IG - Affirmed
1.ISAIAH 6:9-10
a.point - and outward call" - but not able to learn or understand.
b.NOTE, also Jeremiah 5:21, 6:10
"Judah's spiritual blindness, deafness, and hardness of heart is due NOT to any arbitrary divine interdiction, but to human volition and God's gracious appeal to Judah is predicated on the fact of man's moral agency" (Shank, Elect in the Son, p.167)
c.Note - Isa. 45:22 - salvation offered to "all the ends of the earth"
d.Berkouwer (a modern Calvinist) stated: "It is almost incomprehensible that Isaiah 6:9-10 has been quoted as "proof" for the hardening of the reprobate from eternity."
2.Matt. 13:11-5 (Mark 4:12; Luke 8:10).
a.Jesus had preached the gospel to them - Mk. 1:14-15; Mt. 11:4f
b.They had NOT accepted such teaching - Matt. 11:16-19
c.Jesus pronounced as curse for such unbelief - Matt. 11:20-24
d.Mt. 13:12 - reception of FURTHER truth is based on the acceptance of PRESENT understanding of truth. By rejecting the straight forward preaching - they were in no position to now understand the parables! It however was not because of some divine, unalterable decree that they COULD not believe!
3.John 12:37-40.
1.had heard the preaching -
2.had seen the miracles -
3.had rejected them all -
4.as observed by Westcott then, "This divine 'cannot' expresses a MORAL and not an external or arbitrary impossibility" (B.F. Westcott, The Gospel According to St. John, p. 185).
4.Acts 28:25-27
b.Note "became" dull, Closed their eyes - was own volition!
5..John 6:44-45 - "draw" = secret, inner, irresistible call.
a.Note vs. 45 - HOW drawn = thru teaching!
b.Same word used in Jn. 12:32 - will draw ALL MEN!
6.Matt. 11:27; John 5:21
point - only whom God WILLS to reveal and give life are "called".
a.Note John 5:39,40 - THEY REFUSED - they were at LIBERTY to come - but they WOULD not do so. They rejected the "witnesses of Christ" - (Christ, John, the miracles, the Father, the word!) - but they had to be able to UNDERSTAND the witnesses (the call) to REJECT them!
b.Jesus said these things THAT THEY MIGHT BE SAVED -
7.John 10:26
a.NOTE - appeal in verse 38 - is to the SAME MEN!
8.John 3:8 - secret work of the Spirit.
a.only an illustration - you see the effect of the wind, not the wind. You see the effect of the new birth - not the new birth.
b.Note vs. 11 - they refused - not because of a decree of God - but because of their choice!
c.Note vs. 14-21; STILL OFFERED - WHOEVER BELIEVES
9.John 8:47 - believe not = because not of God
a.BUT, verse 24, still left open the invitation!
10.John 9:39 - blind to see, seeing to be blind.
a.again, note context. They had rejected the miracle of the blind man - hence they who thought they could see were really blind - it was a matter or rejection of the testimony - not inability to understand such!
11.John 15:16,19
a.this speaks of choosing the apostles to the apostleship - not salvation.
12.John 17:19 - those whom thou hast given me -
a.Again - of the apostles.
b.was then enlarged to THOSE THAT BELIEVE THRU THEIR WORD - vs. 20
13.Acts 2:39 - "called of God".
a.true - but how called? thru the gospel - 2 Thess. 2:14
b.Gospel is for all - Mark 16:15-16.
14.Acts 16:14 - opened her heart?
a.HOW - by preaching, the things spoken by Paul.
b.cp. as in Luke 24:45 - Lord opened their hearts by teaching!
15.Rom. 12:3 - God gives faith.
16.Eph. 2:8 - Faith a gift?
a.IF is of faith, then cp. above, from the word, Rom. 10:17
b.Believe is of salvation - as stated by Robertson:
"and that (kai touto). Neuter, not feminine taute, and so refers not to pistis (feminine) or to charis (feminine also), but to the act of being saved by grace conditioned on faith on our part."
(A.T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament)
17.Acts 13:48 -
a.cp. notes under previous sections for comments on this passage.
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