This Is How Nutty Calvinists Are.

[Tim]

https://reformcon.org

"...we will spend two days soaking in pure and unadulterated Calvinistic delight while being equipped to take the good news of the Gospel into the public square."

Don't get me wrong.  If you're a "Calvinist" but attempt to witness and win souls I'm for you.  100%.

It's just that I don't understand you.  According to Calvinism, it makes not one wit of difference if you preach, witness, pass out tracts, etc as God has, in eternity past, made His choice, and there ain't a thing you can do to change it.

God uses his elect to reach the lost. He commands his elect to reach the lost. His elect glorify God by obeying his command to reach the lost. His elect play a part in the grand plan of God.

At least, that is how I understand it from my "Calvinist" pastor.

As I said, if you're witnessing and trying to win people to Christ, I don't care if your pastor is a "Calvinist" or not.  (Well, I do care.)

Technically my "Calvinist" pastor would prefer I not use the phrase "win them to Christ" since I am not doing anything except sharing the "good news" with people. God saves them when he takes their stony heart and softens it to understand and see the need for the gospel. My sharing is part of Gods plan in their life. According to what I understand via my pastor and Sunday School teachers and John Piper and RC and MacArthur (who present what they say as the truth of the Bible) - I have zero part in any "winning" since life isn't really a game and I don't make people do anything unless God gives them the gift of understanding.

At least that is how I understand it.

 

[Ransom]

Technically my "Calvinist" pastor would prefer I not use the phrase "win them to Christ" since I am not doing anything except sharing the "good news" with people. . . . I have zero part in any "winning" since life isn't really a game and I don't make people do anything unless God gives them the gift of understanding.

I'd say your pastor is being needlessly picayune about phrasing.

For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. (1 Cor. 9:19-22)

Paul of all people knew that God did the winning and saving, not him; yet, by his becoming all things to all men, he could acknowledge his own instrumentality in their salvation. In Aristotelian terms, he's the efficient cause, though not the final cause.

 

[Twisted]

Technically my "Calvinist" pastor would prefer I not use the phrase "win them to Christ" since I am not doing anything except sharing the "good news" with people. . . . I have zero part in any "winning" since life isn't really a game and I don't make people do anything unless God gives them the gift of understanding.

I'd say your pastor is being needlessly picayune about phrasing.

For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. (1 Cor. 9:19-22)

Paul of all people knew that God did the winning and saving, not him; yet, by his becoming all things to all men, he could acknowledge his own instrumentality in their salvation. In Aristotelian terms, he's the efficient cause, though not the final cause.

I love agreeing with Ransom when he is right.

 

[FSSL]

Nutty? Then you haven?t tried this!