Last night I contacted the maker of the anti-Calvinism videos. I invited Mr. Scott Berner to respond to my rebuttal of his refutation of Calvinism. Sadly, he declined. He sent me five messages through YouTube, none of which actually dealt with anything I had written in any scriptural way.
Scott,
I have listened to your 3 part refutation of Calvinism. You have misrepresented Calvinism and the Bible to support your man made system. I invite you to read my blog at http://souldesaenz.blogspot.com/ where I have gone through your first video and shown it's errors. I would hope you would post any and all explanations to my rebuttal on my blog.
I look forward to your replies.
Until then, may God bless the study of His word.
Jesus Saenz
Hello Jesus Saenz,
I have been over this a great many times with Calvinists in the past two decades. When men put men up as idols, they become mad on their idols. This applies to Catholics as well. It does no good to argue with those who cannot see, because God is able to give them sight, but because of their froward hearts they are not given such a gift from God.
Jesus said it like this, "Let them alone, if the blind lead the blind they shall both fall into the ditch."
That is why I call Calvinism a DEEP DITCH. You may have noticed the title?
You will serve your idols until God opens your eyes. It does no good to play games with you. You cannot hear the truth, nor see wisdom. You are just like your teachers.
May God grant you repentance unto life,
Amen.
SDB
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Dear Jesus Saenz,
My name is Scott Berner. That is the "name I go by." Ok? I have given scritpure to back up my "pre-supposition", time and again. Yes, "if the Bible teaches this type of free will, then man is a moreal free agent. His will is free to choose to do good or to do evil." You certainly have that much right, though you don't believe it. The Bible does teach it, from beginning to end.
I thought I would go and look at what sort of merry-go-round you had constructed. It is so typical it I can hardly say the words.
The blindness Calvin has laid upon his followers is so utterly consistent, so hopelessy indidious, and always the same.
You have my sympathy, Jesus Saenz. Truly and sincerely.
If you hate these on Calvin, you may hate as well those on the truth of conditional salvation in the series on Hebrews 6,10,12, Eph 5, Gal 5, 2 Pet 1-2, 1 Cor 5. There is a tremendous amount of the Bible there for you to trod under Calvin's blind boot. You could rant for months on just that material alone. Good hunting.
In the Blessed Grace of God,
(quite conditionally and gratefully)
SDB
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Dear Mr. Berner,
I will go back and input your name, Sir, rather than your YouTube user name. When I first wrote my blog I was ignorant as to what your name is.
I want to thank you very much for taking the time to read my blog as well as to reply to me, I am sure your time is valuable and you would rather not spend it dealing with someone whom you disagree wholeheartedly with.
Yes Sir, you did provide scripture to back up your presuppositions, as did I. The thing is, Sir, I took the scripture you provided and within the context of the verse, paragraph, chapter, book and the entire Bible, demonstrated how your use of those scriptures was incorrect. You merely used one proof text to support your view of free will, I took passages that show that man's nature is sinful and thus makes choices based on that sin nature.
Since you did not address my exegesis of your use of Romans 9 as well as your use of 2 Peter 3:9 and moved on to Hebrews, Ephesians, Galatians, 2 Peter and 1 Chorinthians then you agree with my interpretation? In your video you appeal to logic, reason and truth. If we are to discuss these matters of truth then it is logical and reasonable to expect that we demonstrate, using scripture, how we arrive at the conclusions we have. Sir, I addressed your issues with Calvinism presented in the first video as well as the scripture you used. It is reasonable to expect for you to do the same with what I have presented before moving on to other passages.
I thank you for your sympathy and do not doubt the truth fo your sincerity.
Continued blessings,
Jesus Saenz
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Dear Mr. Saenz,
I do not doubt your sincerity either, by the way.
I mentioned in the beginning of our discourse that I did not intend to debate these issues and gave you the reason for such a decision.
I do not want to offend you unnecessarily, but must tell you that I do not intend to read all of your oppositions to the work the Lord has called me to do on His behalf.
I read the first portion of your rebuttal and responded to you on that part only, as it is the crux of the issue. Free will to choose. The Bible tells us that man is a "free agent" as you provide the term.
Foreknowledge is the key to understanding election. God's foreknowledge. He foreknows all He will bring into this world and makes elect those He foreknows will love Him with a pure heart. Those who will choose Him if given the opportunity to do so. He makes provisions of grace and blessing for, intercedes on behalf of, and gives ears to hear to those He so foreknows and elects. He enables them to choose Him and does not hinder them from doing so. Such election takes place only after His divine determination and foreknowledge of their choice to love Him and commit their hearts to Him wholly. From before the foundation of the earth He knows every one of His elect that will come into this world.
Only after such a Divine Determination of Grace, based upon Foreknowledge, may He begin to intercede on behalf of His chosen and elect children. He does so with complete and perfect righteousness and supreme holy justice. His grace is upon His elect based upon this determination.
(continued)
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He cannot choose some to be elect and others to not be, based upon anything other than a just determination. He is always just and can be nothing else but righteous.
Making some elect without basing such a determination upon a righteous judgment is impossible. God is never arbitrary and always judges according to His expressed will, the Word of God declares it. He magnifies His Word even above His own Name.
This is my position today, and ever will be my position. It is the position of the Holy Scriptures and accordingly reveals the holiness and righteousness of God and is the only position that truly shows Him to be completely consistent with His own Law and Word. It justifies God, it confirms Him as faithful to His every declaration of truth and righteousness. It is the only position that truly brings glory to God. It is completely consistent with the scriptures.
(continued)
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After over twenty years of study and prayer and after holding different positions, based upon the understanding I had in those times, to the best of my ability, I have come to this conclusion and for me it is most unshakable.
Regarding Ad Hominem:
It is perfectly consistent with scripture to judge a man by his fruit. The Lord called them "scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites." You have declared the ungodliness of the pedophile priesthood of Rome, correct? Is that not their fruit? Also regarding the inquisitions? No? Calvin's burning people at the stake is no different. The Lord Jesus said, "no bad fruit comes from a good tree." It is action that is breaking God's law and denying the example and testimony of Jesus Christ. This is not ad hominem, it is judging the fruit of a tree. That tree is not faithful to Christ, he justified himself in all he did with his private interpretation of scritpure. This proves him to be an unreliable sourse of Biblical exegesis. His doctrines prove the unscriptural nature of his doctrine. A lost man, masquerading as a servant of Christ cannot possible rightly divide the Word of truth. All his work must be rejected. Christ said, "why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things I say." If a man does not follow Christ and has not the Spirit of Christ, "he is none of His." We must choose Jesus if we will follow Jesus. We must choose the Word if we will follow God. Amen.
May God Continue To Lead You To More Perfect Understanding,
SDB
PS> I have not loaded this communication with scritpure for the simple reason that you have seen them all before, but to no avail. Only when the Lord opens your understanding will they all become clear to you. Judging from my experience, this is a gradual process that can take years. I cannot do that for you. He must. There is no profit in strife.
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Sadly, as is usually the case with people trying to refute the Doctrines of Grace, their arguments degrade to an emotional appeal. They wish to concentrate only on God's love but say very little about his righteousness, sovereignty, holiness or omnipotence. Once you begin to understand God's righteousness and holiness, how much he hates sin and cannot abide with it, not even a little. Only then can you begin to understand what grace is, it cannot be demanded nor worked for otherwise it is no longer grace, then maybe passages like Romans 9:13 As it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated, will be seen for what it is. When one reads this verse from Romans, the surprising thing shouldn't be that God hates but rather, that he loves us, the filthy sinner. Oh, how humbling it is to know that I can't take credit for my salvation, all the glory goes to God.
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