John 6:44 is a verse that I'm sure is attractive to Calvinists saying no one can come to Jesus unless the Father draws them to Jesus. The thing is the same Gospel returns to that theme in John 12:32 where it is clarified that Jesus will draw ALL MEN unto Him.
This is even more apparent in how they deal with the Epistle to The Romans.
In chapter 9 verses 15 and 18 we are told God has Mercy on who He will. However in chapter 11 verse 32 it is clarified that God consigned all to disobedience so that he might have Mercy upon all.
Same with the fixation on Romans 9's quotation of what Malachi said about Jacob and Esau. The word Malachi used that gets translated "hate" really only means to not be preferred in a given context. Romans 9 is Paul summing up Israel's past while Romans 10 is about the present and Romans 11 the future. Esau may not be name dropped again in chapters 10 and 11 but what he represents in Romans 9 is, that being the Gentiles. In the present the children of Jacob are now under a temporary spiritual blindness and those god "hated" before are now the ones who are fruitful provoking Israel to jealousy in Romans 10:19 and 11:11. Romans 11:25-26 makes clear that the fullness of the Gentiles will be grafted into Israel and then ALL Israel shall be saved.
One bad theory of Hermeneutics you'll find out there is the "law of first reference" that the first time The Bible mentions something is key to understanding every later reference to it. I find that theory appalling because to anyone who knows how writing works it is obvious that Romans 11 is explaining and clarifying the earlier references to these concepts especially in Romans 9. But Calvinists instead will always do the opposite and use Romans 9 to debunk how someone like me quotes Romans 11.
No comments:
Post a Comment