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Originally Posted by bvc Abraham is the model given in the bible for faith and he simply believed what God said and it was counted as righteousness. That was/is faith. To say God gives us faith, as in something more than belief, so we can believe is calvinistic because some are given it and some are not, yet we know he died for all and it is his will that none perish, so if that's true, and we know it is, then he gives everyone faith at some point and all are saved, but that is not true so faith is not the gift because the gifts and callings of God are without repentance! One can reject salvation but how could anyone reject faith? Irresistible grace is bunk! |
I quite agree that faith is simply belief—a justified and true belief. I was not intimating that it was more than that. However, regardless of your interpretation of Ephesians 2:8, the fact remains that the natural man
cannot understand the things of God because he does not have the spirit of God (see my post above). Therefore, God must incline himself toward us before we can incline ourselves toward him. To suppose otherwise is to ignore God's total sovereignty over all that happens. If you believe in libertarian free will I would invite you to consider my article
'Annotating The Catholic Encyclopedia: Free Will'. If you feel you are able to offer refutations, I think it would be more appropriate to respond there, or to create a new thread. I am happy to continue this conversation on these forums, but since we appear to agree on the basic nature of biblical faith, I don't think we should get off topic in here.