Praise God for His mercy endures forever. I have seen many comments on RUclips of Christians from all over the world; Serbia, South Korea, Australia, South Africa, Germany, the UK and the Philippines and of course across America saying they were praying for Florida.
After Helene and the people being caught off guard, the Admin based their preparation and messaging on the most dire predictions to ensure they did not have an epic fail ahead of the election.
I thought the 120 years spoken of in Genesis 6 was the allotted time given to men to repent prior to the worldwide and complete destruction of the flood.
The Briefing - Friday, October 11, 2024 Dr. Mohler at 22:32 - 23:33: "... if we're not going to sin in heaven because we're glorified, then why did God not make things perfect in the beginning of Genesis is because, and no one has answered this better than John Calvin the Reformer, he just made very clear ... it comes down to this, as Calvin says 'if we had been without sin and all of us were thus in the Garden of Eden, we would know and glorify God and worship God truly as Creator and because of the provision God has made for us in the salvation accomplished by His Son, we know and glorify Him even now, not only as our Creator but also as our Redeemer.' The answer to the question why did God allow the fall to take place, why did He allow the fall to take place and why did He before the creation of the world determine to save sinners through the atonement accomplished by His Son, and it is because it would bring Him greater glory and would bring His human creatures, the redeemed, even greater glory." Response: 1. Excuse me, Dr. Mohler, but where is this quotation of John Calvin located? Is it in the Institutes of the Christian Religion? Doesn't Calvin specifically state in the Institutes, Book III, Chapter 3, No. 27: "Nor ought it to seem absurd when I say, that God not only foresaw the fall of the first man, and in him the ruin of his posterity, but also at His own pleasure arranged it." [Beveridge translation, p. 586; NTS Library website /PDF Books/Calvin Institutes of Christian Religion, pdf 594 of 944] Isn't Calvin saying in this passage God decreed that the first man and woman, even though first created without sin, would sin? And by deduction, that their posterity, i.e., all of us, would sin with them had we been with them in the Garden of Eden? And consequently in the Garden according to Calvin, God planned that we would not be able to "know and glorify God and worship God truly as Creator"? 2. As well, doesn't John Calvin state in the Institutes, Book III, Chapter 21, No. 7, that God decreed there are (A) the redeemed He elected to salvation and (B) the reprobate He unelected for damnation? "We say, then, that Scripture clearly proves this much, that God by his eternal and immutable counsel determined once for all those whom it was his pleasure one day to admit to salvation, and those whom, on the other hand, it was his pleasure to doom to destruction." [Ibid, P. 571, ntslibrary website, Institutes of the Christian Religion, pdf page 579 of 944] A. If God determined before the creation of the world to save sinners for both His greater glory and the greater glory of the redeemed, B. and if also according to Calvin, He determined before the creation of the world to doom the reprobate for destruction, C. was this for (1) His greater glory, (2) the greater glory of the redeemed and (3) the greater glory of the damned reprobate? 3. Doesn't John Calvin include in those reprobate that God dooms for destruction certain unelected infants, as stated in the Institutes, Book III, Chapter 23, No. 7: "I again ask how it is that the fall of Adam involves so many nations with their infant children in eternal death without remedy unless that it so seemed meet to God? Here the most loquacious tongues must be dumb. The decree, I admit, is, dreadful; and yet it is impossible to deny that God foreknew what the end of man was to be before he made him, because he had so arranged by his decree?" [Ibid, p. 586; NTS Library website /PDF Books/Calvin Institutes of Christian Religion, pdf 594 of 944] To confirm Calvin's assertion, didn't he unequivocably state the culpability of infants in the guilt of their condemnation in the Institutes, Book II, Chapter 1, No. 8: "Hence, even infants bringing their condemnation with them from their mother’s womb, suffer not for another’s, but for their own defect. For although they have not yet produced the fruits of their own unrighteousness, they have the seed implanted in them. Nay, their whole nature is, as it were, a seed-bed of sin, and therefore cannot but be odious and abominable to God. Hence it follows, that it is properly deemed sinful in the sight of God; for there could be no condemnation without guilt." [Ibid p. 157-158; pdf 165-166 of 944] A. If God determined before the creation of the world to save sinners for both His greater glory and the greater glory of the redeemed, B. and if also according to Calvin He determined before the creation of the world to doom for destruction "infant children in eternal death without remedy," C. was this for (1) His greater glory, (2) the greater glory of the redeemed and (3) the greater glory of damned unelected infants? 4. If anyone thinks it is preposterous that John Calvin taught damnation for unelected infants, I recommend reading Chapter One of Benjamin Fiske Barrett's 1855 book 'Beauty for Ashes: Or, the Old and the New Doctrine, Concerning the State of Infants After Death, Contrasted' which quotes Calvin on numerous occasions. Perhaps the most startling instance is that the inference from Michael Servetus' writings that "infants and young children are exempt from eternal death" was one of the heresy charges written up by Calvin and brought against Servetus by Calvin and the Genevan pastors, which they deemed justified in executing Servetus: Chapter One, The Old Doctrine: In his account of the doctrine of Michael Servetus, who was condemned and burned for heresy by the Council of Geneva, at the instigation of Calvin, the following is reckoned by him and the Genevan pastors among the dreadful heresies of Servetus: "In the mean time certain salvation is said [by Servetus] to await all at the final judgment, except those who have brought upon themselves the punishment of eternal death, by their personal sins (propriis sceleribus). From which it is also inferred, that all who are taken from life while infants and young children, are exempt from eternal death, although they are elsewhere called accursed." [Tractt. Theo.-Refut. Error. Mich. Serveti.] This, then, was one of Michael Servetus' heresies, to wit, that he held a doctrine from which it might be inferred that "infants and young children are exempt from eternal death"; and this was one of the crimes for which John Calvin thought him justly condemned to the flames. Concerning the above passage it has been justly remarked: "It is the more important, because it stands in a work that was written as an apology for putting his victim to death, and is subscribed, not only by Calvin, but by the Ministers and Pastors of the Genevan church, to the number of fourteen. If it has not, therefore, all the formality, it has all the authority of a confession of faith, with the additional weight derived from the solemnity of the occasion on which it was published." [Reply to three Letters of Rev. Lyman Beecher, D.D., p. 28.] [wikisource org /wiki/Beauty_for_Ashes/Part_1/Chapter_1#cite_note-8] (Rev. Lyman Beecher, 1775 - 1863, was a prominent Calvinist Presbyterian minister and father of Harriet Beecher Stowe, who authored the 1852 popular novel Uncle Tom's Cabin that galvanized the 19th century abolitionist movement before the American Civil War.)
God is good!
Praise God for His mercy endures forever. I have seen many comments on RUclips of Christians from all over the world; Serbia, South Korea, Australia, South Africa, Germany, the UK and the Philippines and of course across America saying they were praying for Florida.
NUMBER ONE.
After Helene and the people being caught off guard, the Admin based their preparation and messaging on the most dire predictions to ensure they did not have an epic fail ahead of the election.
I thought the 120 years spoken of in Genesis 6 was the allotted time given to men to repent prior to the worldwide and complete destruction of the flood.
The Briefing - Friday, October 11, 2024
Dr. Mohler at 22:32 - 23:33: "... if we're not going to sin in heaven because we're glorified, then why did God not make things perfect in the beginning of Genesis is because, and no one has answered this better than John Calvin the Reformer, he just made very clear ... it comes down to this, as Calvin says 'if we had been without sin and all of us were thus in the Garden of Eden, we would know and glorify God and worship God truly as Creator and because of the provision God has made for us in the salvation accomplished by His Son, we know and glorify Him even now, not only as our Creator but also as our Redeemer.' The answer to the question why did God allow the fall to take place, why did He allow the fall to take place and why did He before the creation of the world determine to save sinners through the atonement accomplished by His Son, and it is because it would bring Him greater glory and would bring His human creatures, the redeemed, even greater glory."
Response:
1. Excuse me, Dr. Mohler, but where is this quotation of John Calvin located? Is it in the Institutes of the Christian Religion? Doesn't Calvin specifically state in the Institutes, Book III, Chapter 3, No. 27: "Nor ought it to seem absurd when I say, that God not only foresaw the fall of the first man, and in him the ruin of his posterity, but also at His own pleasure arranged it."
[Beveridge translation, p. 586; NTS Library website /PDF Books/Calvin Institutes of Christian Religion, pdf 594 of 944]
Isn't Calvin saying in this passage God decreed that the first man and woman, even though first created without sin, would sin? And by deduction, that their posterity, i.e., all of us, would sin with them had we been with them in the Garden of Eden? And consequently in the Garden according to Calvin, God planned that we would not be able to "know and glorify God and worship God truly as Creator"?
2. As well, doesn't John Calvin state in the Institutes, Book III, Chapter 21, No. 7, that God decreed there are (A) the redeemed He elected to salvation and (B) the reprobate He unelected for damnation?
"We say, then, that Scripture clearly proves this much, that God by his eternal and immutable counsel determined once for all those whom it was his pleasure one day to admit to salvation, and those whom, on the other hand, it was his pleasure to doom to destruction."
[Ibid, P. 571, ntslibrary website, Institutes of the Christian Religion, pdf page 579 of 944]
A. If God determined before the creation of the world to save sinners for both His greater glory and the greater glory of the redeemed,
B. and if also according to Calvin, He determined before the creation of the world to doom the reprobate for destruction,
C. was this for (1) His greater glory, (2) the greater glory of the redeemed and (3) the greater glory of the damned reprobate?
3. Doesn't John Calvin include in those reprobate that God dooms for destruction certain unelected infants, as stated in the Institutes, Book III, Chapter 23, No. 7:
"I again ask how it is that the fall of Adam involves so many nations with their infant children in eternal death without remedy unless that it so seemed meet to God? Here the most loquacious tongues must be dumb. The decree, I admit, is, dreadful; and yet it is impossible to deny that God foreknew what the end of man was to be before he made him, because he had so arranged by his decree?"
[Ibid, p. 586; NTS Library website /PDF Books/Calvin Institutes of Christian Religion, pdf 594 of 944]
To confirm Calvin's assertion, didn't he unequivocably state the culpability of infants in the guilt of their condemnation in the Institutes, Book II, Chapter 1, No. 8:
"Hence, even infants bringing their condemnation with them from their mother’s womb, suffer not for another’s, but for their own
defect. For although they have not yet produced the fruits of their own unrighteousness, they have the seed implanted in them. Nay, their whole nature is, as it were, a seed-bed of sin, and therefore cannot but be odious and abominable to God. Hence it follows, that it is properly deemed sinful in the sight of God; for there could be no condemnation without guilt."
[Ibid p. 157-158; pdf 165-166 of 944]
A. If God determined before the creation of the world to save sinners for both His greater glory and the greater glory of the redeemed,
B. and if also according to Calvin He determined before the creation of the world to doom for destruction "infant children in eternal death without remedy,"
C. was this for (1) His greater glory, (2) the greater glory of the redeemed and (3) the greater glory of damned unelected infants?
4. If anyone thinks it is preposterous that John Calvin taught damnation for unelected infants, I recommend reading Chapter One of Benjamin Fiske Barrett's 1855 book 'Beauty for Ashes: Or, the Old and the New Doctrine, Concerning the State of Infants After Death, Contrasted' which quotes Calvin on numerous occasions. Perhaps the most startling instance is that the inference from Michael Servetus' writings that "infants and young children are exempt from eternal death" was one of the heresy charges written up by Calvin and brought against Servetus by Calvin and the Genevan pastors, which they deemed justified in executing Servetus:
Chapter One, The Old Doctrine:
In his account of the doctrine of Michael Servetus, who was condemned and burned for heresy by the Council of Geneva, at the instigation of Calvin, the following is reckoned by him and the Genevan pastors among the dreadful heresies of Servetus:
"In the mean time certain salvation is said [by Servetus] to await all at the final judgment, except those who have brought upon themselves the punishment of eternal death, by their personal sins (propriis sceleribus). From which it is also inferred, that all who are taken from life while infants and young children, are exempt from eternal death, although they are elsewhere called accursed." [Tractt. Theo.-Refut. Error. Mich. Serveti.]
This, then, was one of Michael Servetus' heresies, to wit, that he held a doctrine from which it might be inferred that "infants and young children are exempt from eternal death"; and this was one of the crimes for which John Calvin thought him justly condemned to the flames. Concerning the above passage it has been justly remarked: "It is the more important, because it stands in a work that was written as an apology for putting his victim to death, and is subscribed, not only by Calvin, but by the Ministers and Pastors of the Genevan church, to the number of fourteen. If it has not, therefore, all the formality, it has all the authority of a confession of faith, with the additional weight derived from the solemnity of the occasion on which it was published." [Reply to three Letters of Rev. Lyman Beecher, D.D., p. 28.]
[wikisource org /wiki/Beauty_for_Ashes/Part_1/Chapter_1#cite_note-8]
(Rev. Lyman Beecher, 1775 - 1863, was a prominent Calvinist Presbyterian minister and father of Harriet Beecher Stowe, who authored the 1852 popular novel Uncle Tom's Cabin that galvanized the 19th century abolitionist movement before the American Civil War.)
Two.