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No Christian can be perfect. Faith is not something man contributes to salvation but is itself a part of Gods gift of salvation-it is Gods gift to the sinner, not the sinners gift to God. Some people preach it as a condition. I found a lot more names to add to my list of known Calvinists (found in my various "How to Tell if a Church, Pastor, or Website is Calvinist" posts). Therefore, this gift of faith cannot be a gift to enable only the elect to believe in Jesus for their salvation because regeneration benefits only the individual and not a corporate group of people. If they dont they are not consistent in their determination to hate Gods enemies. This is true for Calvinist pastors candidating at a non-Calvinist church as well as those who currently serve a non-Calvinist church. I did not know what a false gospel it was back then and was unwittingly poisoned all these years. . The elect sheep who are presently his sheep but do not listen to and obey his voice because they are not yet in his fold (as Samconfirms) will inevitably become the sheep of his fold so that they may listen to and obey his voice because Gods decrees cannot be thwarted or annulled. Matt Smethurst is lead pastor of River City Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia; editor at The Gospel Coalition; and author of Before You Share Your Faith: Five Ways to Be Evangelism Ready (2022), Deacons: How They Serve and Strengthen the Church (2021), Before You Open Your Bible: Nine Heart Postures for Approaching Gods Word (2019), and 12 Thessalonians: A 12-Week Study (2017). 1999), 16)), The Reformed assertion is that man cannot understand and embrace the gospel nor respond in faith and repentance toward Christ without God first freeing him from sin and giving him spiritual life (regeneration). (White, Potters, 101). So, the best thing to do is to repent by learning and understanding who God and his Son really are and to repudiate Calvinism with every breath you still have in you. 17v17). To answer this question we need to briefly look at the so-called Reformed Doctrines of Grace entrenched in the acronym TULIP. If faith is a necessary condition to be met prior to a subsequent result (which in this case is regeneration/salvation/redemption), then the notion that faith is given to the elect only after their monergistic regeneration because an elect person has no free-will and is unable to choose, is incorrect. It, therefore, has eschatological rather than salvific significance. What else could they have been other than goats if theyd not always been sheep who always listened to Jesus Christs voice? 5v14), NOT universal endowed with faith (2 Thess. At 50+ years old I now see it was Lust. You get the idea.). Trust the past to God's mercy, the present to God's love and the future to God's providence." - St. Augustine.