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Podcast
Faith A Gift From God Mp4
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Hi, I'm Dave DeWitt, and today I want to talk about one of the much-debated questions
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about faith. Does our faith come as a gift from God, or is it a personal decision we
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make out of our unhindered free will? It's even a secular question. You usually put something
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like, are life events because of fate or free will? For Christians, this is an example of
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the age-old theological conflict between God's sovereignty and human free will. But it's
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crucial because it defines where saving faith comes from. One focal passage is Ephesians
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2.8.9, for by grace you've been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's the
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gift of God, not as a result of works, that no one should boast.
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First of all, just a footnote, this podcast will be drawing a lot of material from Sean
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Lazar, who is associated with the Grace Evangelical Society, and Dr. Harold Hohner, a deceased
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professor of New Testament at Dallas Theological Seminary. I think Dr. Hohner died in 2009.
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Here's something Sean Lazar wrote, the key issue in total depravity is the idea of total
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inability. Calvinists and Armenians say that people are born unable to believe. How then
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does anyone come to faith? Calvinists say that God must give the gift of faith to the
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elect. Take the old illustration of salvation where you throw a life preserver representing
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the gospel to a drowning man. In strict Calvinism, the man in the water is a floating dead corpse.
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Who can't reach out for life preserver unless God first makes him alive. So God has to give
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him the faith to believe. Here's some problems with that theology. First of all, the Bible
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never teaches that saving faith is a gift given to someone by God. Believing is something
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you and I are to do. The gift of God, which is not of ourselves in Ephesians 2.8.9, is salvation,
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not faith. The same is true of the next verse. It is salvation, which is not as a result of works,
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so that no one may boast in the verses 2.9. Second, if belief is impossible for an unregenerate
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person, then why does God judge unregenerate people for unbelief? The New Testament repeatedly
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tells us that God judges unbelief. Matthew 13.58, and he did not do many miracles because of their
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unbelief. Mark 6.6, and he wondered at their unbelief. Romans 11.20, they were broken off
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for their unbelief. Hebrews 3.19, they were not able to enter because of their unbelief.
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But there is a more basic problem. Under Calvinism, unbelief itself is impossible
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because belief is not possible. In order to negate something, there has to be some
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possibility of something to negate. Unnatural means that there's a possibility of the natural.
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Unprepared means that it's possible to be prepared. Unavailable assumes the one is
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capable of being available. So you simply cannot have unbelief unless you have the capacity for
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belief. Third, Satan clearly understands that people have an ability to believe.
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In Luke 8.12, Jesus said, those beside the road are those who have heard. And then the devil comes
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and takes away the word from their heart so that they will not believe. In 2 Corinthians 4.4,
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Paul told us that the God of this world blinds the minds of the unbelieving. What would be the
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point of the devil taking away the word from the hearts or blinding the minds of the unbelieving
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if people have no ability to believe? Fourth, some unbelievers seek for God over time,
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while they're still unbelievers. For the Calvinists, the capacity to believe for salvation
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only comes from God, not only at salvation. But then what compels the unregenerate to seek God?
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Jesus said, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them. Well,
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it sounds like a process, not just a point in time. There is often a partial faith based on
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a partial understanding that is the same sort of faith before it becomes saving faith. I don't
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misunderstand. A person is not saved gradually. We are only saved when we receive Christ at some
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point in time to when he's received him. But for some, that faith grows to that point over
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a period of time. Fifth, there's another element here. The Calvinists have not considered the
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nature of faith itself. Now, if you've known me very long, you've heard me say this before,
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but I think it's worth repeating here. Our faith is inseparably connected to our understanding.
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Faith in the gospel, the saving faith, comes by hearing, reasoning, and understanding the
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Word of God. Whatever we understand to be true, we cannot help but believe. Whatever we understand
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not to be true, we cannot possibly believe. For example, try to believe there's a pink elephant
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in the room where you're sitting right now. Try real hard. How's it going for you? Not so good?
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Now, try believing you are not in the room where you are right now. I'm guessing you can't do that
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either. Let me repeat. It's impossible to not believe what you understand to be true,
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and it's impossible to believe what you understand to be not true. You might object, thinking,
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well, I believe in God, but I don't understand everything about God. True, but you can only
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believe what you do understand about God. For example, if you believe God is infinite,
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does not mean you understand everything about the concept of infinity, but you have to have
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some understanding of the concept of infinity, or you couldn't rationally use the Word in a
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statement about God. Your faith cannot be more or less than what you understand to be true.
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Paul added in Romans 1, 24, since the creation of the world is invisible attributes, his eternal
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power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what's been made,
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so that they're without excuse. They're without excuse because they have to believe what they
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understand to be true. They're like the demons in James 2, 19. They can't help but understand
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and therefore believe God exists, but they're without excuse because they stopped their
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reasoning, understanding, and therefore their faith at that point. They do not understand,
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therefore believe that they are sinners and need a salvation, or that God is good and just and true
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and holy and righteous and saves sinners. Before I end, I'd like to say something about
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the call of God. Having said that we have free will, we also know that God is involved in the
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process of a person becoming a believer. After giving his salvation address in Acts 2, Peter
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said, for the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord
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our God will call to himself. After the parable of the invited guests and one who was thrown out
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for not having the right wedding clothes on, Jesus said in Matthew 22, 14, for many are called but
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few are chosen. After pointing out that God hardened Pharaoh's heart, Paul concluded, so then
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he has mercy on whom he desires and he hardens whom he desires. For sure we cannot know everything
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involved in the call of God, but whatever else it is, it involves a change in what we understand to
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be true because it is the only thing which creates real faith. Any other idea of faith is blind faith
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which is impossible. An oxymoron, contradiction in terms, all people have the capacity to believe
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the gospel. It's just common sense reason applied to reality, but Satan has blinded the minds of
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the unbelieving so that they cannot see the light of the gospel. Whatever else is involved in the
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call of God, it includes God overcoming the satanic blindness to those who are called,
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chosen, or elected by God to understand the gospel to be true, which inevitably results
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in believing it, and believing is receiving according to John 1, 12. Well, thank you for
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listening. A longer paper on the subject is available with footnotes and references on our
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website relationalconcepts.org.
