F. Leroy Forlines on Faith as a Gift of God

        Faith is not some substance that exists outside of us that is to be given to us. It is an experience that must take place within us. That is the only way we can have faith. Faith is a gift in the sense that God gives to us the aid that is necessary, without which we could not exercise faith. It is not a gift in the sense that it is not an exercise of our own personality.

F. Leroy Forlines, Classical Arminianism: A Theology of Salvation, ed. J. Matthew Pinson (Nashville, TN: Randall House, 2011), p. 258

Copyright © F. Leroy Forlines, 2011. All rights reserved.

In order to purchase Forlines’ Classical Arminianism (2011),* see the links to the following websites:

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Addendum (24 Sept. 2022).  Franklin Leroy Forlines (1926–2020) died on Tuesday, 15 December 2020, aged ninety-four.

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John 13.35: a Hyper-Calvinistic Paraphrase

J. D. Gallé | Sunday, 1 April 2018

 

‘In this shall everyone know that you are authentic, unconditionally elected disciples of mine: if you are faithful in cherishing, relentlessly promulgating, and hailing the theological and soteriological splendours of subscribing to uniquely Reformational, Calvinistic, Zwinglian doctrines (especially in highly questionable or wholly inappropriate contexts), and casting off as evil the name of those pretending to be my disciples who adhere to anything that doctrinally reeks of Arminian, non-Calvinistic, or free-will theistic thought.’ (Jn 13.35)

Copyright © J. D. Gallé, 2018. All rights reserved.

Forsake and Follow

Whatever sins you might be holding on to, now is the time to forsake them and follow the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Principled, Authentic Christian

J. D. Gallé | Thursday, 15 March 2018

        The principled, authentic Christian abstains from worldly, secular music. S/he eschews sporting events, the cinema (i.e. the movie theatre), pubs, and the consumption of alcoholic drinks. S/he is not adorned with jewellery and/or immodest, ostentatious attire. Lastly, s/he avoids chewing gum in congregational settings amongst fellow believers.

Copyright © J. D. Gallé, 2018. All rights reserved.

The Theological Implications of Calvinism’s Conception of Doubt

J. D. Gallé | Friday, 12 January 2018

        The weakness of Greg Morse’s article, ‘Does Your Doubt Dishonor God? What No One Says about Weak Faith’ (4 Jan. 2018),[1] is that the author holds many false assumptions, all (or nearly all) of which are Calvinistic in nature. The following declaration, taken from Desiring God’s statement of faith, underlies the theological understanding of Morse’s essay and serves as the foundation of Calvinistic theology in general:

We believe that God, from all eternity, in order to display the full extent of His glory for the eternal and ever-increasing enjoyment of all who love Him, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His will, freely and unchangeably ordain and foreknow whatever comes to pass. (‘God’s Eternal Purpose and Election’, 3.1)[2]

        Taking the above affirmation into account, the basic implications concerning faith and doubt in Calvinistic thought are as follows:

• whether a person is devoid of faith (i.e. an unbeliever), believing in God, or ever will come to believe in God and the good news of Jesus Christ, is a matter of divine foreordination;
• at any given moment of time, the relative strength or weakness of a particular believer’s faith in God, God’s promises, and Jesus Christ his Son, is a matter of divine foreordination;
• if a person fails to persevere in the faith, this merely demonstrates that s/he was a ‘false believer’ all along. One can only fully and finally fall (i.e. apostatise) from a spurious profession of faith.

        In summary, Calvinism maintains that the actual possession of faith and its degree of strength or weakness in the individual believer are attributable solely to God’s eternal decree. If a believer is presently harbouring grave doubts regarding God and his trustworthiness, s/he is doubting in exact accordance with God’s secret, immutable, inscrutable, eternal decree.

Notes

        1. <https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/does-your-doubt-dishonor-god>
        2. See ‘Desiring God: An Affirmation of Faith’ (6 Oct. 2004), <https://www.deiringgod.org/affirmation-of-faith>.

Copyright © J. D. Gallé, 2018. All rights reserved.

Christmas Day (2017)

May those who know no joy find it in the Lord Jesus Christ.

René A. López on Faith as a Gift of God

        [I]f faith is a gift from God, then people should be asking God for regeneration before they can believe. But such a request is completely foreign to the Scriptures. […] Numerous verses call for people to believe, that is, to exercise personal faith (e.g., John 1:12–13; 3:16, 36; 5:24; 6:47; Acts 16:31; see also Eph. 2:8; Rom. 3:21–22, 25–26, 28; and 4:3–6). […]
        Another problem with the faith-is-a-gift view relates to sanctification. According to advocates of this view[,] true believers will never fail to live godly lives. This is because God, having infused them with faith, guarantees their sanctification throughout their lives. However, this diminishes the seriousness of the commands of Scripture for believers to pursue holiness. […]
        If faith is a gift, then many commands in Scripture that exhort, command, prompt, and warn believers to live obediently become superfluous because the ultimate end of infused faith guarantees the sanctification of believers without their involvement. Followed to its logical conclusion[,] the gift-of-faith view lessens the urgency of putting forth effort to obey scriptural exhortations. (p. 275)

        The assumption that people are spiritually unresponsive and thus unable to exercise faith for salvation does not stand up to biblical scrutiny. Since faith is never considered a work in the Scriptures, God need not endow individuals with faith in order to avoid a merit-based salvation. Instead, the Bible presents faith for salvation as a human response much like that of a beggar holding out his hand for food. Passages that supposedly teach the gift-of-faith view do not, on careful examination, support that view. (p. 276)

René A. López, ‘Is Faith a Gift from God or a Human Exercise?’, Bibliotheca Sacra 164 (Jul.–Sept. 2007)[1]

Copyright © Dallas Theological Seminary, 2007. All rights reserved.

Note

        1. For the full article, see René A. López, ‘Is Faith a Gift from God or a Human Exercise?’, Bibliotheca Sacra 164 (Jul.–Sept. 2007): 259–76, <https://www.dts.edu/download/publications/bibliotheca/BibSac-Lopez-IsFaithAGiftfromGodoraHumanExercise.pdf>.  (Regrettably, as from no later than Saturday, 18 September 2021, the aforementioned link is broken, thus no longer providing access to López’s article.)  —J. D. Gallé

Matthew 22.14: a Calvinistic Paraphrase

J. D. Gallé | Saturday, 10 June 2017

‘For many receive the external, ineffectual call that, taken by itself, is insufficient for the sinner to respond positively in repentance and faith to the good news of salvation; but few receive the accompanying internal, irresistible call of the Holy Spirit to rightly respond to the gospel invitation.’ (Matt. 22.14)[1]

 

Note

        1. The above ‘paraphrase’ was inspired by Guy Waters’ article from The Gospel Coalition website, ‘What Did Jesus Mean by “Many Are Called, but Few Are Chosen?” ’ (9 Jun. 2017), <https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/what-did-jesus-mean-by-many-are-called-but-few-are-chosen>.

Copyright © J. D. Gallé, 2017. All rights reserved.

Latest revisions: 11 June 2017 (made slight emendations); 17 January 2018 (converted two colons to full stops); 21 May 2019 (removed emphases); modified scriptural abbreviation (19 Nov. 2021).