All this time (well, since having the stronghold of toxic soteriology demolished two years ago anyway) Moriah has held this belief -- setting it at odds with modern Christianity's infatuation and obsession with the human faculty of volition -- and never even knew it had a specific name in theology. This morning we discover it does. Monergism!
-- John Hendryx, http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/monergism_simple.html
So very much of Scripture simply does not make sense without this understanding and awareness that Moriah wonders how anyone can call themselves a Christian and not be a "monergist" in their awareness of the redemption Christ has wrought for them. The number one poison spilling from pulpits today -- not even the provenance of "wolves", it believes, but merely the error of bad teaching passed down and repeated for the past few generations primarily in America but infecting other places where the Gospel gets taken as well -- would be the opposite of this, the subtle, deadly, insidious notion that by "making a free will choice for God" the unregenerate human "cooperates" in his or her salvation and therefore has some small part which can be accredited to his or her efforts. This bes NOT the picture scripture paints of the unregenerated sinner, however, nor of the dire situation of his plight which requires no less than a bona fide personal intervention from the Living God to put to rights.
People clamor and bicker over "getting back to the Bible" for all sorts of silly political crusades and social standards, as if these would even matter in terms of curbing wickedness, which would then merely go back underground rather than take place where it could be detected. Hmph. High time we got back to the Bible on this matter, instead, and began to realise just what is involved in turning an individual from darkness to light, and delivering them from the power of Satan unto the power of God.
For an excellent, to-the-point comparison between "monergism" and its sadly prevalent opposite, have a look at this page here:
Two Views of Regeneration.
Monergism: In regeneration, the Holy Spirit unites us to Christ independent of any cooperation from our unregenerated human nature. He quickens us through the outward call cast forth by the preaching of His Word, disarms our innate hostility, removes our blindness, illumines our mind, creates understanding, turns our heart of stone to a heart of flesh -- giving rise to a delight in His Word -- all that we might, with our renewed affections, willingly & gladly embrace Christ. The Prophet Ezekiel inspired by the Holy Spirit asserted "I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God." (Eze 11:19, also 36:26) The Apostle Paul said, "For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction." (1 Thess 1, 4, 5). I.e. In regeneration the word does not work alone but must be accompanied by the "germination" of the Holy Spirit. And again "...you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God." (1 Pet 1:23)
The Century Dictionary defines it as follows:
"In theology, the doctrine that the Holy Spirit is the only efficient agent in regeneration - that the human will possesses no inclination to holiness until regenerated, and therefore cannot cooperate in regeneration."
It means that the very desire for faith, by which we believe in Him who justifies the ungodly comes to us through regeneration -- and if anyone says that this belongs to us by nature and not by a gift of grace, that is, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit amending our will and turning it from unbelief to faith and from godlessness to godliness, he/she ignores the teaching of the Apostles, for Paul says, "...Even when we were dead in sins, [God] hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace ye are saved." and "...he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit." (Titus 3:5) And again, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God" (Eph. 2:8). or if anyone makes the assistance of grace depend on the humility or obedience of man and does not agree that it is a gift of grace itself that we are obedient and humble, he contradicts the Apostle who says, "What have you that you did not receive?" (1 Cor. 4:7), and, "But by the grace of God I am what I am" (1 Cor. 15:10).
from "What is Monergism?", http://www.monergism.com/what_is_monergism.phpThe Century Dictionary defines it as follows:
"In theology, the doctrine that the Holy Spirit is the only efficient agent in regeneration - that the human will possesses no inclination to holiness until regenerated, and therefore cannot cooperate in regeneration."
It means that the very desire for faith, by which we believe in Him who justifies the ungodly comes to us through regeneration -- and if anyone says that this belongs to us by nature and not by a gift of grace, that is, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit amending our will and turning it from unbelief to faith and from godlessness to godliness, he/she ignores the teaching of the Apostles, for Paul says, "...Even when we were dead in sins, [God] hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace ye are saved." and "...he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit." (Titus 3:5) And again, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God" (Eph. 2:8). or if anyone makes the assistance of grace depend on the humility or obedience of man and does not agree that it is a gift of grace itself that we are obedient and humble, he contradicts the Apostle who says, "What have you that you did not receive?" (1 Cor. 4:7), and, "But by the grace of God I am what I am" (1 Cor. 15:10).
Monergism simply means that it is God who gives ears to hear and eyes to see. It is God alone who gives illumination and understanding of His word that we might believe; It is God who raises us from the dead, who circumcises the heart; unplugs our ears; It is God alone who can give us a new sense that we may, at last, have the moral capacity to behold His beauty and unsurpassed excellency. The apostle John recorded Jesus saying to Nicodemus that we naturally love darkness, hate the light and WILL NOT come into the light (John 3:19, 20). And since our hardened resistance to God is thus seated in our affections, only God, by His grace, can lovingly change, overcome and disarm our rebellious disposition. The natural man, apart from the quickening work of the Holy Spirit, will not come to Christ on his own since he is at enmity with God and cannot understand spiritual things. Shining a light into a blind man's eyes will not enable his to see, since, as we all know, sight requires new eyes or some restoration of his visual faculty. Likewise, reading or hearing the word of God itself cannot elicit saving faith in the reader (or hearer) unless the Spirit first "germinates" the seed of the word in the heart, so to speak, which then infallibly gives rise to our faith and union with Christ. Like unto Lydia whom "the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul," (Acts 16:14) He must also give all His people spiritual life and understanding if their hearts are to be open and thus turn (respond) to Christ in faith.
Shining a light into a blind man's eyes will not enable him to see, for sight first requires healthy eyes or some restoration of his visual faculty. Likewise, reading or hearing the word of God itself cannot elicit saving faith in the reader (or hearer) unless the Spirit first "germinates" the seed of the word in the heart, which then infallibly gives rise to our faith and union with Christ. The problem here is not with the Word or God's Law but with man's prideful heart. As an example of how the Spirit uses the means of the spoken word to disarm closed hearts, the Book of Acts records the work of the Holy Spirit during the preaching of the apostles and, in one instance, states that "the Lord opened her [Lydia's] heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul," (Acts 16:14). The Spirit must likewise give all His people spiritual life and understanding if their hearts are to be opened and thus respond to Christ in faith.
Shining a light into a blind man's eyes will not enable him to see, for sight first requires healthy eyes or some restoration of his visual faculty. Likewise, reading or hearing the word of God itself cannot elicit saving faith in the reader (or hearer) unless the Spirit first "germinates" the seed of the word in the heart, which then infallibly gives rise to our faith and union with Christ. The problem here is not with the Word or God's Law but with man's prideful heart. As an example of how the Spirit uses the means of the spoken word to disarm closed hearts, the Book of Acts records the work of the Holy Spirit during the preaching of the apostles and, in one instance, states that "the Lord opened her [Lydia's] heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul," (Acts 16:14). The Spirit must likewise give all His people spiritual life and understanding if their hearts are to be opened and thus respond to Christ in faith.
So very much of Scripture simply does not make sense without this understanding and awareness that Moriah wonders how anyone can call themselves a Christian and not be a "monergist" in their awareness of the redemption Christ has wrought for them. The number one poison spilling from pulpits today -- not even the provenance of "wolves", it believes, but merely the error of bad teaching passed down and repeated for the past few generations primarily in America but infecting other places where the Gospel gets taken as well -- would be the opposite of this, the subtle, deadly, insidious notion that by "making a free will choice for God" the unregenerate human "cooperates" in his or her salvation and therefore has some small part which can be accredited to his or her efforts. This bes NOT the picture scripture paints of the unregenerated sinner, however, nor of the dire situation of his plight which requires no less than a bona fide personal intervention from the Living God to put to rights.
People clamor and bicker over "getting back to the Bible" for all sorts of silly political crusades and social standards, as if these would even matter in terms of curbing wickedness, which would then merely go back underground rather than take place where it could be detected. Hmph. High time we got back to the Bible on this matter, instead, and began to realise just what is involved in turning an individual from darkness to light, and delivering them from the power of Satan unto the power of God.
For an excellent, to-the-point comparison between "monergism" and its sadly prevalent opposite, have a look at this page here:
Two Views of Regeneration.
