Yours, mine, our,...
Van builds his whole thinking upon these personal possessives as if that explains from WHERE faith originated.
He then conjures up the scheme that THIS faith is part of every human nature in which anyone has the freedom of the will to express. That if the person is serious enough, and earnest enough, then they may get the attention of God and then God will look upon the faith to see if it meets some nebulous standard to be credited as righteousness.
This thinking violates multiple passages and to the list already published on this thread I would add another:
Galatians 3 is a wonderful chapter on conversion. In that discussion, Paul writes:
23Now
before faith came,
we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24So then, the law was our guardian
until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.25But
now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian,
26for
in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.
It is CHRIST who brought faith, not some human conjuring.
Christ said, "All that the Father gives me WILL come to me."
That is because Christ IS faith. He is the "AUTHOR and the PERFECTER of FAITH."
Previously, in this same passage, Paul points out this principle:
7Know then that it is
those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.
8And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles
by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.”
9So then, those who are
of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man
of faith.
Paul in the final days prior to his murder wrote to Timothy. He expresses that the faith Timothy was that SAME faith (not in type or kind but in actual substance) of his mother and grandmother. Now if it were something in which anyone and everyone born could by nature and self will express, then Paul was most certainly wrong by pointing out the peculiarity of the faith as UNIQUE to Timothy, his mother, and grandmother in comparison to unbelievers.
Look at this passage from what Paul wrote:
5I am reminded of your sincere faith,
a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. 6For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands,
7for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
Folks do not pay attention to one who is so much in error as to puff up human attributes and consider them capable of attaining the righteousness of God, or even getting God's attention.
Though often and continually corrected with SCRIPTURES he obstinately refuses correction, repentance and recanting.
Rather, he will deflect with a great amount of declarative statements concerning a passage of Scriptures in hope that the foundational error will be covered up.
But error is error. And no matter the length or the amount of writing, even that writing in which may be correct concerning some points, cannot be held as Scripturally presented until the whole is without error.
It isn't a matter of personal opinion. It is a matter of taking the basic presentation of Scriptures concerning the foundation and from whence faith came.
All who do not teach that faith COMES from God are
not Biblically sound.
