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Is Saving Faith A Gift?

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SavedByGrace

Well-Known Member
Faith is entirely from God, by his grace alone.

Hebrews 11:1:1-3
Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation. By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen.

Hebrews 12:1-2
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.
Galatians 5:22-23
But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
Ephesians 2:8-9
God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.

can you respond to the OP? God is unjust if He desires the "non elect" to believe, when He has already ordained that this saving faith is only for the elect!
 

AustinC

Well-Known Member
= sight belief, not faith. Jesus avoided people who believed on the basis of his miracles.
1689, you are forcing a bias onto the text.
Moreso, you ignore all those whom God saved before Abram.
From Adam onward, God saved his chosen people by grace and granted them faith to believe.
Galatians 3:2-14
Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ. How foolish can you be? After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort? Have you experienced so much for nothing? Surely it was not in vain, was it? I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ. In the same way, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” The real children of Abraham, then, are those who put their faith in God. What’s more, the Scriptures looked forward to this time when God would declare the Gentiles to be righteous because of their faith. God proclaimed this good news to Abraham long ago when he said, “All nations will be blessed through you.” So all who put their faith in Christ share the same blessing Abraham received because of his faith. But those who depend on the law to make them right with God are under his curse, for the Scriptures say, “Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the commands that are written in God’s Book of the Law.” So it is clear that no one can be made right with God by trying to keep the law. For the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.” This way of faith is very different from the way of law, which says, “It is through obeying the law that a person has life.” But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” Through Christ Jesus, God has blessed the Gentiles with the same blessing he promised to Abraham, so that we who are believers might receive the promised Holy Spirit through faith.
Hebrews 11:4-7,13,31,39-40
It was by faith that Abel brought a more acceptable offering to God than Cain did. Abel’s offering gave evidence that he was a righteous man, and God showed his approval of his gifts. Although Abel is long dead, he still speaks to us by his example of faith. It was by faith that Enoch was taken up to heaven without dying—“he disappeared, because God took him.” For before he was taken up, he was known as a person who pleased God. And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him about things that had never happened before. By his faith Noah condemned the rest of the world, and he received the righteousness that comes by faith. All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth.

It was by faith that Rahab the prostitute was not destroyed with the people in her city who refused to obey God. For she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.

All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised. For God had something better in mind for us, so that they would not reach perfection without us.


It is incorrect to state that salvation was only of the Jews.
Salvation is of God.
The Promised One came through the line of Israel as Savior of the world to all who hear his voice and believe.
 

SavedByGrace

Well-Known Member
Jew and Gentile....but not all of them.

the ENTIRE HUMAN RACE, is either JEW or GENTILE!

When Paul says, " God hath concluded them all in unbelief", is this only "some", or "many" or "most"? this means that the ENTIRE HUMAN RACE did not sin in Adam! :D
 

Iconoclast

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
Read John 1:12
You are badly confused.
Sorry you struggle so mightily. Re read this thread.These men have given you help which you suggest is stupid.
All solid confessional churches see it.
It remains a mystery to you.
Turn towards the light, not away from it
 

AustinC

Well-Known Member
the fault is never with God, but dumb, unbiblical "reformed" theology!
Wow! Such an arrogance and stubbornness in you.
Iconoclast wrote:
Who God has mercy on is His prerogative. Stop finding fault with God.
You respond with:
"The fault is...with...dumb, unbiblical, 'reformed theology.'"

I agree, the fault is never with God. Yet, you stated:
"Now, if Saving Faith is a Gift from God, and only given to the “Elect”, how can God Justly condemn those who do NOT BELIEVE, as they were not given this Saving Faith, so that they could be saved? This makes God unjust!"

Your error stems from your ignorance regarding justice. You think salvation is attained by your own willful belief and not attained by your own willful unbelief. You think that faith is innate and latent within the soul of every human being. If only a human stirs up that latent faith and energizes it, they can will themselves to believe. You get angry when you read scripture that tells you that God will have "mercy upon whom I will have mercy." You say that God is unjust, if faith is not innate and latent within every human that is created. You go so far as to tell everyone who has posted numerous Bible passages regarding faith as God's gift to the believer that they are unbiblical and dumb.

May I ask this?
Is there one verse that tells us that faith is given to all humans at the moment of conception and each human is responsible for causing their latent faith to be activated?
Could it be, for all your bluster, that you are wrong about faith and you are unclear regarding God's justice?
Would you ever consider that you have mishandled God's word and made a mistake?
 

SavedByGrace

Well-Known Member
Wow! Such an arrogance and stubbornness in you.
Iconoclast wrote:
Who God has mercy on is His prerogative. Stop finding fault with God.
You respond with:
"The fault is...with...dumb, unbiblical, 'reformed theology.'"

I agree, the fault is never with God. Yet, you stated:
"Now, if Saving Faith is a Gift from God, and only given to the “Elect”, how can God Justly condemn those who do NOT BELIEVE, as they were not given this Saving Faith, so that they could be saved? This makes God unjust!"

Your error stems from your ignorance regarding justice. You think salvation is attained by your own willful belief and not attained by your own willful unbelief. You think that faith is innate and latent within the soul of every human being. If only a human stirs up that latent faith and energizes it, they can will themselves to believe. You get angry when you read scripture that tells you that God will have "mercy upon whom I will have mercy." You say that God is unjust, if faith is not innate and latent within every human that is created. You go so far as to tell everyone who has posted numerous Bible passages regarding faith as God's gift to the believer that they are unbiblical and dumb.

May I ask this?
Is there one verse that tells us that faith is given to all humans at the moment of conception and each human is responsible for causing their latent faith to be activated?
Could it be, for all your bluster, that you are wrong about faith and you are unclear regarding God's justice?
Would you ever consider that you have mishandled God's word and made a mistake?

why not deal with the OP, instead of just rambling on?
 

SovereignGrace

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
Unless God checks all their boxes, believes exactly the way they believe, exercises His will in accordance to their will, He is not worthy of their praise and worship.
 

SovereignGrace

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
Man deserves at least a chance to be saved is what the gainsayer is positing. Unless God at least gives him/her a chance, He is being unfair.
 

AustinC

Well-Known Member
can you respond to the OP? God is unjust if He desires the "non elect" to believe, when He has already ordained that this saving faith is only for the elect!
From Grace To You:
"God genuinely desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Yet in “the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Eph. 3:11), He chose only the elect “out of the world” (John 17:6), and passed over the rest, leaving them to the damning consequences of their sin (cf.. Rom. 1:18–32). The culpability for their damnation rests entirely on them because of their sin and rejection of God. God is not to blame for their unbelief.

Since God desires all men to be saved, we are not required to ascertain that a person is elect before praying for that person’s salvation. God alone knows who all the elect are (2 Tim. 2:19). We may pray on behalf of all men with full assurance that such prayers are good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior. After all, “the Lord is gracious and merciful; slow to anger and great in loving-kindness. The Lord is good to all, and His mercies are over all His works” (Ps. 145:8–9)."
If God Desires All Men to Be Saved, Why Aren't They?
 

Iconoclast

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
Man deserves at least a chance to be saved is what the gainsayer is positing. Unless God at least gives him/her a chance, He is being unfair.
A man centered worldview thinks God, His word, His people ,are unfair.
We rejoice in God blessing us with so great a salvation.
We rejoice in a full atonement that is actual not potential.
We rejoice in God who alone determines who He will save and the means to that salvation .
Others look to blame God for our sin and loving sin rather than God.
In the other Christian denomination forum Protestant addressed this saying the two seeds are still at war.
 
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