Reform doctrine says man is spiritually dead because of the fall...that means he must be Born again( regenerated )before he can desire to be saved..
Eph 2:1 And you [hath he quickened], who were dead in trespasses and sins;
Until then man can not see or desire God .Jhn 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Arminians believe that man is not quite dead from the fall and has enough spiritual life to desire God and choose Christ. They would believe he is not born again (regenerated ) UNTIL he is saved
So to me the order is..regeneration (born again), repentance ,conversion (saved)
To Mack and Becky the order would be repentance,conversion (saved), regenerated into a new creature..(born again)
RnMomof7's answer: "So to me the order is..regeneration (born again), repentance ,conversion (saved) To Mack and Becky the order would be repentance,conversion (saved), regenerated into a new creature..(born again)"
RnMomof7 in #79: "We agree that without Christ man is lost..we agree that Jesus is the way..."
My question (most likely a stupid question, but my question nonetheless): So if the end result is the same (assurance of salvation and where we will spend eternity), what difference does the "order of salvation" make? (Why do I have the sneaking hunch I'm gonna be sorry I asked that??!!) :)
Rn is mischaracterizing the free choice (Arminian) position for effect....clear contrast.
Actually we believe that man is dead from the fall. We believe not that he has enough spiritual life left to desire God, but that the Lord enlivens him to see the choice before him. In that momentarily enlivened/enlightened state he can see clearly to make a choice. (We call that prevenient grace....God's grace that comes before salvation.)
Calvinists actually also believe in prevenient grace but in a different way. The see the prevenient grace of God FULLY AND COMPLETELY saving a person BEFORE that person believes. In other words, they think that for a brief moment of time UNBELIEVERS are saved.
We believe that no man is saved until he believes.
That was a concise and excellent explanation. Thanks Mom!
Reform doctrine says man is spiritually dead because of the fall...that means he must be Born again( regenerated )before he can desire to be saved.
Would the doctrine then be that only certain people are predestined to be "born again" and thus to desire being saved? This sounds very foreign to me; I'm more familiar with the "order of salvation" teaching as held by Mack and Becky.
As for myself, I'm even farther away from your position than Mack and Becky are, because I do not accept a doctrine of original sin.