3. Irresistible Grace
Calvinists have this view that regeneration precedes faith, but I would submit that Scripture presents this as just the opposite. Faith precedes regeneration. Throughout Scripture we see that faith is always the condition of salvation. Scripture repeatedly declares, believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. Arminians interpret passages such as John 6:44 as speaking of prevenient grace, that is grace which enables a person to believe, but not compel them to believe. We believe God draws people, but that this drawing is resistible. Relationships require freedom in order to be meaningful, and since God desires a meaningful relationship with us we don’t believe God forces us to be in a relationship with Him. We believe God’s enabling grace illuminates us to our lost condition, and that this illumination allows us to decide to be saved as well as to not be. Furthermore, Scripture invariably teaches that salvation is contingent on the human’s choice to be saved. (Gal 3:26, Jn 1:12, Jn 5:24, Lk 7:50, Acts 16:31, Rom 10:9, 1 Cor 1:21, Eph 2:8-9). Scripture teaches grace is resistible (Gal 2:21, Heb 3:8 and 15, and 10:29, Eph 4:30
Hello Gordon, I see that you are pretty new around here, so first off,
WELCOME TO CF 
(and welcome to Ask a Calvinist as well
).
Just to be clear, this board is meant for
Calvinists alone to answer questions about Calvinism, IOW, it's not a board where debate/teaching by non-Calvinists, particularly in response to what we have to say about Calvinism here, is permitted (though you and others may ask additional questions, of course).
That said, you've given us a lot to talk about, so I'll begin with part of it, at the bottom with Irresistible Grace and we can work up from there.
Your friend mentioned that we teach that,
regeneration precedes faith, and he is correct about that (and although I believe that this teaching is tied directly to Total Depravity, not to Irresistible Grace, I think I see why he mentioned it here, so I will get back to it later).
That said, your friend spoke of the two types of "grace" that are taught by Arminians and Calvinists, Prevenient and Irresistible Grace, and he mentioned John 6:44, so I'll begin with that verse.
John 6
44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent me "draws" him; and I will raise him up on the last day.
The Greek word that's translated as "
draws" in v44 is
ἑλκύω [transliterated as helkuo]. This word
NEVER means to "beg", "woo", "entice", etc., whether Biblically or extra-Biblically. Rather, it means
to lead or impel, to compel, to drag, to haul, to draw by an inward power or irresistible force. Peter "
drew" his sword and cut off the servant's ear ..
John 18:10, Paul and Silas were "
dragged" before the authorities in the marketplace ..
Acts 16:19.
ἑλκύω was also used when the disciples were unable to "
draw" or
haul" in their net because it was filled with too many fish ..
John 21:6, and it was used extra-Biblically (in a Greek play once) to speak of "drawing" water from a well.
On the other hand, there are a couple of different Greek words that mean to
woo or to
entice, and here is one of them,
δελεάζω [deleazo]. This is the Biblical word that's used for "woo" or "entice" by both James and Peter (for instance, "
each one is tempted when he is carried away and ~enticed~ by his own lust" .. James 1:14), so it, not
ἑλκύω, is the word that the Lord Jesus would have probably chosen to use .. in
John 6:44 .. if beg, woo or entice is the meaning that He intended to convey to us.
This is more than enough for one post, so I'll stop here for now. Do you have any additional questions, or should I move on?
Thanks!
--David
