INTRO: Recently, I was pondering if repentance is a gift. So turn to 2 Timothy 2. It was because I was rerunning things through my mind, seeing if there was justification for the view that unless God grants repentance to a person he cannot be saved. It is viewed by Calvinists that repentance and faith are gifts, and God gives these gifts only to the elect. The rest can't be saved. They are the non-elect.
This message is not about Calvinism, but I read in Onenewsnow, a Christian apologist, Dr. Alex MacFarland, says, "[Over the last 15 years or so] they've really released an army of militant, young hyper-Calvinists who have split churches [and who have] at best killed evangelism and missions to a large degree" end quote. MacFarland blames this movement on Bible schools. https://onenewsnow.com/church/2020/06/11/so-baptist-pastor-3-isms-are-eroding-my-denomination
Here is the question for the morning: Does man have the ability to believe and to repent? Or must God give one the gift of faith and the gift of repentance? Let me say first of faith, that when it is spoken of as a gift, it is always a gift to Christians to serve the church, not to non-believers to get saved. I won't take time for that since it is not my subject.
But repentance is a little harder to determine. Because of the size of this subject, I will only deal with it as far as 2 Timothy 2:24-26 is concerned. It says:
24 And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient,
25 in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth,
26 and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the d |
