Bulletin
Anyone Can Believe
Anyone Can Believe
Calvin didn’t agree, and those who are saturated with Calvinist thinking, have a hard time with some plain teaching of the New Testament. God wants all men to be saved, and not just an elect few. “This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1Tim. 2:3-4). It is hard to read that passage and not realize that God “desires all men to be saved”, but Calvinism does’t believe this. They believe that God sends the Holy Spirit into a person so that they can believe, and he does this arbitrarily, randomly. This teaching goes against the idea that God “desires all men to be saved”.
Secondly, if God “desires all men to be saved”, and the only way you can believe is the Holy Spirit entering in a person, he would certainly send the Holy Spirit into every person, but he doesn’t. Maybe it is time to throw away the idea that the Holy Spirit supernaturally, or directly causes people to believe, because the Bible doesn’t teach that either. The Holy Spirit certainly inspired the writers of the Bible. So when we read, study and reason through the Bible, we have the potential to believe.
When Barton W. Stone was studying his way out of Calvinism, he came across this passage, “Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.” (John 20:30-31). “Stone reasoned that belief in Jesus as God’s Son was reasonable “because the testimony given was sufficient to produce faith in the sinner” (Rogers, Biography, 29). Reasonable, believable, eyewitness testimony of the historical Christ is the same as the Christ of faith. Add to that the prophecies written beforehand from other cultures and languages (Hebrew & Aramaic of the Old Testament times), points to that same Christ. So the conclusion is strengthened and faith is solidified. Go where the evidence leads. “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.” (John 5:39-40). Why not make the steps to come to Christ? Sinfulness is our bias against Christ, and it’s a powerful prejudice against him. The evidence is so strong that we would all believe, except for the consequences. As one famous believer said, “Lord, make me holy, (but not just yet). We all agree with Christ in our inner spirit, it is our flesh that seeks unrestrained pleasure in this life. Jesus calls all of us while we are yet sinners, but few will hear his voice. Be one of the few who go from sinner to saint. Dan Peters
- Anyone_Can_BelieveWORD.docx (9.21 kB)
