Indeed, Amen!

Surely I was misunderstanding – were preachers of God’s Word really saying that God had created some men and women for whom there was no hope for salvation?

Yes, I think you’re misunderstanding.
There is hope in Christ for whoever will come to him.
As I said on Twitter, I’m not interested in defending Calvin. So I will speak only for the Reformed (’calvinistic’ -and I mentioned how I dislike that label, but in lew of a better one, it will do for now) doctrines I find in scripture:
- That all men are by nature dead in sin, bllind to the light of Christ and in active rebellion towards him – they love the darkness and will not come into the light.

- That God, in his sovereignty has chosen who he will bring to salvation, not based on anything good in them, but on his own divine foreknowledge.

- That Jesus’ death is sufficient for who will come to trust in it, but only ever effective for those who do.

- That God’s Holy Spirit regenerates those he has chosen to bring to himself – dead sinners and removes the spiritual blindness and gives a new heart of love so that they will see the truth of Jesus and willingly come to him.

- That those who God calls, he justifies, and also glorifies. Those who come to Christ are his and will be kept his until the very end when they are made like Jesus.

I believe that God is 100% responsible for my salvation. It is totally of grace, even the faith by which I’m saved is the very gift of God. There is nothing in me that is smarter or more deserving – it is purely God, and He alone gets the glory.

To be truthful, I was going to delete your comment as spam…as a comment left solely for providing a link to your website.

However, having taken a look at your site, and seeing no harm, I will allow the comment and thank you for your response.

I would like to take the opportunity to offer some Biblical insight into anxiety, and its ‘cure’ via edification through the following scripture:

Philippians 4:6-7 (New King James Version)

6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

While I agree with you to a point, I think you need to move on from Ephesians 2 and take a good, long look at:

Ephesians 4: (KJV)

17 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,
18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
19 Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
20 But ye have not so learned Christ;
21 If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:
22 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
25 Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.
26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
27 Neither give place to the devil.
28 Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.
29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.

The Bible speaks of sheep in contrast to goats, sheep in contrast to wolves, and sheep in contrast to ‘lost sheep’.

“For by grace are ye saved”… not by choice are ye saved. A goat does not decide to become a sheep, but by grace sheep are in the fold. And the Christian life is about being found by the One who came “to seek and to save that which is lost.” After all, He came to “save his people from their sin.”

Me Likey!!!

John