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Uriah Smith Mark Bovee Collection

Thank you for the discussion Rachel. I am a self-confessed prophecy hobbyist. What I think I know about prophecy has never helped me one iota in my Christian walk, and it may never. For me it's just fun to cross "e-swords" with someone as knowledgeable as you, on a topic as unimportant as this. And I did learn a lot, so thanks for that.

D. Allan!!!!!

bump!

A couple of more points. One is, assuming that faith is an action of the mind, like hope or love, then if we say something like "God gives faith to everyone" or "God gives hope to everyone" or "God gives love to everyone", what this means is that anyone has the ability to love, or hope, or "faith" (pretending that "faith" can be used as a very, like the other words hope and love, and like the Greek). So our disagreement here is more semantics than anything else. Where the real disagreement lies is with the idea that a person can be reconciled, or justified by faith, apart from his will. This is something Calvinists assert (although the framework is quite different than yours). Armenians have always, in contrast to Calvinists, asserted the importance of the will in being reconciled or justified by faith.

You're trying to make an assertion which is based on taking a verse out of context. You are misquoting the text. It does not say what you are claiming it says. It does not say, "God gave faith to every man" I have been quoting what Paul actually wrote. Why don't you do the same, instead of making an assertion based on a verse you are misquoting and taking out of context? Also, I quoted from Clarke's commentary which discusses the meaning of the word "pistis" taken in context. You could respond to that too. In this case "faith" would have a different meaning (words are like that; they can have different meanings, depending on the context).

I've commented on this (although using other words). I wrote that faith is a response to a stimulus. You're pointing out the importance of the stimulus.

I've quoted the following a couple of times. It describes the process well: Notice it says, " His love is drawing us to Himself. If we do not resist this drawing, we shall be led to the foot of the cross in repentance for the sins that have crucified the Saviour." So if a person does not response, it is because he has resisted the drawing of the Spirit, and so he is at fault, not God, because God is doing His part by leading the sinner to repentance. As Romans 2:4 puts it, "the goodness of God leads thee to repentance".