In Reply to: Re: Interesting blog/site...testimonies posted by Farmer on May 14, 2010 at 07:24:27:
Farmer: I hope we know ecah other well enough by now for you not to think I come across with "a conceited/haughty spirit".
My personal testimony is what it is; nothing more and nothing less. Joel Wordsworth had a tape that circulated in the Northwest of the US, and it had a phrse in it about Eternal Security that caught my attention.
He admitted that there WERE "doubtful verses" that actually seem to disprove the doctrine quite well, but that we should believe our endtime prophet on the matter, "by faith".
I also ran into people on the road who questioned the doctrine, and everything else about Berg; so God allowed a LOT of seed to be planted, before the "big event" on the night of July 3, 1973, when I knew the "terror of the Lord", and He led me personally through the New Testament a couple of times from dusk to dawn--I left immediately. That was the fruit of the revelation--exodus from TF.
There's a passage in the New Testament that intrigues me. Its history is that, with Paul's massive education, he was able to quote two GREEK POETS, when he said, "As certain of your poets have said, in Him we live, and move, and have our being". That's pre-salvation; of course--something in unregenerate Greeks makes them able to respond, or not respond. Diehard OSASers would claim, "Yeah, buit that's only for the elect". Paul said no such thing in his offer of Christ's salvation--he did NOT qualify it as "only for the elect".
That's just not possible with the "complete depravity" doctrine of Calvinsim. Free will IS real, and the ability to freely respond and/OR reject is, as well, although GOD is not willing that ANY should perish.
In the face of ALL the verses on the subjects, it's the only option available--otherwise hyper/ultra-predestination will have one chasing their tail indefinitely.
And that's the TESTIMONY of what God taught me personally. If I had still seen OSAS as true, Berg's house of cards would not have fallen, in my understanding. He came to fullfill EVERYTHING the Bible says about false prophets and false teachers, with their false Christs, false Holy Spirits, and false Father Gods; word for word.
Is that better? I say that, as in Phil 2, God can, and does, "puntuate" His sovereignty any time He wants to.
OT2