I would tell them that they need to

1. Understand that we can know with certainty that we are saved.
In 1 John 5:13, we read, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.” The Bible says we can know that we have eternal life.

2. Understand that our sin separates us from God.
The problem is that we are not perfect. We have made some wrong choices in life and actually, as the Bible calls it, have sinned.  We’re not the only ones. The Bible says “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” Romans 3:23.  Our sin separates us from God.

3. Understand that sin has an enormous penalty.
How could we, as sinful creatures, hope to live in a perfect heaven with a perfect, holy God?  It’s not likely on our own merit.  God's standard is a 10...perfect...no sin and as we already know, we all have sinned. Unfortunately, sin has a price which must be paid (the end result is separation from God in hell).  The first part of Romans 6:23 says, “the wages of sin is death”.  In other words, death is the price that has to be paid because we have sinned.

4. Understand that God paid the penalty for our sin.
Sounds hopeless doesn’t it?  But, If we keep reading the rest of Romans 6:23, we see that, “the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Jesus Christ as Lord is the solution to our sin and separation problem!  God, in His love for you and me, chose to pay the death penalty for sin (a perfect, holy, and just God couldn't look the other way, but He could choose to pay it on our behalf).  Jesus Christ (who was God as a person living His Life in human history) died on a cross paying for our sin and was resurrected the third day to offer forgiveness and Life to those who will receive it.  Romans 5:8-9 explains it like this, “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. “

5. Acknowledge Jesus as Lord, claim by faith that what He did, He did for you, and call on His name, asking Him to save you.
That’s how we receive God’s forgiveness and eternal life.  Romans 10: 9 -10 tell us that “if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”  And just a couple of verses later, in verse 13 we see that “whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.”

OD,


Thanks for a good post!

What I like about your post is that you would talk to someone about sin. That is something I like to discuss as well. In our culture today I think its something people are frightened to talk to non believers about. Thanks.

Of course. However, modern Calvinism often overemphasizes this, even to the exclusion of repentance and faith.

Case in point, I was doing some street evangelism with a friend a few years ago. As I was walking, I encountered a man and spoke with him about God's law, sin, and his need to repent and trust in Christ for salvation. I gave him a gospel tract that reiterated what I had spoken to him about, and which also instructed him about water baptism and living a Christian life, if he were to come to repentance and faith in the Lord.

Not long after I walked away from him, I noticed that my friend was talking to the same man, by himself. I walked over to them, and overheard my friend say "you've got to let God do it". After they were finished talking, my friend and I were walking together and I asked him about that conversation. He said that I was telling the man to do things, such as "repent" and "trust in Christ", and that telling someone to do something is works. He said that faith and repentance are something God does, and he wanted to make sure that the man knew that, when it came to salvation, he had to "let God do it".

After listening to his explanation, and explaining to him that the apostles called men "to repent" and "to believe", I reminded him that to tell someone "you've got to let God do it", is to tell them to do something. By his own definition, that would make it "works".

From my studies, not even Reformed theologians have a full understanding of Reformed Theology.  That accounts for the differences in the "five pointers" and the "four pointers" and the rest.  But then if they did have a full or correct understanding of Reformed Theology, they would simply reject it out of hand as most of Christendom does. 

Arminians?  Who here is Arminian?  Do you really believe that there are just two groups - Calvinism and Arminianism?  If so, that tells me that you don't really know about what you believe.  That is such a tired old strawman.

But the point is not just with disagreement some issues.  Serious five pointers will tell you that four pointers are simply wrong; and that if Calvinism fails at one point it fails at all five points.  That is difference on the fundamentals of the theology.

The preacher who lead that congregation for years went on to the Willow Creek Church in Chicago.  I think that you will find that Willow Creek will not profess to be RM, being essentially a faith alone organization.  At the time that he ministered to the LV church, I doubt that he would have supported the RM theology.  But you are correct in that there are congregations which are ICC in name only and do not identify with the RM.