[CCWoody]

Tell me, without the cutesy names, when you made your decision to trust Christ for your salvation, did you hear or read something, or did you just feel an urge? ~ "grace"believer (there, back to your "I really don't believe in free grace" name)

1. I did not "make a decision" for Christ in order to get "saved". I believe that Christ has already "saved" me. And that is a true gospel distinction. You would know this if you knew how to express the gospel in it's simplest form (exactly 3 words).
2. The Lord opened my blind eyes to see and I saw what was lacking in the afflictions of Christ.

Salvation is by grace through faith, plus nothing. ~ "grace"believer

It seems that you are preaching salvation = grace + intelligence

As you truthfully state, if it were otherwise, we'd potentially have something to brag about before God. ~ "grace"believer

You mean like being more intelligent that the stupid smuck who doesn't have the sense to make an "intelligent decision" for Christ.

My statement that saving faith, as well as faith in general, is based on an intelligent understanding of God's Word it true, otherwise we can scratch Ro. 10:17 out of the Book. ~ "grace"believer

Your statement is false, your misunderstanding of Romans 10:17 aside. Saving faith is based solely upon the free grace of God, which you deny.

That's because we need to know what the gospel is that saves today and what in the Scriptures applies to us today so we can live in the position we have "in Christ." ~ "grace"believer

So much for the everlasting gospel. The gospel that saves "today" will not save tomorrow, nor did it save "yesterday". Is this what you call "rightly dividing" the Word? From here, it looks like the preaching of a false gospel.


The gospel has a proper name which is exactly 5 words.
The gospel can be expressed in exactly 3 words.

I'm sure that one of the Arminians will be along shortly to email you the answer. Or, you can pick up your Bible and start reading about it for yourself. I recommend you start in Mark.

Woody.

[gracebeliever]

Your statement is false, your misunderstanding of Romans 10:17 aside. Saving faith is based solely upon the free grace of God, which you deny.

Woody, I don't have time right now to respond to your less than gracious comments. However, what is your understanding of Ro. 10:17? This is one of the most plain verses in the Bible.

Ro. 10:17 is very similar to what Christ stated in John 6:45, "It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me." Now, tell me that faith comes by any method other than hearing, and as Christ said, learning, in order to "come to" Christ.

Christ goes on in John 6:63 to state, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak to unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." How's this different than Ro. 10:17? And, if you got "life" and you got it from other than the Word of God, you got something other than what Christ was speaking about.

Apparently you believe God saved you without you responding to His Word. I suppose you think that's His grace because you've always been saved. How wrong that is since we're all born spiritually dead and need life. Christ, Himself, said that His words are "life." Furthermore if by grace God saved you from your birth, or possibly before, then His grace doesn't apply to all, which flies in the face of His statement through Paul that His will is for all men to be saved,1Tim. 2:4, not some, or only Calvinists, or Baptists, or Catholics or Jews or ... Compare this verse with Mt. 20:28 where Christ says He came to "give his life a ransom for many." I suppose you consider yourself one of the "many" not one of the "all." This is where you need to "rightly divide" the Word for understanding of the difference in these verses. Otherwise, which one do you believe?

But then, I believe it when God says His grace and salvation is freely available to all that believe the gospel (1Cor. 15:1-4) of God's grace. To believe implies that a decision was made to believe and that no decision is a decision not to believe the Word. Foolish me, I guess!