Calvinism and Lutheranism agrees that man after the Fall has no ability to cooperate with God's grace in conversion but disagree on election and limited atonement.
Arminianism believes that man after the Fall can cooperate with God’s grace in conversion.
Man do know the difference between right and wrong. Man is able to play "Christian" on the surface but not truly a Christian from within.
Man can live "morally" right but still a sinner and unable to acknowledge God. All of us are born spiritual ignorant (DEAD), not stupid. Through Adam, we are born spiritually dead. The nineteenth-century Scottish commentator John Eadie described it as a case of "death walking". Spiritually dead people are like zombies--they don't know they're dead and they're still going through the motions of living. Sin is where an unregenerate person runs away from God, meaning that a person called a "fugitive" that as a sinner, it is a person's inclination is to flee from God. Death is universal spiritually and also by nature. Physically we are born alive however spiritually dead.
Through Adam, we are born spiritually dead. Through Jesus Christ, we are born-again spiritually. Romans 5:12 [ Death Through Adam, Life Through Christ ] 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.
A spiritually dead person cannot will himself to live anymore than a physically dead person can will himself to come back to life. If the dead person (spiritually or physically) is to come back to life he/she will have to be resurrected by God. In the spiritual realm this means he/she must be born from above. A spiritually dead person is without the Holy Spirit, therefore we do not have the "ability" to get saved on our own. We need the Holy Spirit to prick and quicken us to be alive. Without the Holy Spirit is TOTAL DEPRAVITY". The Holy Spirit is the only person that can quicken people to be saved. Romans 8:7 the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. 1 Corinthians 15:56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. Without Christ through the Holy Spirit... we ARE NOTHING except worthy of going through the WIDE GATE of hell. Ungenerated people have no capacity to understand God's spiritual truth; instead they created God in their own image that they are calling God's truth foolishness (1 Cor. 2:14).
I am reminded of this verse, 1 Thessalonians 1:5 "because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake."
Also, Ephesians 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God which backs up by Jesus in John 6:29 "The work of God is this: to believe in the one He has sent." Jesus said again in John 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. Paul reminded me in Romans 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
Growing up as Arminianism, I have learned that I took credit for almost everything I achieved, even my own salvation. That is why the Apostle Paul wrote, “Your salvation is nothing you have achieved by your good works. It is a gift of God. You receive it by faith. That way no one can boast of his own accomplishments.”
Calvinism is a doctrine of how I believe (I am not a pure Calvinist) salvation work according to God's sovereign and the work of the Holy Spirit. I like both Calvinism as well as Lutheranism.
Reading Proverbs 20:9 helped me understand better, "Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?" Jesus said in Matthew 5:8 those who are pure in heart "shall see God." When my heart is purified by Christ that I will see God. And the purer my heart is the more of God I will see. If I don’t have a regenerate heart, my heart is not worth keeping, and it’s impossible for such a heart to produce any true righteousness.
How can my heart be pure on my own?
Reading Romans 8:11 helped me understand, And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. Grace is not earned. Grace is not base on "merit". Grace is used when submitting to God in humility by putting my Faith in God's will. "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble" (Jas 4:6, quoting Pr 3:34). God's grace is amply sufficient to enable us to live a godly life that God gives his grace only to the humble, who admit their dependence on it. If, therefore, we hope for his grace to lift us up to holiness, we must "humble before the Lord" in faith.
In the spiritual realm this means he/she must be born from above. A spiritually dead person is without the Holy Spirit, therefore we do not have the "ability" to get saved on our own. We need the Holy Spirit to prick and quicken us to be alive. Without the Holy Spirit is TOTAL DEPRAVITY". The Holy Spirit is the only person that can quicken people to be saved. Remember, Jesus told one of the most religious men of His day that unless a person is "born again" by the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God (John 3:3). Christ's definition of Beatitudes (Matthew 5) contradicts Flesh's (the world’s) definition of happiness. True happiness begins in our hearts, mourning over the conviction of the Holy Spirit over our sin which leads us to meekness. From the attitude of meekness, we hunger and thirst for righteousness. Through Jesus Christ, we can receive God's mercy and righteousness that our hearts will be pure. When we accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, the Holy Spirit came into our hearts and cleansed our sins and purified our hearts. Only God can provide happiness when we have Jesus Christ in our hearts and only Jesus Christ can give us true happiness.
The only way to get in is to believe Him with my heart which is sealed by the Holy Spirit. New Creature in Spirit as for example Jesus likened the religious Pharisees to a group of dishwashers who clean the outside of a cup while leaving the inside dirty. He said, "Now you Pharisees make the outside of the cup and dish clean, but your inward part is full of greed and wickedness. Foolish ones! Did not He who made the outside make the inside also?" (Luke 11:39-40). Man CANNOT cooperate with God’s grace without the help from the Holy Spirit because man is spiritually DEAD.
Arminianism believes that man after the Fall can cooperate with God’s grace in conversion.
Man do know the difference between right and wrong. Man is able to play "Christian" on the surface but not truly a Christian from within.
Man can live "morally" right but still a sinner and unable to acknowledge God. All of us are born spiritual ignorant (DEAD), not stupid. Through Adam, we are born spiritually dead. The nineteenth-century Scottish commentator John Eadie described it as a case of "death walking". Spiritually dead people are like zombies--they don't know they're dead and they're still going through the motions of living. Sin is where an unregenerate person runs away from God, meaning that a person called a "fugitive" that as a sinner, it is a person's inclination is to flee from God. Death is universal spiritually and also by nature. Physically we are born alive however spiritually dead.
Through Adam, we are born spiritually dead. Through Jesus Christ, we are born-again spiritually. Romans 5:12 [ Death Through Adam, Life Through Christ ] 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.
A spiritually dead person cannot will himself to live anymore than a physically dead person can will himself to come back to life. If the dead person (spiritually or physically) is to come back to life he/she will have to be resurrected by God. In the spiritual realm this means he/she must be born from above. A spiritually dead person is without the Holy Spirit, therefore we do not have the "ability" to get saved on our own. We need the Holy Spirit to prick and quicken us to be alive. Without the Holy Spirit is TOTAL DEPRAVITY". The Holy Spirit is the only person that can quicken people to be saved. Romans 8:7 the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. 1 Corinthians 15:56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. Without Christ through the Holy Spirit... we ARE NOTHING except worthy of going through the WIDE GATE of hell. Ungenerated people have no capacity to understand God's spiritual truth; instead they created God in their own image that they are calling God's truth foolishness (1 Cor. 2:14).
I am reminded of this verse, 1 Thessalonians 1:5 "because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake."
Also, Ephesians 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God which backs up by Jesus in John 6:29 "The work of God is this: to believe in the one He has sent." Jesus said again in John 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. Paul reminded me in Romans 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
Growing up as Arminianism, I have learned that I took credit for almost everything I achieved, even my own salvation. That is why the Apostle Paul wrote, “Your salvation is nothing you have achieved by your good works. It is a gift of God. You receive it by faith. That way no one can boast of his own accomplishments.”
Calvinism is a doctrine of how I believe (I am not a pure Calvinist) salvation work according to God's sovereign and the work of the Holy Spirit. I like both Calvinism as well as Lutheranism.
Reading Proverbs 20:9 helped me understand better, "Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?" Jesus said in Matthew 5:8 those who are pure in heart "shall see God." When my heart is purified by Christ that I will see God. And the purer my heart is the more of God I will see. If I don’t have a regenerate heart, my heart is not worth keeping, and it’s impossible for such a heart to produce any true righteousness.
How can my heart be pure on my own?
Reading Romans 8:11 helped me understand, And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. Grace is not earned. Grace is not base on "merit". Grace is used when submitting to God in humility by putting my Faith in God's will. "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble" (Jas 4:6, quoting Pr 3:34). God's grace is amply sufficient to enable us to live a godly life that God gives his grace only to the humble, who admit their dependence on it. If, therefore, we hope for his grace to lift us up to holiness, we must "humble before the Lord" in faith.
In the spiritual realm this means he/she must be born from above. A spiritually dead person is without the Holy Spirit, therefore we do not have the "ability" to get saved on our own. We need the Holy Spirit to prick and quicken us to be alive. Without the Holy Spirit is TOTAL DEPRAVITY". The Holy Spirit is the only person that can quicken people to be saved. Remember, Jesus told one of the most religious men of His day that unless a person is "born again" by the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God (John 3:3). Christ's definition of Beatitudes (Matthew 5) contradicts Flesh's (the world’s) definition of happiness. True happiness begins in our hearts, mourning over the conviction of the Holy Spirit over our sin which leads us to meekness. From the attitude of meekness, we hunger and thirst for righteousness. Through Jesus Christ, we can receive God's mercy and righteousness that our hearts will be pure. When we accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, the Holy Spirit came into our hearts and cleansed our sins and purified our hearts. Only God can provide happiness when we have Jesus Christ in our hearts and only Jesus Christ can give us true happiness.
The only way to get in is to believe Him with my heart which is sealed by the Holy Spirit. New Creature in Spirit as for example Jesus likened the religious Pharisees to a group of dishwashers who clean the outside of a cup while leaving the inside dirty. He said, "Now you Pharisees make the outside of the cup and dish clean, but your inward part is full of greed and wickedness. Foolish ones! Did not He who made the outside make the inside also?" (Luke 11:39-40). Man CANNOT cooperate with God’s grace without the help from the Holy Spirit because man is spiritually DEAD.
