I agree with you that the hearing of the Gospel could be analogized to "seeing the parachute."
Romans 1:16
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
Romans 10:14
14 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?
Why wouldn't the drawing of the lost person to Christ by God the Father (
John 6:44) not entail giving them the capacity to see the Son clearly for who he is and imparting to them the capacity to repent of their sinful life and accept Christ as Saviour?
2 Timothy 2:25 tells us that it is God who gives a person repentance so that they may acknowledge the truth - particularly of the Gospel. Why wouldn't this be part of how God draws a person to Christ?
Paul remarked that the "preaching of the cross is, to them who are perishing, foolishness." (
1 Corinthians 1:18) How do the lost overcome this attitude toward the "preaching of the cross" (aka the Gospel) on their own? If the lost person is "
dead in trespasses and sins," it seems to me that it would be impossible for them, on their own, without God's illumination and conviction, to receive the Gospel in a positive way. Can you see why I'm thinking this?
You mentioned the brass serpent and how that the Israelites needed to look to it in order to be saved from death. Who sent the "fiery serpents" among the Israelites? Who had created the situation where the brass serpent was necessary to the Israelites salvation? God, right? It was He, ultimately, who caused the Israelites to look unto the brass serpent. Doesn't the example of the brass serpent, then, remind us of how integral, how central, God is to "looking unto Jesus" (which is what Jesus says in
John 6:44)?
Hmmm...Okay, well, if saving faith in Christ is a work, how do you synthesize this assertion with the verses that say no one is saved by their works? (
Ephesians 2:8-9; 2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 3:5)
The examples you gave to me of belief not being a choice or work seem to show the
consequences of what was believed, the actions that
arose out of certain beliefs. For example, Noah built the Ark and entered it when it began to rain
because he believed the warning of God. His actions
reflected his belief, right? That's how it looks to me. How about Abraham's near-sacrifice of Isaac? Why did Abraham nearly sacrifice his son in the first place? Well,
because he believed God wanted him to and he believed God could be trusted no matter what happened. Here, too, belief
preceded action, giving rise to it. It looks to me, then, that you might be blending belief and action together when actually belief must exist
before action and is what
produces action. This is the pattern Paul lays out in his own progression into faith:
2 Timothy 1:12
12 ...for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.
I know>I have believed>I am persuaded>I have committed to Him.
For Paul, knowledge preceded belief and belief preceded action. This is how it works for all of us, don't you think? That's what your examples appear to indicate.
John 6:28-29
28 Then they said to Him, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?"
29 Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent."
In what way is belief a work? It isn't a physical act we perform, a good deed, like going to church, or reading the Bible, or giving money to the poor, right? The thief on the cross had no opportunity to do anything except die. He confessed Christ, but could perform no good deed. And yet, he was saved. So, in what sense is belief a work? I think it may be that one must work intellectually to believe in Christ, one must work to restructure one's worldview in believing the Gospel, but these are mental efforts, internal, non-physical labours, that are more received, ultimately, than generated. It is God, after all, who enables a person to repent (
2 Timothy 2:25); it is God who enables a person to believe (
Romans 12:3); it is God who convicts of sin (
John 16:8); and it is God who illuminates a person's understanding to His truth (
John 14:26). So, the "work of God" really is "
of" God. It is truly is
His work that we
receive and to which we respond in faith and action. Can you see my reasoning here?
I agree that God does not go so far as to violate a person's free agency, their freedom to choose, in bringing them to salvation. He does not impose salvation upon a person. That's a Calvinist/Reform notion to which I don't subscribe. I am somewhere between Molinism and Provisionalism in my current soteriological views. Anyway, while I don't believe God forces a person into salvation, I don't believe anyone can come to faith in Christ without God. I've just laid out above why, from Scripture, I think this is so. It's a false dichotomy to say that either a person is totally free of any and all divine influence and assistance in coming to salvation or they are irresistibly compelled into salvation. I think Scripture gives us good reason to think there's a middle ground to stand on between these two extremes. (
www.soteriology101.com) How would you describe your soteriological views? Armenianist? Pelagian? Semi-Pelagian? Molinist? Something else?
I'm confused. Doesn't
John 6:44 say that God draws us to the Son, not the other way 'round?
John 6:44
44 No one can come to Me (Jesus) unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.
God bless.
