I exhort thee in the grace wherewith thou art clothed to press forward in thy course and to exhort all men that they may be saved. (emphasis mine)
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Apparently he was unaware of Calvinist doctrine...
I'm studying for a sermon for Sunday and reading some of the early church leaders letters. I was just reading a letter from Ignatius to Polycarp and came across this admonition from Ignatius to Polycarp:
I couldn't help but think that apparently Ignatius was unaware of the Calvinist doctrine that only some men can be saved because only some people are part of God's elect. If only he would have had John MacArthur and John Piper around to straighten him out...
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Jon,
ReplyDeleteFirst off, I notice you say you mix in a dose of humor, mostly sarcastic, so I don't know if what I am about to say is taking you too seriously or not.
I simply want to say that I hope you don't really believe that MacArthur or Piper would have a problem with exhorting all men that they may be saved. If you do, I believe that you don't really understand their views.
One can both believe that not all people are elected by God, and still believe that we are called to genuinely exhort everyone, everywhere to repent and believe the gospel.
I had actually put brackets around the final paragraph and put the word "sarcasm" in them as if I was "coding" sarcasm into the final paragraph. However, due the fact that Blogger recognizing brackets as actually coding and because their is no such code as sarcasm, this did not show up when I published the post.
ReplyDeleteQuestion: Isn't telling people that all men may be saved while believing that all men cannot be saved since God has not predestined everyone to be saved, lying?
Good point. If he was a good Calvinist he should have said that some men will be saved. :)
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