“The issue of the gospel was not settled 500 years ago in church history. It was settled long before Luther.” — John MacArthur
Read the article on the TMS Blog. Visit https://t.co/I6KKpeUQAq or click link in story. #TMSBlog
It's really rather simple.
The Scripture says two things are true at once.
1. God selects who is saved
2. We are responsible for rejecting the gospel
We cannot hold these together with our logic, but neither can we explain the motion of the wind or the origins of matter.
Nevertheless, this is what Scripture states.
Therefore:
1. Those who are in Christ were selected by the Father, and not a single bit of that is to your own glory, lest you boast.
2. Those who are not in Christ are at complete fault for their position, lest they blame God Himself for their sin.
In a single sentence, Calvinism is simply Scripture, and can be isolated into a single sentence.
All glory goes to God, and all shame to man.
Happy to discuss with anyone.
@Wargamer204@w_bitterman Not Christian! Fake false “Christianity” but not CHRISTIAN! Just sayin! Scripture is Jesus Christ; THE WORD!! Repent and believe! “You must be born again” JOHN 3 😇🙏🏻🤷🏼♂️
God used the thorn in Paul’s life far more than the vision of the third heaven. The vision showed Paul where Christ reigns, but the thorn showed the world where Christ lives, in the weakness of His servant.
Paul’s revelation made him see glory; his thorn made him need grace. The first lifted his understanding; the second humbled his heart. “Lest I should be exalted above measure” (2 Corinthians 12:7). God trusted Paul with visions, but He kept him usable through pain.
The third heaven made Paul silent, he heard things that could not be spoken. The thorn made him speak, about power perfected in weakness, about grace that does not remove the suffering but transforms it. “My grace is sufficient for thee, for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).
The vision exalted Christ to Paul. The thorn revealed Christ in Paul. What God revealed privately to him, He displayed publicly through his suffering. The third heaven was revelation. The thorn was incarnation, Christ living through clay.
If the church today seeks glory without thorns, it will speak of heaven but show nothing of Christ.
Happy Monday! I’m 41 today but reflecting more upon my new birth, at 27 y/o, while I was alone & living in an apt. on a road named Testimony Ave. That’s where I was born again & Jesus became my living hope & changed my entire life.
I saw this quote below on another app & liked it but can’t remember the person who wrote it, but anyways… here it is:
Deliverance breaks the yoke.
Discipleship breaks the pattern.
Thankful for the new birth in Christ but also the growth He gives us. Our God is a good, good Father & I’m so thankful that He never gives up on us & He always finishes what He starts. All my life, He has been so faithful & kind. He is:
Merciful.
Just.
Kind.
Loving.
Compassionate.
Most High.
Holy
Holy
Holy.
Mighty.
Wonderful.
Beautiful…
Deliverer.
And so much, much more. Blessed be the name of the Lord. My Great Savior, Counselor, Comforter, & King. Thank You Father, Son, & Spirit.. for giving me life everlasting & forgiving me for all of my sins. For growing me more & more each year. Your ways are wonderful & so far above me, I can’t comprehend them but I am so grateful & continually humbled. Help me to number my days, so that I may present a heart of wisdom & reflect a life that’s reflective of your great love, mercy, & person. Great are You, o’ Lord. My Rock & my Redeemer. ♥️🙏🏼🕊️
One of the oldest spiritual mistakes is to turn inward looking for God as though somewhere beneath our thoughts, feelings, desires, or consciousness there is a divine spark waiting to be discovered. Scripture does not send us into ourselves to find Him. It sends us to His revelation. “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). A fallen heart makes a very poor compass for finding the living God.
Furthermore, once inner experience becomes the authority, the line between God and self begins to blur. We start calling our impressions His voice, our desires His leading, our intuition His presence, and eventually our own consciousness becomes the place where truth is decided. Romans 1 describes fallen man as exchanging “the truth of God for a lie” (Romans 1:25). Idolatry does not always require a carved image. Sometimes the idol looks disturbingly like ourselves.
The Bible never teaches that salvation is discovering divinity hidden within us. We are creatures made in God’s image, but we remain creatures. God alone is God. “I am the LORD, and there is no other” (Isaiah 45:5). The gospel begins with a holy God outside of us, sinners alienated from Him, and Christ coming from heaven to reconcile us through His blood. We do not descend into ourselves and uncover God. God has made Himself known supremely in His Son.
This is why Jesus said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). If we want to know God, we look to Christ as He is revealed in Scripture. The Holy Spirit does work within believers, but He does not turn our inner life into a second Bible. His ministry is to glorify Christ and lead us into the truth already given (John 16:13–14).
And I must say, a spirituality that endlessly tells us to look within will eventually make much of man and very little of God. Biblical Christianity does the opposite. It brings us out of ourselves, confronts us with the holiness of God, exposes our sin, and fixes our eyes upon Christ.
The safest place for the soul is never the unexplored depth of its own feelings. It is the sure Word of God. We know Him because He has spoken, and every genuine work of the Spirit will drive us back to the Christ Scripture reveals.