Lighthouse Trails Research Journal VOL. 7 | NO. 5 | Page 8

Lighthouse Trails Research Journal 8 Calvinism—continued from previous page me before the elect hated you who are elect. If ye elect were of the elect, the elect would love his own elect: but because ye elect are not of the elect, but I have chosen you elect out of the elect, therefore the elect hateth you elect who are elect. No doubt, this is a foolish translation of the verse; however, it is no more fool- ish than the Calvinistic interpretation of John 3:16. The word “world” is found over 240 times in the Bible. A few times, the Greek word obviously reveals different meanings; however, the word “world” never means Calvin’s so-called elect. Never! The only reason for rejecting the obvious simple-to- understand meaning of the words “whoso- ever” or “world” in John 3:16 is to support Calvin’s heresy. ALL MEANS ALL Joshua 6:3 says, “. . . all ye men of war.” Psalm 31:23 says, “. . . all ye his saints.” Psalm 31:24 says, “. . . all ye that hope in the LORD.” Psalm 32:11 says, “. . . all ye that are upright in heart.” Psalm 134:1 says, “. . . all ye servants of the LORD.” Luke 13:27 says, “. . . all ye workers of iniquity.” Romans 5:12 says, “. . . all have sinned.” Galatians 3:8 says, “. . . all nations be blessed.” Revelation 19:5 says, “. . . all ye his servants, and ye that fear him.” (emphasis added in the above verses) Nobody argues that “all” means “all” in Volume 7—No. 5 Romans 5:12 when it says, “. . . all have sinned.” The only reason to suggest “all” means something else in Acts 17:30, when God commands “all men every where to repent,” is because Calvinists need to change this to provide a “solution” to sup- port their view. Listen to the doubletalk of A. W. Pink when he says: That God commandeth “all men” to repent is but the enforcing of His righteous claims as the moral Governor of the world. 6 What Pink is saying here is that God is not sincere when He says “all men every where to repent,” but only saying it to show how righteous and moral He is. Then Pink uses Acts 5:31 to say: [T]his Scripture does not declare that it is God’s pleasure to “give repentance” (Acts 5:31) to all men everywhere. 7 Let’s see what Acts 5:31 actually says: Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. In this passage of Scripture, Peter and the apostles declared to the High Priest and Council that God had made Jesus a Prince and Savior bringing repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. Their audience was Jewish, and therefore, their speech pertained to the Jews they were addressing; however, they were not saying that the Jews were the only ones to be saved and forgiven. But Pink uses this verse to support his theory that it is not God’s pleasure to “give repentance” to all men everywhere. In tak- ing Acts 5:31 completely out of context, perhaps Pink did not realize that by trying to use this verse to fit his own theology, he was actually saying that only Jewish people will ever get saved. Hence, all Gentiles will end up in Hell. That would include Pink himself. And because there is ultimately no free will in Calvinism, there is nothing anyone can do about it. MORE VERSES USING CALVINISM’S “SOLUTION” OF CHANGING OF WORDS FIRST JOHN 2:2 says, “And he is the propi- tiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world ” (emphasis added). “CALVINIST SOLUTION”—And he is the propitiation for the sins of the elect: and not for the elect only, but also for the sins of the elect. EZRA 8:22 says, “The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him; but his power and his wrath is against all them that forsake him.” “CALVINIST SOLUTION”—The hand of our God is upon all the elect for good that seek him; even though they have no free will to seek him, but his power and his wrath is against all the non-elect that forsake him, even though they are dead and have no free will to forsake him. PSALM 10:4 says, “The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God.” Psalm 11:6 says, “Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone.” “CALVINIST SOLUTION”—The wicked, who are not among God’s elect, through the pride of his countenance, pride that God put in his heart, cannot seek after God; however, even though God has withheld from the wicked non-elect the ability to seek after God, He shall rain snares, fire and brimstone. PSALM 13:5 says, “But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation.” “CALVINIST SOLUTION”—But I can’t trust in thy mercy because I am dead and there- fore not capable of trusting; my heart can’t Concludes on next page SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019