What do Monergism and Synergism mean and why are they important?

Personally I've never met a Christian, including some who've never heard of Calvinsim or Arminianism, who've taken any credit for their salvation. When the subject of salvation comes up, God always gets the credit and the glory.
On the other hand, my interest is always piqued when pastors who are reputed to be Calvinistic end their services with appeals to their congregants to make public professions of faith.
It seems to me that there are perspectives on the salvation process that the human mind is not privy to. I believe that when we get to heaven this controversy will be resolved to everyone's satisfaction and God's glory.

 

Some, possibly many or most Christians haven't taken the time to delve as deeply into the subject as you have. They are content to accept God's offer of salvation with "childlike" faith and devote their attention to more practical matters. And as Jesus said, "For such are the kingdom of heaven."
Some of the most spiritual, joyful, hopeful, faithful, loving people I've met have had childlike faith and probably couldn't give you a coherent answer one way or the other. I, for one, would certainly not fault them for that particular shortcoming.

 

Sometimes I think God's Tower of Babel curse exists inside the English language. In one sense we all DO something. We agree with God's righteous condemnation of sin, including our own personal sin, our need to repent, and our need for God's provided propitiation for sin.
I don't believe God saves people who are ignorant, willfully or not, of these truths or others who would disagree with God's diagnosis and prescription. But I did hear John MacArthur once read from a story about an African with a troubled conscience who credited God with providing persuasive resources necessary to make an informed decision about his own salvation.

 

Look the whole issue is about cause versus effect. No one denies repentance and faith are our responses to the gospel, but the issue is what is the cause for our responses? Repentance is turning from one thing to another thing (mind turning from unbelief to belief; heart turning from love of sin to love of righteousness; will turning from resistance to submission). What turns our mind, heart and will? The prophet says, "Turn us O God and we shall be turned".So it is God's power rather than us that does the turning. This turning power is regeneration while repentance and faith is us turning.

No one denies that our will is involved! However, is our will the effect of regeneration or is it the cause for regeneration (Jn. 1:13)? Did we receive him due to our will being the first cause or His will being the first cause (Jn. 1:12)? I believe that regeneration is the creation of a new believing heart by God's effectual call as illustrated in Genesis 1:2-3 as Paul claims in 2 Cor. 4:6 ("For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts...."). Therefore, faith cometh by the RHEMA or the command of God (Rom. 10:17 not logos) rather than the rhema of men (Rom. 10:18) as the rhema of men produce nothing UNLESS the gospel comes additionally in "power and in the Spirit" (1 Thes. 1:5). Thus by RHEMA (command of God) Christ who is God in the flesh is both "the author" and "the finisher" of our faith (Heb. 12:2) through the effectual call of the Holy Spirit which includes regeneration whereby the human spirit is brought into union with the Living God who is LIFE, LIGHT, LOVE and HOLY. The spirit of man is the object of regeneration and thus partaking of life, light, love and God's holiness. This partaking of life, light, love and holiness establishes the moral state of the spirit which in turn determines the moral inclination of the human heart so that the regenerate man freely chooses to do good (Rom.7:15-17; 19-20) because he "delights in the law of God after the inward man." It is the new birth that creates this "delight" or inclination to do good which becomes the "law of the mind" in a regenerate person so that "to will is present" (Rom. 7:18) to do good, but the power to will good is found only in the indwelling Person and power of the Spirit (Rom. 8:8-13) who works in us "both TO WILL and TO DO of his good pleasure" (Philip. 2:13).

However, the arminian has the unregenerate man more powerful than the regenerate man because he believes the human will in the unregenerate man has not only the will present to do good but also the power apart from either new birth or the indwelling Person and power of the Spirit. He has the unregenerate man willing to do good without any inward good nature or source of good and therefore presents the irrational idea that good can come from an evil tree/heart without any change of the nature of the tree from evil to good. Arminians have an evil tree producing good fruit. Jesus says that is impossible as the nature of the tree must first be changed as the nature of the tree is the CAUSE for the kind of fruit being produced. Jesus says, first make the tree either good or evil as it is the nature of the tree that is the CAUSE of its product (good or evil) - Mt. 13:33-35; 7:15-20).

The position of a monergist is that a regenerated heart is the cause of a heart willing good not vice versa.

 

I once attended a Baptist church with a pastor who held, to my of thinking, a pretty reverential view that did no damage to God's sovereignty or man's responsibility. He used an analogy of the gates of heaven. On the arch over the gate facing those who would enter was a sign that read "Whosoever will may come." and on the inside, as those who entered looked back over their shoulder could read, "Chosen before the foundations of the world."
I believe there are things too divine for sinful man's mind to fully comprehend.

 

To some Christians, even to some Calvinists, believing, repenting and obeying are the works we are incapable of.