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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the You can reach us toll-free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Well, anyway, I want to kind of talk to you a little bit about something that you need to be sold on on because if you really don’t know where you stand on certain things, you know, you can be easily swayed because it’s so important. This is what the Word of God says and it’s important. But I want you to look there on the top of the notes. When the premise is wrong, then the conclusion is wrong. You know, if you start off wrong, you’re going to run up in the wrong direction.

You’re going to go wrong. And as I say here, I detect the threads of Calvinism spreading throughout many churches, because it’s true. It is getting stronger and stronger and stronger. And when some of the reasons are because of preachers that are on radio and on television, and you listen to a lot of the pastors that are in a lot of churches, and it’s getting very strong. And it’s a damaging teaching, and I’ll show you that very briefly. Even there’s time about FBC people, Florida Bible college people, that have been to FBC and graduated and they still can get caught up into this stuff.

And that’s a shame. But it happens. So you can’t do anything about those that do believe that and get carried away in the Calvinism. But it’s something that I don’t even like talking about it because that’s in there. But sometimes you have to fight air with truth. And you have to say this is what somebody says and this is what the word of God says. The apostle Paul was continually fighting air. And you read some of the books and you’ll find out he just took it on and he taught the truth.

So anyway I wanted to explain just a little bit. If you look there at the Calvinist beginning point Because you always have to have a reason. Now I don’t know the original reason why some people get sidetracked. Maybe it might be because they don’t want to fulfill that responsibility of preaching the gospel. I mean here I am and let’s say I’m married and got three kids and I’m comfortable, got a comfortable living and I have a nice home and whatever.

And to hear somebody tell you that you’ve got to be willing to go anywhere and everywhere. everywhere. Are you willing to go? Even though God may not lead you, but are you willing to do what you can? And a way of getting out of that responsibility to say that I’m not really responsible. I really don’t have to do it. Or if you’re afraid even to witness to anybody, well, if I don’t, somebody else will. That used to all play my mind a little bit.

If I don’t do it, somebody else will. Well, that sounds good, but I couldn’t prove it with chapter verse if I don’t do it, somebody else will. It means somebody else could have won all the people that I’ve won to Christ. So I really wasn’t needed. I mean God would have saved him anyway. So little by little you get into predestination. God has predetermined who’s going to get saved anyway and whatever the will of God is. You’ve heard Doris Day, she’s sung that song.

Whatever will be, will be. I don’t think she was a calimianist. No. But whatever will be, will be. So in other words, if you ever listen to the Muslims, if all the wills, if all the wills, I’m going to blow myself up with dynamite, if all the wills. I’m going to take as many people with me as possible as all the wills. Well my whole family got blown up as all the wills. That’s enough for me to not like Allah, whoever Allah is.

Now I love Jehovah. So look at the first statement here. And if you look down on the left there, it’s just T-U-L-I-P tool up. And it simply is an acronym for what their position is. And the T stands for the total depravity of man. Now I believe that man is dead. It means he’s separated from God. And that he cannot save himself. The Bible tells over and over again how that there is none righteous, not one. There’s none that seeketh after God.

There’s none good, not one. Not righteous. Nobody. All have sin. And that all are dead. dead. So take your Bible and look there with me in the book of Ephesians in chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2. But being depraved doesn’t mean its total inability to think and to reason, to make decisions, to be responsible. You see, if we’re nothing more than robots without a will, of then God is the one that’s at fault for everything that we say and do because, you know, after all, we don’t have a will of our own.

We can’t make decision. We can’t choose because we’re dead. We’re dead. We’re all unto dead people all around. The Bible simply means that you’re separated from God. You’re spiritually dead. You’re not, you’re alive, but you’re not connected to God. You’ve been spiritually severed from the source of life. Here in Ephesians in chapter 2, Luke, he says in verse 1, and you have to be quickened to be made alive, who were dead in trespasses, and you were dead because of sins, sins of omission and sins of commission.

Things you did do that you shouldn’t have done, and things that you should have done that you didn’t do, and your sinners by choice, and your sinners by nature. You are born a sinner and even by nature you sin because it’s your choice you choose to. So a man is guilty yes because he has sinned against God but he sinned even by choice. You have to… Why does the Bible then say if a man knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him it is sin?

He knoweth to do good and do it that not. So evidently, he’s held accountable for what he knows and what he does. So we have a responsibility given to everybody in the human race because God holds every man accountable. So God didn’t make us a bunch of little robots and we don’t have a choice or will. So some people believe that man is so depraved that he can’t even believe on his own. He can’t choose. So what they believe is, is that God in heaven comes down and He gives you the faith to believe.

So God literally is saving you before you ever trust Him. That’s heresy. That is not the truth, but that’s what some people will teach. Not all of them are as strong as others, but it is a teaching that is permeating a lot of people in a lot of churches. And so as he says here, this was our nature. See then verse 3, among whom also we all had our behavior, men of life, in times passing the desires, lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature the children of wrath even as others.

So evidently we did make some decisions, but we made decisions after the lust of the flesh. And we made decisions according to the pride of life and the lust of the eyes. So we made choices and we were by nature children of wrath. And as it says here that we were rebellious nature the children of wrath. It means that we made decisions of disobedience. We broke God’s law. We overstepped the boundary. Therefore God says you are going to have to pay penalty which is death, separation from God for all eternity.

And then He makes a statement down here in verse 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God not of works list and your man should boast. We were dead, we’ve been quick and it made alive. Now this being made alive from being dead, that is by grace.

That is your salvation. You were dead and you’re made alive. They say that faith is the gift because of Ephesians 2, 8, and 9. Faith is not the gift. Salvation is the gift. Salvation is why saved by grace. Saved. Salvation. It’s by grace. And therefore, every man has the ability to trust. And some people trust in a false God, a false religious system. They trust in themselves. But God says they place their faith in the wrong thing. That’s why he has commanded every man everywhere to repent.

Change your mind. Every man. Because what you trust in won’t save you and you need to repent. Change your mind and trust Christ’s soul. because the logical explanation is that if God gives to a man faith, then why doesn’t he give it to everybody? And if that’s the case, everybody’s going to heaven, everybody’s saved. But since they know that everybody’s not going to heaven, everybody’s not saved, some people are going to hell, So what makes the difference? So you are the world.

I am God. I like this illustration already. Now I can’t say that I love all of you because I’m not going to save all of you. But since you’re dead, if I bring any of you back to life, that’s grace because none of you deserve it. it will be my choice. I am the one that’s going to choose. And so I’m going to choose to save you and you. And I pick out a few people. And so because I know who I chose, I only have to send my son to die for those that I chose.

So see, Christ don’t need to die for everybody. He just needs to die. for the ones that I’m going to save. There’s no sense and deal on the other. There’s a waste of time. That might be good if you were the one that he chose. But I’m getting a little bit ahead of myself. Look there in your note. You see the T. Since man is totally depraved, he cannot respond to God unless God takes the initiative and first gives to man the faith to believe.

But see if you take it in the rightful way, we are to preach the gospel, the good news and faith cometh by hearing, not because of God’s choice, but because a man heard the gospel. Who did God say preached the gospel to? Everybody, every creature. So if that’s the case, then God hasn’t already chose who he’s going to save except he’s going to save all of those that are in Christ. And if you’re in Him, God has chosen to save all those that are in Christ.

And He’s also chosen not to save those that are not in Christ. So He says, Priest the gospel, everywhere in those that will respond and accept Christ, have eternal life. Those that do not will not. One man put it this way. You know, the whosoever wills are the ones that believe and the whosoever won’t are the ones that don’t believe. So God has chosen to save all those who, soever will believe and God has chosen not to save those whosoever won’t believe.

Do you understand that? Ain’t that simple? Yeah, I just so simple. So look at the next statement. If this is true, it is only reasonable to assume that only those to whom God gives faith to believe can truly ever be saved. If you can only be saved because God gave you the faith to believe, then you’re the only one that can be saved. So evidently God didn’t give it to everybody. So what was the criteria? What did God use as his standard for choosing?

And if he’s not a respecter of persons, which is true, he’s not a respecter persons. But what did God use as the standard to choose some and not others? Well, if that belief is true, see, it follows a logical sequence. If you are saved only because God gives you the faith to believe, then you can only believe because God gave it to you. Therefore, God then must evidently have unconditional election. See that’s the next one. The U stands for unconditional election.

You didn’t do anything. You didn’t meet any condition to be elected. God is the only one that made that choice. Therefore salvation is not man’s choice. This is according to the theology of majority of Calvinists. Now some people say they’re only a one point or a two point or three point Calvinist. Most of them are five but don’t know it. I have one man tell me I’m a six point. Unconditional election. God elects to save certain people and not others.

See I don’t like that because it’s not taught in the Bible. because then you get into the teaching of, okay, you can’t honestly say if I was a Calvinist preacher, I could not stand in this pulpit and say, God so loved the world. He wouldn’t. He would only be able to say God loves the elect. He might say the word world, but in his mind, he’s thinking only the elect because he doesn’t tell the whole thing. I have been in conversation with many in the last so month that mince words they try to deceive you by the words that they use and they’re very careful of how they say something because they’re not being honest and straightforward but because I’ve been doing this for a few years I can detect the tenets of Calvinism.

They don’t have to say that they’re a Calvinist. But if I listen to you long enough, I can tell you just about what you believe. When I witness to people, I can listen to them a little bit and I can, okay, you’re a seven-day Adventist. I can listen to somebody else and that’s your Pentecostal. I’ll leave somebody else and you can tell because they reveal their religious beliefs. You think a man that’s a Mormon is going to try to convince you to be a Baptist?

You listen to long enough and you know he’s a Mormon. I walked by a booth one time we had a our vet a festival and everything a booth set up there and this we had one but I walked down the thing and there was this guy in there and he was put the family and I says are you Mormon? Oh no this has nothing to do with Mormons nothing to do with religion of Mormon. I says this is put out by the Mormons.

He said this is just to reach the family. We’re not trying to cross the light of doing anything like that. I says, are you a Mormon? Yes, but my wife was not a Mormon. My wife was not a Mormon. I says, she was not a Mormon. I mean, she is now. Well, if she is now. So you’re a Mormon and she’s a Mormon. And you’re talking about the family. And this is just for the family. I says, you are deceitful because you’re not being upfront with the people.

You’re trying to hide what you really are. You’re a Mormon. If you told those people upfront, you are a Mormon and what you believe because you are a Mormon, they wouldn’t listen to you. And you can do the same thing with a Jehovah’s Witness. Kenchijames. Don’t take long. You can talk to them and you can find out where they’re coming from. Well, you can do the same thing with people that are Calvinists. They don’t have to say, I am a Calvinist.

I can listen to you after a while. I can tell whether or not you are. And I can pretty well tell you what tenant you believe of the tulip. Now, notice, if this is true, where has the unconditional election. If this is true, then it also means that God has to pick or choose, elect whom he would give this faith in order that they might believe because if you can’t be saved unless he gives you the faith then he had to choose somebody to give it to.

So it follows a logical progression of reasoning and so whenever you don’t follow what the Bible says but if you listen to what the Bible said, God so loved the world. God so loved the world. Who’s to ever believe it? Well, see, they can’t say that God so loved the world. Only the elect. Christ died for the sins of the world. Well, Christ died for the sins of the chosen few. See, their gospel is not my gospel. You say, well, we’re so close.

We’re compatible. No, we’re not. We are not saying the same thing. So look their Ephesians chapter 1 and look in verse 3. If he’s in chapter 1 verse 3, says, Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who had blessed us with all spiritual blessings and heavily places in Christ. According, as he had chosen us in him before the foundations of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.

See there, it’s all according to the good pleasure of his will. He has chosen to save whoever he wants to save and he doesn’t have to save everybody. And if he saves anybody, it’d still be grace. I’d make a good confidence. I know what they believe. About as good as what they believe. But you know, I didn’t read everything just as clear to you. See the verse 4, according as he hath chosen us, in Him. Those two little words changes everything.

Changes everything. You take out those two little words and it changes everything. But because those two little words are there, you only get in Christ because of your decision. When you trusted Christ as your Savior, you see what He says there in verse 13? Verse 12 makes this statement that we should be to the praise of His glory who first trusted in Christ. We trusted. In whom you also trusted after that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.

the scripture says, you heard the word. Faith cannot buy hearing and you believed and you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. What they like to say is that all these people out there, I don’t know why and I don’t know how God chose to save me as though I’m something special of all the rest of y’all. And so that’s why I’m saved because God from eternity past, down to that long telescope of time and saw Yankee Arnold liner and says, you know, he’s worth saving.

He’s worth saving. The mother rat thinks, nah, but that guy, I want him. I want him. Now you can believe that if you want to, but it’s not the truth. As God looked down to that long telescope of time, he saw the world and he so loved the world and that He was willing to die for the world so that anybody who’s so ever will believe. And yes, I believe that yes, God can look down there and he can say yes.

Yankee trusted me as Savior. And a little man trusts Christ as Savior. Well, look at what James trusts you to trust. God may know the future. He knows our decision, but he doesn’t make our decision. It was because we decided we heard the gospel and we trusted him as our Savior. If you get it mixed up, it’ll change your philosophy, your whole philosophy of life. It’ll change the message that you teach and preach to other people. Look at this.

Just a little quick and second, that’s the Lonians in chapter 2. Second, that’s the Lonians in chapter 2. Look in verse 13. Where it says, but we are bound to give thanks always to God for you brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. See there? And they usually stop right there. God has chosen to save you. You were chosen to salvation. And they’ll quote a verse like this as though, Yank, he’s never heard of this verse before.

Well, I’ve never heard of this verse like somebody wants to get me with, and they’ll last a little smarter. Evidently, you’ve never read James chapter 2. who? I say, you mean verse 14? And it says, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation, but now notice the last part of the verse. How did He choose through sanctification of the Spirit and what? The belief of the truth. When you believe the truth, see, there would be no part that I would have to do if God simply gave me the faith to believe even that’s why I’m saved because I was chosen salvation because God gave me the faith to believe.

That’s not what it said. Because you’ll see there in verse 14 where unto he called you by what? By our gospel. He called by the gospel. Who does he call the word? Go in the all-world and preach the gospel and when you hear he that here is my word. He, anybody, here is my word and believe it. He puts the responsibility upon us. If we will believe, we can be saved. And even Jesus Christ when he was here and he would preach the same message and some would not believe and some would not come to him.

He says, you will not come on the me that you might have life. What he says, he should have says, I didn’t give you the they’ve to believe. You didn’t come to me because you can’t. It’s a bit of that’s, it’s contrary to scripture. I don’t care how reasonable it sounds. That’s humanistic reasoning, but it’s not the Bible. It’s not the Bible. Look at the next statement here. The El San for Limited Atonement, if these entire ifs are true, it stands to reason that Christ would only have to die for those He chose to save.

This is what they believe. He only had the die for the ones that He chose to save. Well, don’t that make sense? It doesn’t matter what makes sense is what did God say. Christ died for the sins of the whole world. And in 1 John and chapter 2 and verse 2 where He makes the statement not for hours only but for the sins of the whole world. And then I’ve seen someone calling, well that doesn’t mean that. I mean, just in the last week, that doesn’t mean that.

Then what does it mean? I believe it means for the sins of the whole world. See, they got to change all these scriptures because it goes contrary to their reasoning. It’s not because they’re spiritually enlightened, it’s because they’re mentally darkened. They can’t see it. The next point, the eye stands for irresistible grace. Now I know about irresistible charm, that’s what I put on Betty, and she couldn’t resist. But this is irresistible grace. If that’s true, then it also makes sense that God’s demand to believe must be irresistible because God has determined it to happen.

You can’t resist. They say, you can’t resist. God’s grace. And yet it says in the book of Acts, as Stephen was preaching his wonderful one-time sermon, he preached the sermon and they killed him for it and he says, you do always resist the Holy Ghost. They could resist, but you can’t resist it. They did. The Scripture says so. But it means something else. It never means what, because he goes contrary to what they’ve already predetermined to believe. and they will quote you the Hebrew and the Greek.

I don’t give you how much Hebrew and how much Greek you have. This is the book. It’s already been translated, and I don’t have to know Hebrew and Greek to know truth. I know this book and I can go backwards and forwards and I believe the Bible teaches itself what it says and what it means. I have better understanding without reading anybody’s commentary. Most of them I get confused. And they always seem to jump over all those hard complicated scriptures.

You know, the ones that I want to know about, they just kind of jump over those because they can’t explain them. But you can understand most scripture if you’ll use the clarity of the gospel as a determining factor because it don’t change. There’s a lot of verses that seem to say, but if you use this, well, I know it’s not a works. It cannot be any way that it’s of works. So therefore this verse it seems to say might mean something else and it usually does.

You’ve been listening to another great message from Pastor Arnold and we at Bibleline thank you for tuning in. In appreciation to those who support this ministry financially we would like to send to you the Dora Lake story. It is a true story about the splitting of a church in Minnesota after a young preacher taught a gospel message that contradicted the theology of Calvinism. And can you guess who that young preacher was? Yes, it was Pastor Arnold. In this book, Pastor Arnold thoroughly discusses the dangers of the five points of Calvinism.

And this book is offered to you as a free gift for your donation in any amount. Our mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And don’t forget to include your mailing address as well. We are pleased to be able to give a little something back to you for your financial support. So for this month, receive the Door Lakes story with your financial contribution of any amount, and thank you for helping us reach the world with the Clear Gospel.

Thanks for joining us on Bibleline. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4 D-811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. And we will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believing that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.