Eternal life is very different from eternal security. Eternal life is received upon the first resurrection. Eternal security says that we cannot lost salvation once it is received, but Scripture does not teach this. It teaches that during this life we must remain vigilant, constantly seeking to remain in Christ and to continually do His will. It is endurance to the end of life which is rewarded with actually receiving eternal life.
Faith is not a gift from God. It is something God commanded man to have/do/exhibit. Salvation is the gift.
Hello @Doug Brents.
Sometimes we( not saying you) talk past one another. It can take several posts/ exchanges to flush things out to see if someone is on the same page. It’s much easier to do in person than on this medium. Often we can talk past one another and many times we are much closer than we think on issues/ doctrines/ beliefs. It still happens with me on this medium/ forum. As a former Calvinist I can attest just today that @armylngst and I are closer than either one of us think on the Hypostatic Union and Trinity.
Faith has an object and faith comes from man. It’s man’s responsibility to believe in the same way it’s man’s responsibility for unbelief. Man is held accountable for his unbelief , not God.
So, you do not believe the scriptures, is that what you are saying? Paul said that faith is a gift given to us on the behalf of Jesus Christ.
EVERYONE has the ability to believe in Jesus, because as Jesus Himself said, when He was lifted up He called all men to Himself (John 12:32). So all mankind has been called and given the ability to believe in Jesus.
Yes, but it all depend on what you consider to be the source of faith. Yes, the package is salvation. it comes by grace through faith. If you think that faith is a gift, then I must wholeheartedly disagree. If you think that faith is a work as described by Jesus, then I will agree. But that difference is key to the correct and biblical soteriology. The work of believing comes by the work of hearing the word about God and Christ. Neither of those are works of law which cannot give salvation to eternal life.
Where were they before they fell away? What did they fall away from?
I believe that salvation is the gift of God in Ephesians 2:8 yet in a 'sense' I believe that you could call faith a gift. Allow me to explain: Now although it is our responsibility to choose to believe in/place faith in Jesus Christ for salvation and we will be held accountable for unbelief, (John 3:18) saving belief/faith in Jesus Christ is never exclusively a matter of human decision. Unless the Father draws us (John 6:44) and enables us (John 6:65), we would NEVER come to believe in/place faith in Jesus Christ for salvation all by ourselves. So, there is more to coming to saving belief/faith in Christ than merely paper, ink and human intelligence.
Very true see below in Ephesians 2:8
Maybe we can be on faith as well. I don't believe faith is a/the gift of God, however, I also don't think it is something we do or present as a work. I see it as a reaction (totally unconscious and out of our control) to what God has done with the radical regeneration of our spirit, and trainformation of our mind. The new understanding is so marketdly different from what we have known or understood in our past as to be radical. The reaction to this new understanding that is so radically different and opposite, is represented by faith.
Those are already saved people
Those are already saved people
