Continued from Part 12

Calvinist Quotation	Bible Quotation
"A man is not saved because he believes in Christ; he believes in Christ because he is saved" (Loraine Boettner, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination, Chapter 11.1.4).	"Believe in the Lord Yah'shua (Jesus), and you will be saved" (Acts 16:31).
"Opposing God to flesh and blood, he declares it to be a supernatural gift, that those who would otherwise remain in unbelief, receive Christ by faith. Similar to this is our Saviour's reply to Peter, "Flesh and blood has not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven," (Matt.16:17).... Accordingly to make his disciples capable of heavenly wisdom, Christ promised them "the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive" (John 14:17)....Therefore, as we have said that salvation is perfected in the person of Christ, so, in order to make us partakers of it, he baptizses us " with the Holy Spirit and with fire," (Luke 3:16), enlightening us into the faith of his Gospel, and so regenerating us to be new creatures" (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book III, Chapter 4.1)."	Calvin does not realise that he has made a glaring contradiction. In this section he argues that one cannot have faith without the Spirit and the illuminating regeneration which the gift of the Spirit brings. He notes that Peter had faith in Christ (Mt.16:17) and then admits that Christ later promised the Spirit to the disciples. Indeed, we see in John 20:22 the disciples receiving the Spirit well after Calvin says Peter put faith in Christ apart from being baptised in the Holy Spirit which he says enlightens into the faith.

This page was created on 17 January 2019 Updated on 17 January 2019

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