If so, it's fair to call you an "Arminian" for the sake of describing your belief system in one word.
Free Will or Human Ability
Although human nature was seriously affected by the fall, man has not been left in a state of total spiritual helplessness. God graciously enables every sinner to repent and believe, but He does not interfere with man�s freedom. Each sinner possesses a free will, and his eternal destiny depends on how he uses it. Man�s freedom consists of his ability to choose good over evil in spiritual matters; his will is not enslaved to his sinful nature. The sinner has the power to either cooperate with God�s Spirit and be regenerated or resist God�s grace and perish. The lost sinner needs the Spirit�s assistance, but he does not have to be regenerated by the Spirit before he can believe, for faith is man�s act and precedes the new birth. Faith is the sinner�s gift to God; it is man�s contribution to salvation.
Conditional Election
God�s choice of certain individuals unto salvation before the foundation of the world was based upon His foreseeing that they would respond to His call. He selected only those whom He knew would of themselves freely believe the gospel. Election therefore was determined by or conditioned upon what man would do. The faith which God foresaw and upon which He based His choice was not given to the sinner by God (it was not created by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit) but resulted solely from man�s will. It was left entirely up to man as to who would believe and therefore as to who would be elected unto salvation. God chose those whom He knew would, of their own free will, choose Christ. Thus the sinner�s choice of Christ, not God�s choice of the sinner, is the ultimate cause of salvation.
Universal Redemption or General Atonement
Christ�s redeeming work made it possible for everyone to be saved but did not actually secure the salvation of anyone. Although Christ died for all men and for every man, only those who believe on Him are saved. His death enabled God to pardon sinners on the condition that they believe, but it did not actually put away anyone�s sins. Christ�s redemption becomes effective only if man chooses to accept it.
The Holy Spirit Can Be Effectually Resisted
The Spirit calls inwardly all those who are called outwardly by the gospel invitation; He does all that He can to bring every sinner to salvation. But inasmuch as man is free, he can successfully resist the Spirit�s call. The Spirit cannot regenerate the sinner until he believes; faith (which is man�s contribution) precedes and makes possible the new birth. Thus, man�s free will limits the Spirit in the application of Christ�s saving work. The Holy Spirit can only draw to Christ those who allow Him to have His way with them. Until the sinner responds, the Spirit cannot give life. God�s grace, therefore, is not invincible; it can be, and often is, resisted and thwarted by man.
Falling From Grace
Those who believe and are truly saved can lose their salvation by failing to keep up their faith. etc. All Arminian, have not been agreed on this point; some have held that believers are eternally secure in Christ � that once a sinner is regenerated. he can never be lost.
According to Arminianism:Salvation is accomplished through the combined efforts of God (who takes the initiative) and man(who must respond)�man�s response being the determining factor. God has provided salvation for everyone, but His provision becomes effective only for those who, of their own free will, �choose� to cooperate with Him and accept His offer of grace. At the crucial point, man�s will plays a decisive role; thus man, not God, determines who will be the recipients of the gift of salvation.REJECTED by the Synod of DortThis was the system of thought contained in the �Remonstrance� (though the �five points� were not originally arranged in this order). It was submitted by the Arminians to the Church of Holland in 1610 for adoption but was rejected by the Synod of Dort in 1619 on the ground that it was unscriptural.
Do you believe these five points or do you not? If you do not agree with these five points, then which ones do you disagree with and why? Here is the chance for each of you to clarify what it is you believe. Here is your chance to formally declare your agreement or disagreement on all of these foundational areas.
If you believe these five points, then it is fair to call you an Arminian - using the term "Arminian" to summarize or classify what you belief with respect to these five points.
This is no different than declaring one a mammal to describe a particular set of characteristics for the sake of classification. It is just plain stupid to contend that I fit all of the characteristics of a mammal but I am not a mammal. It is also ridiculous to write out each of these characteristics each and every time when someone can just simply use the word "mammal" to describe this particular set of characteristics.
Mammal Characteristics:
All mammals are warm blooded.
Most young are born alive.
They have hair or fur on their bodies.
Every mammal is a vertebrate.
All mammals have lungs to breathe air.
Mammals feed milk to their babies.
Further, for those of you who like to hide behind, "I just believe the Bible, the Gospel, Yeshua, or whatever", please show me clearly where the middle ground or neutral position is between the following beliefs. What is the position of the Bible, Yeshua Yahuah *or whatever your preferred name is) on the following points?
Human Ability and Human Inability
Conditional Election and Unconditional Election
General Atonement and Limited Atonement
Resistible Grace and Irresistible Grace
Falling from Grace and Perseverance of the Saints
To plead neutrality here is to plead ignorance (lack of knowledge). There is no neutral position in logical terms. (please refer to the laws of logic). Now if you still want to hold that neither position is a Biblical position on any or all of these five points - that there is some other viable third position -then please show and prove from the Bible what the proper position is. For example, if you hold that neither Conditional Election and Unconditional Election is Biblically correct, then show and prove why from the Bible.
The gospel I believe is Jesus, born of a virgin, is the Son of God, died on the cross as the only acceptable,sinless sacrifice for my sins, buried in a borrowed tomb, raised from the dead on the third day, ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father. Omnipotent, omniscient, Holy Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. He died to pay for my sins, and the sons of the world...that's all the people in the world.
His grace, through my faith...it's plain English. If you need another language, just let me know.
I do not argue with man's interpretation or definitions...Calvinism, reformed, whatever...I take the Word of God...that's all that is needed
Ephesians 2:4�But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)�
6And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:�
7That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.�
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves:it is the gift of God:�
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.�
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
1 John 4:7�Beloved, let us love one another:for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.�
8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.�
9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.�
10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.�
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
1 John 4:15�Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.�
16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God
Romans 6:23 for the wages of sin are death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ my Lord.
Romans 5:8 But commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners Christ died for us
Romans 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
1 Corinthians 1:10�Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.�
11 For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.�
12 Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.�
13 Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?
Are you yourself not forced to interpret the Scripture that you read? I mean it seems that you are saying you are somehow beyond interpreting what you read. You would be included in "man's interpretation".
Ga 3:8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.
I do agree with those 3 of those 5 summaries. The first I do not agree with at all, and the second I do not agree with in part. I do believe that men are totally depraved and would not seek God without intervention by God, but again, being totally depraved does not preclude free will. I would liken depravity to drug addiction, we're totally addicted to sin, except it's not that we're simply in denial, we're not even aware of the addiction. A totally depraved person who has no knowledge or desire for God can be convicted of sin by the hearing of the word/law(God's action as the Sower), have faith in the truth(by grace thru faith, not of works, lest any man should boast), repent and be forgiven of sin(God's gift thru Christ), and by bearing fruits worthy of repentance(thru the indwelling of the Holy Spirit). Four things that men cannot do without God, but again, none of them preclude free will, and all of them are Biblically described in great detail. I think the only part you would contend with is my definition of "faith", but if I have faith in God's truth, that in no way means that God is required to save me. God will tell people in the last days, people who were casting out devils in His name, that He never knew them. You can argue all day that "faith" is somehow a work that earns us salvation, but faith cannot EVER wrest the glory of salvation out of God's hands, and it's silly to think so. So whatever I believe, I still steadfastly believe it's all God's work that saves me, and that I can do nothing the save myself. Admittance of that should bring us into agreement.
" So whatever I believe, I still steadfastly believe it's all God's work that saves me, and that I can do nothing the save myself. Admittance of that should bring us into agreement."
It definitely does on that point which is vital. It's also possible that we may each have a different understanding of "free will". I think some of the seeming disagreements of these boards come from a failure to properly define the terms before we have the discussions. If I am guilty of that, I will try to provide more thorough explanations for the terminology that I am using.
I definitely agree and I'm noticing that in my conversations with atheists/nonbelievers/etc. They have already formed so many ideas concerning Christianity based mostly on mis-understandings of terms and popular erroneous doctrines, that they almost have no idea what I'm talking about when we discuss God. I have to be really careful about using christian terminology, because certain buzzwords instantly make them assume I'm talking about something of which they have already formed a opinion about, base on their preconceived definitions.
