And the Spirit of the Lord will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy
with them, and shalt be turned into another man (I Sam. 10:6).
ARMINIAN ARGUMENT:
This verse
speaks of King Saul’s receiving the Holy Spirit and even says he would prophesy
and be turned into another man. This is sometimes used to contradict the
perseverance of saints in light of the rest of the sad story of Saul, which
shows him becoming more and more wicked and finally dying in his sins.
(I)
Ronald Hanko & Ronald Cammenga
[Source:
Saved By Grace: A Study of
the Five Points of Calvinism
(RFPA, 2002), pp. 61-62]
We should remember several things about Saul:
(a) The Holy Spirit as the Spirit of prophecy was
sometimes given to those who were not saved. The best examples are Balaam and
Caiaphas. Thus, the fact that Saul prophesied does not prove him to be a child
of God.
(b) The Holy Spirit gives other gifts besides the
blessings of salvation, and He certainly did give Saul the gifts of courage and
zeal, both of which were necessary for his work as king (1 Sam. 11:6). This is
very likely all that Samuel meant when he said that Saul would become another
man, since Saul was originally too fearful and cowardly to assume the duties of
the kingdom (1 Sam. 10:21, 22).
(c) There is no indication in the Scriptures that
Saul had any of the marks of regeneration. He never showed any signs of true repentance,
even in that beginning, nor any zeal for God.
(d) In fact, the testimony of the Scriptures leads
us in the opposite direction and seems to indicate that Saul was not only an
unregenerated person but was known as such in Israel, so that his prophesying
became a byword among the people for anything done out of character (1 Sam.
10:11, 12).
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(II)
More to come! (DV)
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