However, this grace is NOT God removing the choice from man to accept or reject this grace - which is *not at all* the same thing as man somehow chooses to save himself in the pelagian sense of the term, which involved a rejection of man's sin nature...
That the virtues of the pagans were expressions of pride (and thus there own reward) is familiar in the Gospel and a patristic cliché; I take for granted you accept that nothing before faith is meritorious, in the eyes of God
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To say that some attitude before faith can determine whether God grants faith may seem benign But b/c it is unproblematic to elicit specific attitudes with pagan techniques of self-discipline, granting that commits you to the position for which Pelagius was condemned
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See, nobody is saying this, not me nor other Baptists, which rather makes it a straw man argument. The scripture is clear that God works to draw all men unto Himself (John 12:32). Yet, It also says that all men have not faith (II Thess. 3:2).
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The obvious synthesis of this is that while God works to extend His grace and draw men unto Himself, man has the choice to accept or reject that grace, which then becomes the basis of judgement. Without this, no calvinistic argument for God's judgement can even credibly be made.
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It’s “obvious” only in the Phil 100 sense where you combine higher-level concepts according to the rules of ordinary language If I choose for you to do X, then you did not choose to do X (I chose it for you); that rule does not apply to God as creator and king
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There are two issues I'd like to address in response. The first problem is with trying to use philosophy to address something which philosophy is incompetent to address.
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Interpretation of Scripture according to the ordinary rules of language is why we even have Scripture in human languages. Scripture is perspicuous. We don't need philosophy to be able to understand what God wants us to understand about Him.
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Indeed, given the warnings about philosophy and man's wisdom that Scripture gives us (Col. 2:8, I Cor. 2-3), we would be wise not to try to make firm claims about the nature, will, and Being of God on the basis of philosophy...
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...especially not when those conclusions contradict the testimony of Scripture. One problem with Calvinism is that it's not so much a system of doctrine as it is a distilled form of Augustinian philosophy.
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