mbkjpreacher

The Gift of Faith


The Calvinist says, “Faith is a gift. Thus, election is unconditional because man cannot have it unless God gives it”. Yes we believe that faith is a gift but not as how the Calvinist interpret it.  Our question is, “To whom will God give the gift of faith, to the proud or to the humble?” The Calvinist will then say, “All men are totally depraved and proud, so God gives faith to whosoever He wills”. But faith comes by hearing, so God gives faith to those who hear and listen humbly to the word, Rom.10: 17.  A man will not listen unless he has humility, and when he hears the gospel, he will not accept the message unless he has humility (Prov.9:7-9; 13:1, 10; 11:2).  God’s grace is extended to all, but men do not have the same response to the Spirit’s reproof (Titus 2:11; John 16:8; 12:47-48).  When a person humbles under the word and the Spirit, he is given more grace by the Spirit for him to understand more (Jam.4:6; Prov.9:9; 17:10; Prov.3: 34). And God gives him more grace, strength, and ability to exercise faith (Eph.2: 8). Mark 9: 24 tells us of a man who cried, “Lord I believe; help thou my unbelief”.  It is God who helps us to believe.  Faith is not a function of God, rather it is a function of man directed towards God through the aid of the Holy Spirit (John 6:44).  God gives man the ability to believe when he repents under the enlightenment and conviction of the Spirit and the Word.  God gives man the ability or strength to repent when he realizes his sins (convicted) and felt sorry for them (Acts 11:18; II Cor.7: 8-10).  Man realizes his sins through the conviction of the Holy Spirit and the hearing of God’s word – that is, when he hears and humbles himself under the reproofs of the Spirit and the word.(Prov.29:1).    God’s word is effective to those who humbly hear and accept it (Isa.55: 11; I Thess.1: 5,13; Rom.1: 16; 10:17).  The sequence is:

Holy Spirit’s call and influence — hearing of the gospel preached – intellectual belief --- humility and enlightenment – realization and conviction – godly sorrow – repentance – saving faith – regeneration – salvation.

My point here is that there is an increasing grace accompanied by gifts (ability) to a person who responds in humility to God under His common grace (Jam.4: 6; Rom.10: 17). There is a decreasing grace on those who respond in pride and resistance to the influence and call of the Spirit being extended to all. (Rom.1: 21-28).  This is true even in our Christian life. When we humble and yield to the leadership of the Spirit and meditate upon God’s word, we feel that His guidance and influence increase, and the more we are encouraged. But when we sin and do not meditate upon God’s word, the guidance of the Spirit becomes less and less. (Psa.51: 9-13; 119:1-16, 97-105).

Questions to the Calvinists 
 
 
 Is God pleased that others will not believe in Jesus? Heb.11:6 Is God pleased with faith? Heb.11:6 Is God pleased with a carnal mind? Rom.8:7-8 Is the giving of faith according to God’s pleasure? If the giving of faith is according to God’s pleasure and it is without condition, then why won’t God give faith to all men? To whom is God pleased to give more grace, to the proud or to the humble? Jam.4:6 Therefore, God has some conditions before he bestows more  grace and ability in man to exercise faith in Christ.  He chooses to bestow more of His graces to the humble (Prov.3: 34; Jam.4:6; I Pet.5: 5-6; Isaiah 57:15). 
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What do you think of this explanation in dealing with the Calvinist if we accept that faith is a gift?  
 

Anyone can claim the title Biblicist, but he has to prove it.  Spurgeon is a Baptist and yet you have to prove that he is right in all aspects of beliefs.  To be a Biblicist does not mean you have to take man or any human writing as the basis of your beliefs but rely solely on the Bible as the basis of your beliefs. 

There has never been a lost person that kept the law of God before salvation. That is what the book of Romans teaches: all have sinned, all are guilty before God, all need salvation - whether Jew or Gentile. The controversy Romans speaks to the Jews about was that they could not accept a Gentile as being saved and now righteous in God’s eyes (not that they were righteous prior to receiving the Saviour and being credited with His righteousness, but that now those who were not Jewish were now fulfilling the Law through faith in Christ).

The word repentance may not be in John, but the concept certainly is!
John 5:14 Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.
John 8:11 -- She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

The Bible only teaches on kind of Gospel as truth, and that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Can it be presented in different ways? Of course, but that doesn't make it different a different Gospel. The Apostle Paul tells us that if anyone comes to us and preaches a Gospel other than that of Jesus Christ, we are to avoid them, and they are to be accursed. 

The Bible from beginning to end only teaches one plan of salvation. Since the fall of man, salvation has always by placing faith in the coming Messiah, the substitute who would die in our place for our sins. The level of knowledge varied in each dispensation - and as the word dispensation itself means, there were/are different rules to live by in each dispensation (literally meaning “house rules”), but salvation has always been the same: salvation by grace through faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary, where He shed His blood and died in our place, bearing the full wrath of God as our substitute, dying, then literally rising from the dead three days later, proof positive that His sacrificial death - His atonement for our sins - was accepted by God the Father.

Neither a Calvinist nor Arminian but a Biblicist.  
The Calvinists believe that God decreed all events to happen including the sin of unbelief, thus human depravity has no influence in man when he is called by God.  
The Arminians believe that man by his own determination can come to God, and man not so depraved but there is good in him.  
The Biblicist believes that man being depraved and under the influence of his depraved nature yet when under the influence of God, the Holy Spirit and the preaching of God's word, has the freewill to either humble under God's grace and influence and obey the gospel to repent and believe or to remain pride and follow his depraved nature.  

The "Steven Andersons" of this world can say anything they want and get away with it if the are never challenged.
The people of this world that follow men like this are not following God, but man.
They manipulate words and meanings to their own mindset, but the plain meaning of Scripture is clear. 
Example:
2 Corinthians 5:17 (KJV) Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
The "order" in which this Scripture is put forth would rule out repentance being a "work".
Godly, responsible preachers should be looking to God and His Word for their understanding, not another man.

It seems that there is no Baptist preacher in the history of Baptists that interprets Jonah 3: 10 that repentance of sin is a work.  Steven Anderson must have been the first person to interpret such verse to support the idea that repentance of sin is work.  Early Baptist preachers never preach and interpret Jonah 3: 10 as repentance of sin is work.  There is no clear statement where the passage say that God saw that repentance of sin is a work, therefore it is only an interpretation of Steven Anderson which has influenced so many preachers.  

There has been a few things that I've heard Steven Anderson preach that I never heard before. He seems to receive special Biblical Interpretation from God, which means the Bible is of a private interpretation. 

Right!  Repentance is for the saved and unsaved.   Repentance means a change of mind, therefore it is not a work.  Repentance of sin is still a change of mind and therefore it is not a work.  Steven Anderson has influenced many independent Baptist to his view that repentance of sin is a work, but such idea is alien from Baptists in the past centuries.   
REPENTANCE IS A CHANGE OF MIND, A CHANGE OF DECISION AND IT IS NOT A WORK.  
1.  In Jonah 3: 10 , when God changed his mind from His intention of bringing evil punishment to the people of Nineveh, but instead forgave them, it was not a work, it was a change of mind. 
2.  In Genesis 6: 4 when God repented that He made man on earth and it grieved Him, it was not a work, Genesis 6: 4. 
3.  When Paul changed his mind for a while of writing the Corinthian brethren and later did not repent for writing them, it was not a work, 2 Cor. 7:8. 
4.  When the Eldest son repented from disobedience of his father but changed his mind to work in the field, the repentance is not a work.  He repented, (past tense) prior to going and working in the field. ( Matthew 21: 29).  
5.  When the prodigal son repented of his sins toward God and his earthly father, it was a change of mind and not a work.  He repented in Luke 15:17-19 and that was only in his mind, thoughts and emotion and will, but not a physical action.  The work is when he rose up to go to his father in verse 20.  Repentance of sin toward God was not a work.  Even when he changed his mind toward his father concerning his sin it was not a work. 
6.  When the people at Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah, it was not a work, Matthew 12: 41.  In Matthew it is only mentioned repented, and yet it refers to their repentance of sin in Jonah 3: 10.  
7.  In Matthew 12: 41, it does not say they repented by doing good works but they repented by hearing a preaching.  Gal. 3: 2-3 and Romans 10:17. 
8.  Jonah 3: 10 does not teach repentance of sin as work.  It says, "And God saw their works that they turned from their evil way".  The word that in Hebrew is "ki" and in other passages was also translated as because in Genesis 26: 20.  It means that God saw their works because they turned from their evil way.  The turning from their evil way or the decision to change mind is not a work but is a decision in the mind.  The work is the result of repentance and is the fruit as mentioned by John the Baptist in Matthew 3: 8.  

Many have misunderstood Jonah 3: 10 they made this verse as the basis for repentance of sin as work.  
And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.
(Jonah 3:10)
 
Here are some similar statements and they do not change the meaning of repentance which is change of mind into repentance of sin as work.  
 
If you saw your child's actions that he changed his mind from playing in the mud.  The change of mind is not the action rather the actions is the result of the change of mind. 
The policeman saw the car turning that the driver changed his mind from going to a wrong direction.  This does not mean that the turning of the car is the changed of mind of the driver rather it is the result of the changed of mind. 
The instructor saw the student's good driving that he changed his mind from his wrong way of driving. This does not mean that the good driving is the changed of mind from wrong driving.  Rather the good driving is the result of a change of mind from wrong driving.  
Thus those who believe that repentance of sin is a work have so misunderstood the passage and twisted it to fit their ideas.  
 

I am not a church of God since individuals cannot be called a church because the word church means an assembly.  It would be appropriate to say I am a member of the true church of God to distinguished from false churches.   The true churches of God are Scriptural Baptists that started from the time of Christ.  That is where I belong to.  John the Baptist preached repentance and faith, Mat. 3; John 3: 36; Jesus the founder of our church preach repentance and faith, Mark 1: 15;  The apostles preached repentance and faith, Luke 24:47, Acts 20:21; Baptist confessions prior to the Southern Baptist Convention stated repentance and faith.   The SBC stated repentance and faith, ABA and BMA, mentioned repentance and faith,  When the GARB and ABWE came out from the SBC, they were known as Fundamental Baptists you can see they only have faith.  Spurgeon believes in repentance of sin and faith.  But then at that time all Baptists still believe that there is still repentance and the GARB (of the Fundamental Baptists) stated that repentance is integrated in faith..  gradually there is an evolution when Curtis Hutson, Hyles, started to teach that faith only and with little emphasis on repentance of sin as a work.  The idea that repentance of sin is a work was the more developed in the time of Steven Anderson and thus so many were influenced with the idea that repentance of sin is a work.  This teaching has never been held by Baptists in the past as you can see in the confessions of faith.  You cannot find a book prior to Hyles and Hutson that written by Baptists of old that repentance of sin is a work.. This is indeed a new teaching.  
 
Through discussion we can prove which is biblical since we are here for discussions.  The Bible says: 
Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
(1 Corinthians 2:13)
 
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
(Isaiah 1:18)
 
Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.
(Proverbs 27:17)
 
If indeed what they teach is true that repentance of sin is a work why can't they answer questions based on the Scriptures?  
It seems that those who hold that repentance of sin is a work is so helpless that they cannot defend their position from the Scriptures.  
And those who say that salvation is by faith without repentance cannot prove their beliefs.  
So it is good to discuss this matter because this is an important doctrine and it is creeping among Baptist churches. 
Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
(Jude 1:3-4)
 
 
 
 

The Lord Jesus stated, "The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here."
The Lord Jesus condemned the religious lost of His generation because they did not repent. When a person, like the Ninevites, or the thief on the cross, repents from the heart and trusts in God, as in the Old Testament saints, or a belief in Christ, as the New Testament saints, they are eternally saved.
The Ninevites were eternally saved, spiritually, and then God, because He saw their works, and did not judge their nation after the forty days were over.
So, yes, the Ninevites were saved spiritually and then physically. In other words, in both the spiritual and sense of the word.

It's about finishing the Christian race so we can receive the prize at the end (vs 14). We don't win salvation. That would make it no longer a gift.  I do think at the judgement seat Jesus will be disappointed with many of us. 

The apostle answers the question through the Holy Spirit inspired context, as follows:
Philippians 3:8-14 -- "Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.  Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.  Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."
In this context, "winning Christ" means (1) growing more and more in the knowledge/fellowship of Christ so as to be (2) transformed more and more unto the perfectly righteous character of Christ.  Will such a process "win God's approval?"  Certainly it will; however, "winning God's approval" is not precisely the point of the context.  Rather, "winning" a growing fellowship with Christ and a growing transformation unto Christ-likeness is precisely the point of the context.

Indeed, this is the same as I presented:
On the other hand, I accept that my challenge to you was in error; for you do indeed understand the position of the Calvinist.  Thus I ask you to forgive the following challenge:
 

I would stick to the Bible yet I do acknowledge that there are some truths and false held by Calvinists and Arminians and whichever is in harmony with the Scriptures that will I hold.  

Neither Calvinists nor Arminians but Baptist

The big issue with repentance is that it is two-fold in nature: at salvation, we repent in our hearts of SIN, not sins, plural, but sin, the very concept of it. That is part of confession of our sin, which is necessary for salvation, not confessing our sins, plural, because we could never do that; rather, we confess that we are sinners, that we sin, the very fact of it, and so, repent, or turn from that life of sin, in the heart.
Once we are saved, then the repentance of sins, plural, the work, begins, as we grow in grace and understanding of what are specifically sins in our lives, and we turn actively from them to follow the Lord.  As mbkjpreacher said above, in Nineveh, they were repentant in heart, and their actions, the fruit of repentance, then followed. 

According to the conversation with the thief on the cross he went to Paradise. 
39 And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us.
40 But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?
41 And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss.
42 And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.
43 And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.
Luke 23:39-43
 

Mark 1:15 (KJV) And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.
Luke 13:3 (KJV) I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
Acts 3:19 (KJV) Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
Mark 6:12 (KJV) And they went out, and preached that men should repent.
Repentance and Belief; always in that order Scripturally.
John the Baptist's message was: Matthew 3:2 (KJV) And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Real Baptists are neither Calvinists nor Arminians but are Biblicists 

Real Baptists are neither Calvinists nor Arminians but are Biblicists 

Don't get me started on the amount of Scripture that Steve Anderson misunderstands.