Is Irresistible Grace A True Doctrine Or False?
"How hungry are you for God is how much you will have Him? God cannot come in unless you let your self out. God cannot have you anymore than you are willing to let Him. God is a gentle man who respects the will of man in such a way that He will not take an inch of you unless you are willing to let go of your self. God's Presence will rule over your self will, or your self-will will rule over you. God is seeking to fill the empty vessels because those are the ones that have the space to accommodate God within. When God is all you have, He is all you will ever want." — Abraham Israel
The following question is a reader's reply to my above quote.
Question : Does the Spirit come in ounces, liters or gallons like liquids or in volumes like in gas? Or does He come as a Person? Our mind has its own ideas of God!
And God is God Almighty and not a gentleman. How gentle was He when He forced His salvation on Saul of Tarsus? Saul was thrown down from a running horse.. Have you fallen down from a running horse sir? It is not gentle. Please try to learn a doctrine known as 'Irresistible Grace' it teaches you of a Grace that cannot be resisted by the strongest of men's will.
Answer : Jesus always spoke about the Holy Spirit as a living water, that doesn't mean he is a liquid. He is a person only (John 16:7). But the metaphor was given by Jesus to drive a truth about the character of the Holy Spirit in satisfying people's spiritual thirst. Apostle Paul related the Holy Spirit as a substitute for wine (Eph 5:18), that doesn't mean that Holy Spirit is a alcoholic inebriating beverage, but the metaphor conveys that the Holy Spirit has a wonderful character to release the joy and gladness of heaven in to the heart of those who come thirsting for more of God and His righteousness (Psa 104:15; Heb 1:9; John 14:26; 1 John 2:27). One should understand that the Bible is a earthly book speaking to earthly minds conveying the heavenly invisible truths. So to make earthly people understand a unseen thing, God has always used language we understand in our day to day common activities.
Irresistible grace is just one side of the story, God has given each person a unique will of their own. This is why God desires all humans to be saved or else why should He desire something that is not possible if He already knows that they will not be saved (1 Tim 2:4). This clearly shows that "Irresistible grace" in itself is not a correct one, but a inaccurate doctrine which has its origin in the Calvinistic influence. Any doctrine that is not compatible with any other part of the sayings of the Bible is not a complete picture of God's word but only a blown off partial one. Another misconception concerning this doctrine is that it teaches that the Holy Spirit cannot be resisted at all, but the word of God clearly says that the Holy Spirit can not only be resisted because of the stubbornness of human heart, but can also be grieved when a person continues to practice evil against the conviction of the Holy Spirit who speaks of sin in their heart (Acts 7:51; Eph 4:30; John 16:8). Such misconception implies that people are forced to accept Christ and men are dragged kicking and screaming into heaven. The true grace which has appeared to all men teaches us and does not force us, to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and that we should live soberly, righteously and godly in the present age (Titus 2:11-12). God has promised to save those who believe his Son Jesus as their Savior and themselves as sinners in need of Him (1 Tim 1:15; 2:3; John 1:12). Believing is an act of exercising of the moral will of man and is not a divine imposition of tyranny in executing His will over man (John 7:17; 8:43). Jesus by saying "whoever believes" has given an equal opportunity for every human being to be saved by grace through faith (John 3:16). If God has already chosen who is to be saved and who is not to be saved, then Jesus must have come to the world and said that he has come to condemn the world, but instead He said that He had come not to condemn the world but that it might get an opportunity to be saved through Him (John 3:17; Eph 2:8-9). There are those who turn the grace of God in to licentiousness by declaring that no matter what, God gives us grace which cannot be resisted (Jude 4). The word of God says that these men are ungodly men who are marked by God for this condemnation, so let us be beware of saying something that the word of God does not say.
Gentleness of God doesn't mean that He has no rights to intervene when He sees a sincere man seeking Him from his heart. What does Paul later say? "I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief" (1 Tim 1:13). This shows that God intervened forcefully in the life of Paul because He was sincerely seeking and trying to glorify God by persecuting the people of the way [i.e. the Christians] whom he believed to be doing things opposite to God's word which the Jews believed. Think about it, the word of God says that anyone who is hanged is accursed of God (Deut 21:22-23). Because of the unsaved state of Paul before God supernaturally encountered him, he must have reasoned that because Jesus was hanged to death on the Roman Cross, he is a sure sinner because the word of God says it . He must have felt that these people who believed Jesus and worshiped Jesus as their Lord and Savior are actually committing one of the biggest blasphemy against the true Jehovah God and His untainted word that came through prophets of old (Matt 5:17). The Pharisees read and believed every word in the Bible and Saul was also a sincere and a zealous Pharisee (Php 3:5-6). God sees the motives of men and saves them while man sees the outward actions only. One need not experience something to believe something, with the Holy Spirit as our guide to illuminate and teach the word of God by standing alongside with us, God's word is more than enough to believe. Praise the Lord!
Thanks and Blessings....
The following question is a reader's reply to my above quote.
Question : Does the Spirit come in ounces, liters or gallons like liquids or in volumes like in gas? Or does He come as a Person? Our mind has its own ideas of God!
And God is God Almighty and not a gentleman. How gentle was He when He forced His salvation on Saul of Tarsus? Saul was thrown down from a running horse.. Have you fallen down from a running horse sir? It is not gentle. Please try to learn a doctrine known as 'Irresistible Grace' it teaches you of a Grace that cannot be resisted by the strongest of men's will.
Answer : Jesus always spoke about the Holy Spirit as a living water, that doesn't mean he is a liquid. He is a person only (John 16:7). But the metaphor was given by Jesus to drive a truth about the character of the Holy Spirit in satisfying people's spiritual thirst. Apostle Paul related the Holy Spirit as a substitute for wine (Eph 5:18), that doesn't mean that Holy Spirit is a alcoholic inebriating beverage, but the metaphor conveys that the Holy Spirit has a wonderful character to release the joy and gladness of heaven in to the heart of those who come thirsting for more of God and His righteousness (Psa 104:15; Heb 1:9; John 14:26; 1 John 2:27). One should understand that the Bible is a earthly book speaking to earthly minds conveying the heavenly invisible truths. So to make earthly people understand a unseen thing, God has always used language we understand in our day to day common activities.
Irresistible grace is just one side of the story, God has given each person a unique will of their own. This is why God desires all humans to be saved or else why should He desire something that is not possible if He already knows that they will not be saved (1 Tim 2:4). This clearly shows that "Irresistible grace" in itself is not a correct one, but a inaccurate doctrine which has its origin in the Calvinistic influence. Any doctrine that is not compatible with any other part of the sayings of the Bible is not a complete picture of God's word but only a blown off partial one. Another misconception concerning this doctrine is that it teaches that the Holy Spirit cannot be resisted at all, but the word of God clearly says that the Holy Spirit can not only be resisted because of the stubbornness of human heart, but can also be grieved when a person continues to practice evil against the conviction of the Holy Spirit who speaks of sin in their heart (Acts 7:51; Eph 4:30; John 16:8). Such misconception implies that people are forced to accept Christ and men are dragged kicking and screaming into heaven. The true grace which has appeared to all men teaches us and does not force us, to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and that we should live soberly, righteously and godly in the present age (Titus 2:11-12). God has promised to save those who believe his Son Jesus as their Savior and themselves as sinners in need of Him (1 Tim 1:15; 2:3; John 1:12). Believing is an act of exercising of the moral will of man and is not a divine imposition of tyranny in executing His will over man (John 7:17; 8:43). Jesus by saying "whoever believes" has given an equal opportunity for every human being to be saved by grace through faith (John 3:16). If God has already chosen who is to be saved and who is not to be saved, then Jesus must have come to the world and said that he has come to condemn the world, but instead He said that He had come not to condemn the world but that it might get an opportunity to be saved through Him (John 3:17; Eph 2:8-9). There are those who turn the grace of God in to licentiousness by declaring that no matter what, God gives us grace which cannot be resisted (Jude 4). The word of God says that these men are ungodly men who are marked by God for this condemnation, so let us be beware of saying something that the word of God does not say.
Gentleness of God doesn't mean that He has no rights to intervene when He sees a sincere man seeking Him from his heart. What does Paul later say? "I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief" (1 Tim 1:13). This shows that God intervened forcefully in the life of Paul because He was sincerely seeking and trying to glorify God by persecuting the people of the way [i.e. the Christians] whom he believed to be doing things opposite to God's word which the Jews believed. Think about it, the word of God says that anyone who is hanged is accursed of God (Deut 21:22-23). Because of the unsaved state of Paul before God supernaturally encountered him, he must have reasoned that because Jesus was hanged to death on the Roman Cross, he is a sure sinner because the word of God says it . He must have felt that these people who believed Jesus and worshiped Jesus as their Lord and Savior are actually committing one of the biggest blasphemy against the true Jehovah God and His untainted word that came through prophets of old (Matt 5:17). The Pharisees read and believed every word in the Bible and Saul was also a sincere and a zealous Pharisee (Php 3:5-6). God sees the motives of men and saves them while man sees the outward actions only. One need not experience something to believe something, with the Holy Spirit as our guide to illuminate and teach the word of God by standing alongside with us, God's word is more than enough to believe. Praise the Lord!
Thanks and Blessings....
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