A Few Questions for Arminians
Introduction:
- An Arminian more or less believes the synergistic, semi-Pelagian doctrine of James Arminius (1560-1609).
- In recent years, they are the followers of Charles Finney, D.L. Moody, Billy Graham, and Jack Hyles among many others currently enjoying widespread popularity in 2013 e.g. Rick Warren, Joel Osteen, Benny Hinn.
- Historical Arminians were more learned, honest, and consistent than today’s decisionalists, but the name fits.
- Arminianism should make you sick for its Bible corruption, pitiful God and Jesus, compromise, methods, etc.
- These sermons are to review our doctrine of salvation and explain why we interpret Romans the way we do.
- You cannot rightly interpret a text without knowing the rest of the Bible on that topic (II Pet 1:20; I Cor 2:13).
- God is perfectly logical and consistent and appeals to reason, which is how truth is preached (Is 1:18; 41:21; Gen 18:25; Acts 17:2-3; Rom 3:1-8), so our questions are to expose absurdities and heresies of Arminianism.
- Of course, these questions could be multiplied indefinitely, but the purpose can be obtained by a good sample.
- Some of the questions fit Calvinists as well, for if you scratch a Calvinist, you will often find an Arminian.
- If Arminians could ask good and hard questions in reverse, we must answer consistently with scripture only.
- In ourselves we are nothing and less than nothing, pertaining both to salvation and the correct doctrine of it.
- Any sarcasm is intended! But if it is too much for you, forgive us for being like Elijah (I Kgs 18:27; Jas 5:17)!
- Any anger is intended! If it is too much for you, forgive us for copying Moses and Jesus (Nu 16:15; Mk 3:5)!
- Recall Paul’s dogmatic ministry against Jewish legalists adding to Christ (Gal 1:6-9; 3:1; 5:1-4,12; Phil 3:2)!
- Many documents are linked in the body of this outline and also at the end for a full study of sound doctrine.
- This approach asks Arminians our questions; answers to questions asked by Arminians are in other studies.
- A salvation foundation requires … Unconditional Salvation.
- A salvation foundation requires … Five Phases of Salvation.
- Arminianism, Calvinism, and Truth (also see here).
- Decisional salvation criticized by a decisionalist.
Total Depravity
Arminians typically believe: Though morally hurt by sin in Eden, man is not entirely bad and has a free will to choose to obey or disobey God. Sin has not destroyed his ability or desire to cooperate with God.
- Who was the first Arminian to teach that Adam’s sin in Eden did not bring spiritual death or depravity to Adam and all men (Gen 2:16-17; 3:1-6)?
- Why, in agreement with Eden, does the Bible describe natural men as dead (Eph 2:1-3; Col 2:13)?
- Why, in agreement with Eden, does the Bible describe all men as rebel enemies of God and righteousness (Gen 3:7-12; Psalm 14:1-5; 53:1-5)?
- If God loved Adam very much, as you affirm of all men, why could not God elicit any repentance?
- If natural men are spiritually dead as the Bible declares, what kind of medicine can help a dead man?
- If a new birth, resurrection, regeneration, or new creation is needed, how much does the sinner help?
- How many men do you find in Romans 3:9-18 wanting to get saved and accept Jesus Christ as Lord?
- Is understanding involved in accepting Jesus as Savior? If so, how many are capable of it (Ro 3:11)?
- If you want to find and save natural men seeking after God (Rom 3:11), how successful will you be?
- If believing on Jesus Christ is something good, how many do it by nature (Psalm 14:1,3; Rom 3:12)?
- There is no fear of God before natural man’s eyes (Rom 3:18), so how many actually do fear God?
- If carnal and fleshly man is enmity against God, not subject to God’s law, cannot be subject to it, and cannot please God (Rom 8:7-8), how much does such a man want to be saved and help God with it?
- If man cannot see or hear God’s things (John 3:3; 8:43,47), will you use audio or video to save him?
- Jesus said it was His truth that caused men to reject Him, so how would you entice them (Jn 8:45)?
- Men are condemned because they love darkness and hate light (Jn 3:19-21)? How many want light?
- Since natural man rejects the things of the Spirit of God, thinks them foolish, and cannot know them without a spiritual man to discern them (I Cor 2:14), what will he do every time with the gospel?
- How often will man’s flesh cooperate with God’s Spirit, according to the doctrine of Paul (Ga 5:17)?
- If men without faith are unreasonable, how will you entice them to please God by faith (II The 3:2)?
- If man through pride never seeks or thinks about God, how will you get him to do both (Ps 10:4)?
- Why do you think changing the environment, or rehabilitation, will help natural man (Isaiah 26:10)?
- Why do you think you can persuade sinners, since Jesus said they cannot be persuaded (Lu 16:31)?
- In light of the above, what do you think is the best way to present Jesus to get men to receive Him?
- Can you see God had to initiate and perform a creative, regenerative operation of grace to save you?
Free Will
Arminians typically believe: God gave Adam a free will, and all men still have it; God cannot and will not force man against his will; man must exercise his will to be saved, which is free to obey or disobey.
- If you are honest and sincere, does total depravity shown above leave man’s will free toward God?
- Can any man choose Christ and righteousness as freely as he chooses the devil and wickedness?
- Is natural man’s condition such that he is at a crossroads and all you must do is invite him to Jesus?
- If you leave eternal life up to man’s will, based on total depravity shown, how many will be saved?
- How is a sinner like an Ethiopian or a leopard (Jer 13:23; Rom 8:7-8)? Are there any exceptions?
- If Adam had a free will, as you say, and as we agree, what happened to it after the fall of man?
- If Adam still had a free will after his fall and death, why did he reject God with so much at stake?
- Is the free will of man that you affirm the will of man, or the will of the flesh, or both (John 1:13)?
- Why do you exalt man’s free will, since God condemns the will of the flesh and of man (John 1:13)?
- How much of a role does the will of the flesh or the will of man have in being born again (Jn 1:13)?
- Where is man’s will in this statement, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy” (Rom 9:15)?
- Or where in this statement, “I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion” (Rom 9:15)?
- Where is it here: “So then it is not of him that willeth … but of God that sheweth mercy (Rom 9:16)?
- What kind of free will does an enemy have without spiritual strength to please God (Rom 5:6-10)?
- In one of the great statements of salvation, “will” occurs three times (Eph 1:3-12). Whose will is it?
- Did Nebuchadnezzar speak truth when he said God considers the earth’s inhabitants to be nothing and He does according to His will in the army of heaven and among those inhabitants (Dan 4:35)?
- Does a potter have authority and right to make what he wants? How is God different (Rom 9:20-21)?
- Clay is neutral toward man, without offence, but man is God’s rebel enemy; can God be God to him?
- If God cannot impose His desire on a man, why can a man impose his desire on his wife (Gen 3:16)?
- If man must have a free will and God cannot violate it, do saved people have a free will in heaven and could sin? Or does God finally reject free will for some new reason to keep them from sinning?
- If man must have a free will for God to be fair, did Jesus have a free will? Could He have sinned?
- If God cannot violate man’s will, why do you pray for God to save them? Should you not beg them?
- The Bible says God made His chosen and predestinated children accepted in the Beloved (Eph 1:3-6), but where does it say that they accepted Jesus to be their Saviour to be chosen and predestinated?
- Can you show from any verse in the Bible where eternal life is offered, rather than given (Ro 6:23)?
- Does whosoever will trouble you (Re 22:17)? It should not: God makes some willing (Phil 2:12-13).
- If God works in both to will and to do His good pleasure, why do most reject God (Phil 2:12-13)?
- If God does not work in to will and to do His pleasure, how many will do His pleasure (Ro 8:7-8)?
- Was David a fatalist for asking God to make him go after God’s commandments (Ps 119:35-36)?
- Can you not see that God exercised His free will to save you against your corrupt, depraved will?
- Do the elect and holy angels have free will? If yes, why have none sinned since eternity? If no, when did they lose it? If no, how did they lose it?
- If man’s will needs assistance of any kind from God to believe, then it is either depraved or not free?
For further study: God’s Will or Free Will.
Age of Accountability
Arminians typically believe: Since faith in Jesus is necessary for eternal life, and infants and little children can hardly have faith, all children go to heaven by free grace until they reach the age of 12.
- What is the age of accountability in your opinion? 12? 13? 11? Or 20? What is it in God’s opinion?
- Is this idea due to a combination of (a) eternal life is conditional, (b) babies cannot fulfill conditions, (c) all babies go to heaven, (d) no baby can go to hell, and (e) by 12 AWANA will get them saved?
- Is this idea your effort to make God fair and righteous in your opinion compared to the Bible facts?
- Where is it in the Bible? Because Jesus was 12 in the temple (Luke 2:42)? Or Jairus’s daughter was 12 (Mark 5:42)? Or is it the age to join the Boy Scouts? Or because a preacher had a child die at 11?
- Is your Bible evidence for the age of 12 greater than the Bible evidence for 20 (De 1:39; Nu 14:29)?
- Would it be okay with you if I used Leviticus 27:3 to connect the ages of 20 and 60, since I am 55?
- What does the age of accountability mean? You are not accountable to accept Jesus in order to go to heaven until 12? You are not accountable for sins until 12? Not accountable for Adam’s sin until 12?
- Do children ever die in the womb or after birth? If yes, why? For their sins? Adam’s sin? Or others’?
- Can a child of 11 steal or lie? Is it sin? How about 9? How about 7? How about 5? How about 3?
- If a child can sin at 11, how do they get to heaven? Since no longer by innocence, is it by free grace?
- Since God does not hold a child accountable until 12, how can you spank children before that age?
- If a child invites Jesus into her heart before she is 12, can it save her, since she is not accountable?
- If there is an age of accountability, should loving parents kill their children to guarantee their eternal life before they reach it, for if they allow them to reach it there is the high probability of damnation?
- If there is an age of accountability, does it not stand to reason that abortion clinics are the greatest evangelistic device or soul winning method ever created?
- If there is an age of accountability, is heaven filled with the children of Noah’s generation, the infants of Sparta, the firstborn of Egypt, the sucklings of Canaan, and the abortions of Russia?
- Since all abortions, miscarriages, and children dying before 12 are in heaven by free grace without conditions, do you agree that the great majority in heaven are there by sovereign grace without faith?
- If this is true, do you see that your doctrine of unconditional salvation extends even wider than ours?
- What did Paul have in mind with the words, “even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression,” when laying out Adam’s federal headship for all men (Rom 5:14)?
- What do you think of God making a decision for two babies before they were born (Rom 9:10-13)?
- What do the age of accountability and infant baptism have in common? Logic? Source? Mothers?
- Do you believe some men were ordained to eternal life or not (Acts 13:48)? Who ordained them?
- Were these men ordained because they believed the gospel, or did they believe from being ordained?
For further study: Age of Accountability.
Original Sin
Arminians typically believe: Either the judgment of Adam’s fallen nature and/or penalty of death passed to all men or no such thing happened; if it did happen, accepting Jesus gets you in the second Adam.
- Why did the Holy Spirit use “one” sixteen times in Romans 5:12-19, if He meant two or more?
- Does the “as-so” form of Romans 5:12 mean that all men must die for their sins or for Adam’s sin?
- Does “for that all have sinned” mean by themselves or by Adam, since some did not sin (Rom 5:14)?
- How was sin in the world before the Law, when sin cannot be charged without a law (Rom 5:13)?
- Why do men die when they have no law to break?
- How did men die for 25 centuries from Adam to Moses even when they had not sinned (Rom 5:14)?
- Who is Adam the figure of (Rom 5:14)?
- How much must infants and pagans know of this doctrine in order to die by the facts of it?
- Why do babies die in the wombs of their mothers by nature or by abortion?
- When was David first a sinner (Ps 51:5)?
- Was God fair to kill the child of David and Bathsheba for their sin?
- If babies do not die for Adam’s sin, then why do they die, since they have not sinned (Rom 9:13)?
- How much of this doctrine must men believe to be accountable for Adam’s sin and die for it?
- Will a man still die for Adam’s sin, if he never heard of Adam or rejected the truth about Adam?
- Must a man hear the Genesis account, believe it, and accept Adam as sin representative to die?
- If it is not cooperative disobedience with Adam that kills, is it cooperative obedience that saves?
- If it is the cooperative obedience of Jesus, the soul winner, and the sinner himself that results in the gift of eternal life, how many are obedient for one to be made righteous? Is three what Paul taught?
- If all in Adam die (I Cor 15:22), how do men get into Adam?
- If men get into Adam by conception, how many escape?
- If all in Christ are made alive (I Cor 15:22), how many outside Christ will be delivered from Adam?
- If all in Christ are made alive (I Cor 15:22), what is the first way in timing that men get into Him?
- If faith and baptism are two ways of getting into Christ (Gal 3:26-27), does election precede or follow faith and baptism?
- If you believe the representation here, why must you add man’s cooperation to Christ’s obedience?
- Did every man, woman, and child have a chance for eternal life in their perfect head Adam?
- Will you please stop accusing God and the true gospel for not giving man a chance for heaven?
- Do you see universal death and salvation for all that God gave to Jesus Christ by this representation?
- Can you grasp that this doctrine of representation gives all the glory for salvation to God and Christ?
For further study: The Two Adams.
Election & Predestination
Arminians typically believe: God looked through time on the human race and chose those men to eternal life that had chosen Jesus by free will to be their Saviour, and then He predestinated them to heaven.
- If total depravity shown above is true, how many would be saved without God electing to salvation?
- If God ordained all men to condemnation for unbelief, how many are saved (Ps 14:1-3; Ro 9:9-18)?
- In order to save any, must God be fair (submit to man’s will) or unfair (save by grace over his will)?
- Why are we bound to give thanks to God for the events and timing of salvation (II Thess 2:13)?
- Who chose who and to what end in Paul’s great contrast of the saved to the wicked (II Thess 2:13)?
- Did God choose men to believe or because they believed (II Thess 2:13)?
- Did you believe to get ordained to eternal life or because you were ordained to it (Acts 13:48)?
- Was it man’s choice to believe the foolishness of preaching, or God’s choice for it (I Cor 1:21-29)?
- Are there more saved for salvation of the less fortunate or the more fortunate (I Cor 1:26-31)? Why?
- Is it important to God that no human ever glories in His presence? How has He guaranteed it?
- How does a man, either Jew or Gentile, get into Christ (I Cor 1:30)?
- Does the Bible say God chose and predestinated some to salvation (Eph 1:4-5)?
- Did God make His elect accepted in the Beloved or have them accept the Beloved (Eph 1:6)?
- Did God make any human vessels to dishonor (Rom 9:21)?
- Why did He make human beings to dishonor (Rom 9:22)?
- Is God willing to show His wrath and power in the lives of some men (Rom 9:22)?
- Why do you consider election, or God’s choice of men, unfair, since He said it was not (Rom 9:14)?
- Has God appointed any men to wrath (I Thess 5:9; I Pet 2:8)?
- Are these men ordained to condemnation by His wrath (Jude 1:4)?
- When were they ordained to this condemnation by His wrath (Jude 1:4)?
- How did some angels rebel in sin while others did not? Are they called electing or elect angels?
- Are the elect angels held and preserved in holiness by their will or God’s will?
- How did the elect angels come to be elect? Who elected them? Is God fair with such angels?
- Did the fallen angels sin within or without God’s will? If within, why did He create them?
- Does God owe the fallen angels any further opportunities or mercy in order to be fair with them?
- Why are they reserved in chains to the judgment of the great day of God’s wrath? Do you pity them?
- Why are you dumber than your sister? Shorter than her? Uglier than her?
- If you think election is not fair, do you think the rest of God’s choices in everyone’s life is fair?
- Are all men created equal? Forget the Declaration of Independence. Are they not created unequal?
- Did God ask anyone about what he wanted in the way of parents? Intelligence? Generation of birth? Strength? Health? Looks? Teeth? Nation of birth? Job opportunities? Educational opportunities? Coordination? Race? Musical ability? Allergies? Inheritance? Acts of God? Abuse? Military draft? Chance events? Marital opportunities? Height? Body type? Temperament? Conviction? Pastor? First grade teacher?
- Did God ask if you wanted to exist? Even though you cannot end it no matter why or how?
- Did He create you without your permission to face life’s troubles, in many cases incredible pain?
- Did He decide without permission to create your eternal soul? Thus forcing very likely eternal pain?
- What about aborted babies? Starving children in Sudan? The mentally challenged missing most of life? Children born without fathers” Millions ravaged by disease and war they did not seek?
- Is God omniscient?
- Is it possible the word election means to choose?
- Is it possible the word predestination means to determine the destination of beforehand?
- Does God’s omniscience mean that He knows all things in the future with absolute certainty?
- If God knew those that would believe on Jesus to be saved, why did He create them knowing this?
- If God knew those that would not accept Jesus to be saved, why did He create them knowing this?
- Why will you accuse us of teaching “double predestination,” when it is obvious you are guilty?
- If God chose to create unbelievers to be damned for their unbelief, how is this not predestination?
- To what event does this modifier apply in Rev 13:8 and 17:8 – from the foundation of the world?
- Did God choose men because of their faith, or did God choose to give men faith (Jas 2:5)?
- How is God like a Potter, since He declares He is a Potter over men like clay (Is 45:9; Ro 9:20-21)?
- Can a potter make beautiful or ugly things from the same clay on a spinning wheel? Is God a Potter?
- If election is by foreknowledge (I Pet 1:2), what does Ps 14 and Rom 3 teach was not foreknown?
- Is there foreknowledge in a different sense, as God foreknew His people, not their actions (Ro 8:29)?
- Is there foreknowledge in a different sense, as God ordaining the crucifixion of Jesus (Acts 2:23)?
- Which comes first, when God refers to His determinate counsel and foreknowledge (Acts 2:23)?
- Which do you prefer? “Why did God not save everyone?” or, “Why did God save anyone?”
- Does election make God a respecter of persons, since He chooses to save some without any merits?
- Did Jesus say of His church, “Behold I and the children which gave themselves to me?” (Heb 2:13)?
- What is the point of election if God chooses those that chose Him? What does His election mean?
- Are there any non-elect in heaven?
- Are there any elect in hell?
For Further Study: What If Election Is True?
For Further Study: Is Election Fair?
For Further Study: Before the World Began.
Sovereignty of God
Arminians typically believe: They declare God is sovereign, and they pray as if He were, even over the souls of men, but in practical application they deny Him the desire, right, or power to overrule men.
- Can God fail? Be cautious and consistent with your answer, remembering God’s burden for all men.
- Does God fail? Be cautious and consistent with the answer, remembering God’s burden for all men.
- Why would God ever fail? Is it because He cannot or will not every override the will of sinners?
- How is God sovereign in your scheme, since He cannot or will not choose to save sinners He loves?
- How is He sovereign, if He cannot save them against their will, and He loses most He tried to save?
- Since our presidents can pardon without a substitute, why cannot your God pardon with a Substitute?
- If you do not like the charge your God cannot pardon with a Substitute, is it because He will not?
- Whether it is because He cannot or will not, is the real issue that man’s will must remain sovereign?
- If God wants to save all men, do most perish anyway due to a lack in His will, knowledge, or power?
- Has God purposed all things that come to pass? If not, how do things come to pass? If yes, does that mean who will and who will not be saved?
- Is God omniscient?
- If God wants to save all men, did He know beforehand how incredibly unsuccessful He would be?
- Did God know Adam would sin and damn his race to hell before creating him? Why did He create?
- Does God do according to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the world, not allowing any to even question Him (Dan 4:35)?
- What is the reputation in heaven of all the inhabitants of the earth (Dan 4:35)?
- Do you have the right to question God? No matter what He does or what He revealed (Rom 9:20)?
- Do you appreciate that God describes Himself as Potter (Rom 9:20; Is 29:16; 45:9; 64:8; Jer 18:6)?
- Does God work all things after the counsel of His own will (Eph 1:11)?
- What happened to those that said of Jesus, “We will not have this man to reign over us” (Lu 19:14)?
- Where did you get your sense of fairness, since it is largely your greatest complaint against election?
- Why do you cavil, unlike His best friends (Ge 18:25; Ex 6:3; De 32:4; Job 33:12; Ps 99:4; Da 4:37)?
- Is it right for God to do what He will with His own, though confusing to men like you (Matt 20:16)?
- Why is your eye evil in viewing God’s works, when He is good to the undeserving (Matt 20:1-16)?
- What shall the first be? The last? How many are called? How many chosen? Is that okay with you?
- Can God open, close, incline, harden, inform, change, or turn hearts as He chooses (many verses)?
- Is a burning hell for eternity fair? Should any man have to suffer forever for sin, no matter how bad?
- Do you believe the Flood account of Genesis? How many escaped drowning by Noah’s preaching?
- Do you believe the devil deserve eternal torment of hellfire? If yes, why not wicked men?
- Has God made all things for Himself (Pr 16:4)?
- Does this include wicked men for the Day of Judgment (Pr 16:4)?
- Did God ask if you wanted existence before creating you? Can you stop existing if the pain gets bad?
- 3Can a lazy pastor or missionary cost souls their salvation (I Ti 4:16)? If no, have you forgotten your own doctrine? If yes, can a lazy saved man completely undo God’s will? If yes, who is sovereign?
- Is it right to say, “God has done all He can do, now the rest is up to you”? Especially when what He did sends you to hell, and the rest is you doing enough to go to heaven?
- In your scheme, hearing and believing the gospel is necessary to go to heaven; is God fair or sovereign keeping the gospel from most men that have lived on earth over the last 6000 years?
For further study: The Dominion of God.
Love of God
Arminians typically believe: God loves every single conceived human being with unconditional love, so much so that He sent His Son Jesus to die a substitutionary death for every single one of them.
- Is it fair to say that God’s unconditional love of every single human without exception or variation is the foundation of your theology and the most important thing to know about God and salvation?
- How can God love a sinner outside Christ, since He is of purer eyes than to behold evil (Hab 1:13)?
- Will you please share with us from the Bible where God said He hates the sin but loves the sinner?
- Where in the Bible are men so separated from their sins that they can be dealt with as two separate things and independent from each other?
- Does God send sin or sinners to hell (Rev 21:8,27)? Does He hate the sin, or the sinners, or both?
- How can you say God loves sinners unconditionally, since He will torture every single one in fire for eternity if they do not fulfill the conditions He requires to go to heaven?
- Is it true your soteriology declares and demands that God loves those in heaven and hell equally?
- Or is your God fickle and changes from love to hatred once the men do not believe on Jesus Christ?
- Or is your God cruel by professing love that He turns to hatred on those He knew would not believe?
- Does God love all workers of iniquity, or does He hate them (Ps 5:5)? You cannot have it both ways.
- Does God love the wicked and lovers of violence, or does He hate them (Ps 11:5)? You must admit.
- Is God’s anger with the wicked every day due to His love or His hatred for them (Psalm 7:11)?
- Are the righteous, distinguished from the wicked under God’s anger, different from them (Ps 7:11)?
- Did David’s hatred of God’s enemies please God or offend Him (Psalm 139:21-22; 31:6)?
- Did Jehoshaphat’s love of God’s enemies please God or offend Him (II Chronicles 19:2)?
- Did God love Jacob and hate Esau? Or is perpetual indignation just less love (Rom 9:13; Mal 1:2-4)?
- How can you demand an extreme definition of “world” but compromise “hatred” to a little less love?
- Are all chastised as sons, or are there some bastards (Heb 12:6-8)? Does God love the bastards?
- If Jesus tells sinners He never knew them, does it mean He loves without knowledge (Matt 7:23)?
- Is this eternal rejection of the workers of iniquity consistent with His hatred of them (Psalm 5:5)?
- If hell is separation from God, does God still love those He will separate and send to hell (Rom 8:38-39)? If not, does God love all men? If yes, what is His inseparable love of them in the lake of fire?
- Are the wicked in hell separated from God’s love after He demands them to depart (Matt 7:23)? If yes, did He ever love them, since the objects of His love cannot be separated from it (Rom 8:38-39)?
- Should men love all women, since they are to love them as Christ loved the church (Eph 5:25-27)?
- Are all in the church? If yes, will all be in heaven? If not, does God lose those outside the church?
- How motivational toward marital perfection is Christ’s love that was wasted on most of its objects?
- Is the intercession of Jesus in heaven successful to save to the uttermost (Heb 7:22-25)? Does He intercede for all, since He intercedes for all that He loves (Rom 8:34-35)?
- Does the Holy Spirit shed abroad the love of God in the hearts of all men (Rom 5:5; Gal 4:6)? If not, does He love them anyway? If yes, does He shed it abroad in bastards as well (Heb 12:6-8)?
- How many times in the book of Acts did the apostles declare or offer God’s love to sinners? [None.]
- With so many opportunities in so many venues in this apostolic history, why complete silence or disregard for the love of God? Why did they not quote “the gospel in a nutshell” even one time?
- Does God love the devil and his angels also? If yes, how does He show it? If no, why does God hating sinful men bother you, since the devil is far greater in power and might than a mere man?
- How can Christ’s love for those in hell pass knowledge to fill with the fullness of God (Ep 3:14-19)?
- How can Christ’s love for those in hell motivate zealous service as in Paul’s case (II Cor 5:4-17)?
- Is love related to compassion or mercy? If so, who does God love and why (Romans 9:15-16)?
- If God loves all men and wants them in heaven with Him, why did He create the majority of men for sending to an eternal hell for torment? Is not this reprobation of beloved friends by omniscience?
- If God loves all men indiscriminately and equally, how does He express it to them in hell fire?
- If God loves all men indiscriminately and equally, how should the damned in hell appreciate it?
- If God loves all men indiscriminately and equally, how should the damned in hell thank Him for it?
- Who did God love in the Old Testament? If you say more than Israel, how did God show His love?
- Are you saying that God loved those in the ark as much as He loved those outside the ark?
- Are you saying that God loved those in Canaan as much as He loved those that annihilated them?
- If God loves all men without distinction, and the gospel is necessary to ever benefit from His love, why did He deprive the majority of mankind in human history from ever hearing the gospel?
- Should you conclude by saying God tried to love men, but most would not let Him, so He burned them forever in fire, because they would not give Him what He wanted?
- Does God ever change His mind about love? Is it just as strong for those in hell as those in heaven?
- If it pleased God to bruise Jesus for sins (Is 53:10), does it also please Him to punish sinners in hell?
- Which? “I do not understand why God hated Esau,” or, “I do not understand why God loved Jacob”?
- What do the words, “all the world,” mean in Luke 1:2?
- What does the word, “world,” mean in Romans 11:12?
- What do the words, “the whole world,” mean in Romans 1:8 and I John 5:19?
- How did John intend the word “world” in John 12:19; 14:17; 15:19; 16:20; and 17:14?
- Why do you grasp a limited “world” used in the Bible but demand the widest “world” in John 3:16?
- Do you believe agape love? Can you clearly distinguish it from phileo love? How does God love?
- Is God’s love great by width, ineffectual and temporary? or great by depth, effectual and permanent?
For further study: Does God Love Everybody?
For further study: Particular Redemption.
Jesus Christ’s Death
Arminians typically believe: Since God loved every single human being so much, He sent His Son Jesus to die a substitutionary death to pay for all the sins for every single one of them without exception.
- Did Jesus die for (a) all the sins of all men, (b) some sins of all men, or (c) all the sins of some men?
- If Jesus died for all the sins of all men, then what do they suffer for in the lake of fire, which is the result of what is found in the books of their works (Rev 20:11-15)?
- If Jesus died for all the sins of all men, why are their names not found in the book of life of the Lamb slain, since He was slain for them and their sins as any other men and their sins (Rev 13:8; 17:8)?
- If Jesus died for all the sins of all men, then why does God still identify them as sinners (Rev 21:8)?
- If the wicked are cast into hell for their specific sins, did Jesus wash away those sins (Rev 21:8)?
- If Jesus died for all sins of all men, is God guilty of double jeopardy, if any are sent to hell for sins?
- Did Jesus die for the sins of men that had been suffering in hell for 4000 years for their own sins?
- Did God know who would believe on Jesus and be saved? If yes, He knew those that would not, so why would He charge Jesus to die for their sins, since they would be punished for them in hell?
- If Jesus said He would save all the Father gave Him (John 6:38-39), how many did He give Him?
- If Jesus said He came to save all the Father gave Him (John 6:38-39), how many others are saved?
- If Jesus died to save those given and lost none, did He die for any lost (Jn 6:38-39; 10:27-29; 17:2)?
- Did Jesus die for the sin of unbelief? If yes, are all saved? If not, were not all men unbelievers once?
- Is it possible Jesus could have died in vain, if no one had believed on Him? Who got any to believe?
- What kept His death from being in vain, given man’s depravity? Probability and statistics? Human effort? God’s work of grace in hearts? Gideon Bibles? John 3:16 stadium placards? Tim Tebowing?
- Why did God not provide a Substitute or Saviour for the fallen angels, greater in power and might?
- Was it because it was not His will to save them, yet you cannot admit such a possibility for men?
- Since Jesus wept for Lazarus, whose body died four days, and Jesus knew He would resurrect Him; how much weeping will Jesus do in heaven for sending most men He loves to an eternity in hell?
- How long will His weeping last? Will it be eternal like their suffering? Or until they are out of sight?
- Or will He eventually turn off His omniscience of their anguish and pain and/or His love for them?
- Are men in hell missing any spiritual things? If yes, how did Christ die for them (Romans 8:32)? If not, why are they in hell without any spiritual thing?
- What will you lay to the charge of God’s elect, for His death guaranteed them all things (Rom 8:33)?
- How can any man Christ died for be condemned, since He makes intercession for them (Rom 8:34)?
- If no one can separate Jesus from those He loved, why will He tell many to depart (Romans 8:35)?
- Did Jesus die for more than the elect and predestinated, since those He died for cannot be separated from God’s love for them (Rom 8:29-39)?
- If Jesus’ life will much more save than His death, then did He die for those not saved (Rom 5:10)?
- Did Jesus die for men’s bodies, as His purchased possession? Will some bodies be cast into hell?
- If atonement means to put at one again, was not Christ’s atonement limited to those thus reconciled?
- The angel told Joseph that Jesus would save some from their sins; what did he call those (Mat 1:21)?
- Do those in hell sing redemption, since Jesus obtained eternal redemption for them (Heb 9:12)?
- Did God make any acceptable in the Beloved beyond the elect and predestinated (Eph 1:3-6)?
- Whose good pleasure and will determined adoption, acceptance, redemption, forgiveness (Ep 1:3-9)?
- If Jesus was slain for those in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain (Rev 13:8), was He slain for those not in the book of life (Rev 20:15)?
- Did Jesus die to redeem a peculiar people to Himself, or acquaintances for themselves (Titus 2:14)?
- If Jesus died to redeem men, purify them, and create zeal, did He die for sinners not so (Titus 2:14)?
- Why did Paul endure all things for the elect’s sakes, if Jesus died equally for all men (II Tim 2:10)?
- If Jesus died for His brethren, children given by God, are all brethren and children (Heb 2:11-13)?
- If Jesus died for the church to present it to Himself, did He die for all men (Ep 5:25-27; Acts 20:28)?
- If God in the new covenant does not remember sins, why will He remember the sins of most men?
- If Jesus gave His life for the sheep, does that mean He gave His life for the goats (John 10:11,15)?
- Why do the redeemed sing that Jesus redeemed them out of every kindred, tongue, people, nation?
For further study: Limited Atonement (also see here).
For further study: John Owen’s “Death of Death”.
Regeneration
Arminians typically believe: Sinners must be born again to go to heaven when they die, but all they have to do to be born again is to invite Jesus into their hearts and accept Him as their own personal Saviour.
- What must a man do in order to be born again?
- What part of man is it that does what a man must do in order to be born again?
- If a man must believe to be born again, is it his flesh or his spirit that must believe (John 3:6)?
- If his flesh must believe, how many will be born again (John 1:13; 5:40; Rom 8:7-9; 7:5; 9:16)?
- If his spirit believes, is he not already born again and led by the Spirit (Rom 8:14-16; Gal 4:6)?
- Can you describe with scriptural proof God’s work before regeneration to get man’s flesh to believe?
- If a man must believe to be born again, is it his natural or spiritual man with faith (I Co 15:45-49)?
- If his natural man must believe, how many will be born again (I Cor 2:14-15; Eph 2:3)?
- If his spiritual man believes, is he not already born again with a new nature (I Cor 2:16; Tit 3:3-5)?
- If a man must believe to be born again, is it his old or new man with faith (Col 3:9-11; Ep 4:17-24)?
- If his old man must believe, how many will be born again by will and works of the old man?
- If his new man believes, is he not already a new creation in Christ Jesus to have this man?
- In order to be born again, must a man exercise his will as part of believing unto faith (Rev 22:17)?
- If a man must exercise his will to believe, as you say, why did Paul preclude man’s will (Rom 9:16)?
- If a man must exercise his will, his free will in your thinking, is it the will of the flesh or of man?
- If it is the will of the flesh, how many will be born again, since John condemned it (John 1:13)?
- If it is the will of man, how many will be born again, since John condemned that also (John 1:13)?
- What does quickened mean?
- If quickened means to make alive, how much can a dead man assist in his own coming to life?
- If quickened means to make alive, how will you influence the dead man to assist his coming to life?
- If quickened means resurrection from death, how much will you assist with bodily resurrection?
- If you deny man is dead and must be quickened, who first taught such (Ge 3:4; Ep 2:1-3; Col 2:13)?
- What does regenerate mean?
- What does born again mean?
- Did you generate yourself? Did you assist in your generation in any way? How about regeneration?
- Since you teach faith for regeneration, do you know it requires resurrection power (Eph 1:19-20)?
- If being born again is not by the will of the flesh (John 1:13), then what will is it by (John 3:8)?
- Since God chose the concept of birth for regeneration, how much did you influence your first birth?
- If God makes seeing eyes and hearing ears, why do most not see or hear (Pr 20:12; Jn 3:3; 8:43,47)?
- If man must exercise his will to be born again, is it the will of the flesh or the spirit (John 1:13; 3:6)?
- Does God need permission to begin work on a man’s heart, or does He interfere and change it?
- What gloriously happens to the sinner’s will after he is born again, since He already had a will to believe on Jesus Christ to be born again before He was?
- Which comes first in God’s written description of salvation, man’s will or God’s will (Phil 2:12-13)?
- If the Spirit gives the new birth like the wind blows, how much do you influence the Spirit (Jn 3:8)?
For Further Study: Regeneration and Conversion.
Gospel Means
Arminians typically believe: For people to be born again, they must invite Jesus into their hearts, so sending them the gospel is crucial to tell them God’s wonderful plan for their lives to get them to do it.
- Jesus said a man coming back from the dead could not help evangelistically (Luke 16:31), so why do you think your far inferior methods can and do help anyone get saved?
- If all you have to do to be saved is believe for a moment of time, why does the Bible ascribe salvation to works in so many more places (I Thess 1:2-4; II Peter 1:5-11; I Tim 6:17-19)?
- If Lydia believed because God opened her heart (Acts 16:14), could she have believed if He had not?
- If Lydia believed because God opened her heart (Acts 16:14), does He open the hearts of all men?
- Does God open every heart when near the gospel? If so, why is it mentioned of Lydia (Acts 16:14)?
- If the Gentiles in Antioch believed because God had ordained them to eternal life (Acts 13:48), could they have believed if He had not?
- If the Gentiles in Antioch believed because God had ordained them to eternal life (Acts 13:48), does He ordain all men to eternal life?
- If medicine cannot help a man already dead, how can the gospel help a sinner (Eph 2:1-3)?
- Why do you believe the gospel is a sweet savor of death unto life against Paul (II Cor 2:14-17)?
- Since you believe that faith comes into existence by merely hearing God’s word (Rom 10:17), preferably with good music, is it the old carnal and fleshly man that believes or a new spiritual man?
- Why would Paul waste his time preaching to the saved brethren at Rome, when he could have handed out tracts at the Coliseum or left trinkets with John 3:16 on them at brothels (Rom 1:6-15)?
- Why do you believe in Jesus Christ while other family members and your neighbors do not?
- Is the “wooing” of the Holy Ghost done in good faith, since God knows it is in vain in most cases?
- Did God choose to richly give the poor faith, or choose the poor because of their rich faith (Jas 2:5)?
- By whom do we believe (I Cor 1:30)? If we believe by Him, how many believe without Him?
- Why do you accept only the first half of Mark 16:16, though the Church of Christ believes it all?
- Do you believe you can turn goats into sheep (Mat 25:31-32)? Why did Jesus not do it (John 10:26)?
- Do you believe you can turn tares into wheat (Matt 13:24-30)? Why did Jesus warn the apostles?
- Why do you think that gifts have to be actively received in order for there to be a gift (I Cor 4:7)?
- When has a president or governor in this country ever offered a pardon conditioned on reception?
- How effective is it to preach the gospel to the lost (I Cor 1:18,22-23; 2:14)?
- Who receives the preaching of the cross as the power of God (I Cor 1:18,24)?
- Why has God hid the gospel from the wise and prudent, if necessary to save them (Matt 11:25-27)?
- What is the best text to use when preaching to turn natural men into spiritual men (I Cor 2:14)?
- What salvation did Paul have in mind when writing the Corinthians about the gospel (I Co 15:2,19)?
- What salvation did Paul have in mind when writing a baptized and ordained minister (I Tim 4:16)?
- What salvation did James have in mind when writing beloved brethren of twelve tribes (Ja 5:19-20)?
- How do you differ from a Catholic priest and sacramental salvation if gospel faith generates life?
- What do you believe about babies that die in infancy?
- What gospel did Elizabeth preach to John to get him saved and full of the Holy Spirit in her womb?
- What did Peter actually accomplish with Cornelius, since he already feared God, worked righteousness of various kinds, and was accepted with God before meeting him (Acts 10:1-4,34-35)?
- Can a person be an enemy of the gospel and still be saved by God’s electing gift (Rom 11:25-32)?
- Can a person disbelieve the gospel and still be saved, like Israel (I Cor 10:1-5; Heb 3:7-19; 4:1-11)?
- How much good did the Ark of the Covenant do when hauled into battle under Eli?
- How much good did Moses’ brazen serpent do over the next 700 years it was worshipped?
- How much good does the gospel do when it is used out of context as a sacramental means of grace?
- If the gospel is hid to the lost, how will you find the lost by that which they cannot see (II Co 4:3-4)?
- What can be done to help get a camel through the eye of a needle (Matt 19:23-26)? What methods do you suggest to get rich men saved?
For further study: Why Preach the Gospel?
For further study: Why No Invitations?
Lordship Controversy
Arminians typically believe: When praying the sinner’s prayer to get saved and go to heaven when he dies, a person cannot and must not address Jesus as Lord, include repentance, or commit to obedience.
- Do you understand that the whole concept of a sinner’s prayer cannot be found in scripture alone?
- Since it is not found in the Bible, how do you get so precise as to rule out these three good things?
- Did Old Testament sinners believe in Jesus or God only as Saviour to get saved under the Law?
- Why did Paul say his teaching was repentance toward God and faith toward Jesus Christ (Ac 20:21)?
- When men asked about following Jesus, why was the answer repentance and baptism (Acts 2:38)?
- Would God’s religion, since He is holy, have a low or high motive for holy living for believers?
- Does accepting Jesus as Savior but rejecting lordship, repentance, and good works lead to holiness?
- How much more will the true doctrine of salvation lead and motivate a person to holy living?
- What did Martin Luther do with the book of James because of his ungodly obsession with faith?
- According to your scheme, Saul of Tarsus was saved on the Damascus Road; what did he say?
For further study: Salvation by Works.
Once Saved, Always Saved
Arminians typically believe: Once you get a person to pray the sinner’s prayer, then you can help him document the date and guarantee his eternal destiny regardless of how he lives that day or any day.
- Where is this little jingle in the Bible? Which testament, book, or verse contains these key words?
- If it is not in the Bible, why is it used so often for something as crucial as assurance of eternal life?
- Why did Jesus clearly condemn any hope of eternal heaven without an obedient life (Matt 7:21-23)?
- Why did James clearly and powerfully condemn salvation hope based on faith alone (Jas 2:14-26)?
- Why did Paul look to the works, labor, and enduring of Thessalonians for eternal life (I Thes 1:2-4)?
- Why did Paul look to his fight, course, and the faith, rather than a ridiculous decision (II Tim 4:7)?
- Why did Peter say it took diligent compounding of eight good works for assurance (II Pet 1:5-11)?
- Why did John emphasize love and righteousness for assurance of eternal life (I John 2:29; 3:7,14)?
- Do you excuse David’s ignorance about once saved, always saved by the O.T. (Ps 15:1-5; 24:1-6)?
- How do you avoid the condemnation of Ezekiel when he blasted this foolish heresy (Ezek 13:22)?
For further study: Once Saved, Always Saved.
For further study: Salvation By Works.
Evangelism
Arminians typically believe: The Great Commission applies as much today as it did to the apostles, and the goal of saving souls justifies most methods and is the greatest purpose for churches and believers.
- If you really believe that men go to heaven or hell by what you do, why do you live so comfortably, causing hundreds to spend an eternity in a Christ-less hell due to your spending habits for comfort?
- If gospel means is what saves the loss, and the gospel can only be spread by spending money, is it correct and true to say that sinners are saved by silver and gold, which the Bible strongly condemns?
- If sinners must hear the gospel from a human mouth, how many souls are in hell due to human laziness rather than their own sins and in spite of the triune God doing everything He could?
- How many do you think will be saved according to your conditional plan for it? 3% of all men? 5%?
- Why are so few saved? Is the issue man’s stubbornness, lazy soul winners, or God’s hands-off tack?
- Why was the Great Commission never repeated, mentioned, or even hinted at in any general epistle or pastoral epistle of the New Testament?
- Does the Bible says the apostles fulfilled the Great Commission (Mark 16:19-20; Col 1:6,23)?
- When keeping Jesus’ Great Commission, why do you reject Jesus for deputation (Matt 10:9-10)?
- Why was the love of God not mentioned nor hinted at in any of the history of evangelism in Acts?
- Why did Paul limit and direct his tireless labors toward the elect only (II Tim 2:10)?
- Why was Paul’s usual evangelist method to preach in synagogues rather than brothels (Acts 17:1-2)?
- Do you believe the heathen who never heard might be saved? Could you call this election of grace?
- If pagans who never hear the gospel go to heaven like infants, then missionaries are ministers of damnation, for making unaccountable pagans countable to the Arminian conditional gospel?
- Why do you think your methods work, since Jesus said the most spectacular would not (Lu 16:31)?
- If the heathen go to hell without missionaries, and missionaries do not go without financial support, then what is it that keeps souls Jesus died for out of hell?
- Why have some heard the gospel but most have not? Is it God’s fault? Christians’ fault? Or both?
- Is rejecting Christ the only condemnation of men? If so, then you cannot reject Him, if you have never heard of Him. If so, then stop sending the gospel and save all those who have never heard!
- Who is responsible for the souls that perished in their sins because Saul did not go north or south to preach when he wanted to do so in Acts 16:6-8?
- What were Paul’s favorite methods to win the lost? Music? Children’s church? Basketball leagues?
- What were the methods Paul taught Timothy and Titus to use to effectively win the lost? Verses?
- Why did Paul tell Timothy that perfect ministering would still not get the job done (II Tim 2:24-26)?
- Is repentance dependent on God’s peradventure (II Tim 2:25-26)? Why do only a few repent?
- Did Paul bring life and immortality in the gospel, or only bring them to light (II Tim 1:9-10)?
- How did Paul triumph and be a sweet savour to God even in those that perish (II Cor 2:14-16)?
- Will Jesus triumph in heaven like Paul did on earth even over those that perish (II Cor 2:14-16)?
- Is the gospel ever the savour of death unto life, as you believe and say (II Cor 2:14-16)?
- Why did Jesus let the blind lead the blind into a ditch, if He is the light of the world (Mat 15:12-14)?
- Why did Paul dumb down the gospel and avoid interesting sidelights when preaching (I Cor 2:1-5)?
- Is it possible to combine charisma, wisdom, and other influences to get men to believe that are not truly saved (I Cor 2:1-5; John 8:30-31)?
- How long was Paul’s average invitation at the end of a sermon? Do you follow His example?
- What were Paul’s favorite funeral dirges to get folks to respond to the invitation?
- Which missionary organization is the most efficient as measured by their cost per soul saved?
- If I found a missionary effort that saves souls at 25% less than your favorites, would you switch?
- If the cost per soul is $100, and you make $100,000 a year, how many souls did you damn by not living in light of eternity? Surely you could have got by on $12,000 a year, thus damning 880 souls!
- Why did John waste an epistle writing believers when he could have written unbelievers (I Jn 5:13)?
- How many epistles in the New Testament were written to unbelievers? About unbelievers?
- To what market niche did Paul preach the gospel and endure all things to help them (II Tim 2:10)?
- Why did Paul usually preach in synagogues to people who already believed the Bible (Acts 17:1-4)?
- Why did Paul want to preach to the elect believers at Rome already known for faith (Rom 1:6-16)?
- If men believe because God ordained to eternal life, what is your role in eternal life (Acts 13:48)?
- Is your idea of “free grace” reducing salvation to a decision, and then reducing what you must believe, because you want to save souls while rejecting repentance, Jesus as Lord, and obedience?
- Do you believe this: Charles Ryrie, in Balancing the Christian Life, wrote, “The importance of this question cannot be overestimated in relation to both Salvation and Sanctification. The message of faith only and the message of faith plus commitment of life cannot both be the gospel; therefore one of them is false and comes under the curse of perverting the gospel or preaching another gospel”?
- Do you believe this: Ray Stamford, in Handbook of Personal Evangelism, wrote, “Any teaching that demands a change of conduct toward either God or man for salvation is to add works or human effort to faith, and this contradicts all Scripture and is an accursed message”?
- Do you believe this: Zane Hodges, in Absolutely Free, wrote “Faith alone (not repentance and faith) is the sole condition for justification and eternal life” (p. 144)?
- Do you believe this: Robert Lightner, in Sin, Salvation, and the Savior, wrote, “These views – the absolutely free gift view and the lordship view cannot both be right. They are mutually exclusive. The Bible teaches one or the other or neither, but it cannot teach both without contradicting itself”?
- Did Paul and the thief believe in Lordship salvation, since both used “Lord” when getting saved?
- If God loves all men without distinction, and the gospel is necessary to ever benefit from His love, why did He deprive the majority of mankind in human history from ever hearing the gospel?
- Why did Jesus drive so many away with His hard sayings (John 6:60-66)?
For further study: Why Preach the Gospel?
For further study: Why No Invitations?
Glory of God
Arminians typically believe: God gets glory by soul winners doing the real work of getting people saved, and He will somehow save face in the Day of Judgment when He must damn most that He tried to save.
- Do those celebrating in heaven bring God glory? How?
- Do those celebrating in heaven bring God relief? Why not?
- Do those suffering in hell bring God glory? How?
- Do those suffering in hell cause God grief? Why not?
- Here is a simple one: does an unconditional or conditional plan of salvation give God greater glory?
- Which plan of salvation gives greater glory to God? Your manmade scheme entirely dependent on the work and financing of men, or the Bible’s sovereign grace plan dependent on Jesus Christ alone?
- Is the glory that God will get from those in heaven greater than His grief over the majority in hell?
- Do those rejoicing in heaven bring God glory? Is the glory He gets greater than the praise He gives?
- Does eternal life entirely by grace without human conditions give God infinite and undivided glory?
- Who determines each man’s destiny in a conditional scheme of salvation? Should he get any glory?
- Since God the Father loved each one as much as He could, and Jesus died for all their sins, and the Holy Spirit convicted each of them, what is the final reason that most go to hell and a few to heaven?
- How great is God’s disappointment over this disastrous outcome? His frustration? His grief? Anger?
- Why do you refuse to admit all this effort by God did not actually save a single soul from anything?
- Why do you say salvation is all of God, when it is exactly and entirely all of man in your scheme, for God’s work without man’s work absolutely sends all souls into eternal torment without exception?
- If the sinner makes the difference after the triune God has done all He can, then will not the sinner rightfully boast and/or receive glory in heaven for wisely doing what those in hell would not do? If the soulwinner makes the difference after the triune God has done all He can, then will not the soulwinner boast and/or receive glory in heaven for gloriously finishing the job that God could not?
- Since God did everything for those in hell that He did for those in heaven, who made the difference between the two places, and should they not legitimately and rightfully be called Savior themselves?
- Can you prove by your soteriology that the damned in hell have less right to sing the song of the redeemed than those in heaven? After all, Jesus Christ did die and redeem them from their sin, right?
- How does God get glory from the eternal suffering of those He loved and killed His only Son for?
- How does He get glory from the eternal life of those who themselves made the entire difference?
- Which provides greater glory to the Giver, a conditional offer requiring compliance or an unconditional bequeathal or pardon?
- How much glory is God willing to share with man for getting himself into Christ (I Cor 1:22-31)?
- If an offer requires a difficult condition, is it a reward or a gift? If it is a reward, who gets the glory?
- If an offer requires a difficult condition, does performance create debt? Is God in debt to sinners?
- How much distance is there between potter and clay? Who chose this illustration (Is 45:9; Ro 9:20)?
- If God does not make the difference in salvation, can man be silenced from glorying (I Cor 4:7)?
- If God is jealous as declared, what will He think of soulwinner and saved sinner blessing each other?
- What two words of inspired scripture describe why God made even wicked men (Pr 16:4; Re 4:11)?
- Why are some vessels of wrath and others vessels of mercy from the same lump (Rom 9:21-24)?
- Why did God create and prosper Pharaoh to take the throne of Egypt (Rom 9:17-18; Exodus 9:16)?
- 3What are the saved bound to always do to God for salvation (II Thess 2:13)? Is this hard for you?
- How is grace amazing that did not save a single wretch unless he found himself and saved himself?
- Does God’s concern for the good pleasure of His will have any role (Eph 1:5,9,11; Rom 9:15-16)?
- Where can you find in all the pages of holy scripture any praise in heaven for soulwinners, pianists, preachers, organists, praise bands, movie producers, Sunday School lesson printers, Gideons, etc.?
- 3Do you think God’s sovereign power over sinners reflects poorly on Him (Rom 9:14,20; 3:5-6)?
- Who gets the greater glory, the one electing or the one elected, since you believe you chose God?
Bible Corruption
Arminians typically believe: Any Bible phrase that has belief, accept, receive, or door in it must be an if-then conditional statement for obtaining eternal life, though they reject such verses with good works.
- Mr. Arminian, why do you use Revelation 3:20 as an invitational and descriptive verse about obtaining eternal life, when it has nothing to do with eternal life or salvation? For the sake of charity and gentleness, we will ignore your use of pictures of a hermaphrodite begging at an arched door.
- Why do you use John 1:12 as the description of getting born again, but you ignore the second half of the sentence that explains when and how men are born again? Why honor man’s part over God’s?
- Why do you use John 6:37b to tell sinners Jesus Christ will never reject them, but you ignore the first half of the verse that tells which sinners will come to Him? Why do you never get to John 6:39?
- Why do you use John 10:26 to teach a sinner can be Jesus’ sheep by believing on Him, when Jesus said that believing on Him is proof you are already His sheep, and you cannot believe if you are not?
- Why do you use II Peter 3:9 to teach God is not willing that any should perish, when Romans 9:22 declares God is willing for reprobates to perish, and II Peter 3:9 is only for the elect by “usward”?
- Why do you quote John 3:16 over and over and hold up signs in stadium end zones like it is a magical mantra, but you never make efforts to reconcile it with the rest of scripture (Ps 5:5; 11;5)?
- Why do you use Romans 10:13 as another rote mantra, even though Jesus carefully warned that many people calling on His name were going straight to hell (Matt 7:21-23; Luke 6:46; I Cor 12:3)?
- Why do you use Mark 16:15 over and over but are loath to use Mark 16:16 for its inspired demand for baptism? Similar to this, you reject salvation and washing away sins in Acts 2:38 and 22:16?
- Why do you use Mark 16:15 and expand its “world” as wide as you can but limit it greatly in Col 1:6? Why do you get worked up about “every creature” but quite ignore it in Col 1:23?
- When will you learn verb tenses rather than order of verbs in a sentence, as in Jn 5:24 or I Jn 5:1?
For further study: Problem Texts.
For further study: Revelation 3:20 Reclaimed.
For further study: John 3:16 Revisited.
Conclusion by Presuppositional Comparison
PROOFS OF UNCONDITIONAL SALVATION -OR- ANTI-PROOFS OF ARMINIAN SCHEME
- Man is dead in sins and unable to please God at all. -OR- Man is not dead and is able by will to obey and please God.
- Scripture plainly denies man’s will and works involved. -OR- Scripture plainly requires man’s will or works involved.
- Faith or any good works are only the result of salvation. -OR- Faith or good works are necessary in order to be saved.
- The gospel and ordinances were never designed to save. -OR- The gospel and/or the ordinances were designed to save.
- Jesus saves men representatively by Himself like Adam. -OR- Jesus Christ saves no one by Himself unlike the first Adam.
- God identifies specific cases of unconditional salvation. -OR- There is no Bible basis for exceptions to free will salvation.
- God gets all glory for eternal life with man getting none. -OR- God shares glory with man for his cooperation in salvation.
For Further Study:
- Seven Proofs of Unconditional Salvation.
- Five Phases of Salvation and Its Components.
- Calvinism, Arminianism, and the Truth (also see).
- The Two Adams.
- When Was Cornelius Saved?
- Does God Love Everybody?
- Salvation Problem Texts.
- Revelation 3:20 Reclaimed.
- John 3:16 Revisited.
- Limited Atonement (also see).
- Particular Redemption of a Peculiar People.
- Once Saved, Always Saved.
- Salvation by Works.
- Why Preach the Gospel?
- Why No Invitation?
- Book of Life.
- Before the World Began.
- Eternal Life Is a Gift.
- God’s Will or Free Will?
- Dominion of God.
- Is Election Fair?
- What if Election Is True?
- Has the Great Commission Been Fulfilled?
- What Did Jesus Finish?
- Age of Accountability.
- The Facets of Salvation.
- Adoption as the Sons of God.
- Repentance.
- Jesus Is Lord of All.
- Is God the Author of Confusion?
- Arthur Pink, “Is Christ Your Lord?”
- Finney’s Evangelistic Heresy.
- Regeneration and Conversion.
- The Grammar of Salvation.
- How to Be Born Again … not in e-format at this time.
- Salvation Conference in Malaysia … not in e-format at this time.