Cheryl Schatz

Mark,
You said:

In the 2 Chronicles verse, you forgot to mention the verse before which show God intervening through the Prophet Azariah. So the same principle applies, God has to work first before we can respond.

I didn’t need to “forget to mention” the previous verse because I am not disputing that God uses many things to make people reconsider their need for Him. But the issue is not whether God works, but whether unregenerate people can see God.

2 Chronicles 15:4 (NET)
15:4 Because of their distress, they turned back to the LORD God of Israel. They sought him and he responded to them.

So once again the Scriptures I quoted stand unrefuted.

Another point to note is that the Bible never talks about our own free-will, as if we can accept God by ourselves especially in the verses you quoted.

That is another thing where Calvinists misunderstand non-Calvinists. Who on earth is claiming that we can come to God without His drawing us? Not me. No one can come to God without Him drawing them. The difference between us is not that one believes man has the power to come to God on his own terms, because I don’t believe that. The difference is that I believe God is willing to draw all men to Himself while you believe that God predeterminately selects only a few unregenerate to draw them to Himself without any conditions and without any faith on their own behalf.

These passages are silent on why the people turned to God, but we have other clear passage which show us why people do turn, namely, because God intervenes. Does Jesus not say that no-one can come to the Father unless the Father draws him?

This is not the issue since I have already agreed that God must draw people. The issue is whether one must be born again first become one can seek for God. The Bible never says that a person is changed from an unregenerate person into a born again person and then and only then can he seek God.

John 3- Cheryl, what is the kingdom of God, if not a relationship with him?

A relationship with Jesus is never called “the kingdom of God”. It is called “knowing” Him.

John 17:3 (NASB)
3 “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

On the contrary, the term “the kingdom of God” is something that Christians will enter into in the future. It is not a term of relationship. I do notice that many times you give your own ideas but you don’t quote the Scriptures. I submit it is because there are no Scriptures to support your view and so you have nothing to document from the Bible.

What does Jesus mean by being born again? I would like to know your opinion?

Born again is a supernatural act of God where ones heart is changed from the nature of the “old man” to the nature of the second adam.

James 1:18 (NASB)
18 In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures.

When are we born of the Spirit (verse 5)? You must believe that the Spirit of God does not enter our life until we respond in faith right?

We are born of the Spirit when we are saved. The Jailer asked how he could be saved and Paul and Silas didn’t say to him that he must be saved already (born again) if he is asking the question. Rather they told him that he must believe in order to be saved.

Acts 16:30–32 (NASB)
30 and after he brought them out, he said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
31 They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
32 And they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his house.

So if we can circumcise our own heart by our own repentance, why did we need the new covenant. Didn’t at least some of the Jews repent Cheryl?

We circumcise our own heart by our repentance but this doesn’t save us. Only God’s work that is done by condition of our repentance and faith will bring salvation. Those who repented and believed God in the OT were promised that they would be given God’s covenant.

Psalm 25:12–14 (NASB)
12 Who is the man who fears the LORD?
He will instruct him in the way he should choose.
13 His soul will abide in prosperity,
And his descendants will inherit the land.
14 The secret of the LORD is for those who fear Him,
And He will make them know His covenant.

For the OT saints who feared God, they were promised that the son of righteousness will arise for them on that day that the Lord is preparing and for those who fear Him, they will belong to God as His own possession.

Malachi 3:16–Malachi 4 (NASB)
16 Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one another, and the LORD gave attention and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the LORD and who esteem His name.
17 “They will be Mine,” says the LORD of hosts, “on the day that I prepare My own possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.”
18 So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.

Chapter 4
2 “But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall.
3 “You will tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing,” says the LORD of hosts.

All those who belonged to the Father through their fear of Him and their faith were promised the covenant and they were given to Jesus.

John 6:37 (NASB)
37 “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.

Everyone who belongs to the Father will come to Jesus.

Your view makes the new covenant un-necessary.

No, not at all because the new covenant is fulfilled in Jesus. All who belonged to the Father in the OT would be brought into the new covenant through Jesus.

In our own strength we are nothing and can do nothing to save ourselves. Again I must protest that you are stealing the glory from God in HIS work. It is not our own doing.

Who is stealing the glory from God? You again greatly misunderstand. We cannot save ourselves. The new birth is the miracle working of God alone and we cannot work this miracle. It belongs to God alone.

To continue…