I came across this clip and it unfortunately reminded me of some Christian irc and forum discussion sites that I know of.

Sorry about the grainy video but I seem to have problems converting mp4 to flv format?  The original was quite nice quality.

I found it a most amusing analogy in many ways.

There seem to be 2 things that wind me up the most at the moment.

People who call Sunday the Sabbath and others who call Calvinism the Gospel.

So I thought to myself, Dave, listen mate, are you  sure your thoughts are inline with the Bible here?  So after some thought I came back with the answer, ‘yep sure I am’.

It’s quite simple really and yet impossible for some to grasp, Christians meet on Sundays because it’s the day God raised Jesus from the dead.  It has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the Jewish Sabbath.

I am a Gentile Christian, not a Jewish convert so I have no problem with this apparent problem.  One of the first things I learnt when I became a Christian was that the Mosaic Law although being good and holy is that it kills.

The Mosaic Law shows us that we miss the mark and fall short of the Glory of God.  And that the Christian life is about knowing and being in a vital relationship with a real living person.

It was important enough for the early church to have a conference on the matter, take a look at Acts of the Apostles chapter 15.  The Gentiles were basically told to stay away from fornicating and eating meat with blood in it, which was more for the conscience of the Jewish believers and not so much the Gentile ones.  Notice it does not say at the end, ‘oh yeah, and btw, don’t forget to keep the Sabbath’

So why do people insist on stubbornly calling Sunday the Sabbath.  I can only think that either they are deliberately putting stumbling blocks before others and corrupting the Gospel of Grace or they are just air heads who just cannot or maybe will not see passed this issue to the truth.

I would even call it heretical actually and is something that needs to be faced up to and publicy declared.

Now, my second beef is even easier to put into context.

Calvinism is not the Gospel, it is a system of theology.

The Gospel is basically God demonstrating His love to the world by the giving of His Son on the cross of Calvary.  And that by believing you may have your sins forgiven and have life eternal in His name.

Which is what non Christians need to hear.  Hence is the Good News or Gospel.

Also it’s important to understand that we are commanded by the Lord Jesus Christ to proclaim the Gospel and not Calvinism which as I said is a system of theology.  Yet this is beginning to be ignored.

Calvinism and it’s systematic theology comes after, if your into things like that, it’s called theological studies.  And makes a lot of money these days all over the world and especially in America.

The man on the street, as once I was, does not need theology, he needs a Saviour to begin with and that comes by simply hearing the Gospel.

Yet, more and more people are harping on about Calvinism that it is the Gospel.  What you find usually is these type of professing Christians just talk to themselves in their little groups and pat each other on their backs.  When you think about it, it may even be a subtle, deceitful wile of the devil, in that, it’s switches the main content of the meaning of the Gospel.  More on this no doubt.

Well, that’s got that off my chest.  

You are not called to believe as elect ones or as redeemed ones.  You must believe as a sinner before you can know anything.  You do not need to know who has been loved nor who has been elected; only believe in Him who justifies the ungodly.

John Elias preaching on John 3:16

Actually there is a third subject that winds me up.  People who say that the Letter of James is not Inspired Scripture.  I think these people speak for themselves.  Supreme Carrot Award winners.  The best I can do is keep using James on this site, that’s the best answer for that I think.  One group in mind in particular.  They spend their time huddled together mocking virtually everything orthodox Christianity has to offer, calling others disrespectful and in error and yet neglecting their own error and disrespect of God.

Sounds a bit like the letter of Jude etc.  

Supreme Carrot Award

Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

Letter of Jame  3:13-18 ESV

Elect, Elected, Election

A. Adjectives.
1. eklektos (G1588) lit. signifies “picked out, chosen” (ek, “from,” lego, “to gather, pick out”), and is used of (a) Christ, the “chosen” of God, as the Messiah, Luk_23:35 (for the verb in Luk_9:35 see Note below), and metaphorically as a “living Stone,” “a chief corner Stone,” 1Pe_2:4, 1Pe_2:6; some mss. have it in Joh_1:34, instead of huios, “Son”; (b) angels, 1Ti_5:21, as “chosen” to be of especially high rank in administrative association with God, or as His messengers to human beings, doubtless in contrast to fallen angels (see 2Pe_2:4 and Jud_1:6); (c) believers (Jews or Gentiles), Mat_24:22, Mat_24:24, Mat_24:31; Mar_13:20, Mar_13:22, Mar_13:27; Luk_18:7; Rom_8:33; Col_3:12; 2Ti_2:10; Tit_1:1; 1Pe_1:1; 1Pe_2:9 (as a spiritual race); Mat_20:16; Mat_22:14 and Rev_17:14, “chosen”; individual believers are so mentioned in Rom_16:13; 2Jo_1:1, 2Jo_1:13.

Believers were “chosen” “before the foundation of the world” (cf. “before times eternal,” 2Ti_1:9), in Christ, Eph_1:4, to adoption, Eph_1:5; good works, Eph_2:10; conformity to Christ, Rom_8:29; salvation from the delusions of the Antichrist and the doom of the deluded, 2Th_2:13; eternal glory, Rom_9:23.
The source of their “election” is God’s grace, not human will, Eph_1:4, Eph_1:5; Rom_9:11; Rom_11:5. They are given by God the Father to Christ as the fruit of His death, all being foreknown and foreseen by God, Joh_17:6 and Rom_8:29. While Christ’s death was sufficient for all men, and is effective in the case of the “elect,” yet men are treated as responsible, being capable of the will and power to choose. For the rendering “being chosen as firstfruits,” an alternative reading in 2Th_2:13, see FIRSTFRUITS. See CHOICE, B.

2. suneklektos (G4899) means “elect together with,” 1Pe_5:13.

B. Noun.
ekloge (G1589) denotes “a picking out, selection” (Eng., “eclogue”), then, “that which is chosen”; in Act_9:15, said of the “choice” of God of Saul of Tarsus, the phrase is, lit., “a vessel of choice.” It is used four times in Romans; in Rom_9:11, of Esau and Jacob, where the phrase “the purpose…according to election” is virtually equivalent to “the electing purpose”; in Rom_11:5, the “remnant according to the election of grace” refers to believing Jews, saved from among the unbelieving nation; so in Rom_11:7; in Rom_11:28, “the election” may mean either the “act of choosing” or the “chosen” ones; the context, speaking of the fathers, points to the former, the choice of the nation according to the covenant of promise. In 1Th_1:4, “your election” refers not to the church collectively, but to the individuals constituting it; the apostle’s assurance of their “election” gives the reason for his thanksgiving. Believers are to give “the more diligence to make their calling and election sure,” by the exercise of the qualities and graces which make them fruitful in the knowledge of God, 2Pe_1:10. For the corresponding verb eklegomai, see CHOOSE.

W. E. Vine. Expository Dictionary of Bible Words.

Believe in Me. ( God ) ( the Grace through Christ ).

Be Holy as I AM Holy.

Love one another as I loved you.

( Summed up means, repent and believe the Gospel and be baptized I guess ).

And that needs Grace.

It’s not that hard to work out if you study Scripture, yet many make a hobby horse out of it.

The Gospel is of prime importance and certainly not Calvinism.

It’s the hearing of Christ crucified and not Jean Cauvin that saves.

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.

Gospel of John 3:14-21 ESV

Judgment

1. krisis (G2920) primarily denotes “a separating,” then, “a decision, judgment,” most frequently in a forensic sense, and especially of divine “judgment.” For the variety of its meanings, with references, see CONDEMNATION, B, No. 3.

Notes: (1) The Holy Spirit, the Lord said, would convict the world of (peri, “in respect of”), i.e., of the actuality of, God’s “judgment,” Joh_16:8, Joh_16:11. Cf. 2Th_8:5. (2) In Rom_2:5 the word dikaiokrisia, “righteous judgment,” combines the adjective dikaios, “righteous,” with krisis, the two words which are used separately in 2Th_1:5.

2. krima (G2917) denotes the result of the action signified by the verb krino, “to judge”; for its general significance see CONDEMNATION, B, No. 1: it is used (a) of a decision passed on the faults of others, Mat_7:2; (b) of “judgment” by man upon Christ, Luk_24:20; (c) of God’s “judgment” upon men, e.g., Rom_2:2, Rom_2:3; Rom_3:8; Rom_5:16; Rom_11:33; Rom_13:2; 1Co_11:29; Gal_5:10; Heb_6:2; Jam_3:1; through Christ, e.g., Joh_9:39; (d) of the right of “judgment,” Rev_20:4; (e) of a lawsuit, 1Co_6:7.

3. hemera (G2250), “a day,” is translated “judgment” in 1Co_4:3, where “man’s judgment” (lit., “man’s day,” marg.) is used of the present period in which man’s mere “judgment” is exercised, a period of human rebellion against God. The adjective anthropinos, “human, belonging to man” (anthropos), is doubtless set in contrast here to kuriakos, “belonging to the Lord” (kurios, “a lord”), which is used in the phrase “the Day of the Lord,” in Rev_1:10, “The Lord’s Day,” a period of divine judgments. See DAY.

4. gnome (G1106), primarily “a means of knowing” (akin to ginosko, “to know”), came to denote “a mind, understanding”; hence (a) “a purpose,” Act_20:3, lit., “(it was his) purpose”; (b) “a royal purpose, a decree,” Rev_17:17, RV, “mind” (KJV, “will”); (c) “judgment, opinion,” 1Co_1:10, “(in the same) judgment”; Rev_17:13, “mind”; (d) “counsel, advice,” 1Co_7:25, “(I give my) judgment;” 1Co_7:40, “(after my) judgment”; Phm_1:14, mind. See MIND, PURPOSE, WILL.

Notes: (1) In 1Co_6:4, KJV, kriterion, “a tribunal,” is rendered “judgments” (RV, “to judge,” marg., “tribunals”). See JUDGE, B, No. 3, Note (1). (2) In Rom_1:32, KJV, dikaioma, “an ordinance, righteous act,” is translated “judgment” (RV “ordinance”); in Rev_15:4, “judgments” (RV, “righteous acts”). (3) In Act_25:15, KJV, katadike, “a sentence, condemnation,” is translated “judgment” (RV, “sentence”). Some mss. have dike. See SENTENCE. (4) In Phi_1:9, KJV, aisthesis, “perception, discernment,” is translated “judgment” (RV, “discernment”). (5) In Act_21:25, in the record of the decree from the apostles and elders at Jerusalem to the churches of the Gentiles, the verb krino (see JUDGE, B, No. 1), is translated “giving judgment,” RV (KJV, “concluded”).

B. Adjective.

hupodikos (G5267), “brought to trial, answerable to” (hupo, “under,” dike, “justice”), Rom_3:19, is translated “under the judgment,” RV (KJV, “guilty”).

W.E. Vine.  Expository Dictionary of Bible Words.

Grace

1. charis (G5485) has various uses, (a) objective, that which bestows or occasions pleasure, delight, or causes favorable regard; it is applied, e.g., to beauty, or gracefulness of person, Luk_2:40; act, 2Co_8:6, or speech, Luk_4:22, RV, “words of grace” (KJV, “gracious words”); Col_4:6; (b) subjective, (1) on the part of the bestower, the friendly disposition from which the kindly act proceeds, graciousness, loving-kindness, goodwill generally, e.g., Act_7:10; especially with reference to the divine favor or “grace,” e.g., Act_14:26; in this respect there is stress on its freeness and universality, its spontaneous character, as in the case of God’s redemptive mercy, and the pleasure or joy He designs for the recipient; thus it is set in contrast with debt, Rom_4:4, Rom_4:16, with works, Rom_11:6, and with law, Joh_1:17; see also, e.g., Rom_6:14, Rom_6:15; Gal_5:4; (2) on the part of the receiver, a sense of the favor bestowed, a feeling of gratitude, e.g., Rom_6:17 (“thanks”); in this respect it sometimes signifies “to be thankful,” e.g., Luk_17:9 (“doth he thank the servant?” lit., “hath he thanks to”); 1Ti_1:12; (c) in another objective sense, the effect of “grace,” the spiritual state of those who have experienced its exercise, whether (1) a state of “grace,” e.g., Rom_5:2; 1Pe_5:12; 2Pe_3:18, or (2) a proof thereof in practical effects, deeds of “grace,” e.g., 1Co_16:3, RV, “bounty” (KJV, “liberality”); 2Co_8:6, 2Co_8:19 (in 2Co_9:8 it means the sum of earthly blessings); the power and equipment for ministry, e.g., Rom_1:5; Rom_12:6; Rom_15:15; 1Co_3:10; Gal_2:9; Eph_3:2, Eph_3:7.

To be in favor with is to find “grace” with, e.g., Act_2:47; hence it appears in this sense at the beginning and the end of several epistles, where the writer desires “grace” from God for the readers, e.g., Rom_1:7; 1Co_1:3; in this respect it is connected with the imperative mood of the word chairo, “to rejoice,” a mode of greeting among Greeks, e.g., Act_15:23; Jam_1:1 (marg.); 2Jo_1:10, 2Jo_1:11, RV, “greeting” (KJV, “God speed”).

The fact that “grace” is received both from God the Father, 2Co_1:12, and from Christ, Gal_1:6; Rom_5:15 (where both are mentioned), is a testimony to the deity of Christ. See also 2Th_1:12, where the phrase “according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ” is to be taken with each of the preceding clauses, “in you,” “and ye in Him.”

In Jam_4:6, “But He giveth more grace” (Greek, “a greater grace,” RV, marg.), the statement is to be taken in connection with the preceding verse, which contains two remonstrating, rhetorical questions, “Think ye that the Scripture speaketh in vain?” and “Doth the Spirit (the Holy Spirit) which He made to dwell in us long unto envying?” (see the RV). The implied answer to each is “it cannot be so.” Accordingly, if those who are acting so flagrantly, as if it were so, will listen to the Scripture instead of letting it speak in vain, and will act so that the Holy Spirit may have His way within, God will give even “a greater grace,” namely, all that follows from humbleness and from turning away from the world. See BENEFIT, BOUNTY, LIBERALITY, THANK.

Note: The corresponding verb charitoo, “to endue with divine favor or grace,” is used in Luk_1:28, “highly favored” (marg., “endued with grace”) and Eph_1:6, KJV, “hath made… accepted”; RV, “freely bestowed” (marg., “endued.”).

2. euprepeia (G2143), “comeliness, goodly appearance,” is said of the outward appearance of the flower of the grass, Jam_1:11.

W. E. Vine. Expository Dictionary of Bible Words.

Merciful, Mercy

A. Nouns.
1. eleos (G1656) “is the outward manifestation of pity; it assumes need on the part of him who receives it, and resources adequate to meet the need on the part of him who shows it. It is used (a) of God, who is rich in mercy, Eph_2:4, and who has provided salvation for all men, Tit_3:5, for Jews, Luk_1:72, and Gentiles, Rom_15:9. He is merciful to those who fear him, Luk_1:50, for they also are compassed with infirmity, and He alone can succor them. Hence they are to pray boldly for mercy, Heb_4:16, and if for themselves, it is seemly that they should ask for mercy for one another, Gal_6:16; 1Ti_1:2. When God brings His salvation to its issue at the Coming of Christ, His people will obtain His mercy, 2Ti_1:16; Jud_1:21; (b) of men; for since God is merciful to them, He would have them show mercy to one another, Mat_9:13; Mat_12:7; Mat_23:23; Luk_10:37; Jam_2:13.

“Wherever the words mercy and peace are found together they occur in that order, except in Gal_6:16. Mercy is the act of God, peace is the resulting experience in the heart of man. Grace describes God’s attitude toward the lawbreaker and the rebel; mercy is His attitude toward those who are in distress.”*
* From Notes on Galatians, by Hogg and Vine, pp. 340, 341.

“In the order of the manifestation of God’s purposes of salvation grace must go before mercy…only the forgiven may be blessed…. From this it follows that in each of the apostolic salutations where these words occur, grace precedes mercy, 1Ti_1:2; 2Ti_1:2; Tit_1:4 (in some mss.); 2Jo_1:3″ (Trench, Syn. Sec.xlvii).

2. oiktirmos (G3628), “pity, compassion for the ills of others,” is used (a) of God, Who is “the Father of mercies,” 2Co_1:3; His “mercies” are the ground upon which believers are to present their bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, as their reasonable service, Rom_12:1; under the Law he who set it at nought died without compassion, Heb_10:28; (b) of men; believers are to feel and exhibit compassions one toward another, Phi_2:1, RV “compassions,” and Col_3:12, RV “(a heart) of compassion”; in these two places the word is preceded by No. 3, rendered “tender mercies” in the former, and “a heart” in the latter, RV.

3. splanchnon (G4698), “affections, the heart,” always in the plural in the NT, has reference to “feelings of kindness, goodwill, pity,” Phi_2:1, RV, “tender mercies;” see AFFECTION, No. 2, and BOWELS.
Note: In Act_13:34 the phrase, lit., “the holy things, the faithful things (of David)” is translated, “the holy and sure blessings,” RV; the KJV, following the mss. in which the words “holy and” are absent, has “the sure mercies,” but notices the full phrase in the margin.

B. Verbs.
1. eleeo (G1653), akin to A, No. 1, signifies, in general, “to feel sympathy with the misery of another,” and especially sympathy manifested in act, (a) in the active voice, “to have pity or mercy on, to show mercy” to, e.g., Mat_9:27; Mat_15:22; Mat_17:15; Mat_18:33; Mat_20:30, Mat_20:31 (three times in Mark, four in Luke); Rom_9:15, Rom_9:16, Rom_9:18; Rom_11:32; Rom_12:8; Phi_2:27; Jud_1:22, Jud_1:23; (b) in the passive voice, “to have pity or mercy shown one, to obtain mercy,” Mat_5:7; Rom_11:30, Rom_11:31; 1Co_7:25; 2Co_4:1; 1Ti_1:13, 1Ti_1:16; 1Pe_2:10.

2. oikteiro (G3627), akin to A, No. 2, “to have pity on” (from oiktos, “pity”: oi, an exclamation, = oh!), occurs in Rom_9:15 (twice), where it follows No. 1 (twice); the point established there and in Exo_33:19, from the Sept. of which it is quoted, is that the “mercy” and compassion shown by God are determined by nothing external to His attributes. Speaking generally oikteiro is a stronger term than eleeo.

3. hilaskomai (G2433) in profane Greek meant “to conciliate, appease, propitiate, cause the gods to be reconciled”; their goodwill was not regarded as their natural condition, but as something to be earned. The heathen believed their gods to be naturally alienated in feeling from man. In the NT the word never means to conciliate God; it signifies (a) “to be propitious, merciful,” Luk_18:13, in the prayer of the publican; (b) “to expiate, make propitiation for,” Heb_2:17, “make propitiation.”

That God is not of Himself already alienated from man, see Joh_3:16. His attitude toward the sinner does not need to be changed by his efforts. With regard to his sin, an expiation is necessary, consistently with God’s holiness and for His righteousness’ sake, and that expiation His grace and love have provided in the atoning sacrifice of His Son; man, himself a sinner, justly exposed to God’s wrath (Joh_3:36), could never find an expiation. As Lightfoot says, “when the NT writers speak at length on the subject of Divine wrath, the hostility is represented, not as on the part of God, but of men.” Through that which God has accomplished in Christ, by His death, man, on becoming regenerate, escapes the merited wrath of God. The making of this expiation [(b) above], with its effect in the mercy of God (a) is what is expressed in hilaskomai.  The Sept. uses the compound verb exilaskomai, e.g., Gen_32:20; Exo_30:10, Exo_30:15, Exo_30:16; Exo_32:30, and frequently in Lev. and Num. See PROPITIATION.

C. Adjectives.
1. eleemon (G1655), “merciful,” akin to A, No. 1, not simply possessed of pity but actively compassionate, is used of Christ as a High Priest, Heb_2:17, and of those who are like God, Mat_5:7 (cf. Luk_6:35, Luk_6:36, where the RV, “sons” is to be read, as representing characteristics resembling those of their Father).

2. oiktirmon (G3629) pitiful, compassionate for the ills of others,” a stronger term than No. 1 (akin to A, No. 2), is used twice in Luk_6:36, “merciful” (of the character of God, to be expressed in His people); Jam_5:11, RV, “merciful,” KJV, “of tender mercy.”

3. hileos (G2436), “propitious, merciful” (akin to B, No. 3), was used in profane Greek just as in the case of the verb (which see). There is nothing of this in the use of the word in Scripture. The quality expressed by it there essentially appertains to God, though man is undeserving of it. It is used only of God, Heb_8:12; in Mat_16:22, “Be it far from Thee” (Peter’s word to Christ) may have the meaning given in the RV marg., “(God) have mercy on Thee,” lit., “propitious to Thee” (KJV marg., “Pity Thyself”) Cf. the Sept., 2Sa_20:20; 2Sa_23:17.
4. aneleos or anileos (G448), “unmerciful, merciless” (a, negative, n, euphonic, and A, No. 2, or C, No. 3), occurs in Jam_2:13, said of judgment on him who shows no mercy.

W.E. Vine. Expository Dictionary of Bible Words.