Scott Bushey
Puritanboard Commissioner
Originally posted by Martin Marprelate
Hello Mark,
You wrote:-
It's not new, but it is wrong. It was not even true in the Old Testament as Judah, Eli, Samuel, David, Solomon, Hezekiah and Josiah could tell you. Much less is it true in the N.T. 'For He says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion"' (Rom 9:15; cf. Exod 33:19 ).But who is the promise made to ? Believers and their seed.
So, in general, God calls His elect from godly families. This is not new teaching.
Scott wrote:-
Well, actually He did, unless The Lord Jesus Christ is not God, John the Baptist is a liar and Paul is not a saint!offspring! God did not elaborate on the statement. He did not direct the saints to dissect the offspring.
John 8:39, 44. "If you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham.......You are of your father, the devil.
Matt 3:9. "And do not think to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.
Gal 3:7. 'Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.'
The Seed of Abraham is The Lord Jesus Christ, and those who are united to Him by faith (Gal 3:16, 29 ). Of course it is right and good and beneficial to teach one's children about the Lord (Deut 4:7-10 etc), but that didn't work for Samuel (1Sam 8:1-5 ). The most important thing we can do for our children is that which we do upon our knees. "We gave them life in the flesh; you, Lord, must give them life in the Spirit."
Grace & Peace,
Martin
[Edited on 10-14-2005 by Martin Marprelate]
Martin,
I have no problem reconciling those passages; you make it sound as if the paedobaptist disregards these passages. You quote them over and over again to the point of it being painful. We do not ignore these passages. Reconciling them is harmonized by utilizing the whole bible, the new testament defined by the old and non dispensationalizing any of Gods decree's and commands.
Exo 32:11 But Moses implored the LORD his God and said, "O LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?
Exo 32:12 Why should the Egyptians say, 'With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth'? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people.
Exo 32:13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, 'I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your seed, and they shall inherit it forever.'"
As Randy as well has pointed out, the promise and the statement 'seed' does not exclude. You make it sound as if that should dilineate our faith in tyha promise. Surely Calvin et. al. knew this as well and in their writings they do not derail the promises to the generations of Abraham.