Mike wrote:
Pew View: Man's free will is not an error, unless you think God makes mistakes. It is by the will of man that man comes into bondage to sin.

Your
"Man's free will is not an error"
I did qualify the error as belonging to the RCC. Thats their salvation by works. They like the other free willers dont count sin as an obstruction or problem. Whilst the Bible teaches Total Depravity. This teaches that mans free will in his natural estate, allows him to make worldly decisions, BUT prevents him from spiritual decisions.

14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

Freedom from the bondage of sin is by God alone.

PS Man is "born" a sinner.
He does not "will" it.
He sins because he is a sinner.
*NOT* he becomes a sinner because he sins.

GOD wrote:
2 A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway.
3 He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius.

None can doubt that Cornelius was saved.

What God Himself begun HE completed.

"WHEN" Cornelius was saved is the moot point in the debate.

God did the saving.
Peter did not.

The whole episode is about moving from Israel to Gentile. Not about mortals deciding if they can read God's mind on an event 2000 thousand years old.

"19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself"
= Is a statement of the "Hands on" work of GOD Himself.

What was the purpose in GOD's mind in sending the Angel to Cornelius? To save or not? No!

Why then should GOD "wait" for Peter to do anything?

John UK wrote:
Ha! pew view, you are funny.
The only thing I disagree with about your post are the words: "According to you HE does."

Does God require human compliance to draw the sinner to Jesus and salvation?

John should this verse really read

John UK wrote:
I am not "trying to" do anything. I am firmly establishing that Cornelius and his household were baptised with the Spirit when Peter came and preached to them.

36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed

Does Jesus need human effort to carry out this promise? According to you HE does.

And how about these John - Does God need any of man's input, compliance, works, cooperation, (call it what you will) to do this....

39 And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.

John UK wrote:
Ok pew view, you got me there, it was AS Peter was preaching, NOT after.
And he shewed us how he had seen an angel in his house, which stood and said unto him, Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter; Who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved. And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning. Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost.

The Elect see it differently John.

John do you ever factor sin in to the human condition prior to coming to Christ??? It doesn't seem so.

34 Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.

36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed

John UK wrote:
So with Cornelius, we know EXACTLY when he was baptised with the Spirit; it was AFTER Peter had preached to him.

"Bruised Reed"

"By the bruised here is not meant those that are brought low only by crosses, but such as, by them, are brought to see their sin, which bruises most of all. When conscience is under the guilt of sin, then every judgment brings a report of God's anger to the soul, and all lesser troubles run into this great trouble of conscience for sin. As all corrupt humours run to the diseased and bruised part of the body, and as every creditor falls upon the debtor when he is once arrested, so when conscience is once awakened, all former sins and present crosses join together to make the bruise the more painful. Now, he that is thus bruised will be content with nothing but with mercy from him who has bruised him. He has wounded, and he must heal (Hos. 6:1). The Lord who has bruised me deservedly for my sins must bind up my heart again. (2) Again, a man truly bruised judges sin the greatest evil, and the favor of God the greatest good. (3) He would rather hear of mercy than of a kingdom." R. Sibbes

John UK wrote:
1] Please observe, from your own definition, the very important words 'enabled to believe'.

2] Faith is that through which salvation is appropriated. It is something the sinner must do or be lost.

#1] Dictionary = "Enabled" - To provide someone with adequate power, means, opportunity, or authority to do something.
== In this case John, it is the ""MEANS"" to believe.

NB::- what follows is quote; "IS THE WORK OF the Spirit of Christ in their hearts" THUS not a human work - a divine work wrought by the Holy Spirit.

Human resposibility cannot please God until the GIFT of faith is provided by God.

If you keep teaching human effort, then all you'll get is a bunch of Liberals who believe in themselves and think being nice is religion.

Mike wrote:
You must have got that definition of socialism from a socialist, Pew View. Or from Obama.

Socialism = "The stage in Marxist-Leninist theory intermediate between capitalism and communism, in which collective ownership of the economy under the dictatorship of the proletariat has not yet been successfully achieved."

Liberalism at it's sickest abomination level.

Breakdown in the family is part of the moral decline of the western nations.
Precipitated by rejection of God's Holy Law the gradual process then brings removal of all authority such as moral/ethical standards, justice, good leadership, education and the destruction of society and it's cohesion.

But Liberals such as Hoekman and his organisation the UN are ignorant of the truth. Their aim is ultimately anarchy.

Calvinist Understanding wrote:
There is no "appear to" in the verse. The verse is straight forward enough, even if it does not sit comfortably with your theological system! They resisted the Holy Spirit!
Now Roge Rant can call this Blasphemy, and you can protest all you want about mere humans resisting an omnipotent being, but then your argument is not with me, or John UK or with any other sincere soul who wants to follow the Bible.. your argument is with God!

So they are in the sinners natural estate - without grace and Holy Spirit. Unbelievers, non-elect at this point.

Mike wrote:
Oh, Pew View, what are we to do with you?
Socialism doesn't derive from free-will religion, but from having faith in systems devised by men, rather than in truth given by God. You know, like the tulip brethren do. How can the free-willers choose socialism? They do not have free will, from what I'm told.

But Mike
Isn't Arminianism transfer of power into the hands of the people, and remove sovereignty, like for example quote,
Socialism = "a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital in the community as a whole."

Thus the Arminian-free will theory is the transfer of control and the means of salvation to the people. Then they can remove Limited Atonement to open it up to the masses and overcome sin by their own power.

John UK wrote:
This is the MH concise version:
[When plain arguments and truths provoke the opposers of the gospel, they should be shown their guilt and danger. They, like their fathers, were stubborn and wilful. There is that in our sinful hearts, which always resists the Holy Ghost, a flesh that lusts against the Spirit, and wars against his motions; but in the hearts of God's elect, when the fulness of time comes, this resistance is overcome.

By nature we resist God, the gospel, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

51 "Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye."

In this verse we see the alternative religion of (uncircumcised, ie man in his natural estate) man applying his teachings instead of the Scripture doctrine as taught by the Holy Spirit. Thus they appear to "resist" the Spirit by their totally depraved human condition.

There you are you see America - You are becoming the Socialist States of America.

Arminian-Free Will religion is to blame!

The socialist ideology of democratic salvation by peoples choice is the real core problem.

Instead You should have retained the Biblical Calvinist doctrine of the Sovereignty of God!

Calvinist Understanding wrote:
What you are referring to is called "illumination", not faith. Perhaps you should take the "Misunderstanding" title?

An ordained atheist for the Anglican church.

Mike, New York wrote:
Faith brings nothing of merit to salvation. Why does it therefore need to be the gift of God?

Mike
Faith is the means ordained unto salvation as created by God for His purpose. Even with saving faith in our beings there is still a mighty struggle. If it were only of human faculty then we would never overcome the dominion, power and effect of sin and Satan.

Calvinist Understanding wrote:
Let us concede (for the sake of argument) that Man's will is in bondage and that it is God who frees the will.
So how exactly does this prove that faith is a gift?

17 "That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,
20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places"

There are two who would "free" the will of man to spiritual decision.

One is man himself.
He does it to aspire beyond the merits of Christ Crucified.
(This is why man increases the range of Limited Atonement)

One is God!
He does it to prove the merits of Christ Crucified.
Ro 5:10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.