For His mercy endures forever.” 1 Chronicles 16:35 NKJV
Here is my question for the calvinist …
When does the mercy of God begin?
Think about forever. Not from our perspective. Think about it from God’s perspective. If God is always, then doesn’t He have mercy always? Forever, for humans, has a beginning point and it seems absurd that God, who has no beginning (or end), would need to have mercy before there was some object that requires mercy. But this is the way practical, created people think. I don’t need jumper cables when my battery is working properly.
The problem for the calvinist is that he has bought into the bad philosophy (Greek, no doubt) that teaches him that he is an eternal being and has always existed. Of course, somewhere in his unconscious, he realizes the ridiculousness of this idea but he has managed to shut the door to that part of the house. If he could ever get that door open again, he would find that he is created and contingent like the rest of humanity and needs to depend on the provision of God in time.
God’s mercy was fully operational when he created the heavens and the earth. His mercy was fully operational when He made everything that supported human life. His mercy was fully operational when He made man in His Image (Jesus is the image of God (Colossians 1:15) so being made in God’s Image means that Adam was in a right relationship with Jesus…same as Paul saying that we are “in Christ” (1 Thessalonians 4:16) if we trust in Him). God’s mercy was, is and always shall be fully operational because He is God and mercy is a part of His love.
Calvinist doctrine teaches that God had no mercy when He created because He preselected a number of humans that He arbitrarily wanted to destroy. They were all just as human as Adam from whom they were derived and just as sinful as anyone else (except for the babies that Calvin, Luther and Augustine want to burn in hell – no mercy there…). Calvinists believe that they existed before their birth and that God had mercy on them before creation. They don’t have any pre-creation credentials (the Mormons will be glad to provide them with some) but they thrive on making up imaginary stories about reprobates that God hated because He has always wanted to. Mercy, for the calvinist, only happens now and then…when one of them comes along.
Obviously, all of this calvinian way of thinking is derailed from what the Bible teaches. There is not the slightest hint of biblical evidence that God hated reprobates before he created and that He fully intended to burn them in hell. The Bible teaches that every human is subject to the same worthless condition (Revelation 5:2-3) due to evil and sin and death. The Bible teaches that every human is loved by the God who gave His only begotten Son to provide salvation. That salvation was worked out on the cross of Calvary – in time. No one gets salvation credentials (or is blotted out) before the foundation of the world. You cannot be registered in heaven in the church of the firstborn before the firstborn is risen from the grave (Hebrews 12:23). The cross is the beginning point of the new creation.
When God says it is NEW, He means new!
The cross is the beginning point of the new creation.
Come to the cross.
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