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"Irresistible Grace"

or

The doctrine that God uses feelings to directly confirmed your salvation

Are your feelings of salvation based upon the facts of the Bible?

Scriptural refutation of "Irresistible Grace"

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Irresistible Grace contradicts the Bible because:

A. Man looses his freewill and his actions are not the result of his personal choices:

Calvinists will actually argue that they do not personally have a free will to choose anything.

Man becomes a puppet/robot of either

Devil: "The Devil made me do it"

God: "God forced me into becoming a Christian although I was having fun as a sinner"

Passages that prove man has a free will and God expects man to choose to do right

Deut 30:15-18; Josh 24:15; Jn 15:6-7; 3:16

Man can "resist the Holy Spirit": Acts 6:10; 7:51-55

Without free will, many of Bible statements make no sense:

"Why do you call me Lord & don't do what I say" Lk 6:46 Why? God willed it that way!

"Whosoever believes shall be saved" Jn 3:16 (Rather whosoever God makes a believer)

"Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. Re 22:17

"And whosoever will not receive you, when you go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them." Lk 9:5 (Testimony against God you mean)

"Come to me you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest" Mt 11:28

How can man be held accountable to God for his actions in judgment without freewill?

"We must all appear before the judgment that each may be repaid for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad." 2 Cor 5:10

Is it fair to send someone to hell for sins he was forced to commit having no freewill?

It contradicts the parable of talents where man is held accountable for his actions. Mt 25:19.

Negates the importance of man's obedience

B. Predestination makes God a respector of persons saving some and damning others:

What is foreknown by God in these Bible Verses?

Text

Personal Identity?

Character, purpose & plan?

Eph 1:3-4

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1 Cor 2:7

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Rom 8:29-30

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Our eternal destiny (heaven or hell) is based entirely upon God's choice not our own???

God is not a respector of persons: Acts 10:34; Rom 2:11-12; 1 Pe 1:17

God does not will that any perish but all be saved: Tit 2:11; 1 Ti 2:4; 2 Pe 3:9

Makes the Devil no enemy for the saved to worry about, if predestined 1 Pe 5:8 Why beware?

C. Makes man's efforts in evangelism unnecessary

If the saved are predestined to be saved and the lost are lost and no one can be "saved" unless the Holy Spirit performs a direct operation, why evangelize

If salvation is totally dependent upon God, why would God command evangelism?

Why waste our time evangelizing if all is predestined. How can we know who to preach to?

Why does God have us preach (we are puppets) to people who do not respond?

D. It creates a false view of how we gain understanding of the Bible and our faith.

We understand the Bible the same way we learn anything else. (reading, study and hard work)

The Calvinist believes the only way you can understand the Bible is through the direct guidance and interpretation of the Holy Spirit. Yet the HS told us in Eph 3:3-5 we can understand the Bible when we simply read.

Faith comes from hearing/reading the Bible: Rom 10:17

Jn 16:12-13 & 2 Pe 1:22-21 are quoted to prove the HS guides you to understand the Bible

What are these Bible verses talking about?

Texts

How we interpret the Bible?

How the Bible was written?

John 16:12-13

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2 Peter 1:21-22

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E. It creates a false view of how we are called by God

Song: "The World's Bible" "Christ has no hands but our hands to preach His word today, He has no feet but our feet, to lead men in His way. He has no tongue but our tongues, to tell men how He died. He has no help but our help, to bring them to His side. We are the only Bible the careless world will read. We are the sinner's gospel, we are the scoffer's creed. We are the Lord's last message, given in deed and word. What if the type is crooked? What if the print is blurred? What if our hands are busy, with other things than His? What if our feet are walking, where sin's allurement is? What if our tongues are speaking of things His life would spurn. How can we hope to help Him and welcome His return?"

Calvinists teach that only the "predestined saved" are personally called by God

The Bible teaches that all men are called through gospel: 1 Th 2:14 some accept, others reject!

Humans are the means that God always uses preach the Gospel to save men. God may directly or providentially send a preacher to a sinner, but only humans preached the actual message.

The Holy Spirit never preached the Gospel directly: Acts 8 (Conversion of Eunuch)

Jesus Christ never preached to Gospel after His ascension: Acts 9 (Conversion of Paul)

Angels never preached the gospel: Acts 10 (Conversion of Cornelius)

It is a real barrier to men truly being saved...It is a doctrine of the Devil:

Bible's way: Rom 10:6-16

Preacher + Hear Believe

Believe + Call/obey Saved

Calvin's way

Holy Spirit Believe = Saved

F. Irresistible Grace actually destroys faith in God!

Many a faith has been destroyed by waiting for the "better felt than told feeling" call.

Those who are honest within themselves never get this feeling and conclude they are not on the "saved list" and give up on God.

Those who are dishonest deceive themselves into a false sense of assurance of salvation by thinking they have received the call of God through feelings.

Subsequent efforts to show them they are deceived bring replies like. "I know I'm saved...I got the feeling!"

Pentecostalism provides a similar barrier, when men falsely claim to speak in tongues etc.

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