Right…and it is extremely obvious…that taking the mark of the beast IS blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Unpardonable. God was quite clear that those who take it will *not* be forgiven. There is only one sin that is not forgiven. Taking the mark of the beast IS blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. Don’t take it.

Dear Ryan

You said “You should all be ashamed of yourselves. Get out there and do what you were called to do instead of reading and commenting …”

:ohno: That’s right Ryan, you should be totally ashamed of yourself! Scratch/

Tony Griffin

You wrote:

That’s the problem with people who are Armenian, like yourself.

I’m not an Armenian. I was born in South Africa and not Armenia.

By the way, what is worse – an Armenian or a half-baked Calvinist/Arminian like yourself? Don’t blame me of arrogant facetiousness. You’re the one who admitted that you are 50% Calvinist and 50% Arminian.

Tony Griffin

You wrote:

Let me ask you a simple question and I like an answer if you will please, what can a dead person do . Seriously what can a dead person do? Scripture teaches that we were dead before Christ made us alive . So what can a dead person do?

What can a dead person do? Well, first of all a dead person can bury his own dead.

And it came to pass, that, as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. (Luk 9:57-60)

What can a dead person do? Well, secondly a dead person can please God.

There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway. He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius. And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God. And now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter: (Act 10:1-5)

Then Peter went down to the men which were sent unto him from Cornelius; and said, Behold, I am he whom ye seek: what is the cause wherefore ye are come? And they said, Cornelius the centurion, a just man, and one that feareth God, and of good report among all the nation of the Jews, was warned from God by an holy angel to send for thee into his house, and to hear words of thee. (Act 10:21-22)

Your problem, together with the Calvinists, is that you don’t know what the difference is between physical death and spiritual death.

Thirdly, a dead person can come to Jesus for salvation, provided he acknowledges that he is a dead and lost sinner and needs to be saved and quickened (made aliive).

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. (Mat 11:28-30)

Tony Griffin

Earlier you wrote:

There are just some things that we cant understand about. And frankly I think that is quite egotistical and I’m not saying that you are, to believe that you can understand everything of the mind of God.

Yet, now you write:

It sounds like you don’t understand what a true paradox is.

First, you say none of us can understand paradoxes and then you rebuke me for not understanding. Is this just another one of your paradoxes?

In other words, I don’t understand what a true paradox is but you do. Isn’t that being rather slightly egotistical?

I wouldn’t talk about blasphemy if I were you. Blasphemy is to believe that God’s truths happily oppose one another while both are allegedly true. It’s like saying, Satan’s lies are all in opposition to God’s truths but we can reconcile them by calling it a paradox. You cannot believe that man has a free-will and simultaneously believe that He sovereignly overrides man’s free-will. That’s not free-will.

Didn’t you read the passages I quote to you, especially this one?

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into ALL THE TRUTH, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.(Joh 16:13)

You wrote:

When God said he planned everything before the foundation of the world, you just want to throw that passage out.

Where in the Bible does God say He planned everything before the foundation of the world? Did He plan Adam and Eve’s sin? Did He plan King David’s sin with Bathsheba? Did God plan Judas’ betrayal of Jesus. Did God plan for you to believe in salvific paradoxes? That’s not in the Bible. You found it in the Calvinists’ abominable Westminster Confession of Faith.

God from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass

You wrote:

Jesus said that all that the father draws to me will come.

Jesus also said:

Tony Griffin

And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. (Joh 12:32)

He draws all but do the all come to Him? The only way you can make a square peg fit into a round hole here is to say the “all” only refers to the elect and the predestined elite. This is what paradoxes do to you. It leads you to hell.

You wrote:

What is even more sad is your misinterpretation of MacArthur. It is absolutely ridiculous to think that the Calvinist does not believe that man must repent and have faith in Jesus Christ.

OK, tell me how the reprobate (non-elect) repent and are saved?

You wrote:

What is even more sad is your misinterpretation of MacArthur. It is absolutely ridiculous to think that the Calvinist does not believe that man must repent and have faith in Jesus Christ. In fact that’s what he teaches. You obviously know nothing about Calvinism.

I really think you’re the one who knows nothing about Calvinism or John MacArthur, for that matter. That’s NOT what MacArthur believes. He believes that man is completely UNABLE to believe in Jesus IN ORDER to be saved. He believes that if man was able to believe in Jesus IN ORDER to be saved, he would have been able to contribute to his salvation. And that, according to Calvinistic thinking, is blasphemy. Therefore, God needs to gift only the elect with faith AFTER they had been monergistically regenerated so that they may be ABLE to believe. This is what John MacArthur believes.

https://www.discerningtheworld.com/2014/05/31/hypocrisy-overdrive/

Please don’t call me an Arminian. I am a Bible believing eternally saved child of God. Nothing more and nothing less.

It depends on what you believe the unpardonable sin is. Scripture very distinctly says (and certainly not in any shape or form of a paradox) the following (as you already know):

And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. (Rev 14:9-11)

You also know that repentance and faith in Jesus Christ (which MacArthur and his Calvinist buddies do not believe because, according to them, man does not have a free-will and therefore is completely unable to trust God for his salvation) is an absolute necessity for salvation. This is what the Bible says about those who are going to take the mark of the beast.

And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: (Rev 9:20)

And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory. (Rev 16:9)

And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds. (Rev 16:11)

Of course, all babies go to heaven when they die before the age of accountability. If so, it means they are born IN sin and not WITH sin.

What do you personally mean by God is sovereign – sovereign in salvation? If God’s sovereignty is a paradox, then his love also is a paradox, and if his love is a paradox, then He Himself is a paradox because he is the essence of love. Are you saying God is the essence of paradox?