Featured Call on the name of the Lord is necessary

Basic soteriology 101
Confession rises as a result of the changed heart, confession does not change the heart.

 

Just restating Romans 10:10

One can confess and repent and never will the heart be changed.

One with a changed heart cannot help but repent and confess.

 

The Greek for Romans 10:13 is, "Πᾶς γὰρ ὃς ἂν ἐπικαλέσηται τὸ ὄνομα κυρίου, σωθήσεται", which is much stronger:

"EVERYONE WHOSOEVER shall call upon the Name of the Lord, shall be saved"

Acts 2:21 also reads, "καὶ ἔσται, πᾶς ὃς ἐὰν ἐπικαλέσηται τὸ ὄνομα κυρίου, σωθήσεται"

"And it shall be, EVERYONE WHOSOEVER shall call upon the Name of the Lord, shall be saved"

Revelation 22:17 has the Holy Spirit and the Lord Jesus Christ say:

"καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα καὶ ἡ νύμφη λέγουσιν, ἔρχου· καὶ ὁ ἀκούων εἰπάτω, ἔρχου. καὶ ὁ διψῶν ἐρχέσθω, ὁ θέλων λαβέτω ὕδωρ ζωῆς δωρεάν"

"And the Spirit and the Bride say, come, and he that hears, let him say come, and he that THIRSTS let him come. and he that WILLS, let them take the water of life FREELY"!

Here we have the Third and Second Persons of the Holy Trinity, invite ALL of the human race to TAKE FREELY of ETERNAL LIFE. Note that the FREE WILL of ALL is appealed to, otherwise this verse is nonsense!

 

Now THAT I agree with.

 

You present by adding the word “free” into the texts.

There is nothing “free” in the ungodly, unsaved, heathen.

This is why the Lord must make alive, must create a new heart, must make the believers a new creation.

This is also why Paul mentions the very personal struggle in which all believers must contend. The old nature is not remade, or reinvigorated, but must die, daily be put aside.

There seems to be a desire that you lift humankind into some endowment of being able by their own effort and will to attain salvation. That just does not remain consistent with all Scripture.

 

Now THAT I do not agree with. On the contrary: "repentance" IS the changed heart. The moment one obeys the conviction of the Holy Ghost by repenting (turning from sin and self to Jesus), that is when the heart changes. BECAUSE repentance and faith happen in the heart.

 

can you show where in the entire Bible do we read, that the Lord first "regenerates" the sinners heart, thus enabling them to "call on Him"? You forget that Jesus Himself says in John 16, that the Holy Spirit "convicts the world of sin...because they do not believe in Him". The same Holy Spirit, and Jesus Christ in the closing chapter of Revelation INVITES ALL to use their WILL, which must be free, or the invitation is pointless, to take of the water of life FREELY. God has made man with the capacity to either "accept" or "reject" the Gospel of salvation, which is been distorted by some "Reformers"!

 

There is something sacrosanct about the will of man and his choice(s) that no matter what we believe about it, God respects it. So should we.

Isaiah 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

HankD

 

Before I attend to your question I will ask one.

If I did show you by Scripture what you ask, would such oblige you to change your view toward the Doctrines of Grace?

Not asking for full endorsement, but calm and deliberate consideration.

 

If I am ever shown from the Word of God that I am wrong on ANYTHING that I hold to, even all my Christian life (over 35 years), then I will do so, as never claim to know all of the Truth, and always need to learn from the Holy Spirit!

 

Ok, then we must focus upon the Scripture and discover what alignment needs we both may have.

 

We begin with this from Ephesians 2. Normally, I use the NASB or the KJV, but there are times that (imo) the NIV is valuable in quickly reading for an over view, and then turning to the others for more in-depth work.

1As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesha and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast. 10For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
​

Look at the sequence in bold.

We were dead.
We were made alive with Christ while still dead
Then we were sealed in Christ (saved).

Your thoughts?

 

See, this is one of the great dangers of the system known as "Calvinism", or "Reformed" theology. They produce passages from Scripture and try to get a complete view of what the overall teaching of the Bible is. You quote from Ephesians, as if this IS the only passage in the Bible that we should look at on "Regeneration". Wrong! You have omitted the crucial passages that clearly teach that the sinner must REPENT first, before they can be saved, which is the SAME as "Regeneration", as is taught in Titus 3:5, where the word in the Greek, "παλινγενεσία", literally means, "born again", or the "re-birth". It CANNOT come before REPENTANCE!

 

I showed you one passage in context which deals directly with the matter, and you claim the teaching in that passage is needing some adjustment? Do you disagree with Ephesians, or my three sentence outline? I didn’t “produce” the passage. I merely posted it and highlighted the sequence Paul stated.

You aren’t keeping the agreement if so early you discredit the writer of Ephesians as not presenting a truthful and reliable statement. A statement that undoubtedly teaches life is given before one is “in Christ” (using the term from Ephesians).

Do you have a scripture that states as clearly life is given after on is “in Christ?” You said Ephesians was not the only, so quote in your post such a passage.