Cheryl Schatz

Mark,
You said to TL:

I appreciate your call for us all to be in continual repentance- i couldn’t agree more. But maybe you can show me if the Cannanites in the conquering were given that opportunity to repent and enter covenant with Yahweh? Like it or not, God has always chosen some and not others, both in regards to salvation and in regards to earthly purpose.

I think that TL can quite properly give their own response but I also want to respond because I think that the question is worthy of answering.

First of all the nations were given opportunity to repent. The LORD God said:

Jeremiah 18:7–8 (NASB)
7 “At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot, to pull down, or to destroy it;
8 if that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the calamity I planned to bring on it.

God sent Jonah to the Ninevites because of His care and concern for them. God warned them because He wanted them to repent. There is no indication that the prophesies of destruction that He gave regarding the Cannanites would have been any different in God relenting had they turned from their evil and repented.

And as far as other nations being a part of God’s covenant, God established His covenant even with the aliens who were within Israel’s midst and even with those who were not present.

Deuteronomy 29:10–15 (NASB)
10 “You stand today, all of you, before the LORD your God: your chiefs, your tribes, your elders and your officers, even all the men of Israel,
11 your little ones, your wives, and the alien who is within your camps, from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water,
12 that you may enter into the covenant with the LORD your God, and into His oath which the LORD your God is making with you today,
13 in order that He may establish you today as His people and that He may be your God, just as He spoke to you and as He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
14 “Now not with you alone am I making this covenant and this oath,
15 but both with those who stand here with us today in the presence of the LORD our God and with those who are not with us here today

There is no question that God cares about the nations outside of Israel and was willing to bring into the covenant those who would join themselves with the LORD God.

Also you said:

Also Cheryl has completely failed to deal with the grammar of 2 Tim 2:25 which shows that repentance is a gift of God. Repentance is something that is given by God. Maybe you would like to deal with it instead? Or perhaps you can show me passages which reveal that God has enabled all to repent and believe, but it’s their free-will that stops them.

I have already dealt with this issue and I am continuing to work as I can on your comments and questions. Remember I asked you to be patient regarding my time? I would ask that you also be respectful and not accuse me of completely failing to deal with an issue that you brought up when you know that I am behind and I have explained why I am behind. I have yet to disregard any passage or grammar that you have brought up and if I have failed in any one thing, it would never be intentional. When I get behind it is easy to miss one small item yet I have given a consistent stand of working through each statement that you have made. Most would not even attempt to do that, but I like to be thorough and I have nothing to fear.

So if you could apologize for trying to rush me when I have company and be patient with me as I asked you to be, then we should be able to continue hitting each and every issue in a respectful and consistent way. Fair enough?

Lastly you said:

Maybe you can explain how the atonement doesn’t actually atone but only makes us ‘savable’ until we add the rest?

I don’t know anyone who says that the atonement doesn’t actually atone. Your misunderstanding really baffles me. Didn’t you used to be an Arminian or at least a non-Calvinist? Then why is it that you have a problem understanding what you should have clearly understood before you became a Calvinist? You say that I don’t understand Calvinism, yet I am working hard to both understand and to be fair with a representation of the position even though I have never been a Calvinist. Yet you misrepresent the Arminian and non-Calvinist position quite consistently even though you were one. I do not understand why that is. Can you help me? I am sincerely asking and not making fun of you. I just don’t get it how come you cannot understand the camp where you used to belong to. Or is it that you just never understood the position yourself so that when a straw man was created, you easily accepted that as a refutation? Or is it because of something else? If you can, please help me to understand what goes on in your head that would make you say such things. Thanks!

Well that is about all I can do for tonight. Everyone is long ago in bed. My son says that I stay up way too late. That may be true, but it seems like late nights are the time when I can devote time to my blog and this subject without distraction. But I still need my sleep so that I can give fully of myself to my visitors.

Mark, I have also been thinking a lot about that new baby of yours. I hope that he/she comes soon and that your joy will be full!