Wednesday, August 29, 2007

The Poll

One of the first things I did when I started this blog two weeks ago was put up a poll question: "When you stand before God and He asks you 'What have you done that I should allow you into my kingdom?' what are you going to say?" The choices were 1. I trusted in Christ 2. I allowed Christ into my heart 3. I prayed the sinners prayer 4. Nothing, Christ did it all.

I would like to expound on this a bit. The first three answers are man-centered, not God-centered. In reality if you believe one of these three then you save yourself. If Christ did not die for the elect only, then the decisive factor is within you. If Christ died for everyone but only saves those who "accept" Him or "make a decision" for Him, then what ultimately saves is within the person. Think about it, if Christ died for everyone what separates you who are saved from the person next to you who is not. It is entirely within you.

One more question, if you do not believe Christ died only for the sins of the elect, is unbelief a sin? If it is a sin then why would not everyone be saved if Christ actually paid the price for everyone's sins?

So, I have not-so-subtly addressed Limited Atonement, one of the five points of the Reformed faith. What do you think? I hope to stimulate some conversation here and will have a new poll up soon

In Christ
Alan

2 comments:

Mark said...

OK, I'll play. :^)

Question 1: How important is this? Christ either died for everyone or He died for the elect only. What difference does it make? The elect are the ones who have the inheritance. I've seen a lot of brothers quarrel over this issue and some even part fellowship over it.

Titus 3:9-11 says:
But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and strife and disputes about the Law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. Reject a factious man after a first and second warning, knowing that such a man is perverted and is sinning, being self-condemned.

Question 2: If Christ died only for the elect, then why does this verse say He died for false teachers who denied Him and are doomed to destruction?

2 Peter 2:1:
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.

Alan said...

Well, what difference does it make? Error begets error. While it may appear that it matters little whether Christ died for all or just some, I already pointed out where the error of thinking He died for all leads--to the false belief that the only difference between the saved and the unsaved is within the person saved. Not that Christ had actually saved them.

As far as question 2 is concerned the teachers Peter is talking about gave the appearance of being Christians and Peter is mocking them. If Christ actually bought them, then there is no contradiction, they would be elect and therefore Christ's limited atonement would apply to them as well.

Thanks for playing Mark, hope more will join in.