tenets and the misconceptions surrounding them. He begins with a heartfelt musical introduction, setting a spiritual tone before transitioning into a detailed examination of Calvinist beliefs, particularly focusing on the concept of total hereditary depravity. Atnip emphasizes the importance of understanding the theological implications of Calvinism, arguing that it misrepresents the nature of God and humanity. He highlights the need for evangelists to engage with Calvinists thoughtfully, using scripture to counter their arguments and misconceptions about salvation and human nature.

Throughout the lecture, Atnip discusses the five points of Calvinism encapsulated in the acronym TULIP, providing insights into each tenet and offering practical advice for evangelism. He stresses the significance of approaching discussions with Calvinists with a clear understanding of their beliefs while also being prepared to challenge them with biblical truths. Atnip’s passionate delivery and deep knowledge of scripture aim to equip listeners with the tools necessary to engage in meaningful conversations about faith and salvation, ultimately encouraging a return to the core teachings of the New Testament.

Chapters

00:00 Musical Introduction and Opening Prayer
05:42 Introduction to Calvinism and Its Relevance
06:42 Understanding Evangelism and Its Scope
09:11 The Landscape of Calvinism in America
11:27 Exploring the TULIP Acronym
15:49 Total Hereditary Depravity Explained
27:18 Unconditional Election and Its Implications
35:38 Limited Atonement: Who Did Christ Die For?
36:29 Irresistible Grace: The Role of the Holy Spirit
40:50 Practical Engagement with Calvinists
47:49 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Transcript *This transcript was automatically generated and may contain errors.*

Stephen Atnip (00:04)
I appreciate the opportunity to get to talk with you every time I’ve had the opportunity for the past few years. It’s very nice to be able to sit with my brethren and to enjoy a few moments together talking about our eternal inheritance in Jesus. This lectureship is about taking the gospel to the lost. I want you to know that that’s not the full meaning of evangelism.

Evangelism is also taking the gospel to the church. Evangelism is about teaching and preaching. Evangelists are to teach both in the church and outside the church. We are to train men to be evangelists. They are an office in the church according to Ephesians chapter four. Now my point in bringing that up to you is that when we talk about taking the gospel to the lost,

That is a part of evangelism that, in my opinion, has been lost to a great degree.

with regard to the office of evangelists that we have set within the church. We’ve almost brought that office and left it in a pulpit inside of one of our church buildings. But I want every one of us to always remember if we are evangelists in the church, not everybody is. But if we are, at least, we are all to be lights of the world. But that office of evangelists, if you’re a part of that and you think that the reason why you’ve been taught to preach is so you can go find a pulpit somewhere,

and stay there and be done with it? No, you’ve only got a part of what that is. And a part that we’re trying to emphasize at this time is about taking the gospel to the lost. As such, search these lessons for practical helps. Listen to me again, practical helps among the various groups that you’re going to be addressing in your efforts to seek and save the lost. I beg you to study in whatever area

you’re in, if you know that there’s a particular religious group among you, study about that so you can go and teach among them. It does make a difference as you’ll see in just a moment. We almost lost a young man in preaching school in Utah during one of our evangelistic campaigns. He came back when he got in the car, said, I’m thinking about becoming a Mormon. Now my brethren,

He should never have been on that mission trip. I hate to say that, but it’s the truth. He should never have been on that mission trip.

I actually made the statement that he’s gonna need some actual help to the leader of it. He said, you’re just upset because you don’t like him. And I thought, no, I love him. That’s why I’m upset. And I want him to go to heaven. But there are various groups that we seek to seek and save. The group that I’m asked to address are Calvinists. Those professing some form of Calvinism today are also referred to as evangelical Protestants, sometimes evangelical Reformed.

While 23 % of US adults I’m talking about across the United States identify as evangelical Protestants, 52 % of those live in the South. That’s where we are. And where I am in North Florida, it’s one of the strongholds, if you will, for evangelical Protestantism. Our field of evangelism is extremely large.

Just among the Calvinists, this group is strong among the Presbyterians greatly here in across the Southeast and the Baptist and most of the community churches that you’re seeing cropping up all over the place. They’re changing their names, but not their doctrines. The strongest characteristic of this group is the teaching of faith only for salvation. has to be understood that Calvinism goes far beyond the teaching of faith only, but

the theology behind it and the reasoning behind it is what brings them to faith only. This one tenet, faith only, is held by all who hold some degree of Calvinism and even by other groups of Protestants who would deny that they are Calvinists. Still, they hold that tenet and they sometimes don’t know why. The Protestant reformers most responsible for what we call Calvinism today were Martin Luther and John Calvin.

But there were some differences even between these two reformers while John Calvin taught God predestined all men to their eternal destinies, both the saved and the loss that sometimes referred to as double predestination. Luther did not believe that God predestined men only to be lost, but only to be saved. And if you can figure out the difference in them, you let me know.

Today, evangelical Protestants hold a hodgepodge, if you will, of varying concepts that stem from Calvinistic teachings. Some believing in faith only with no works. Others actually will add works to faith, but generally as a sign that you are already saved. Others will have faith plus works as well.

Some believe a man can lose his salvation, but did you know there are some mainline Calvinists who believe in, who do not believe in that concept. But the main mainline Calvinists are referred to once saved, always saved. I’m going to address this lesson to teaching mainline Calvinists, okay? And along the way, we’re gonna hit a bunch of these tenets that all these groups are gonna hold in one form or.

another, but I’m not doing it just for the purpose of saying, did you know, I want to address some applicatory ⁓ helps with you as you teach them. These mainline Calvinists hold to what they term the quote, five graces, five graces, more generally known among churches of Christ by the acrostic tulip T U L I P. However, the personal worker

needs to remember something. Not all Calvinists believe in every facet of Tula. Therefore it would be best when teaching, you do not assume what your listener believes and walk up one side and down the other side of him and teaching him with regard to something he doesn’t believe anyway. In other words, do not tell the person with whom you are studying what he or she believes, listen.

and then deal with the mind of the person you’re working with based on what they tell you they believe in whatever facet they may bring before you. When you go forth to battle or I go forth to teach the loss, you’re going to battle. Do y’all understand? This is a battle. This is a genuine warfare and the consequences of it are not just some temporal battle won or lost. It is an eternal consequence. There’s an eternal.

Consequent this is the greatest battle ever fought. It’s it’s greater than World War one. It’s greater than World War two This is the war of all wars For mankind, but the battle is not fought with physical weapons Paul describes this battle He says for though we walk in the flesh We do not war after the flesh. He didn’t say we don’t war at all

He said, don’t war after the flesh for the weapons. Yeah, we have weapons. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. what strongholds do you have in mind, Paul? Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing into captivity, every thought to the obedience of Christ. Ours is on a battlefield.

of thought. All references here will be from the King James. tell you something different and I’m fixing to give you another translation. Now the GWN has also been called God’s word translation pair faces it this way. And it’s a marvelous paraphrase. says, of course we are human, but we don’t fight like humans. The weapons we use in our fight are not made by humans rather. They are powerful weapons with God.

are from God. With them we destroy people’s defenses. That is their arguments. When you go out, somebody sits there with a set of arguments upon which they’re basing all that they believe about God and the world in their minds. And it says our job is to destroy those defenses, their arguments, and all their intellectual arrogance that opposes the knowledge of God.

In doing that, we take every thought captive so that it’s obedient to Christ. Ours is warfare of the mind. We’re battling to destroy false arguments that hold men in sin and send them to an eternal hell. Even as in Paul’s day, we battle for the hearts of men, their inner man. When Calvinists go forth to battle,

They fight their warfare in mainline Calvinism with five arguments. We shall examine each of these and offer some answers. Hopefully commensurate with the brevity of the session. I can’t give you all the answers. To help us remember these five tenets, we are expanding those acrostic letters tulip, T-U-L-I-P. The T in that acrostic stands for total.

hereditary depravity. The first arrow, the first weapon in the Calvinist quiver is an argument that human nature was totally corrupted by Adam’s sin in the garden, inferred to it sometimes as original sin. I know I’m not telling you something you’ve never heard before, but I want you to understand what it means. This corruption left all subsequent humans as spiritually dead.

They do not have any power. Does a dead man have a power to do anything?

Calvinists teach that human nature cannot even hear the word of, you could preach to a man who’s dead in sin to the cows come home and he can’t hear you.

He can’t hear you.

Calvinist teaches they cannot hear God’s word. They cannot believe God’s word They cannot understand God’s word and they certainly cannot obey God’s word I want to read you a quote from a sermon by Calvinist about the name of Richard Spencer

It’s entitled, Dead Men Can’t Believe. This is what your pulpits and your people in the pew in places where Calvinism is strong, here’s what they’re hearing. And so coming back to my question here, is every single human being capable of obeying God’s command to repent and believe on Jesus Christ and be saved? The answer must, and here’s what he says, obviously, be no.

It cannot be possible for those who are dead in their transgressions and sins, who are by nature enemies of God, to willingly turn away from themselves and turn to God for salvation. The theological term for this condition is total depravity. Every single human being ever conceived and born, and he had to add a little phrase in here, by natural means. You’ll see why he adds that later.

Every single human being ever conceived and born by natural means is totally Depraved you’re dead man. You should have a sign like little dog Rover. You’re dead all over It’s done This does not mean that we are as bad as we can be I don’t know how dead man gets any debtor but it means that every aspect of our being is affected by sin

Our mind, our hearts, our affections, everything about us is tainted by sin. We inherit our sinful nature from our parents. This is from a sermon preached.

And there would have been people who heard it, who then take it and go out armed for battle against you.

The studied Calvinist is completely aware of the great problem he faces in making that argument. He’s not gonna bring it to you. We’re not so much seeing that the problem’s with it, but boy, he does. Don’t you think he doesn’t? Jesus Christ was completely human. He was completely God.

The apostle John states that if anyone teaches you that Jesus Christ did not come in the flesh, he is an antichrist. All those teaching original sin, both Catholic and Protestant have had to face that verse. So then they had to find a way to let Jesus be a fleshly human and yet not have original sin and be to pray. You see the problem?

You catch the problem out of that? You keep that in your arsenal always. I’ve got some other verses I’ll be dealing with later. You keep that in your arsenal always. John knew about these individuals long ago because the Holy Spirit told him. He gave you a weapon to face that down. Catholics created the doctrine because they needed to do something about that. They were teaching that,

Jesus had no sin. Well, how could he be born without it? Well, they didn’t know about the Baptist argument later, but they had their own argument. He said, a doctrine of immaculate conception. Mary was born without original sin. So Christ might be born without original sin. See, his flesh then is not our flesh. It’s different. That’s very important for you to keep in your arsenal.

The Calvinists denied the immaculate conception because it is nowhere found in scripture, they said. Well, what do they teach? You gotta deal with the same problem. Well, original sin can only pass through the father, not the mother. I want you to know that in the same passage that the Catholic found his immaculate conception, that identical passage is where the Calvinist goes to find his

Sin comes from the Father and only a fleshly Father.

Spencer’s sermon remember stated that only persons born of natural parentage inherit original sin remember that statement I Say that Jesus wasn’t born a national pair of natural heritage or Bringing in natural parentage

So Calvinists teach, they reach the same conclusion about all men having original sin, but only if the being has a natural fleshly father, which Jesus did not. But there’s not a single passage in the entire Bible that states that Adam’s original sin is passed on at all, much less only by the father. Consequences fall on Adam’s children, but not guilt.

And they know that that’s in Scripture, but they still teach it. The Calvinist is not a whit better off than the Catholic.

in defending such a belief. Spencer points out that his doctrine on total hereditary depravity teaches that every, every aspect of our human nature is tainted by that sin. Our mind, our hearts, our affections. The reality is that if human nature is inherently corrupted and guilty due to original sin, then Christ, quote, who came in the flesh must share that corruption. Of course, they say no.

No, because this is different. Therefore, since that happened to Jesus, Jesus would not have been without sin though, if you allow flesh to be flesh. If you change the human nature of Jesus, you can’t have a savior that can be tempted in all points, like as we are. Hebrews four and verse 15, yet without sin.

Jesus was made a human being. Listen to this carefully. The Bible saw these guys coming a long time ago. Jesus was made a being in nature in totality. Listen to this in Hebrews two and verse 14. For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood,

He also likewise took part of the same. Not different, the same. That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil, Hebrews 2, 14. Whatever our flesh and blood is, Jesus quote,

Likewise took part of the same. There are two words in that. You just can’t miss them. Listen, two words that demand the conclusion that whatever I am, he is, and whatever he is, I am with regard to his humanity. First, we note the word for likewise. It means the idea of quote, in just.

the same way. That’s the first word. Second word is same. That’s pertaining to that which is, listen this carefully, these are dictionary concepts from the first century in the meaning of the language. Pertaining to that which is identical to something. The same thing identically. And the Catholic comes along and says, well no. Well who do you believe, the Catholics or the word of God?

The Baptist comes along and says, no. Well, who do you believe? The Baptist? The evangelical reform? The Calvinist? Who do you believe?

You remember they got the problem, you don’t. How they gonna deal with this passage? And you better bring it up one day. If any of them ever start in on this thing of total depravity, well, you can’t understand what’s going on in here, which has always bothered me. Let me just tell you something, just for a moment. It’s always bothered me that they come in there and tell me, and tell all people that they’re dead in sin, can’t know anything, can’t think anything, and couldn’t understand the word of God if they won’t. And I say, well, what are you explaining to me?

Can you explain to me as a human being what God Almighty in the heavens who created me in my mind cannot? Come on, man.

The Lord saw the argument coming 2000 years ago. He defeated it by pointing out that the Lord’s human nature was identical to ours so that he might die as a human being like all other human beings. His taking on our identical human nature was necessary for him to die for us. Neither the Catholic nor the Calvinist will attribute original sin to Jesus’ human nature. They both

Say the Bible’s a lie. It is not. Since Jesus’ humanity is identical to ours and he has no original sin, then we don’t either. Are you listening? What is the easy answer to original sin? Jesus Christ come in the flesh. Said so many years ago.

Yet, paper scratch your heads over today. Many members of the church go out trying to deal with these individuals. Look, take the weapon with you.

His human nature is identical to ours. So ours is not depraved with no ability to hear and obey. Second part of this is unconditional lack. The second tenet of that is if man is indeed totally depraved, remember all of this entire deadly plant, this deadly tulip starts from that first part, total hereditary depravity, original sin, if you will.

So if man is indeed totally depraved, if man is without a do anything, then the only way for a man to be for someone other than man to decide whether a particular person will be lost. The Calvinist teaches that God alone makes the decision. Calvinist teaching God alone saves men with that in regard to their will, cause they don’t have one.

There are several passages on which Calvinists rely for their belief in the unconditional election of men to be saved. I’m just gonna address a couple of them here, or three of them here. Romans 9, 11 through 16, before Jacob and Esau were ever born, God had chosen Jacob over Esau based solely on the sovereignty of God. I hear people sitting Bible classes and just look all over that and they get real upset over that. The one thing you’ve gotta remember is don’t bring that into the Reformation movement 1400 years later. Take it into the Jew versus Christian culture.

that’s being discussed by Paul. The answer was not in election number one to salvation. Don’t let somebody, what’s that word that you use where you allow somebody to change the meaning of words? You use it up here, an equivocation. That’s what they’re doing here. They give you another word. But this is not an election to salvation, else no descendant of Jacob could be lost.

You understand that? If the choosing and election, anybody chosen, elect by God, and it’s in this passage, and the Jews said, well, we were chosen. He says, yes, you were at one time, but God’s made another choosing. And we’ll talk about why in just a moment. But if that choosing and election he’s talking about, there is true, then no descendant of Israel could ever, no descendant of Jacob could ever be lost. And yeah, Luke chapter 16, verse 19 and following. you ever read the story of the rich man in Lazarus?

That rich man is a Jew because he’s expected to tell his brothers to go back and listen to the law. I’ve got a Jew in hell. Are you listening? Luke 16, 19 and following. Therefore the sovereign election of God in this passage is not a reference to being saved or lost. Rather it’s a reference to the brother whom God would use to bring in a nation.

would come and the light of God’s glory would be manifest among the nations. Ephesians chapter one verses 45, ⁓ the Calvinist makes two assertions about the unconditional election in this passage. You remember what that says, don’t you? Chosen in him before the foundation of the world, you have heard that. For one moment, get that out of the 14th century and go back to the first. Just one moment, go back to the first century. Once the discussion.

It’s the Jew versus Gentile. Now the Calvinist teaches that the choosing to eternal eternal salvation was made before anyone was born. And then in verse four, we were predestined under the adoption of sons. And so he says, say, man, that’s just so plain, you can’t miss it. It is, but they missed it. The context of Ephesians is a Jew Gentile controversy in which Jewish false teachers were claiming that the Jews.

were chosen by God before the church and therefore their doctrine preceded Christianity. That’s a very important point for you to ⁓ understand. You ought to go home and ask your home congregation, who are the chosen people of God today?

I’m gonna tell you what they’re gonna say, because it’s all here all over the news and every other place. Who are the chosen people of God today? The Jews, Israel, on and on. They were at one time, but they’re not now. The chosen people of God today with those that were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world. But these Jews of the first century,

They were claiming that the Jews were chosen by God before the church. Therefore their doctrine preceded Christianity and was extended by and continued through Christianity. We still have people teaching that today. They don’t believe the old laws gone. They say Christianity just came along as an extension of the old. The apostle Paul denies that the choosing of Israel was first.

Paul states that while the Jewish choosing came in the Old Testament through Abraham was brought to pass later, and when God led Israel into wilderness, Deuteronomy 7 verses 6 through 8, the choice of the church was made before the foundation of the world.

Don’t you ever let anybody tell you you were chosen second.

Thus the church was always first in the choice of God. But for what purpose? Well, to be the world’s universal body of all the faithful of God. That’s what the phrase, the church is the fullness of him that feels all in all. We’re not just Jews here in this world who are right with God. The fullness, Jew and Gentile, all nations, all tribes, all tongues, all people, we’re the fullness found only in Jesus.

The choosing of Israel was not God choosing individual people to salvation. The same way the choosing of the church was not God choosing individual people to be saved. Rather Israel was the institution chosen to lead the world to Messiah, the Christ according to Galatians three and verse 24. And the church was to be the institution in which God would put all the redeemed of all the world under administration of Christ. The church was first in the eternal purposes of God, not Israel.

And Israel’s law was not to be maintained in the church, hey. Israel with its law was to be the semester to help bring the church into Christ as God had predetermined for the creation of the world. Not individuals who would be in it, but those who are in that were chosen before the foundation of the world. That institution came first in the eternal purposes of God.

This universal body of all saved men in Christ, all nations was chosen first before the foundation of world, or before Israel. Do y’all understand that principle?

Don’t let Calvinist come along and tell you he’s arguing against the Catholic here. Paul’s never arguing against the Catholics here. That is specifically. The predestination to the adoption of sons is not a predestination to becoming a child either. That’s something you’ve got to keep in mind. The predestination to the resurrection of Christ’s body is what he has in mind here to an eternal inheritance. Look at Romans 8 and verse 23.

Listen, we’ve been predestined to an adoption of sons, but Paul defies what the adoption of sons is. To wit, the redemption of the body. Don’t tell me man.

I’ll take some more time. All right.

The point behind that is don’t confuse adoption of sons with new birth. It’s not the same. The new birth places you into Jesus Christ. The adoption is your guarantee. You’re gonna get the inheritance at the end, as Paul defines it as such.

You also have many being ordained to eternal life in Acts 13, 48. The word ordained there in this passage, nowhere means predestined in the New Testament. The meaning of that word is best expressed, again, going back to that GWN paraphrase, everyone who had been prepared for eternal life believed. The idea of tasso is of one of an orderly arranging of the mind so that it might make a proper decision. It does not mean predestined, never has.

The apostle Paul had just explained to his listeners in the Jewish synagogue that the promise of the Messiah pointed to Jesus as that Messiah for whom Israel awaited. Those in the audience who allowed the message to prepare and order their minds according to the truth, those are the ones that believed. Limited atonement. That’s the concept that when Jesus died,

Since God didn’t intend to save the whole world, just to predestined few that were there. Then when Jesus died, he didn’t die for the whole world. You got a real problem with that. First John two, one and two. I’ve got some other things that you go look at some of the way my little children, these things, right? I unto you that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the father, even Jesus Christ, the righteous, he is the propitiation for our sins and not for hours only.

but also for the sins of the whole world. Jesus tasted death for every man, Hebrews two and verse nine. Then there’s irresistible grace. And that’s when I really want to take some time with this. I got five, six, nine, 12 minutes, okay. All right. The fourth tenet of Tulip is the idea of irresistible grace. And it’s the one that affects you more than you have any idea.

It’s responsible for the Spirit is guiding me. The leading of the Spirit in my life. That’s all out of Calvinism. Do y’all not understand that? It’s all out of Calvinism. In irresistible grace, the Calvinist, he believes there’s no will or action of man that can counter man the sovereign decree of God that he has to be saved if God has decreed a man to be saved, yet he has no capacity to counter man that decree of God. Therefore an elect man will irresistibly be saved whether he wants it or not.

If God decreed it, no man can resist what God’s decreed. In this act, the Calvinist teaches that the Holy Spirit comes upon an elect individual and gives that person life and understanding with nothing, no will of the man involved. The result is eternal life. It comes immediately with that individual. He receives faith, not by his own decision, by the decree of God, and the faith he receives is not even his own. Did you know that?

Rather it’s the faith God directly places in a man or the faith of Christ himself is placed directly into an elect man’s mind. The Calvinist faith is not the result of hearing the word, it’s the result of an irresistible salvation immediately bestowed upon a person with no will or no decision of their own involvement. Now brethren, this doctrine then makes a man saved even for he believes.

I got on to a Baptist preacher in Jacksonville one time and pointed that out and he said, that’s right, because God saves us without belief too. And when he said that in his audience, boy, the things he had calling in, because he told all of them, go get people to believe. And then when I brought up this concept again and showed that can’t be, he stepped back and he said, that’s right. It’s holy of God.

as parishioners called in, said, what’s it feel like to be in the hot seat? Anyhow, because according to the Calvinists, the only way this happens is the Spirit enters, He gives immediate eternal life, even before faith. Are you aware of that? Well, they’re telling you, you need to believe. They don’t believe it themselves.

That is those that understand why they’re teaching what they’re teaching. It’s a great difficulty. Calvinist camp is divided over that. want to tell you, there’s a whole book that was written by a fellow named Wayne Grudem and on page 171, he writes this in his systematic theology. He had to deal with that, that, you know, people getting saved before they have faith. says, well, exactly what happens to us in our, in regeneration. It’s mysterious to us. This is their systematic theology put out across their.

It’s just a mystery. don’t know how to do it. I’ll tell you why they don’t know how to do it. Because they are equating two things that are not equatable.

Folks, listen this carefully, because you’re have to deal with this like, listen this carefully, hear it well.

For Protestant Calvinistic concept, salvation is an experience. So when you go in and say, you saved, what’s first thing they start talking to you about? Yeah, I’m saved. I felt a warm feeling come over me. I felt this, that, or that, because they’re going back to what they call the Damascus Road salvation. Paul had an experience with the Lord, he was saved there. But you know what the biblical definition is?

found right in name of Jesus and the reason that Jesus was called Jesus. You shall call his name Jesus because he shall, listen, save his people from their sins. Salvation is the moment at which your sins are removed.

And that goes and is diametrically opposed to what you see on their Damascus Road thing. Paul had an experience with saved there. And if he did, he’s diametrically opposed to what Jesus teaches and the scriptures teach that salvation is when your sins are removed. According to Acts 22, 16, that came later for Paul. Hey, use your tools, use your armor, use your weapons.

They are there. Let me give this last part and then I’ll quit. Okay? I’m just going to, and it’s your fault. You do have any idea how bad that is. Before services, I mean, before we started up here, my foot was up there. I was going to put it down. He said, no, no. He said, don’t put that down. He stuck his next to mine, took a picture and you said, how beautiful are the feet? Anyway, the written covenant.

See, he was taking up my time. All right, here’s some things I ask of Calvinists when I study with them, when they come into my home. Number one, is there anything that I personally can do to be saved? Always ask me that. No, Jesus did it all. Jesus on the cross said, it is finished. Nothing that you can do. If they say, well, yes, there’s something you can do, then I’m going to ask them what? If they say, I must believe, then I will ask them, what about baptism?

If they say baptism’s a work, I point out so is faith. John chapter six verses 28 and 29. But that tool, if I can do anything for salvation, then I must do everything in the new covenant that it teaches for salvation. You drop your guard with me one time as a callous and tell me there’s something I’ve got to do in believing, buddy, you lost your argument, you’re done. And it’s not because of me.

biblical teaching. Part two, in asking that question, is there anything I can do for salvation? If they say no, then there’s nothing you can do for your salvation. Then I ask them, is there anything that you, sir, can do for my salvation, which Christ has not already done?

Well, the moment they say no, then I ask, why are we even having this conversation? If I can’t do anything and you can’t do anything, what are you doing here? Why are you telling me to do something that I can’t do? Have fun with it, brethren. Anyhow, then I ask them, has God predestined who will be saved, is there anything that can change the eternal destination of individuals whom God has predestined to be saved?

Well, our conversation caused any man to be saved or lost, it’s not already predestined as either the elect or non-elect. A true covenants is gonna respond, no. Only the predestined can add to it or take away. Why are we studying then? If I’m on that list, I won’t be saved no matter what you do. If I’m not on there, I’m not gonna be saved no matter what you or I do. It doesn’t matter.

Why are we even studying? I then ask, is your assurance of salvation based only on the word of God’s new covenant, the written New Testament? Or is your assurance in any way based on your personal salvation experience? If the answer is based on the covenant word only, then I ask, can we study the New Testament to see what the new covenant alone says about salvation without any reference to your salvation experience?

If they’re willing, by the way, Baptists are my forte. I love them dearly. You may find that strange. But if they believe in the word of God, as they say, and so many of them do, it’s the inspired word of God. By the end of that, if they have an humble heart toward God, you’re gonna find that they become Christians. If they’re willing, I then follow a good method like open Bible study, by having Stuart Fishers of Men back to the Bible. I even use Joel Miller Fremstripp sometimes.

From that point forward, I just opened the scriptures with them. If they revert to their experiences, I ask if they intend to follow their experiences or use the word of God alone. I always stress Romans 10, 17. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. It doesn’t come because the Holy Spirit fell on me, gave me faith. That’s diametrically opposed to the covenant. We want to study the covenant or we want to study your experience.

Further, I point out that at the final judgment, God opens the books. Revelation 20, verses 12 and 13. God opens books and men are judged by the things, and this is the Bible’s own quote. This is the quote in the covenant. Written in the books. God is not going to open up their experiences and judge them according to their experiences, only by what’s written in the books.

back to the written word of God. I don’t have time to get the rest of these perseverance of the saints. Hey, get that, get that, because it’ll do. We Baptists love to come along and say, yeah, once you’re in the hand of Jesus, Jesus says, no, God, no man can take you out of my hand. You need to read the rest of the story. And I urge you to get the book to do so. Just let me tell you something. They read one part of the passage. They take it totally out of the context of what’s being said.

and then they forget to read the rest of it.

Let me just say brethren, don’t let the Baptists become boogie men to you. They have the worst theology and doctrine. They have the worst thing in the world. What they’ve got going for them, a lot of excitement, little knowledge, and a south, which they think they’ve had, but couldn’t prove for love and their money. Enjoy yourself when you go forth. Don’t go out with Baptists who have all this, and I haven’t answered some of those, but they’re answered in the.

in the book. And let me finish up by telling you this. All of this starts from T. Total hereditary to pravity. Saying things about man’s nature that just aren’t there. There’s an appendix in the book that I put in there. It’s actually, I guess, a little longer than this is. But the appendix goes through what happened from before the fall of man to the nature of man all the way through the scriptures.

so that you can understand what man really is. Men mess up in their understanding of salvation because they don’t know what it is. It’s not an experience. It’s the remission of their sins. Men mess up about understanding about themselves because they won’t let God tell them about what man is. And number three, they mess up because they don’t understand God. They actually have the most terrible doctrine to have to stand up and defend when you really push them to it.

They in essence are looking you straight in the face and saying, God who made all creation doesn’t love them all at all.

without a single will or single thought on their part. They’ll send them straight to hell. There’s a Martin to its gourd, as we used to say. And it doesn’t affect him at all. I don’t want to have to defend that kind of doctrine. If you can’t sit there and rub that in, and you need to rub it in, you need to keep it before their minds. They’re sure gonna try to rub their doctrine off on you. You’re in a battle.

You use your weapons. Your weapons will win every time.