Did God Force His Spirit on the infant, John the Baptist?
 

deleted for Daniel

John was filled with The Holy Spirit from His mother's womb as a soverign act of God.I find it interesting that John The Baptist was a great prophet but the least in the kingdom of God is greater than John The Baptist.

Of course I'm not a Calvinist no more than you are.
Why did God do this I don't know.

The experience of John the Baptist is something that I don't understand a whole lot about. I don't even know how to explain what I believe about predestination and foreknowledge. I believe that God knows all things before they ever happen. I believe God knows beforehand who will turn to Him and who won't. But I don't know how to tie this in with what some folks call predestination. Some how I believe that we are elected/chosen by God based on His foreknowledge but that in no way means that He forces us to make the choices we do. That may not even sound rational but somehow in my little mind I have come to that conclusion. 1 Peter 1:2 speaks of those who are "elect according to the foreknowledge of God...." Ephesians 1:4 says God chose us "in Him before the foundation of the world..." This is certainly something I can't argue about because I don't know or understand enough about it. Jeremiah was known and sanctified (set apart) and ordained to be a prophet before he was even formed in the womb (Jer 1:4-5). David spoke of God seeing him before he was formed in the womb (Psalm 139). I don't understand these things. I think we set up camps as Arminians and Calvinists and then demand that everyone take sides. I just have to leave stuff like this up to the Lord.
I believe somehow God knew before He worked the miracle of conception in answer to Zechariah and Elizabeth's prayers that John would choose Him and dedicate his life to Him and that was why he was "filled" with the Spirit even before birth. By the way, many folks were "filled" with the Spirit prior to the NT and they did not speak with tongues. As a "dispensationalist" to me that was a different time and different way God dealt with folks.

Sam I'm not a dispensationalist but prior to Pentecost it was a different time.

Just because he didn't asked for it ,does this mean it was forced on him , how about it being a gift of grace ,and yes grace was in The OT as well as in The NT?

Brother Daniel A.me and you might disagree sometimes but I know that everything we receive from God stems from Grace.
Salvation is either all of grace or none of grace.

Yes Bro.Daniel and none of it is merited.

Um, wasn't the coming of John the Baptist foretold in the OT as well as that of Jesus? If so, that would totally explain him receiving the HG while still in the womb.

Obviously, God believes in predestination to some degree.

God does foreordain some things.

Scott,
Some information on “dispensations”
Dispensationalism is taught in the Oneness Pentecostal correspondence course.
You may be more of a dispensationalist than you realize.

some information
http://www.biblelife.org/dispensations.htm
or
http://www.gracenotes.info/topics/dispensations.html

charts
http://www.biblelife.org/dispensations-big.jpg

http://members.citynet.net/morton/charts.htm

http://www.e-grace.net/chart.html

Oneness Pentecostal sites with charts:

http://jrd.home.att.net/

http://home.att.net/~jrd/Biblecharts.html

And this thread is a perfect example why I normally do not debate theology on AFF. It is not productive at all.

Impossible. You made it personal.

S'all good though. Lesson learned. You really did school me tonight.

Wow, daniel took a fellow lib to task without even posting!

Dude you are WAY GOOD!

No winners tonight Ferd.

I know. That's why I am wondering why this issue with John the Baptist is even being brought up.

So either this thread was based on some other conversation that I wasnt privy to, or you just got real touchy over this one...


either way, I think you and PP are pretty cool....

the good news is PP has got crosswise with just about everybody at least once so we are now all on an even playing field.

PP is a friend ....

That's too bad. I thought you did a great job describing what happens to a soul after they die.

http://www.apostolicfriendsforum.com...53&postcount=8

John was predestined to be the forerunner of YAH. It was the sovereignty of God at work in his life as it is in the life of all he has chosen.