8408	Forums / Theology Forum / Election?	on: September 29, 2006, 09:03:36 PM
I will attack this Arminian thinking in another fashion by asking a question and then answering it according to a Calvinist and a Pauline approach. What is Gods work  and  what is mans work? Does God do 50 percent of the work and man does the other 50? Does God do only what man wills and then God works according to what man does? Does God wait for man to do before He will do? Does God look to see if man is going to do in the future and then after waiting for man to do God responds? All of these hidden messages are part of the armianin mentality. They use biblical phrases and stories but basically these are the questions that always come up after listening to an armianist. This mixed message is what creates the man centered salvation mentality we have today. The moment a Calvinist begins to have these questions we are accused of not being practical. We are accused of not being simple enough. What we believe is that God does all, and we do all. God doesnt wait for us to do. His grace is so complete that there is no way we could do anything unless it was first gifted to us by His grace. Graces power is not subject to mans will, but graces power makes man willing. So God does all, and we do all. Without Him we can do nothing. That means that 0 good works come from us without Him. If we have hidden human effort  messages behind the preaching of the word then we are going to have a theology that is confusing. We are going to come to the conclusion that we do not do enough and God is waiting on us to do more. This happens when we do not give God all the doing.