November 5, 2011
https://www.facebook.com/sing.f.lau/posts/10212650942563966
"Arminians are not Christians" -
declared some elitist Calvinists.
You will hear that from various 'reformed'
pulpits! They complain, and insinuate like, "Reformed pastors who explain
to their congregations that those who are Arminian are still Christians, just a
little mixed up and confused, and just need better instruction in the Doctrines
of Grace, are actually saying that God does a really lousy job in saving
some... but does just a great and stupendous job of saving them!" (Randy
Hartman)
The answer to the apparent confusion and
misunderstanding is quite simple: these 'reformed' people are ignorant (oh how
could these elitist folks be ignorant of anything?) of the distinction between
eternal salvation administered by God's free and sovereign grace, and temporal
salvation through the gospel ministry administered by men.
When God saves, He saves to the uttermost,
always complete and perfect every time... from predestination all the way unto
glorification, never misses one beat on any elect. And He does not need any
help from any man whatsoever. God saves by turning condemned dead sinners into
justified regenerated children of God... all perfectly fitted for eternal
glory... and all by His own free grace, based on the finished work of Jesus
Christ.
That's eternal salvation. In this, there is no
variation or deficiency whatsoever; it is always completeness and perfection.
Each and every elect are equally saved in every sense of the word. Eternal
salvation deals with the BEING of God's children.
God appoints the gospel ministry for the
instruction and conversion of His children to the truth of their salvation by
His free and sovereign grace. This deals with the WELL BEING of God's children.
The well being of God's children is through the gospel ministry administered
through human instrumentality and a whole host of different human factors are
involved in the gospel ministry.
God's children are at different stages of
conversion through the gospel ministry of varying degree of faithfulness and
usefulness... but they are perfectly and equally God's children by the free and
sovereign grace of God.
Apostle Paul called the believers in Corinth
SAINTS... as saints as those in the church in Thessalonica. Look at the saints
in the seven churches in the book of Revelation.
There is a vast range of practical
sanctification in the children of God through the gospel ministry EVEN THOUGH
all of them are equally and definitively sanctified from their state of
condemnation and death unto justification and eternal life.
Some Americans think this way: the Americans
who have not achieved the American Dream are not true but fake Americans!
That's the mentality of the 'reformed' folks towards God's children who haven't
attain their standard to doctrinal correctness.
O if only these elitist but misguided
'reformed' folks are aware of the 'deformity' of some of their own doctrines -
they would realize that they are not so much different from their cousins
Arminians whom they despise!
A biblical distinction is the essence of
sound theology.
