Ironworks

          It has been said by many young people that they do not think they should have kids because of the state of the world. In the Lord’s church, we have done a pretty good job of making our brethren aware of the condition of the world. I think we all could do better in assuring our young people that raising godly kids is possible and it's God’s intention for His people.  God commanded it.            In the garden after God created a woman from the flesh of Adam, he said, “And God blessed them: and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth” (Gen 1:28). God said this knowing that He created man with free will, which means man could choose to sin. God still told Adam and Eve to have kids. The world was not simply created to be uninhabited. ...

     Who limits the power of Christ? Who limits the power of Almighty God? I know who tries, anyone who would teach a doctrine of limited atonement. This, like every other element of Calvinism, is dependent upon the doctrine of Total Hereditary Depravity, which we have dismantled previously. We still must prove why this is not a Biblical doctrine in our ongoing study.  What is Limited Atonement?      First, we want to allow those who espouse such to properly define their doctrine. David N. Steele and Curtis C. Thomas in their book The Five Points of Calvinism, Defined, Defended, Documented, said, "Christ's redeeming work was intended to save the elect only and actually secured salvation for them. His death was a substitutionary sacrifice of the penalty of sin in the place of certain specified sinners.” As with all things, we want to test the comments of men against the Word of God, and we will always defer to the latter in all matters of faith and prac...

     Unconditional election is the doctrine held by many individuals in the religious world. “Unconditional election means that God does not foresee an action or condition on our part that induces Him to save us. Rather, election rests on God's sovereign decision to save whomever He is pleased to save.” Simply put, the doctrine of Unconditional Election states that you simply do not have to do anything to be saved. There is no command you have to follow, no submission to God’s will. Rather, God takes your free will from you and forces you to be His child.       Edwin Palmer, who served as executive secretary on the NIV Committee on Bible Translation, and was coordinator of all translation on the NIV said. “Foreordination means God’s sovereign plan, whereby He decides all that is to happen in the universe. Nothing in this world happens by chance. God is in back of everything. He decides and causes all things to happen that do happen. He is not sitting o...

     “I was born that way.” “We have a sinful nature.” You have likely heard these expressions or something like them from someone who teaches the concept of original sin. They practice their presentations and will put out so many verses to present a false doctrine that has been the cornerstone of many religious bodies (i.e. Reformed Theology and the like). I do not want to paint with such a broad brush because many people who are Calvinists do not know they hold to an error that was organized in the 15th century and its very basic origins in Augustine in the fourth and fifth centuries. Over the next few weeks, I will aim to write on the five points of Calvinism, sometimes called by the acronym T.U.L.I.P. We shall begin with T for Total Hereditary Depravity.       This erroneous doctrine teaches that man is born with the inherited sin of Adam. Thus, every human born of the seed of Adam is born totally depraved, he is sinful from his first cry, and ther...

And he did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, as did Manasseh his father; and Amon sacrificed unto all the graven images which Manasseh his father had made, and served them. And he humbled not himself before Jehovah, as Manasseh his father had humbled himself; but this same Amon trespassed more and more. 2 Chronicles 33:22-23 King Amon followed his father Manasseh of Judah. Manasseh undid most of his father Hezekiah's reforms. Towards the end of his life, he humbled himself and sought to make right. One would hope that his son Amon would have seen the attempted correction carried out by his father. Amon could do right or wrong. However, only he would make that choice.  Our Choices Yield the Appropriate Result  Amon, was a free moral agent just like every man that ever lived. The prophet Ezekiel had to correct a common proverb that was said in Israel. The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge (cf. Ezekiel 18:2)? This proverb was...