What is tragic is that Skandelon and the other arms and nameless theology guys cannot respond to this post because they actually believe the vast majority of that version of the song.
I can't speak for others, but that is certainly not what I believe.
I believe man of himself cannot possibly conceive of the gospel. This is actually very evident in the world. Look at all the established religions, or go to the darkest jungle and consider the pagans, and you will see the same religion. It is the religion that thinks man can earn salvation through his own merit. I certainly do not agree with that.
I do believe man retained the ability to respond to God, but man cannot respond to what he does not know. This is what Paul meant when he asked, "and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?" (Rom 10:14).
Now, what does this question imply? Does it imply man lacks the ability to believe? No. What it directly implies is that man cannot believe in something he has no knowledge of. And Paul makes this more clear when he says "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God". What man needs to believe is to hear the gospel, to be informed and taught. Without this knowledge man could not possibly believe in Christ.
And Jesus said this himself.
John 6:45 It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all
taught of God. Every man therefore that hath
heard, and hath
learned of the Father, cometh unto me.
In order to come to Jesus, you must have heard of him. How do you hear about Jesus? From God's word given to us by the Father. And every man who hears, that is listens and believes, who is taught, shall come to Christ.
So, how in the world is that saving myself? If God did not reveal his Son Jesus to me I would be hopelessly lost.
If I am drowning and cannot swim, and you throw me a life preserver (the gospel), I grab hold of it and you pull me to safety, how is that saving myself? No one would ever claim to have saved themselves in such a situation.
And that is how the gospel is, without it I would drown in my own sin. I am not able to merit my salvation because of my sins. But the gospel comes to me like a life preserver. I grab hold of it and am pulled in by Jesus. He gets 100% of the credit.
I could refuse to grab the life preserver. I could try to swim to safety and save myself. If so, I would drown. This is how salvation is.
And this is not a no-name theology. The Eastern Orthodox church always believed man cooperates with God in salvation. God offers the grace, man accepts it. They believed this well before Augustine. This from Wiki
This is similar to the position taken in the Conferences of St. John Cassian.[6] In this work, the matter of grace and faith is taken as analogous to that of the invalids that Christ healed. The fact that Christ came to where an invalid was is liked to prevenient grace, because unless Christ came there, the invalid would have no opportunity to ask him for help. Likewise without prevenient grace, a person would not be able to ask God for help. The actual asking for help comes from the free choice of the invalid or person in question. It is made possible by Christ's presence (by prevenient grace), but there is no necessary outcome: Christ's presence (prevenient grace) leaves a person able to ask for help, but also able to refuse to ask for help. Asking, however, does not do anything to actually heal the person; Christ's response to their request is what heals them, not their own choice. Likewise, God saves those who ask Him. However, they are only able to ask because He first comes to them with prevenient grace. Nonetheless, they are free to refuse to ask for His help, just as the invalids were free to not ask Christ for healing. Thus it is concluded, "it belongs to divine grace to give us opportunities of salvation... it is ours to follow up the blessings which God gives us with earnestness or indifference." God is then free to decide how to response to our earnestness or indifference, which make up a part of the data which He considers in His free decision. We know, however, that in love He will respond by completing the salvation of those who respond earnestly, while leaving those who respond with indifference to their own devices.
In the 13th Conference, Cassian also uses the analogy of a farmer. Although the farmer must chose to work the farm, the growth of his crops is entirely due to God. God provides the growth, but He does so only for those who are willing to have that growth and actualize this through their effort.
I basically agree with this. God's grace through his written word showed me I was a sinner in danger of hell fire. It also showed me that Jesus died for my sins and rose from the dead. It also tells me if I call on him he will save me. My calling is not a work of merit, in fact, my calling is an act of submission that confesses that only Jesus can save me. But Jesus has promised to respond to those who call on him and save them. Jesus saved me, not myself, and unless God had revealed Jesus to me, I could have never been saved.
:thumbsup: (I though it was funny, but then sometimes my sense of humor 'just ain't rite')
