Enabling Grace

[Faithful]

Enabling grace is needed for faith, but not “regenerating grace.” There are no verses in the Bible one must be regenerated (saved, born-again, new birth) before one can believe the gospel.

“Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2.4). If God desires all to be saved, but deliberately withholds it from everyone except the elect, then His love is not for all mankind, but that is contrary to all Scripture. What He does for the elect, He would do for all if calvinism is true. But if osas arminian is true, not saving some is because many do not receive His life.

Calvinists worship an unloving god, because Sproul writes, “it would have been more loving of God not to have allowed them to be born.” This contradicts the fact God’s love is infinite and perfect. Paul never had the problem of saying God was “not all that loving.” He said unequivocally, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ!”

Calvinism is founded on the premise that God does not love everyone, is not merciful to all, does not want all to be saved, but in fact is pleased to damn billions whom, by sovereign regeneration, He could have saved if He so desired. That is not God of the Bible, who “is love” (1 John 4.8).

Spurgeon contradicted himself. He believed in limited atonement yet he urged everyone to come to Christ. He was urging men to come to Christ whom according to calvinism, Jesus did not die for. He admits "God's wish that all men should be saved," which shows he was caught in a web of contradiction woven by calvinism. How could God, whose sovereignty enables Him to do anything He desires (the cornerstone of calvinism), fail to save those He "wishes" to be saved? "Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2.4).

[Churchwork]

"And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart" (SofS 1.4). Everyone who thirsts no matter how wicked, is commanded to turn the Lord. If you think you are regenerated before you believe, know you have never been saved to begin with and still need to seek after God with an honest heart.

The offer of salvation is extended to "all the ends of the earth" (Is. 45.22). "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink" (John 7.37). All those who thirst are offered the same "living water" that Christ offered to the woman at the well (John 4.10). "Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely" (Rev. 22.17).

"Preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16.15). "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3.16). Surely, "every creature", "the world," and "whosoever" must include all, no matter how badly depraved.

It would take considerable manipulation to maintain that the offer of salvation is extended only to the elect, or even that only the elect could respond, and even then, not until they have been sovereignly regenerated. Is it really possible that Paul's "all nations of men" and "every one of us" and "we" referred to an elect of whom the Greeks had never heard? (Acts 17.24-28) Paul is clearly including his listeners and antagonists on Mar's Hill. God is "not far from every one of us," and He commands all men to seek Him, and who may be found by all.

[Churchwork]

The god of calvinism is not sincere. If the doctrine of Total Depravity as defined in TULIP were true, then from Genesis to Revelation we would have the contradiction of God pleading year after year, century after century, for repentance from a seemingly endless procession of billions of individuals who (being totally depraved) were incapable of repenting and whom He had already predestined to eternal torment from a past eternity. He would be presented in Scripture as a pleading with those to repent and turn to Him whom He had created so hopelessly depraved that they could not possibly repent unless He first regenerated them, and from whom He was withholding the very regeneration and grace they needed to turn to Him, and whom He had no intention of saving. Such a scenario turns most of the Bible into a charade and mocks the rational intelligence and conscience with which God has bestowed on mankind.

Calvinism drives us to an irrational dead end. There would be no need for God to plead with the elect, whom He had already predestined to salvation, a salvation which He allegedly effects sovereignly before any faith is exercised on their part. Nor does it make any better sense for God to present the gospel to and plead with the non-elect who cannot believe it until they have been sovereignly regenerated, but whom He will not regenerate, having already damned them by His eternal decree. Yet He continues to plead and blame them for not repenting, even while He withholds from them the essential grace that He gives only to the elect! And this is only one of Calvinism's gross misrepresentations of God. The entire history of God's dealings with man as recorded in the Bible loses credibility under the interpretation of Calvinism. Who has to gain under suck deception and trickery? Satan no less. This is madness to sincerely offer salvation to those for whom Christ did not die and whom He predestined to eternal torment. A Calvinist will genuinely admit God does not love all mankind and does not genuinely offer salvation to all through the gospel. All Calvinism is hyper. Either you are a calvinist or you are not. There is no sitting on the fence partly osas arminian and partly calvinist.