"For thus says the Lord, Who created the heavens, Who is God, Who formed the earth and made it, Who has established it, WHO DID NOT CREATE IT IN VAIN, Who formed it to be inhabited: "I am the Lord, and there is no other." ~Isaiah 45:18
It's one of the most absurd and illogical things I've heard (and used to believe) for God to be just in punishing men who are "incapable of repenting." That's not what God's Word teaches nor does it conform to Biblical logic. (And this is here where, most of the time, my Calvinist brothers (whom I love) will throw in there "get out of jail free-card" by avoiding the legitimate question by assuming: Tis the mystery of God.)
Revelation 16 is clear that God is just and right to get angry at men because, though they are fallen, they are still made in His image and ARE CAPABLE of acknowledging Him. It says "they did not repent and give Him glory" not because they were INCAPABLE of doing so but because they REFUSED to.
I'm not talking about regeneration; the way in which salvation and grace comes alive within and cleanses a man and gives him a new heart to completely desire God. We Christian Armenians agree with our fellow Christian Calvinist brothers that no man can cause or create the work of regeneration in himself. What we DO disagree on and need to be unified in (1 Corinthians 1:10) is the clear Biblical truth that man, though fallen, has not become dead to the knowledge of God's existence nor is he incapable of crying out to Him. Romans 1, 2 Corinthians 5:16-21, 1 Timothy 2:3-4, 4:10, Titus 2:11-14, 2 Peter 3:9, 1 John 2:1-2, and many other places show, contrary to Calvinist conviction, God reasons with men who, though fallen, are very much alive and accountable for being alive and bearing His image. As Francis Schaeffer pointed out that not only can man not be ignorant and run away from God because he bears his image but also: "Jesus spoke in a definite framework, affirming that man is lost but not intrinsically lost, because man was not made to be lost."
YOU ARE READING
Different Things God is teaching Me
SpiritualWhen God shows His love, mercy, forgiveness, longsuffering, and grace towards you...it shouldn't stop with you. You are destined to pass it on to others and reflect faithfulness and devotion back to Him as the Divine Spouse. Cover Art by Maria Oosth...
