Skip to main content

Sinful Nature and Eternal Security (Hamartiology Notes)

Lectures in Hamartiology

The Sinful Nature

'Nature' here must not be understood as similar to that in 'human nature' or 'feline nature'. It is the principle of sin, which Romans 7 talks about, the law of sin. In essence, it is selfishness, covetousness, the end by which 'good' or 'evil' is defined. When Adam sinned, the choice broke him off from the Life of God and mankind became autonomous. Man could decide what was right or wrong by reference to himself. [Even philosophers have referred to happiness as the desired end]. That is the principle of lawlessness that is internal, intense, and universal. Therefore, the condemnation hangs over the head. Man is not compelled by the sin principle, he chooses to walk according to it in his condemned state of separation from God, in his state of Spiritless carnality, and thus subservience and enslavement to sin. He is now flesh (in the sense of not having the dominance of the law of the Spirit, Rom 8:2) and walks according to the flesh in a world that is Godless and self-serving.

Eternal Security

Salvation is not a gift that is separable from Christ or faith in him. Salvation is in Christ.

Calvinism commits the fallacy of being closed to falsification. If I say that there's a unicorn outside and you say you want to see it, and I say you can't because it disappears the moment someone other than me tries to see it, I offer no way of disproving me. Similarly, Calvinism says that to be once saved is to be saved forever, but if you point out someone who had faith earlier but had now fallen, they say that that was so because he wasn't saved in the first place. How do you disprove them?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A Tale of Something, or Nothing, and God

In the beginning was God and nothing. Then, God created something out of nothing. But, soon that something forgot she was once a nothing. And, forgetting herself and God, she assumed herself to be everything. And, assuming herself to be everything, she died to everything else and God. After many days, when this something had run out of everything she got, She came to her senses and "Who am I? Where am I?" she thought. Then, she realized she was a nothing without her God, And so returned to her original place in God. In the end was God and something.

Not I but Grace

I worked...yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. (1Cor. 15:10) I get tired and weary most times; grace, never. I feel weak sometimes; grace, never. I get confused at times; grace, never. I see darkness at times; grace, never. I wish to give up sometimes; grace, never. I fail many times; grace, never. I have misunderstandings at times; grace, never. I am afraid at times; grace, never. I feel broken sometimes; grace comes to heal. I feel estranged sometimes; grace comes to comfort. I feel purposeless sometimes; grace comes to guide. I feel powerless sometimes; grave comes to strengthen. I feel I am that I am because of what I am; grace departs.... For God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

August 15 Speech - School

Honorable Director, Respected Chief Guest, Principal, Teachers, and Dear Friends: It gives me great honor to speak on the occasion of the 66th Independence Day Celebration of India. As we know, our country went through various phases of foreign domination, finally falling subject to the British Crown, before we saw the Sun of Freedom rise over our nation. But we were never slaves to anyone. In our minds we were always a free spirit. Mahatma Gandhi said, "The moment the slave resolves that he will no longer be a slave, his fetters fall. Freedom and slavery are mental states." Freedom begins within, first, then comes in action externally. The Austrian psychologist Viktor Frankl said, "Forces beyond control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation." This sense and life of freedom, subject only to the Law of God, to the Law of Justice, Equality, Liberty, and Fraternity, is the spring and fountain...