Hi Patrick,Thanks for your reply. You take care before that anaesthesia wears off, or you'll be smarting more than necessary! And don't try to be a hero and do without analgesia. Just give yourself 2 or 3 more days of pain relief - maybe 4 or 5 - and it will make for a much happier few days. So... needless to say, I still have (as you may guess) difficulties with the way you tie scripture down.In your earlier reply you said something I just want to comment upon, not to attempt to negate its place in the life of the believer - even the Calvinist believer ;-) - but that it need not be confined to the Calvinist believer.
Unconditional Election is the fact that as Scripture teaches that God elected individuals without any regard to any conditions deserving of salvation in them.
Thus, when you quote John 10:26 which contains the 'because', as if that has been God's decision, rather than His ratification of the unbeliever's decision .... I find that ..... difficult to 'see'.
_________________patrick heaviside
Brother, I apologise for having said that we are all sheep. I do not know quite well the difference between a sheep or a goat or a lamb. To me they are all very similar. What I ment to say with that we are all like sheep was that we all follow somone. We ither follow the Christ, or we follow The Devil. Again I apologise, you are right, in the final day the goats will be separated form the Lambs as Mathew 25:33 clearly tells us.Brother do you remember that parable Jesus gave of the 100 sheep, how one of them was lost, and the sheeperd went everywhere to find it, and once he found it he carried it to join the rest of his flock.
13And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. 14In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.
_________________Samuel
LiveforGod, you are welcome. :-)Thanks for your reply, Patrick. Before I decide whether to discuss the tenets of Calvinism any further, please would you explain how a Calvinist explains the requirements of Heb 11:6, especially in the context of those OT saints [u]who believed[/u] - when manifestly they were not 'regenerate'.[color=0000FF]5 By faith Enoch was translated--not to see death, and was not found, because God did translate him; for before his translation he had been testified to--that he had pleased God well,6 and apart from faith it is impossible to please well, for it behoveth [u]him who is coming to God to believe that He is[/u], and to those [u]seeking[/u] Him He becometh a rewarder. [/color]