Be encouraged:
'I knew at that moment that I didn’t have to think longer about having the right feeling of repentance or not, because I first had to believe. So I felt relieved: I didn’t have ‘to be’ something. And that moment I realized that I should not wait any longer to believe, I could and should do it at that moment! I was in the train, so I couldn’t say it loudly but my heart said: ‘Yes, I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and that He has died also for my all my sin (although I can’t remember all of them and can’t repent the way I should).’ I thought it was so difficult but in reality it was so easy!! It is such a grace that Jesus has also died for me, such an unworthy person! It is too great for full understanding! I’m so glad I don’t have to be somebody or to have something before coming to Christ, because I can’t fulfil any requirements. It is all God’s grace, also my belief, because in myself I would never belief and never never come to Christ. Now I see that my unbelief was the problem in my whole life of praying, reading the Bible and visiting the church. I never believed really that I also could be saved. I always thought it was for others: older people, wearing dark clothes and being very serious all the day. So it was unbelief that withhold me from coming to Jesus and now I believe that this unbelief is a big sin, because it neglects God’s offer of his Son to save people. I now believe!! It feels really like I was blind and now I see! I thank God for His grace (because He gave me this belief) and pray also for a better understanding of all my sin so that I can convert to Christ and understand more the greatness of His saving.'
I received this email from a friend the other week. She has been brought up in a church that teaches
'hyper-calvinism'-an over-emphasis on the sovereignty of God and an under-emphasis on the human's responsibility.
Hyper-calvinistic doctrine leads to no evangelism: 'God will fill the church when he wants, on his own' they say. Many hyper-calvinists aren't sure about being saved. They don't know for certain, only 7 out of 700 people take communion in the church that my friend goes to.
Hyper-calvinists also put a big emphasis on sin to the exclusion of rejoicing in the righteousness that Christ has purchased for us. This makes a joy-less Christian who claims that they are too unworthy for God to forgiven them. That's blasphemous. 'Where sin abounded grace abounded all the more'. God's grace will always be larger than our sin!!
I was brought up in a moderately hyper-calvinistic church and the doctrine is still affecting a few older members of my family today. It's the work of the devil. The devil always works in half truths. He always mingles truth with error so the error is hard to spot.
I was really encouraged by this email. God is good! He’s still saving people today. All the wicked doctrine in the world can’t hold our God back from doing what He wants!
‘His dominion is an everlasting dominion, And His kingdom is from generation to generation…
No one can restrain His hand or say to Him, ‘What have you done?’’ Daniel 4v34, 35
