Recently I have been in a friendly on-going discussion/debate regarding salvation – specifically predestination, free-will, & Calvinism – with Pastor Tom Countryman.  I am enjoying our continuous online dialogue.  This is my rebuttal to his rebuttal of my rebuttal to his article.    Copies of all article submissions are available upon request and will be uploaded soon for you to read thoroughly.  May God bless both of our congregations as we ponder God’s wondrous salvation together.  Here is my response:

Reading the Scriptures

As the readers can tell, I tend to quote quite a bit of Scripture to back up my points.  I will be doing the same in this article as well.  I heard from someone who has been keeping up with our discussions who said they skim over the Scriptures because it’s “too much to read through”.  Let me give a solemn exhortation – Do not skim, skip over, or lightly read God’s word.  It’s best to read the article completely, but if you must skim, I would rather you pass over my portion and concentrate on the Scriptures quoted instead.  I would like to encourage the readers of our dialogue to take the time to actually read the Scriptures we are both quoting, including the context of them.  We shouldn’t just skim over the verses assuming that we know them all too well, but rather we should prayerfully read them with great care, as they are the power of God to save us, and sanctify us to be in and abide in Christ Jesus.

So make sure to read the context (before & after) of the texts quoted as well.  Consider the paragraphs and even chapters around the quoted verses.  Get the feel for how these verses were originally intended to be heard, how they were used to communicate to the original audience, and not just how we put them today.  I believe that will help bring more understanding to our quotes.  In this response, I have added underlining to certain words in the texts in order to emphasize, or plainly point out clearly where I am drawing some of my position statements from.  Please read the verses in context without my emphasis as well, to get the best perspective of the Scriptures.  So with that being said, here is my response: