Read and obey!…

I came across the “Bart Simpson Chalkboard Generator” and I couldn’t resist….

An illustration of Romans 1

Sometimes you just run across something that is such a clear picture of the truth of scripture…

In the previous post in which the subject was Arminian logical fallacies, a commenter had the following to say:

Yep, this is a lovely theology. To remind my kid of it, maybe I should set our family dog on fire for peeing on the rug, despite the fact that he has a urinary infection.

That’s pretty much what God does, right? Punish people for doing EXACTLY what He created them to do.

I really liked that rug … and the dog ruined it … doesn’t matter if he could “help himself” or not, right? So maybe we should do what God does: take it out in the back, tie it to a tree and set it on fire.

Unlike the dog who only has to suffer for a minute or so – those “sinners” will suffer for eternity.

You need help. You don’t realize it yet, but dude, seriously … they have medications that will treat sociopathic and psychopathic behavior.

What immediately came to mind was:

Romans 1:18-23

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness, because what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.
For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, because they are understood through what has been made. So people are without excuse.
For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give him thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts and their senseless hearts were darkened.
Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for an image resembling mortal human beings or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.

And:

1Co 2:14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

I don’t think this needs any additional comment.

Editors note: Only adding: This turned out to be more true than I realized.

Arminian logical fallacies…can we put these to bed?

If you’ve spent any time at all interacting with fellow Christians, you’ve no doubt heard these logical fallacies…they are repeated ad nauseam.
They are never proven; just assumed. Considering that the false doctrine of Arminianism is the standard position of almost all Christians these days, that’s not surprising.

The following is a short article from Rev. Roger Smalling, D.Min that I found at: http://www.smallings.com/LitEng/Essays/armin.html

So read these statements and ask yourself if you have been guilty of repeating them; and then ask yourself just how biblical are they?

1. God would not command us to do what we cannot do.

Or ‘God would not command us to do what we cannot do.’ God gave the Law to Moses, The Ten Commandments, to reveal what man cannot do, not what he can do.

• This premise is unscriptural. God gave the Law for two reasons: To expose sin and to increase it so man would have no excuse for declaring his own righteousness. Why? Because in the context, he does NO righteousness. As Martin Luther said to Erasmus, when you are finished with all your commands and exhortations from the Old Testament, I’ll write Ro.3:20 over the top of it all. Why use commands and exhortations from the O.T. to show free will when they were given to prove man’s sinfulness? They exist to show what we cannot do rather than what we can do. Yes, God gave commands to man which man cannot do. Therefore commandments and exhortations do not prove free will. Nowhere in scripture is there any hint that God gives commands to men to prove they are able to perform them.

• This premise is irrational. There may be many reasons for commanding someone to do something, other than the assumption that the can do it. The purpose, as above, may be to show the person his inability to perform the command. Thus, NOTHING can be deduced about abilities from a mere command.

2. If our will is bound, then we are not responsible for our actions.

Or, “If not free, then not responsible.” This means if we are unable to make a contrary choice, then our wills are not free. Thus, if we are completely bound in sin so that we can do nothing else but sin, then we are free from responsibility for those sins. This is irrational because the assumption behind this is the idea of neutrality.

• The Bible does not present the concept of freedom in this way. According to Scripture, freedom is described as holiness. The ultimate freedom is absolute holiness. If that is true, then God is the most free being in the universe. Otherwise, we must say that God is the most enslaved being in the universe because He is the one least neutral on moral issues.

• Likewise, if we affirm that bondage of will eliminates responsibility, then the best way to avoid responsibility for ours sins to be as bound by them as possible. The drunk who is bound by alcoholism is therefore not responsible for his actions. Should we encourage people to sin all the more therefore, so that they are not responsible any more?

• The entire idea of neutrality of will is absurd. If the decisions of the will are not determined by the internal nature of the person, then in what sense can it be said that those decisions are the results of a decision of the person himself? How in fact could be a decision be truly a moral one if it is morally neutral? How can morally be morality at all and be neutral?

3. For love to be real, it must have the possibility of being rejected.

God wants us to love him freely, not by compulsion. Therefore, fallen man must have the ability to love God. It is simply that he chooses to love other things.

• Scripture teaches that love for God is a product of His grace. 1Ti.1:14. If grace is necessary to make us love God, then it follows that follows that we had no ability to love him before the arrival of grace. It also means that grace is not given because we chose to love God. We chose to love God because grace is given. Grace, not a virtue in man, takes the initiative.

• This premise is similar the one that says, “Contrary choice is necessary for freedom to exist.” Does God periodically give the saints in heaven an opportunity to hate him so as to be ‘fair’? Did Jesus have some ability to hate the Father? Or was His love for the Father a reflection of what He himself really is?

• If faith is a gift of grace, as we saw above, then why is it strange to think that love may not be also a gift of grace?

4. A person cannot be punished for what he cannot help doing.

• If that is the case, then a Christian may not be rewarded for what his new nature compels him to do. Let us not forget that the nature of a person is not a thing he possesses. It is something he is.

Mormons again…

The Mormons are at it again….this time they are being outright dishonest…

LDS: “Hey! At least I didn’t surf porn on Sunday!”

Interesting…

Can you guess the state that leads the nation in downloading internet pornography?

Not just leads, but is the runaway leader?

You guessed it…Utah.

The most interesting part of this video is that although they lead the nation in surfing smut…they don’t do it on Sundays!

Ya gotta love that works-righteousness!

Question for the LDS folks out there…when an LDS member repents, they are only REALLY repentant IF they don’t repeat the sin, otherwise it’s not true repentance, and if they didn’t repent, then they aren’t getting more “godlike” and being perfected….how do you deal with that?

Note to all you Christians out there…lest you think that you are better than our LDS friends…the stats for closet porn there isn’t much better. You have something to repent of also!

My point in posting this was NOT to say that we, as Christians are sinless and don’t surf porn…but only to juxtapose the outward LDS system with the “inner man” that the bible speaks of.

The Christian system of belief is NOT based on “working our way” to the Celestial Kingdom, and while we sin just as much as LDS folks…we thank God that our acceptance is NOT based on our performance, but solely on the finished work of Christ.