“The point is if we are “healed or saved” by grace we will look to Christ, repent, obey and believe.”
Except that is not the order presented in scripture.
“8 And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.” - Numbers 21
Not, “he would live, and look at the serpent”, but, “he would look at the bronze serpent and live.”
“14And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” - John 3
Not, “whoever has eternal life may believe”, but, whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.”
Calvin can teach unconditional election, but God offers unlimited grace - and “whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” These are conditional statements. “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” Why is someone condemned? It doesn’t say, “because he has not been chosen to receive belief”, but, “because he has not believed”.
Look at when Jesus healed. Again and again we see:
Mar 5:34 And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”
Mar 10:52 And Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.
Before Jesus saves us, we are blind. And if we would be healed, we must have faith - “your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight”.
There are roughly 450 verses in the New Testament alone about believing and faith. And they are presented as something WE do. The scripture is not ambiguous. The scripture is not misleading. It is not complex, needing great theologians to explain it. It is explicit, and clear enough for a little child.
“Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
“And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32 And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.” - Acts 16
“and he was baptized at once”. No catechism classes, no prolonged delay.
Calvin can say what he wants, but Paul and Silas taught a different Gospel:
“Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
Search the scriptures. Those who ask ‘What must we do to be saved?’ are not rebuked or corrected - but encouraged. I’m quite fond of monergism.com, but neither Jesus nor the Apostles taught monergism.
We are not saved by works - if work is defined as doing things to impress God with our innate goodness. We are not saved by works of the law - by obedient acts. But when the Jews asked Jesus what work they must do, Jesus replied - sarcastically, I think - “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”
Paul wrote, “8For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this [salvation] is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Faith is not a work, when work is defined by the Apostles. Faith is contrasted with works of the law.
Dr E “I’m always amazed the Arminian offers Ephesians 1 as some kind of rebuttal for election when the doctrine is contained in every word, if read with eyes to see...”
Yes, and one must take it as written.
” 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.”
He chose that we - and Paul is writing “ To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus” - he chose that we...what? “should be holy and blameless before him.” Before the founding of the world, he destined us to be holy and blameless before him. But that describes our blessing, not the means. We believers - for that is who Paul specifically addresses in verse 1 - are chosen FOR holiness.
Are we chosen, and then given belief? Or has God chosen that those who believe will live holy and blameless? Don’t take my word for the answer. Go here and read the 218 verses yourself:
http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G4100&t=ESV
“In love 5 he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.”
He predestined us - those who are faithful in Christ Jesus - “for adoption as sons”. Not kidnapping as slaves, but adoption as sons. Not compelled obedience under irresistible power, but loving obedience, as a son.
Ephesians 1:6 reads, “6to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.” NASB
He has freely bestowed grace on us. Neither Jacobus Arminius nor I dispute that. We would both strongly endorse it. We do not save ourselves. We cannot reach up to heaven and pull Him down. He came from heaven, “and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus”.
Dr E “We didn’t make ourselves accepted by anything in ourselves. That’s the error of Rome that Arminians sadly embrace.”
No, we don’t make ourselves accepted - but we do obey his command to repent. We obey the gospel. That isn’t heresy, it is scripture:
“For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?” - 1 Peter 4
Jesus said, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” - Mark 1
Nothing subtle there. We are commanded to repent and believe. Those who do not obey will face the wrath of God. Jesus didn’t say, “If chosen, you will accept the gifts of faith and belief, and then repent”. He said “repent and believe in the gospel.”
If you are commanded to do something, then it is something YOU do. I spent 25 years in the military. If I gave an order, it was something for the subordinate to DO, not ME. If I ordered an airman to show up at 1 AM, I sure didn’t go lift him out of bed and carry him there at 1 AM. I expected him to DO it. When Jesus commands us, “Repent and believe in the gospel”...it is an order. Not a gift.
Salvation IS a gift, for there is nothing that compelled God to come to us and rescue us. Nothing we have or will do required God to become Incarnate. But he did. And while we were not looking, he looked for us. When we were astray, he came and found us and took us back.
Dr E “After awhile the Arminian argument simply looks ungrateful and a bit arrogant — “I did it.” Or at the very least — “I permitted it.””
Ah, yes. The arrogant Arminians, unlike the humble Calvinists - “God’s New Chosen People”, recipients of God’s special grace, a grace hidden from all who are not Calvinists because God hates them and wants to punish them eternally!
Nope. No pride there...
As a side note, one of the things Arminius opposed about Calvinism was that it put the emphasis on election, and took it away from Christ.