Thursday, April 12, 2012

Jason on the faith of the elect

In a posting titled "Garrett on the faith of God's elect" Jason Brown wrote:

"How can a rational person even begin to take the position that the prophets of the Old Testament preached a salvation through Christ with the same clarity that Paul did?"

But, I never affirmed that the revelation of the gospel that Abraham believed was as clear as that which is believed today.  What I have affirmed, however, is that all the elect will believe the gospel revelation to the degree that it is revealed.  There is no difference, however, in the basic elements of the gospel message that was believed by OT believers and by today's NT believers. 

"And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed." (Gal. 3: 8)

"For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it." (Heb. 4: 2)

These verses say that the same gospel was preached to Abraham and to the Israelites that is today preached by ministers of the new testament.  Jason can resist believing them, but we will accept them for what they say.

Let us ask Jason - "does a person have to believe the gospel to be saved?"  I predict that Jason will not give us a straight anwer to this question, but will give us more doublespeak, saying, on one hand, that yes they do, and then saying, on the other hand, that no they do not.

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