[CCWoody]

Yeah, whatever. I guess it is easier to hurl insults than engage in honest debate.

To say that we are born spiritually alive and to say that we have a will where we want to reach up and grab hold of God is Pelagianism. You don't meet all points of Pelagianism, which is why your belief is merely Semi-Pelagianism. But, you should know that this belief has been denounced strongly by more church councils than any other heresy. I'm sorry if that offends you.

Anything that falls short of acknowledging original sin, the bondage of the will, and the need for grace to even accept the gift of eternal life, much less to pursue righteousness, is considered by the whole church to be heresy. The heresy described here is called "Pelagianism." - source here

If you wish to engage in honest debate, then please start with this verse:

1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Until a man's spirit is supernaturally regenerated by God then he doesn't even have a spirit to discern the things of God. He is spiritually dead. He wants absolutely nothing to do with God, even if he makes some kind of self-deceiving profession that he does.

[hopespringseternal]

To say that we are born spiritually alive and to say that we have a will where we want to reach up and grab hold of God is Pelagianism. You don't meet all points of Pelagianism, which is why your belief is merely Semi-Pelagianism. But, you should know that this belief has been denounced strongly by more church councils than any other heresy. I'm sorry if that offends you.

You are working from a far different definition of Pelagianism (or semi-Pelagianism) than I have found.

Anything that falls short of acknowledging original sin, the bondage of the will, and the need for grace to even accept the gift of eternal life, much less to pursue righteousness, is considered by the whole church to be heresy. The heresy described here is called "Pelagianism." - source here

Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned

Romans 7:9 Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.

Ezekiel 18:20 The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous man will be credited to him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against him.