The Tightrope Walker!! - Calvinism vs. Arminianism — Keith Daniel

And so, Father, come in Thy mercy and bless us now by washing me in the blood of Christ afresh, and by grace to equip me, anoint me, unctionized by the Holy Spirit, that I may be a vessel meet for the Master's use because of the blood of Christ and the grace of God in anointing someone so weak and unworthy in base and as wise as I am.

In mercy to us all, come in spite of me. And all my limitations and weaknesses come in spite of that by grace upon us all. To visit our hearts. In Jesus Christ's name. Amen. Now, I believe we have to vacate this whole place very, very soon.

And Brother Don will have a nervous breakdown if I don't be sure I end at a certain time. Well, Brother, you did give me an hour, I suppose, if I'm trying to work out what you really did say. But there we have it.

The Danger of Dividing Christ's Church

What I'm going to speak on today is the most explosive topics a human could ever dare to touch in his entire ministry, and some might dare just as they're dying, so that people don't kill them prematurely.

But I'm going to, by God's grace, touch on them in a way that I hope no one will be offended, but only edified, otherwise what on earth do you come into the pulpit for if it's just to deliberately offend?

That would be very, very foolish. God never called you to offend deliberately, and you have no right to offend. A Christian is a gentleman. Oh, I doubt he's ever been saved. But it's impossible that offense will come, if you are truthful to this word, so long as it isn't your deliberate, offensive attitude.

Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake. I don't think God meant, blessed are they that are persecuted for stupidity in the pulpit. Or carnality. If your harshest word does not throb with God's love, God have mercy on you.

If your harshest word does not throb with God's love in the pulpit, I fear for your life, let alone your ministry, brother. So we take into explosive territory, where I just would like to go once, and hope I come out alive.

So I would like just to briefly mention these few verses in 1 Corinthians 1 .10. I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, that there be no divisions among you, but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and the same judgment.

For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of clove, that ye, there are contentions among you. Now this I say that every one of you, now this I say that every one of you, saith, I am of Paul, and I am of Apollos, and I am Cephas, and I am of Christ.

Is Christ divided? That's quite a question. Chapter 3, verse 4. While one saith, I am of Paul, another, I am of Apollos, are ye not carnal? Who then is Paul? Who is Apollos? But ministers by whom he believed, even as the Lord gave to every man.

I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one.

And every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are laborers together with God. Is Christ divided? Are ye not carnal still in being divisive? That is quite a staggering question if one says that the entire scriptures were not written specifically to people, but for us and to us.

It is not an historical record, but the living word of God to anyone guilty of the same thing. Tragically, Christianity today could be defined by the unsaved masses as the great divide. If we were to ask most people about this historical term, they would say you must be speaking about Christianity.

Within the fundamental Protestants, even cynical church, they are like two separate religions trying to destroy each other. They are so radically divided and opposed to each other, you would believe they have no worse enemy on earth to attack, to undermine and to try and destroy and to literally hate.

Forgive me. It seems to me that many of the leaders of our church today believe that as defenders of the faith, their faith, they can not only attack the doctrine, but the character of great men of God.

Some of the greatest men of God who ever lived. I am stunned to know and to hear people fighting to destroy Charles Finney and now D .L. Moody. I stood in a pulpit in America where I actually just mentioned John Wesley and how God used him and Charles Finney, how God used him.

And I was denied access to that pulpit again in my entire life for acknowledging that they even existed in the church history. Because they are devilish, the preacher said the following Sunday. Their doctrines are devilish.

How do you destroy men like that? That you are not allowed to acknowledge that there was such a man as John Wesley, who the king of England placed in Westminster Abbey with all the monarchy from 8th year, 810, over a thousand years.

There's a man called John Wesley lying there because never did a man greater service to his nation than John Wesley, said the king. While the blood flowed in France, it was about to spill over and all the nobility and royalty would have been killed.

But God visited that land and healing came both sides, forgiveness from the poor and suddenly compassion from the rich when Christ saved the soul. And England was spared. Forgiveness, healing, love could even unite the different classes, which was impossible in France.

Wesley, Finney, and Moody: Fruit Beyond Doctrinal Labels

Now, to say that didn't happen because he was slightly Arminiast. Most people think that, you know. Do you know that the man that influenced John Wesley more than anybody else was John Calvin? Sometimes we don't like to hear that because he looked at other scriptures.

They don't buy his pet scriptures. Charles Finney was used mightily in America. Over 1 ,500 towns and cities turned to God in 10 years, mostly in the entirety under his ministry. Never in the history of America or in the world was any single man so mightily used by God to bring souls to Christ.

Now, the arguments are that some of his doctrine is heresy. Well, brother, if you follow every single statement I ever made in my life from the day I first stood up to the day I die, you would find things that I too would be probably buried alive.

I want you to tell me that you didn't make a mistake. I want you to show me a man, even Wesley, who apologized for certain statements he made in his zeal for God, but not defiance of the knowledge of God, but later on balanced himself out in many ways.

And so did Finney acknowledge there was a divergence and influence in certain stages. Show me a man that can't say, I made a mistake and please forgive me. You're looking at a liar. Oh, take care of burying Charles Finney, sir.

You say his converts didn't last. Where did you get that? Where did you get that? Of course, more people came to Christ through him than you or any other living evangelist, even B .L. Moody and even Billy Graham's responses of what really is staggering, how we can look at a man like Finney and say there was no fruit that lasted.

That's a lie. Tell me the greatest revival in America and the world that ever happened was the prayer revival. More people were converted to God in one nation during your prayer revival right through the Civil War.

And that prayer revival was because Christians got on their faces beginning in New York, in Fulton Street, in the Dutch Reformed Church, Jeremiah C. Lanphier. These men began what in weeks was 10 ,000 people praying in Manhattan, crying to God for the nation.

Eventually, over 200 ,000 people crying out to God in one state. And the souls that came to God never in history were so many people turning to God in such a short space of time in one nation. Where do you think those souls came from?

They were the converts, the people converted under the great Finney. Do you want to attribute that to the devil? That's pretty hard because he doesn't exactly put the dot on your doctrine. God forgive us.

Now, they also place the great D .L. Moody. Books are written against him because he isn't exactly perfect in the doctrinal statement they make. He's of the devil and his books are to be banned and he's not allowed to be mentioned in a pulpit.

By the way, the man that barred me from his pulpit after even mentioning that there was a man called John Wesley and that God used him and Charles Finney. Within six weeks, he took so ill and had been taken off the ministry for the rest of his life.

It is fearful. I was with a German man, Manfred Stegen, who is a very godly and influential Christian in our nation and Southern Africa. And he, in his humility, said these words to me that he has been so deeply moved and broken as he looked at the way the physical body of Christ in the scriptures was so tormented through sufferings and how his body was torn apart.

But then, he said, a greater grief suddenly came upon him when he began to meditate the situation today. That the body of Christ is still suffering, is still being torn apart, but this time by Christian groups through their extreme biased views of doctrine.

The body of Christ is still suffering in the most incomprehensible way. It has been torn apart. The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, has been tragically taken up by both sides of the true evangelical fundamental church to attack each other mercilessly.

What a duel is going on. Is Christ divided? Tell me, you say, the other side is of the devil. Can a house divided against itself stand? Christ said, this sword-wielding, sword-fighting duel has left the church deeply divided, wounded worldwide.

There is no tolerance shown by both sides. The moment any preacher dares to suggest that their scriptures have different facets, not only one biased view, he is looked upon as an enemy. They are non-negotiable.

They get up and walk out in their spiritual defenders of the faith attitude. But all they are, I believe, if they convey scriptures that on their doctrines are hypocrites. I actually once saw a man stand in the pulpit in the conference I was in, and he had his certain section of scriptures that he was to read for his sermon.

But he took the chance of his life. He decided, this time, let's start from the beginning of the chapter that he hadn't read. And he suddenly came to the words, predestinated, according to the four laws of God.

Whom God predestinated, he called. Whom he called, he sanctified. So, he got to these verses which weren't exactly verses he would quote. That's not his doctrine. Even if it's in the Bible. Sorry. So what did he do?

He looks up. And there was fear in his eyes. And I knew his doctrine. And I thought, you're in trouble. So what did the poor man do? He looks down. He reads them. The shock. I mean, he couldn't hide it.

It was shocking watching him. And then what did he do? He didn't say, look, let's just leave these next four verses. No, five verses. Sorry, I don't believe in that. I can't accept that. He just pretended they're not there.

And he just missed them and carried on preaching as if to say to us all, I hope you didn't see them. Because that's not exactly what I believe I'm about to preach. How can we be so radically biased that we cannot read certain scriptures without undoing our doctrines?

That's a little bit fearful. It's fearful. Now, to attempt to minister to both sides of these extreme views that has been going on, this war raging between God's people so many centuries, doesn't just start with us.

But to attempt to minister to both sides of the spectrum is a very dangerous feat. To attempt to have the right to actually be acceptable to the full church of Christ, the fundamental evangelical church of Christ, is a very difficult feat indeed and a dangerous feat.

In the Civil War, the American Civil War, there was a man who happened to just be staying in a spot where the fighting was ferocious. And the battle came. And he was so scared because he didn't quite know how to stay alive.

He did something outrageous as the bullets were going. And anybody with a red jacket on, pow, you're dead if you've got a blue jacket on. And so the fighting was just going on. So what did he do? He thought, well, I'm going to put a red jacket on.

And boom, boom, boom. And then he said, no, let me put the blue. And then he said, oh. So he put the pants on. That was the one side and the jacket on the other side, holding it for fear of knowing what to do.

So both sides started shooting him. That's dangerous. You are really in a vulnerable state, brother. You're in a terrible moment of your life when you haven't belonged and nailed your colors to the mask.

It is really dangerous to not belong to one group where people will look upon you and what you stand for and say he's one of us. But heaven help the man who dares to try to unite the church of Christ from the pulpit doctrinally.

He's in trouble. What both sides will do to him is unbelievable. Years ago, a man by the name of Houdini, he walked across the Niagara Falls in a tightrope. And this was a fearful and dangerous task to have attempted.

Holding Calvinism and Arminianism Together

But I would suggest that any preacher to attempt for any preacher to attempt to walk the tightrope, balancing both views. And retain acceptance or an open heart from a full spectrum of the fundamental evangelical church is a far more difficult and dangerous task to attempt.

We are so divided. There is no greater enemy we have than the church itself, who is not exactly our great perfect doctrine. I dare to attempt the unthinkable. I dare to attempt the impossible. I dare to express these two views in one sentence, in one pulpit, not two separate pulpits to play to the gallery.

I dare to see them as complementary rather than contradictory. And get through the Bible 400 times and you will be rebuked by anybody coming near you who sees things as a contradiction and not a complementing oneness and unity.

It's those who don't get through the scriptures but get through every book the reformed theologians or the Wesleyan Aminious have written against each other. But they neglect to defy the scriptures and to accept every verse and to seek the answers.

Of course, the first time when I was saved, when I got to Romans 9, I became quite agitated. This can't be. This is not righteous. But I must be honest with you when you first saved. How much of the Bible can you really grasp?

But you read. And then you go through the second time. And you compare scripture and scripture. You come to Romans 9 by the third or fourth or tenth time. And you love every verse and worship God for what at first you've grown in because God can't give you a full revelation at salvation.

But he gives more and more balanced revelation to bring and to unite the scriptures and not the contradictions you foresee are gone. Only when you devour the entire Bible and not one biased lot of books or set of tapes or videos from biased preachers who hate each other.

To the extremists of each view, the hyper-Calvinist or the hyper-Aminious. I may commit sacrilege doctrinally. To them as a theologian, he either nails his colors to the mask or he's a vagabond that belongs nowhere.

One preacher walked up to me and said, you're like a chameleon, sir. You change colors. You should have one color so that we know where you stand. I said, if you preach the entire scriptures without leaving half of them out, you'd say the same of yourself.

But you won't. So who's a chameleon, sir? In God's eyes. To the extreme Calvinist, the words God is no respecter of persons means simply God chooses a man without considering consideration of his works or efforts or motives or desires.

It is simply Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. Who stopped? To the Wesleyan Arminious, God is no respecter of persons means God does not choose a man apart from the fruit, the evidence of his works and efforts and desires.

But to the Calvinistic, the inclined Wesleyan Arminious, you never heard that. You'll never hear it again. But I belong in the other side of the world in the jungle. You can't find me. To the Calvinistically inclined Wesleyan Arminious, the words God is no respecter of persons means the sovereign God.

Who through foreknowledge knew beginning from end, which is uncomprehendable to a finite man. You'll never comprehend God, but don't ever bring a doctrine that blames God for evil. Where he has no right to judge a man because he made the man's choice.

James says, what of the prophet of the man? Say he has faith and have not worse. Can faith save him? Would thou know, vain man, that faith without works, thou believest there is one God, James says. Thou doest well the devils also believe and tremble, but would thou know, vain man, that faith without works is death.

James was not saying you're saved by works. No, by grace he is saved through faith. To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is considered to him for righteousness.

Not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ. The righteousness which is of God by faith. By grace are you saved through faith. Not of works, lest any man should boast.

It's the gift of God. There's nothing you can do, it's all been done. And it's grace through faith. So, James says, what of the prophet, my brethren? Though a man say he has faith and have not works. Can faith save him?

He's not saying that you are saved or justified by works. No, you're saved by grace through faith. But you're not saved unless your faith works. And brings your life to correspond with everything in this book that God says is the result and the evidence of salvation.

You're not saved by the evidence of salvation. But if you're saved, the evidence of strewn through this book will be written across your life. I see there's a balance. It doesn't take away from the grace of God.

Giving man no responsibility. Many theologians box God into the degree that he has no free will. To be able to do anything apart from their interpretation of what sovereignty, his being sovereign, entitles him to.

John Calvin has been the most misquoted man in history. I think if he was in most meetings of those who say that Calvin lists, he would be so offended, the Third World War would break out. Same as those who quote Wesley.

You'd be stunned how we can twist them to say just what we want. Calvinist theology is sometimes identified with the five points of Calvinism, also called the doctrines of grace, which are point by point response to the five points of Armenian remonstrance.

In English, the points are sometimes referred to by the acronym TULIP. Total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance of the saints. Quite something. Total depravity.

I agree. Unconditional election. Limited atonement. Irresistible grace. Perseverance of the saints. Well, now, if you go through to many other statements that John Calvin said, you will find it is a very different interpretation to what has been written there.

Grace That Produces Holiness

And I dare to tell you about it. All of grace. Yes, of course, it's all of grace. But what is grace defined as in this book? What is your interpretation of grace? What does it mean? A man has grace and that's it.

Titus 2 .11. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation, the grace of God that bringeth salvation, that appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world.

The grace of God that bringeth salvation that appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world. Grace?

You don't have grace. None of God's grace. If that isn't what you believe, grace results in. My, you'll have a doctrine that gives sinners the right to stay in sin and enjoy it, in spite of the rest of the Scriptures.

Romans 6 .1. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid! How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer? And he goes on. Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey his servants ye are?

To whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness. But God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin. But ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which has delivered you.

Being then made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness. And I could go on, and I'd like to. But there's a book, there's a sermon that's on all your websites, over three hundred and forty verses.

Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith. Just what God says by this book is the evidence of salvation. If it's God's grace that ever reached you, brother, be not deceived, no unrighteous person shall enter into the kingdom of God.

Be careful that we don't so put grace as the only thing that man has no responsibility. And a testimony doesn't require repentance. That's heretical. Take away repentance. You are in trouble, deep trouble.

Man is not justified by works, but no man who is justified is without works. No one can be a true Christian without aspiring to holiness in his life. Man is not justified by works, John Calvin. No man who is justified is without works.

Irresistible Grace and the Message of the Cross

I think Calvin was very good, actually. Irresistible grace. I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love. I believe that. You can't come to God unless God draws you. But how does he draw you? Jesus said, I, if I be lifted up from the earth, speaking of this death, will draw all men unto me.

I love that. It's the cross, the love of God, the expression of God for sinners that draws all men unto himself. Therefore, as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men, even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men.

Sorry, I shouldn't have read that verse. God now commanded all men everywhere to repent. No, some men don't give them an opportunity to respond. You might bring someone to Christ and to eternal salvation that wasn't elected.

That's not my wisdom. That was Charles Spurgeon, who we say was our champion. It is God that worketh in you to will to do his purposes. Man left to himself will never seek God. We all believe that. He draws us to himself with cords of love.

But how? The greatest, strongest drawing power he has ultimately to draw you to himself is the revelation of Christ on the cross, dying for you to be saved, dying for you to draw near to him. I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men to myself.

How does God draw us? Just this message of the cross? No, I see this thing that irresistible grace, this thing that God draws us, you know. I see it as something beautiful. The cross, of course, beyond everything.

But the cross's effect on others' lives. God uses everything. He throws out cords of love to draw us to himself until we are broken down of any resistance to say no to him. Of course, there's nothing that God will use more than the message of the cross.

But before I heard the message of the cross in truth, I saw the effect in my brother's life. And there was one of the cords. I couldn't argue with God at the beautiful transformation of a life. And that broke down arguments that I might have had against the preacher.

It drew me. I have just come from a place where I was in a home where the son has been in prison over and over again. Drugs, drinking, the most horrific things. And his parents weeping and praying. But God gets hold of this young woman who now is married.

They've had their children, but they get married. God gets hold of this girl and saves her wonderfully to such a degree that even if he goes to prison, she says, Whatever happens to him, I won't leave him.

But I'm going through with God. Now, this has staggered him. A smashed, destroyed soul. Now, the next thing, his closest friend from a little boy. Drugs and drinking and prisons have been mightily saved.

You see, God drawing this man, breaking down all resistance by the woman he loves. Now, loving Christ with her whole heart and living the standard of the Scriptures. No matter what he does, she won't leave him until he comes to God.

Now, his closest friend turning to Christ. God draws all men, but it's very effective, the cross on their lives. Hallelujah for God's drawing power. The man left to himself will never be able to see God.

God draws, doesn't put them into a box of one I choose. One goes to hell, one goes to heaven. And you that think you can come to heaven by coming out in meetings, I'll still send you to hell even if you're standing ahead.

No. I see God's drawing. This irresistible grace is a wonderful love. Crying out from the pages of this holy book. No, not to him that willeth. We have all these verses. It's nothing to do with men. No, brother.

In its context, you must look at the full context of that book, not just one passage. Romans 7 says, Oh, wretched man that I am. Who can deliver me the good I want to do? I can't. Of course, man left to himself.

He can't. It's not to him that willeth. Your will isn't enough. But God, Christ can set you free. So God himself, not just to him that willeth. Don't just look at the immediate verse and say that. It isn't your will.

Brother, it is. Otherwise, take the chapters before away. We're born in sin. God has to set us free. Vatican, Roman Catholics, leading Jesuits have declared that Rome believes that Christ did not die for all men.

And there is word perfect what many of our great movements today believe. So they've joined you. Us. At this point, us. God, by his foreknowledge, predestined. There's time. There never was such a thing as time.

Time will be no more. When did God come into this? He surrounds it. He's eternal. Our finite minds cannot comprehend how God can know beginning from end. But time is not limited. We're limited looking at a watch.

We can't begin to comprehend how there will be. Time will be no more. And we know there won't be time. God didn't begin it and end it and say, there am I at the beginning. God is surrounding it. He's eternal.

And that eternal God can't be put into a little box and blame him for what men did. It is beyond our comprehension. It doesn't. Is there unrighteousness with God because he's sovereign? Oh, we must be so careful that we don't actually make God unrighteous.

If he gave you a conscience, brother, has he got no conscience? If we know right from wrong, does our doctrines give us the right to tell people that they were born for one reason. That God chose their choice to reject him so that they could be judged by a choice he made for them.

What are you saying if you don't say that? Whom he will, he hardens for no reason. Or does God's full knowledge, which you can't blame him for because he's around it. He knows beginning from end. But don't bring the word sovereignty to mean making the choice for a man to say, I choose hell because God made me to choose hell.

He's really taking away that verse, is there unrighteousness with God in this context? Whom he will, he hardens at random for no reason. Or does God's full knowledge know what man would harden his heart first?

Does God's full knowledge of a man affect his choice in what he says predestined? Is there anything to do with a man who we must not limit God in what God knew from beginning to end? The Lamb of God was slain from the foundation of the world before the world was created.

The full knowledge of God, the sovereignty beyond our human comprehension, we limit it to time. Our concept of time cannot limit God, though, who has never been limited to time. Began time, time will be no more.

He's eternally surrounded. He knows beginning from end. But that doesn't mean we blame him for the choices man made because he knew full knowledge is not sin in God's hands or unrighteousness. It's God, the uncomprehendable God.

But who always defends integrity and righteousness and holiness? Oh, get out of the pulpit. If you're just there to defend your doctrine. Whom he will, he hardens at random for no reason. Or did God's full knowledge of a man affect his choice in predestinating in what he saw?

I love old Spurgeon. He said, whosoever will, let him come. There's the free will of man, John Wesley. And then you go through into heaven and you're at the door and you look at the other side. Well, the one side says, whosoever will, let him come, shall be come.

We go to the other side and there we see elect in the Son. I love that. There's something there that doesn't limit God's sovereignty to give a man a free will. Does God's sovereignty in our uncomprehendable mind?

He's uncomprehendable in our finite mind. Don't we put God into a box that sovereignty doesn't give him the right? Because we can't comprehend it, that a sovereign God in his sovereignty gives man a free will, so he can judge him righteously by what he knew.

Don't think he didn't know. He's God, but that doesn't mean he hasn't been through this, though he knew. It grieves. He didn't weep at something he knew before, which is an act. It's not some play that he knows beginning from end.

No, he grieves at man's rejection of him. Is there unrighteousness with God? Like Pharaoh. He hardened his heart. God hardened his heart. But that's not true. You've got to look in the context. Romans 9 comes from Job.

The arguments, what God is saying of the greatness of God, there must never be a question of his integrity, the whole argument. Don't question his holy integrity. His every word you see virtually in Romans 9.

Did you know that? And the whole argument in the... Esau and Jacob come from Hosea. And talking about the integrity that God knew and saw, foresaw. Not something he may demand you. Yes, Pharaoh hardened his heart.

How many times? And then the final time, God sealed his choice. Then you read God hardened his heart. Don't read Romans 9, unless you've read Romans 1. Verses 2, 3, 4 and 5. You might blame God for men raping their children.

Puppetry theology. You know, sovereignty can be brought that there's nothing that a man does that is his free will. So Hitler murdered 6 million Jews. Men raped children. It's God doing it. If you want to make God that sovereign, that man does only what God makes him do.

Be careful. You don't read Romans 9 before you read Romans 1, 2, 3. You'll find God had a reason. For this cause, God gave them up. Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them up.

And to reprobate minds. There's a reason. There's a cause. There's always a reason. So he settles that. God doesn't give up a man for no reason. Yes, he's sovereign. And he comes to Romans 9. And brother, sister, in case you don't know it, Paul was the greatest Methodist that ever lived.

Even though he was a hyper-Calvinist sometimes. But do you want to be honest? Paul systematically takes every doctrine. There's no doctrinal statement of our faith greater than the book of Romans. And every single doctrine he takes, every aspect of Christianity to a degree that there's nothing that can compare within the whole Scriptures.

And in any writings by any great reformer or theologian. With this doctrinal statement. But Paul takes everything. He doesn't come to Romans 9 and say, start there and don't dare look anywhere else. It's a letter.

He starts it. He says, for this cause God gave them up. There's always a cause. And Romans 9 comes. Because he's dealing with the Jews. Who said, they're the chosen. God has no right, basically, is what they were crying, to bypass them now for the Gentiles.

So Paul says, what if? Hope you read that before you read the rest. God can do in his sovereign perfection. But there's no unrighteousness with God. And so to argue with the Jews. To show them that God wants the whole world, not just them.

That was his intention through them originally. To put them right in their place and to put everyone under the category of sin. He tells the Jews they're sinners like the Gentiles. Now that Christ has come, there's nothing of their offerings that God in grace tried to make them reach the world.

So the Jews are put in their place. And every statement in the light of the whole Bible, Old Testament, taken back into its context. Can be deeply understood that it's the integrity of God we must never question.

The holiness of God, the goodness, the perfectness of God. The righteousness of God is what is at stake. Of course a man left to himself will never find what God says. It's not to him that willeth. So we don't say that as one single sentence.