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December 14, 1993
Dear Brother Jun,
I received your letter dated
Dec. 5, 1993. I would like also to inform you that I have received all
your letters, including the recent letter dated October 24, 1993 together
with the write-ups entitled, "God Ordained Sin and Unbelief “,"Eleven Thesis
on Reprobation", and "The Great Mystery. " When I sent to you my
October 19 letter, I haven't received those latest write-ups of yours yet.
I want you to know that I have read and studied all the letters and write-ups
you sent me. In fact, I filed all of them in one long size folder for ready
references concerning Calvinism.
I am sorry it took me too long to reply to your letter.
I appreciate your diligence in writing those long letters, and sending
them successively. Perhaps, you have more time than I have now since I
am back to seminary responsibilities and my family obligations. It's
different to be a family man now, but somehow, I will make a reply to your
letters just one by one.
I did not bother to respond to some of the letters you sent me about "Total Depravity", "Unconditional Election", "Limited Atonement" and "Irresistible Grace" because I have already sent you a total of 31 pages letter which contains a refutation of those doctrines of Calvinism. Concerning your latest write-ups, I haven't sent a refutation yet, so, I am sending to you my write-ups entitled, "Did God Ordain Sin and Unbelief?"
My letters are being sent not with the spirit of criticism but of love and concern. The questions in my letter were not intended to put down nor offend another, but to help him probe his doctrines. I have never mentioned in my letters that I am accusing you that you do not believe in soul winning or mission work. The questions I am sending you is part of probing or examining how true is the doctrine of Calvinism. The reason I sent you a Xerox of Joe Wilson's Editorial Column is because he believes that a person must hear the word in order to be regenerated, and he is a Calvinist. He tried to refute his fellow Calvinists who believes that a person hears the word after regeneration. Many Calvinists believe that the Gospel is for the spiritually alive and not for the spiritually dead. I will deal concerning this subject next time. I want our discussion to be more specific in a particular subject. I do appreciate a friendly discussion. It is good to have a brotherly and productive discussion. I wish to inform you that your letters does not offend me. I Cor. 2:15 says that the spiritual man is "comparing spiritual things with spiritual." May the spirit of humility be in us as we learn God's truth. May God bless us and our sharing of doctrinal belief! '
EDJardinel
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December 15, 1993
Dear Bro. Jun,
I would like
to make some comments and clarify by questions some doctrinal positions
mentioned in your letters. The reason why I find Calvinism not convincing
is the contradicting views in it. These contradictions, some of them, were
not explained and clarified well in your letters. I want to clarify
them from you through these questions.
In your letter dated Dec. 5, you asked, "Did you hear me preached that a person is saved without the Gospel?" You further stated, "He did not choose to save sinners apart from the Gospel ministry, Rom. 1:16." I want to clarify your belief on this, with these questions: 1) Do you believe that a person must hear the Gospel in order to be saved? If your answer is yes, my second question is, 2) Do you believe that he must understand the Gospel to be saved? Or the question is restated this way, Do you believe that a person must understand the Gospel in order to be regenerated? I don't know your answer on this, but based upon your writings on "Total Depravity", I think your answer is no. Is that right? In your letter about Total Depravity under the sub-topic "Man Cannot Understand the Good", you stated, "If a man is not regenerated he cannot understand." Now my third question is 3) Who should hear the Gospel, the spiritually dead or the spiritually alive? or to make the question clear, 4) When should a person hear the Gospel, before he obtains spiritual life ( spiritually dead state ), or at the time he obtains spiritual life? If your answer to this question is, " at the time he obtains spiritual life" the next is 5) Is the message of the Gospel intended only to those who are regenerated by the Holy Spirit? Since the Gospel message can only be understood by the regenerated, 6) What is the main objective of the Gospel to a person, Is it for the spiritually dead to have spiritual life, or it is for the regenerated to be saved? As you have stated in your letter, "Then once he is born again, he can for the first time turn to Jesus, expressing sorrow for his sins and asking Jesus to save him (C. Mangubat Jr. ,Letters on Total Depravity, p.6); there seems to be a gap between regeneration and salvation. Since according to Calvinistic teaching, hearing is after regeneration, and there is a time element involve in hearing the Gospel say, a matter of minutes, then there is a gap if regeneration is before hearing and salvation is after hearing, repentance and faith. There is a gap I say, because the Gospel cannot be understood for a half a second and if the order look likes this:
REGENERATION, HEAR, REPENT, BELIEVE,
Then, SALVATION
If you
say that regeneration and salvation occurs at the same time, then there
will be no time element in hearing. Who could understand the Gospel for
a half second? Is it possible for a person to be regenerated without knowing
who Jesus is and what He did? My last question, 7) What is the condition
of a person who is regenerated and yet not saved, is he a child of God
or the Devil? These are some contradictions in the write-ups you sent.
Pls. explain.
EDJardinel
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March 7, 1994
Dear Brother Jun,
Greetings in the precious name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
I am sending you some copies of my letters to Brother Jun Mangubat and Brother Guinit. I hope these will be of help to your study of right doctrines. I welcome any question to my beliefs and writings.
I'll give my explanations of some disputed passages:
John 5:39-40 -- "...And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life."
Whose will is it that such people mentioned will not come to Christ, God
or man? The Bible says, "YE WILL not come..." There's a difference between
WILL and CAN. These people have the ability to come under the influence
of the Spirit, but they won't come. Under the spirit's influence, a sinner
has the freewill to believe or reject Christ. God is sincerely offering
salvation to these people mentioned in this verse because of the phrase
"... that ye might have life." If Christ did not die for those people Christ
could have said, "...because you'll never have life." Salvation cannot
be offered to anyone apart from Christ's blood. In verse 34 of chapter
5 it says, "...these things I say that ye might be saved." Christ was speaking
these words to people who won't come to Him.
The Calvinists will then try to reason out, What about
the verses in the Bible where the words CANNOT HEAR OR COME
are mentioned?
John 8:43 -- " Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye CANNOT HEAR my word. It is true that a person cannot hear God's word apart from the influence of the Holy Spirit. Christ was speaking to people who were reprobates. The reprobates are those who were hardened by sin and because of their unbelief, God gave them up (Rom.1:28). The Holy Spirit ceased to influence their lives. Without the Spirit's influence, a person or sinner cannot come to God.
John 6:44 --No one can come to Christ apart from the influence of the Holy Spirit. Man under the influence of the Spirit, has the ability to come to Christ. The spiritually dead under the influence of the Spirit has the ability to hear, repent, and believe. The verse shows the fact that sinners who believe under the conviction of the Spirit will be resurrected in the last day.
John 6:37 -- "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." The Father has given to Christ all who believe in Him. Christ will never cast out those who come to Him. They're eternally secured. The Bible says,"For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Rom.10:13). A person will not call on God through prayer or come to Him unless he believes. So, the sequence will be: Election according to God's foreknowledge, God's call through the Spirit's conviction and the preaching of the word, hearing and understanding of God's word, repenting, believing, calling on God,(coming to God through prayer), then regeneration and salvation.
John 17:1-26 -- This is Christ's prayer for His disciples, all the believers, and all people in the world: In this passage, Christ prayer for:
His Disciples -- Jesus said,'I pray for them:I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine"(Jn.17:9). The word "them" in this verse does not refer to all the elect including the unsaved ones, but only the saved ones. The father has given to Christ all who believe in Him. You will notice that the ones who were given to Christ belong also to the Father as the verse states,"...for they are thine." Unbelievers do not belong to God. The Christians in Ephesus were formerly called "Children of Wrath" before their salvation. (Eph. 2:3). They were also called "without Christ" and "without God" (Eph. 2:12). Therefore Christ was not praying for the unsaved ones (elect or not) but for His disciples. Christ said,"While I was with them in the world, I kept them in my name." (John 16:12a). It is conclusive that the word "them" refers only to the disciples during the time when Christ was in the world.
All the believers -- In verse 20, Jesus said, "Neither pray I for these alone but for them also which shall believe on me through their word"(Jn17:20). Jesus in his time on this earth prayed for all believers including those who will believe in Him (in the future ).
People in the world -- Jesus said,"... that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." (John 17:21). It is Christ's desire that all men will repent and believe in HIm (II Pet. 3:9; John 3:16; Acts 17:30; Isa. 45:22; Ezek. 33:11). The word "may" shows that God did not fixed man's response to HIm, but He gave man the freewill either to believe or not.
I have many things to say or write you, but my time is so limited. Maybe, next time I can write more about the doctrine of election. What are friends for? It is my deep desire to share to you my beliefs and convictions. May God bless you and your family!
==EDJardinel