Pastor Steve Lawson, speaking at the ongoing Resolved Conference in California Sunday, said the notion that God’s election is based on His foreknowledge of who would choose His Son Jesus Christ on their own was flawed.
The idea that “God looked down the proverbial tunnel of time to see who would choose His Son” and then “in a reflexive manner” He chose them, is “grossly ignorant” of two views: the view of God and the view of man, Lawson, pastor of Christ Fellowship Baptist Church, Mobile, Ala., said.
“God’s knowledge is infinite; it is perfect … Whatever God does, He has already foreordained it,” the pastor said. And man, he explained, had a “moral inability to believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ.”
So how could God foresee anyone accepting His Son? Lawson asked the audience at the four-day 2011 Resolved Conference in Palm Springs, which will conclude Monday.
Lawson said when he was at seminary, his professor asked, “What can a dead man do?” And a student replied, he can “stink”…“that’s what a dead man can do ... The world is spiritually dead and unable to believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ.” “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins …,” Lawson reminded the audience, quoting Ephesians 2:1.
“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them …,” Lawson now quoted John 6:44, pointing out that the word “can” refers to inability. “God chose by Himself and for Himself.”
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1 comment:
1. Elemental stuff, Robin. But alas, the nation is awash with Arminianism, Revivalism, Pentecostalism and, well, let me stop.
2. I remember when Al Mohler discovered this material. One would have thought the Second Advent had occurred.
3. Several (painful) hours were spent this weekend listening to the (www.resolved.org) conference with Mohler, MacArthur, Lawson, and Holland. The music was, well, never mind. The liturgy was, well, never mind that either. The reading of Scripture, well, never mind that either. We'll just say that they are Baptists.
4. The Rev.Augustus Montague Toplady dealt with these elemental matters noted in your post. Children and adults with catechetical backgrounds understand these things.
5. A lengthy sermon by Toplady is posted at: http://reformationanglicanism.blogspot.com/2011/06/caveat-against-unsound-doctrines-by-rev.html
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