Very good. Yes, I am. Because the Bible makes faith conditional upon salvation..
So you believe that your "chosing" to believe, and so being smarter than the average person who "choses" not to believe, is what makes the difference between salvation and damnation? I believe the person and work of Christ which makes that difference. This is clear from scripture.
Are you aware of Paul's answer to the jailer's question: "sirs, what MUST I DO to be saved?"
He answered, "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you WILL BE SAVED."
Straight up. Salvation is conditioned upon faith.
This fact refutes the "U" in TULIP.
Not really. See, wIthout faith it is impossible to please God. But, yes, you have to believe. However, notice, nothing in these scriptures imply any "ability" for the old man to "choose to believe". These scriptures says nothing about "make your own free will choice". Only God knows who will believe and God, indeed, chooses who will believe. Jesus said "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you" (Joh.15:16).
No one "works up" any kind of faith. That is ridiculous. But calvinists have to come up with strange wordings in order to try to deflect from what the Bible says.
Have you ever "taken someone at their word"? Of course you have. Parents come to mind, for me.
Now, did you have to work up your faith in what your parents told you?
Do you see how silly that all sounds?.
Earthly parents are to be loved, respected and hold in honor. However in comparision to earthly parents God not only foresees things, He also predetermine things.
But the principle of childhood is the same, you didn't ask you parents to be naturally born into this world, did you? And they didn't ask you to "make a free will choice" to be born into this world, did they? No. And there is no hocus-pocus difference to the spiritual realm. If you are born again then that was God's choice and God's doing. Not YOUR doing. That's "ridiculous" in your judgment? Is this a "foolishness" that you cannot believe?
Actually, the Bible says that Christ died for everyone. So as long as you mean "everyone" when you said "his people" you are correct.
However, knowing calvinism and the view that Christ didn't die for everyone, could you please at least cite any verse that clearly indicates that He died ONLY for some?
This calvinist talking point is not found in Scripture.
Eph 2:5 - made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved..
Even you hold surely to a form of limited atonement, unless you are a universalist. I am quiet sure that you believe only believers will be saved?
The red words at the beginning refer to regeneration or the new birth. The blue words at the end of the verse makes clear what the red words mean. IOW, being "made alive" and being "saved" are SYNONYMOUS. They go together. You can't have one without the other. I challenge you to find any verse where a saved person was not regenerated or a regenerated person was not saved..
And the point is? Misunderstanding? I am saying all along that regeneration equals salvation.
And while you are at it, please fine any verse that makes clear that regeneration precedes or is required in order to be saved.
Now, Eph 2:8 - For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—
First, notice that the blue phrase in v.8 is the EXACT SAME words at the end of v.5.
Second, notice the means of our salvation, which is THROUGH FAITH.
iow, faith MUST BE PRESENT in order to be saved. And since v.5 equates regeneration and salvation, v.8 proves that both salvation and regeneration ARE CONDITIONED on faith.
Clear as can be.
Yes, but you think that the old man can produce saving faith and as a result of that he get regeneated. The Bible says that the old man considers the things of the Spirit as foolishness, something he CAN NOT know them (1Cor.2:12). Faith is a gift of the Spirit (Gal.5:22), something natural man cannot possess.
Jesus said that NO MAN CAN come to Him, unless the Father draws him there (John 6:44). He also said that it is IMPOSSIBLE for man to save himself (Matt.19:26) and that believing in Him was a work of GOD (John 6:29) - not of a work of man or a work partly of man. Paul said in Eph.2:1,5 that the old man is dead in trespasses and sins, not sick, but dead.
All this fancy-sounding talk about prevenient grace or even worse ideas of God first regenerating people and then making them able to choose to "say yes or no" to believing are unscriptural philosophies, set up by men who want to superimpose their own twisted thinking unto what the Bible says.
I just refuted this calvinist talking point.
Yes, and is regenerated when a person believes FIRST.
And they are just as wrong as anyone else who believes what they believe.
Eph 2:5 and 8 prove the opposite. Regeneration and salvation are THROUGH FAITH.
Calvinism has it backward; that faith is through regeneration and salvation. Yet, no Bible verse says this.
Actually Eph.2:5 confirms that sinners are DEAD in their trespasses and sins this UNABLE to contribute anything in the matter. So, it is you who have it backwards, you believe that a dead person is not dead and is able to experience that which only living persons can do.