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Here is an another excellent concise summary of the doctrines of conditional election and predestination from the corporate election perspective, which differs from the traditional Arminian view of individual election based on foreseen faith. <borrowed with permission from SEA Blog site and with some edits by Professor Leighton Flowers> Both the traditional view and the corporate election view are allowed in SEA, for both conceive of election and predestination as conditional on faith in Christ. This material comes from Zondervan’s NIV Life Study Bible (now available only in the KJV under that name but still with the NIV or other translations). The description of the doctrines of election and predestination is followed by some comments quoted from the study Bible’s notes on 1 Peter 1:2 and Romans 8:29 to show how the corporate election perspective might view the place of foreknowledge in election, also quite different from the traditional Arminian view, though completely cons...

Many people who are of the Calvinist camp of theological interpretation believe that John 1:13 is proof that God irresistibly saves the elect without consideration of their choice in the matter. Here is how the verse reads: "children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God." If we are going to deal with verse 13 we need to take a look at the context beginning primarily with verse 12. In John 1:12 it says " to all who did receive him , to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. " Receiving the word of Christ is a choice, it's the act of faith that leads to being a child of God (see also Romans 10:17).  In verse 13 when John says "Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God," we have to look at it in light of the preceding verse, which clearly says men must make a choice to receive Him. Nonetheless, let's...

A perplexing Biblical question has been long debated in the world of Christianity. The idea of being able to transfer into the Presence of the Lord immediately upon death (2 Corithians 5:8) has been a thought of comfort and joy for many, at the same time the thought of entering into a state of unconsciousness that will compare to a night’s sleep awaking into the resurrection has long garnered much support from evangelicals, and it seems to have supporting scripture as well. I must admit, I would probably rather enter into Heaven immediately upon death, but the final say in the matter must be what God says to us about it in His word. I often wonder if our yearning for God as believers has caused us automatically snuggle up to this idea of existing spiritually and departing to Heaven upon death, has this desire kept us from objectively looking at the scriptures that seems to support soul sleep? In this blog I intend to evaluate this idea to find out what a good answer may be....

The feeling of condemnation one can experience when they sin can be overwhelming, and at times destructive. I can relate to the sick feeling of grief that is felt in your spirit when you have given into a temptation and afterward you feel like you have been taken for a ride by the devil. Sometimes you really did sin, other times you feel a sense of aggravated conscience over breaking man made rules and regulations. It is important do be aware of what God actually considers sin before allowing yourself to feel condemned for breaking man made and societal rules of morality. For example, a person may attempt to heap condemnation upon you for expressing disagreement with something like gay marriage. In our society expressing disagreement with such a concept has been considered what amounts to a "societal sin" by those who defy God's word in the matter. They will often call you bigoted, hateful, against human rights, a religious zealot, and etc. But this does not mean tha...

Over the past 2,000 years the Bible has been the most scrutinized ancient text out of every written work in the history of man. To this very day nobody has uncovered evidence that disproves it's accuracy, validity, or authority. Skeptics and scoffers have always existed, and the Bible has remained trustworthy despite the numerous attempts throughout history to discredit it. Isaiah 40:8- "The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever. " The Logical Argument for the Inspiration of Scripture: Charles Wesley, a famous hymn writer and theologian from the 1700's proposed this logical argument supporting the inspiration of Scripture. The Bible must have come from 1 of 3 different sources: 1. Good men 2. Bad men 3. God  The Bible could not have come from good men because they would be considered liars by claiming the Bible was written by God, when they themselves knew it was invented by them. The Bible could not ...

You probably won't be surprised to find out that the emerging culture of "just do what makes you happy" is something that has happened time and time again over human history. There was a point early in the history of the nation of Israel which is essentially identical to the culture we see becoming prevalent right now. Judges 21:25 says,  " Everyone did what was right in his own eyes." The unfortunate aspect of this part of the history of Israel is that their "doing what was right in their own eyes" led to chaos, strife, and eventually judgment from God, sound familiar? So does God want us to be happy? Or does He merely give us a massive list of laws to follow? Because of questions like these I decided to write this important article, let's dive in... Happy may be defined as, "enjoying or characterized by well-being and contentment (Websters)." Unfortunately our modern culture has redefined happy to mean "whatever feels good o...

Through the Book of James the Bible gives us insight as to how we can receive an answer to our prayers. The writer lines out this teaching for the purpose of correcting believers who were fighting with each other having trouble receiving an answer from God when they prayed. Because Christians often quote only bits and pieces of this passage it has prevented many people from seeing the principle that James puts forth regarding how to get your prayers answered.  The text we will be primarily dealing with in this article is James 4:1-7. v. 1-3 "What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures." The first three things mentioned in the passage ar...