wildboar
12-10-2003, 09:18 AM
This website I came across seems a little sensationalistic in some respect but it also has some interesting material. The following is quotes from Calvinists in opposition to the free-offer of the gospel. Also finding out I'm in the company of Augustine and Turretin in my interpretation of Matt. 23:37 just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside:D http://www.arminiancaptivity.com/freeofferquotes.htm
Calvinists Opposed to the
'Free Offer of the Gospel'
AUGUSTINE (354 - 430)
'She indeed was unwilling that her sons should be gathered together by him, but notwithstanding her unwillingness he gathered together his sons whom he willed.' (Commenting on Matthew 23:37 in Enchiridion 24[97] FC 2:450; PL 40:277)
JOHN CALVIN (1509 - 1564)
'Why, then, while bestowing grace on the one, does he pass by the other?... Clearly he could. Why, then, does he not? Because He is unwilling.' (Institutes 3.24.13)
'That few receive the gospel, we must fully conclude that the cause is the will of God; and that the outward sound of the gospel strikes the hearers in vain until God is pleased to touch by it the heart within.' (A Treatise on the Eternal Predestination of God, RFPA, p. 82)
'But Paul teaches us (continues Georgius) that God "would have all men to be saved." It follows therefore, according to his understanding of that passage, either that God is disappointed in His wishes, or that all men without exception must be saved. If he should reply that God wills all men to be saved on His part, or as far as He is concerned, seeing that Salvation is, nevertheless, left to the free will of each individual, I, in return, ask him why, if such be the case, God did not command the Gospel to be preached to all men indiscriminately from the beginning of the world? why He suffered so many generations of men to wander for so many ages in all the darkness of death?' (A Treatise on the Eternal Predestination of God, RFPA, p. 166)
'Now, then, answer me, If God willed that His truth should be known unto all men, how is it that, from the first preaching of the Gospel until now, so many nations exist unto whom His pure truth has never been sent by Him at all, and unto whom, therefore, it has never come? And, again, if such had been the will of God concerning all man, how is it that He never opened the eyes of all? For the internal illumination of the Spirit, with which God has condescended to bless so few, is indispensably necessary unto faith. And there is also another knot for thee to untie. Since no-one but he who is drawn by the secret influence of the Spirit can approach unto God, how is it that God does not draw all man indiscriminately to Himself, if He really willeth all men to be saved?' (A Defence of the Secret Providence of God, RFPA, p. 277)
SYNOD OF DORDT (1618 - 1619)
'The Synod rejects the errors of those who teach: that the corrupt and natural man can so well use the common grace, or the gifts still left him after the fall, that he can gradually gain by their good use a greater, viz., the evangelical or saving grace and salvation itself. And that in this way God on his part shows himself ready to reveal Christ unto all men, since he applies to all sufficiently and efficiently the means necessary to conversion.' (Canons, III and IV, B5)
JOHN OWEN (1616 - 1683)
'The since the entrance of sin, there is no apprehension - I mean for sinners - of a goodness, love, and kindness in God, as flowing from his natural properties, but upon an account of the interposition of his sovereign will and pleasure. It is most false which by some is said, - that special grace flows from that which they call general grace and special mercy from general mercy. There is a whole nest of mistakes in that conception.' (Owen's Works, Vol. IX, page 44)
'We must exactly distinguish between man's duty and God's purpose, there being no connection between them. The purpose and decree of God is not the rule of our duty; neither is the performance of our duty in doing what we are commanded any declaration of what is God's purpose to do, or His decree that it should be done. Especially is this to be seen and considered in the duty of the ministers of the gospel, in the dispensing of the word, in exhortations, invitations, precepts, and threatenings, committed unto them; all which are perpetual declarative's of our duty, and do manifest the approbation of the thing exhorted and invited to, with the truth of the connection between one thing and another, but not of the counsel and purpose of God, in respect of individual persons, in the ministry of the word ... They command and invite all to repent and believe; but they do not know in particular on whom God will bestow repentance unto salvation, nor in whom He will effect the work of faith with power. And when they make proffers and tenders in the name of God to all, they do not say to all, "It is the purpose and intention of God that ye should believe" (who gave them any such power?) but, that it is His command, which makes it their duty to do what is required of them; and they do not declare His mind, what Himself in particular will do. The external offer is such as from which every man may conclude his own duty; none, God's purpose, which yet may be known upon the performance of his duty. Their objection, then, is vain, who affirm that God hath given Christ for all to whom He offers Christ in the preaching of the Gospel; for his offer in the preaching of the gospel is not declarative to any in particular, neither of what God hath done nor of what He will do in reference to him, but of what he ought to do, if he would be approved of God and obtain the good things promised,' (Death of Death, Book 4, Chapter. 1, Paragraph 3)
FRANCIS TURRETIN (1623-1687)
'Is is not said that God willed to scatter those whom he willed to gather together, but only that Christ willed to gather together those whom Jerusalem (i.e. the chiefs of the people) nilled to be gathered together, but notwithstanding their opposition Christ did not fail in gathering together those whom he willed.' (Commenting on Matthew 23:37)
DR. JOHN KENNEDY (1819 - 1884)
'That definition implied that the sinner, before believing, had a certain right of property in the Gospel salvation, because of a "deed of gift and grant" from God. This mistaken idea is the most marked thing of all they retain of inherited theology. It is the search for a basis, for this pre-believing right, that has carried them to the universal reference of the atonement, and to their dreamings of universal grace.'
HEINRICH HEPPE (1820 - 1879)
'Moreover outward Church calling is not imparted to the non-elect in such wise that God wished to present them with faith, should they refrain from resisting the activity of the H. Spirit. Otherwise the possibility would arise of a counsel of God being perhaps rendered futile by man. Besides it is to be noted that man can only resist the H. Spirit. - Heidegger (XXI, 10): "Nor does God altogether call particular reprobate in such wise that He has decreed and wills to give them faith an repentance just like the elect, provided only they do not resist the H. Spirit's leptologia (frivolity) of some. There are no decrees of God which men or any creature can frustrate. They are altogether effectual and have a most definite outcome. If He has decreed to give to some faith and repentance, He bestows them in time through the Word and the H. Spirit. In that case all men of themselves and by their nature resist the H. Spirit: Rom. 8:7 (the mind of the flesh is enmity against God; it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be.)'
PROFESSOR JAMES MACGREGOR (1830 - 1894)
'The more malignant aspects of Amyraldianism are as follows: First, the notion of any saving purpose of God that does not infallibly determine salvation; or, in other words, of a frustrated intention or disappointed desire of His; this notion is not only on the face of it unscriptural, but, in the heart of it, offensive even to our natural reason, because inconsistent with the very nature and perfection of Deity. Nor does the notion gain anything, in respect of spiritual seemliness, when transferred from God's eternal decree to the execution of that decree in time on the Cross.'
Calvinists Opposed to the
'Free Offer of the Gospel'
AUGUSTINE (354 - 430)
'She indeed was unwilling that her sons should be gathered together by him, but notwithstanding her unwillingness he gathered together his sons whom he willed.' (Commenting on Matthew 23:37 in Enchiridion 24[97] FC 2:450; PL 40:277)
JOHN CALVIN (1509 - 1564)
'Why, then, while bestowing grace on the one, does he pass by the other?... Clearly he could. Why, then, does he not? Because He is unwilling.' (Institutes 3.24.13)
'That few receive the gospel, we must fully conclude that the cause is the will of God; and that the outward sound of the gospel strikes the hearers in vain until God is pleased to touch by it the heart within.' (A Treatise on the Eternal Predestination of God, RFPA, p. 82)
'But Paul teaches us (continues Georgius) that God "would have all men to be saved." It follows therefore, according to his understanding of that passage, either that God is disappointed in His wishes, or that all men without exception must be saved. If he should reply that God wills all men to be saved on His part, or as far as He is concerned, seeing that Salvation is, nevertheless, left to the free will of each individual, I, in return, ask him why, if such be the case, God did not command the Gospel to be preached to all men indiscriminately from the beginning of the world? why He suffered so many generations of men to wander for so many ages in all the darkness of death?' (A Treatise on the Eternal Predestination of God, RFPA, p. 166)
'Now, then, answer me, If God willed that His truth should be known unto all men, how is it that, from the first preaching of the Gospel until now, so many nations exist unto whom His pure truth has never been sent by Him at all, and unto whom, therefore, it has never come? And, again, if such had been the will of God concerning all man, how is it that He never opened the eyes of all? For the internal illumination of the Spirit, with which God has condescended to bless so few, is indispensably necessary unto faith. And there is also another knot for thee to untie. Since no-one but he who is drawn by the secret influence of the Spirit can approach unto God, how is it that God does not draw all man indiscriminately to Himself, if He really willeth all men to be saved?' (A Defence of the Secret Providence of God, RFPA, p. 277)
SYNOD OF DORDT (1618 - 1619)
'The Synod rejects the errors of those who teach: that the corrupt and natural man can so well use the common grace, or the gifts still left him after the fall, that he can gradually gain by their good use a greater, viz., the evangelical or saving grace and salvation itself. And that in this way God on his part shows himself ready to reveal Christ unto all men, since he applies to all sufficiently and efficiently the means necessary to conversion.' (Canons, III and IV, B5)
JOHN OWEN (1616 - 1683)
'The since the entrance of sin, there is no apprehension - I mean for sinners - of a goodness, love, and kindness in God, as flowing from his natural properties, but upon an account of the interposition of his sovereign will and pleasure. It is most false which by some is said, - that special grace flows from that which they call general grace and special mercy from general mercy. There is a whole nest of mistakes in that conception.' (Owen's Works, Vol. IX, page 44)
'We must exactly distinguish between man's duty and God's purpose, there being no connection between them. The purpose and decree of God is not the rule of our duty; neither is the performance of our duty in doing what we are commanded any declaration of what is God's purpose to do, or His decree that it should be done. Especially is this to be seen and considered in the duty of the ministers of the gospel, in the dispensing of the word, in exhortations, invitations, precepts, and threatenings, committed unto them; all which are perpetual declarative's of our duty, and do manifest the approbation of the thing exhorted and invited to, with the truth of the connection between one thing and another, but not of the counsel and purpose of God, in respect of individual persons, in the ministry of the word ... They command and invite all to repent and believe; but they do not know in particular on whom God will bestow repentance unto salvation, nor in whom He will effect the work of faith with power. And when they make proffers and tenders in the name of God to all, they do not say to all, "It is the purpose and intention of God that ye should believe" (who gave them any such power?) but, that it is His command, which makes it their duty to do what is required of them; and they do not declare His mind, what Himself in particular will do. The external offer is such as from which every man may conclude his own duty; none, God's purpose, which yet may be known upon the performance of his duty. Their objection, then, is vain, who affirm that God hath given Christ for all to whom He offers Christ in the preaching of the Gospel; for his offer in the preaching of the gospel is not declarative to any in particular, neither of what God hath done nor of what He will do in reference to him, but of what he ought to do, if he would be approved of God and obtain the good things promised,' (Death of Death, Book 4, Chapter. 1, Paragraph 3)
FRANCIS TURRETIN (1623-1687)
'Is is not said that God willed to scatter those whom he willed to gather together, but only that Christ willed to gather together those whom Jerusalem (i.e. the chiefs of the people) nilled to be gathered together, but notwithstanding their opposition Christ did not fail in gathering together those whom he willed.' (Commenting on Matthew 23:37)
DR. JOHN KENNEDY (1819 - 1884)
'That definition implied that the sinner, before believing, had a certain right of property in the Gospel salvation, because of a "deed of gift and grant" from God. This mistaken idea is the most marked thing of all they retain of inherited theology. It is the search for a basis, for this pre-believing right, that has carried them to the universal reference of the atonement, and to their dreamings of universal grace.'
HEINRICH HEPPE (1820 - 1879)
'Moreover outward Church calling is not imparted to the non-elect in such wise that God wished to present them with faith, should they refrain from resisting the activity of the H. Spirit. Otherwise the possibility would arise of a counsel of God being perhaps rendered futile by man. Besides it is to be noted that man can only resist the H. Spirit. - Heidegger (XXI, 10): "Nor does God altogether call particular reprobate in such wise that He has decreed and wills to give them faith an repentance just like the elect, provided only they do not resist the H. Spirit's leptologia (frivolity) of some. There are no decrees of God which men or any creature can frustrate. They are altogether effectual and have a most definite outcome. If He has decreed to give to some faith and repentance, He bestows them in time through the Word and the H. Spirit. In that case all men of themselves and by their nature resist the H. Spirit: Rom. 8:7 (the mind of the flesh is enmity against God; it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be.)'
PROFESSOR JAMES MACGREGOR (1830 - 1894)
'The more malignant aspects of Amyraldianism are as follows: First, the notion of any saving purpose of God that does not infallibly determine salvation; or, in other words, of a frustrated intention or disappointed desire of His; this notion is not only on the face of it unscriptural, but, in the heart of it, offensive even to our natural reason, because inconsistent with the very nature and perfection of Deity. Nor does the notion gain anything, in respect of spiritual seemliness, when transferred from God's eternal decree to the execution of that decree in time on the Cross.'