Are the unsaved responsible for believing the gospel of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection that we witness or preach? Do they have a choice? Are unbelievers only the passive recipients of regeneration? These questions have been debated for centuries. Michael Barrett (click to open) writes articles on this debate between Augustine/Pelagius, Luther/ Erasmus, Calvin/Arminius, and John Edwards/John Wesley. The debate rages today between proponents of Free Will and the Bondage of the Will. My thoughts on the debate are that some who teach the freedom of will promote a free will that is too free. Some who contend for the bondage of the will advocate a will that is to bound.
Read moreSTEP ONE: Choose the Passage
John Calvin was dedicated to preaching verse by verse through books of the Bible. Steven J. Lawson in his book The Expository Genius of John Calvin wrote that Calvin preached through “Genesis, Deuteronomy, Job, Judges, I and II Samuel, I and II Kings, the Major and Minor Prophets, the Gospels, Acts, I and II Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, I and II Thessalonians, I and II Timothy, Titus, and Hebrews” (page 33). Calvin was banished for three years (1538-1541) from Geneva by the City Council because he refused to let members living in open sin participate. When the city began to struggle, the City Council invited Calvin to return. “In September 1541, Calvin reentered his Geneva pulpit and resumed his exposition exactly where he had stopped three years earlier—-on the next verse! Similarly, Calvin became seriously ill in the first week of October 1558 and did not return to the pulpit until Monday, June 12, 1559—-when he resumed at the very next verse in the book of Isaiah” (page 33). Hence, the advantage of series preaching through books of the Bible.
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