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Monergism vs. Synergism
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Let me attack the premise in the OP that claims non-Calvinists, those that believe one or more of the points of the TULIP are mistaken doctrine, are all synergistic. This disingenuous effort to claim conditional election is the result of the believer meriting salvation through works.
Lets return to the textbook definition of monoergism: Monoergism is "the view that the Holy Spirit is the only agent who effects regeneration of Christians." Notice the word "effect" is not affects. When the Holy Spirit places us spiritually in Christ, we undergo the circumcision of Christ where are body of flesh (sin) is removed and we arise in Christ a new creation, regenerated meaning born anew.
Therefore, a person can believe God is the one who credits our worthless faith as righteousness, it has no merit or worth, but is just a filthy rag, and based this action by God alone, God places the person in Christ. This view is monoegistism to the core.
So the fly in the buttermilk is the mistaken assertion of total inability to seek God and trust in Christ in our fallen state. But this false premise, total spiritual inability has been shown to be false a number of times.
Men receive the gospel with joy, therefore they had some limited spiritual ability. Men are entering heaven, therefore they had some limited spiritual ability. Men seek God, asking "what must we do to work the works of God." Verse after verse describes men seeking God in different ways, some by works and some by faith, i.e. Romans 9:30-33.
So rather than accepting the textbook definition, Calvinists seek to redefine monoergism, and make it a code word for total spiritual inability. Not how the dictionary reads.
Does man bring something to the table during justification? No, even when his faith has been credited as righteousness, he remains unjust. So all a person whose faith has been credited as righteousness brings to the table is a wretched sinner, who having broken one point of the Law has broken the whole law. God alone justifies the unjust.
Last point, when we seek God and trust in Christ, does that equate with "jumping into the lake of salvation?" Nope. There are folks like the folks of Matthew 7 who say Lord, Lord, but Christ never knew them. So it is not the profession of faith, done by wretched sinners, but God, who knows what is hidden in our hearts, but God monoergistically, who puts us into the lake of salvation in Christ.
Lets return to the textbook definition of monoergism: Monoergism is "the view that the Holy Spirit is the only agent who effects regeneration of Christians." Notice the word "effect" is not affects. When the Holy Spirit places us spiritually in Christ, we undergo the circumcision of Christ where are body of flesh (sin) is removed and we arise in Christ a new creation, regenerated meaning born anew.
Therefore, a person can believe God is the one who credits our worthless faith as righteousness, it has no merit or worth, but is just a filthy rag, and based this action by God alone, God places the person in Christ. This view is monoegistism to the core.
So the fly in the buttermilk is the mistaken assertion of total inability to seek God and trust in Christ in our fallen state. But this false premise, total spiritual inability has been shown to be false a number of times.
Men receive the gospel with joy, therefore they had some limited spiritual ability. Men are entering heaven, therefore they had some limited spiritual ability. Men seek God, asking "what must we do to work the works of God." Verse after verse describes men seeking God in different ways, some by works and some by faith, i.e. Romans 9:30-33.
So rather than accepting the textbook definition, Calvinists seek to redefine monoergism, and make it a code word for total spiritual inability. Not how the dictionary reads.
Does man bring something to the table during justification? No, even when his faith has been credited as righteousness, he remains unjust. So all a person whose faith has been credited as righteousness brings to the table is a wretched sinner, who having broken one point of the Law has broken the whole law. God alone justifies the unjust.
Last point, when we seek God and trust in Christ, does that equate with "jumping into the lake of salvation?" Nope. There are folks like the folks of Matthew 7 who say Lord, Lord, but Christ never knew them. So it is not the profession of faith, done by wretched sinners, but God, who knows what is hidden in our hearts, but God monoergistically, who puts us into the lake of salvation in Christ.
quantumfaith
Active Member
Hmmmph!! And all this time I thought you was a mathmatician(sp?)....
Actually, I am a pan-millenialist, compatibly-monergistic, Synergist who loves mathematics.
mathematician
Skandelon
<b>Moderator</b>
Sorry to have to be the one to tell you that the inconsistency is yours. We deny WORKS in salvation because we understand the difference in meritorious works by which one earns or deserves his salvation by his deeds, and imputed righteousness by Grace through faith.
Tell me, did the Prodigal Son earn or merit the response he got from his Father because he returned home to beg for forgiveness and a servant job? Of course not. He deserved to be slapped and sent packing, but BECAUSE OF A GRACIOUS FATHER ALONE, he was fully restored as a Son and Heir. He didn't earn that or merit that or WORK for that...so to presume that his humiliating and shameful return is equal to 'works salvation' is unfounded biblically.
I hope this helps you understand the error of your inconsistency about our views.
quantumfaith
Active Member
No one on this board, Monergists or Synergist alike, is accepting of a merit based salvation. Thanks for sharing you insight Skan.
OldRegular
Well-Known Member
I believe God used that passage of Scripture to open my eyes and lead me to understand that Salvation is the work of God alone; that HE is the Author and Finisher of our faith!
Actually, I am a pan-millenialist, compatibly-monergistic, Synergist who loves mathematics.
mathematician
Hmmm......Well I like Beethoven
humblethinker
Active Member
Actually, I am a pan-millenialist, compatibly-monergistic, Synergist who loves mathematics.
mathematician
I like to consider life as a partnership with God... I want to live in relationship with God. I want to partner with the Holy Spirit in leading people into a growning relationship with Jesus Christ, thereby creating other synergists. ;-) I am also a pan-mellinialist. I only have a strong appreciation for mathematics, however, I am skeptical of numerology. ;-)
me too!Hmmm......Well I like Beethoven
OldRegular
Well-Known Member
The Prodigal was a Son when he left, a Son while in the pig pen, and still a Son when he returned. Children of God continually seek His forgiveness.
humblethinker
Active Member
Yeah, I think those people were the ones who had already believed based on Paul's preaching the first time he spoke there. So, when what they initially believed was confirmed they were excited.
OldRegular
Well-Known Member
Hmmm......Well I like Beethoven
Beethoven:thumbs::thumbs:. I like the Four Seasons by Vivaldi. But give heed EW&F, Van [on another thread] says you and I have to get with the program!
quantumfaith
Active Member
"leading people into growing relationship with God"
In complete agreement with you HT. Numerology (IMO) is nothing more than a marriage or arithmetic with superstition. It has no merit in my book.
Have you read Andy's book....Deep and Wide? I am currently enjoying it tremendously.
In my understanding, it all comes down to human ability. You synergist's believe that human nature has been damaged by the "Fall" but not totally disabled. In other words, even if we are not basically good, your claim is that we are not completely bad either.....therefore you claim the will is not enslaved to sin, but is capable of believing in Christ (Even prior to regeneration)....although not entirely apart from God's grace. Thus "synergy" .... every sinner retains the ability to choose for or against God, either cooperating with God's spirit unto salvation or resisting God's grace unto damnation. Is that correct or am I missing something?
"when the Lord says "Whosoever," I cannot get out of that circle. It is a big net that seems to entangle all men in its meshes. "Whosoever." If I call upon the name of the Lord, if you call upon the name of the Lord, if the man who lies upstairs a-dying calls upon the name of the Lord, we shall be saved. What a wide word that "whosoever" is!" —Charles Spurgeon, "The Whole Machinery of Salvation"
"Here is a plain text, which no one can gainsay, "Whosoever believeth in him is not condemned." If, then, you believe on Jesus Christ, you are not condemned, election or no election." —Charles Spurgeon, "Ho! Ho!"
"For this cause so many run to this predestination doctrine, because it happens to be a handy place of resort. Now, God has a people whom he will save, a chosen and special people, redeemed by the blood of Christ; but there is no more in that doctrine to deny the other grand truth that whosoever believeth in Jesus Christ is not condemned, than there is in the fact that Abyssinia is in Africa, to contradict the doctrine that Hindostan is in Asia. They are two truths which stand together, and though it may not always be easy for us to reconcile them, it would be more difficult to make them disagree. There never seems to me to be any need to reconcile the two truths, nor, indeed, any practical difficulty in the matter; the difficulty is metaphysical, and what have lost sinners to do with metaphysics? Fixed is everything, from the motion of a grain of dust in the summer's wind to the revolution of a planet in its orbit, and yet man is as free as if there was no God, as independent an actor as if everything were left to chance. I see indelible marks both of predestination and free agency everywhere in God's universe. Then why do you ask questions about your election when God says, “whosoever will”? It is foolish to stand and ask whether you are ordained to come when the invitation bids you come." —Charles Spurgeon, "A Sermon for the Most Miserable of Men"
Skandelon
<b>Moderator</b>
Where the subsequent parables of the lost sheep and lost coin likewise not really about 'the lost' but just the backslidden?
If so, why then did the father say, "He was once dead but now is alive?"
This illustrates the concept of RECONCILIATION. Mankind as a whole is being reconciled back to relationship with their creator (Father). More specifically, the prodigal represents the Gentiles living in rebellion and the older brother represents Israel living in religion, but both missing out on the relationship that only comes through grace.
Skandelon
<b>Moderator</b>
Not exactly. We believe we are totally disabled from saving ourselves. We can't be saved without Him.
Calvinists like to take passages which teach that we can't seek God (i.e. Rom 3:10-11) to prove that we can't respond to a God actively seek to save us. It is unfounded.
But not prior to being enabled by a gracious work of the Holy Spirit. Just because God's gracious enabling work is resistible doesn't mean we believe that we are not enslaved. We just affirm, along with scripture, that the Gospel truth can set men free, bring the dead to life and reconcile enemies. That doesn't mean we don't affirm that we are born enslaved, dead and enemies.
Nothing against Beethoven, he's great, but I prefer Bach
Yes but Dabuccy (spelling) tops them both. I just happen to be listing to Ludwig's Symphony No. 5 in C minor/ NY Philharmonic :godisgood:
"This is the work of God, that you believe on him who he has sent." - Jn.6:29
"Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." - Phil.1:6
"And the very God of peace will sanctify you wholly,...,faithful is he who calls you, and he will bring it to pass. - I Thess.5:23,24
Blessings...
"Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." - Phil.1:6
"And the very God of peace will sanctify you wholly,...,faithful is he who calls you, and he will bring it to pass. - I Thess.5:23,24
Blessings...
Skandelon
<b>Moderator</b>
Amen! Great passages!
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