A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven.
Note: This was written before the author’s conversion to Orthodoxy.
A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven.
Note: This was written before the author’s conversion to Orthodoxy.
Orthodox Christian Theology 
The greater problem than “skipping over” single verses is taking single verses out of the context of the whole of Scripture and interpreting them in a particular way (i.e. by themselves). Does the whole of Scripture support “monergism”? The honest exegete acknowledges that there are many passages that are problematic for that doctrine.
I have made more deatiled arguments in previous articles that you can find here: http://christianreformedtheology.com/category/calvinism-2/
In fact, the synergist can never find a single verse in context that can prove his contentions because the Bible is thoroughly monergistic.
Thanks. I scanned some of your posts. It seems to me that you’re using the term “monergism” in a way that’s inconsistent with what I’ve read from other Reformed writers, who often deny that man has any role to play at all. That certainly isn’t supported by Scripture. For example, you write:
There’s nothing there that’s inconsistent with Catholic belief. Certainly every good thing we do and even the very will to do it is a gift of God’s grace (cf. Phil 2:12–13, Eph 2:8–10, John 15:5). The essential and divisive question, I think, comes down to how one understands “free will”: Does man have the freedom to reject God’s grace? And is it really “free will” if he doesn’t?
I believe I take the Augustinian position, which even John Cassian had to concede to in his work Conference 13, which is supposedly his big attack against the idea. God is in all, through all, and works all.
For what it is worth, I do not think other Reformed writers would write differently. I think what you have in mind is predestinarianism, which has historically been considered a heresy and I do not believe is Scriptural.
The Augustinian position with respect to what? One of Augustine’s better-known quotes, and most succinct summaries of his doctrines:
If you can unify your idea of “monergism” with this (“man also works” and “collaborates with God who works”), then wonderful. You’re in agreement with the Catholic Church there. But in that case, the term “monergism” (“one working”) becomes basically meaningless, which is why Catholics don’t generally speak in such terms. Again, this is not at all the way other authors I have read use that term.
Correct.
The most damaging passage to Monergism: Eph 1:13
“Does man have the freedom to reject God’s grace?”
No. Man has the freedom to will whatever is in his power to do. It is not in his power to have faith in Christ except by the Holy Spirit. So, grace precedes (or is concurrent with) faith. It is not a reward for faith unless it is grace upon grace, meaning God is gracious and makes a man a believer, the man believes which is in of itself something good and praiseworthy, and God as a reward gives more grace to the man He has already been gracious to.
“And is it really “free will” if he doesn’t?”
Yes. I can desire to fly, but cannot out of inability. Hence, if it is not in man’s capacity to resist grace, there is no logical contradiction of inhibition on the will.
No, I don’t think that’s the question I asked. Certainly man can’t have faith in God without grace, any more than he can fly without wings. But does the man with wings have the freedom to not fly?
There is more to grace than the grace of faith, as we’ve been discussing above. It’s by grace that man wills to do good and does good. But is man compelled to do good? Does he have any choice or decision in the matter? Or can the believer decide that he’d rather be selfish and carnal (certainly, many believers do), and refuse the grace that God gives him to will and do good? If he cannot, then how can he be said to have “free will” at all? And if he can refuse — if it is only by his assent to grace that he lives a good and holy life (Gal 5:16, Rom 8:5, etc.) — then how can that be said to be “monergism”?
“But does the man with wings have the freedom to not fly?”
No, he’s too heavy. The point is, free will cannot do what a man does not have the capacity to do.
“There is more to grace than the grace of faith, as we’ve been discussing above. It’s by grace that man wills to do good and does good. But is man compelled to do good?”
He’s compelled by love. If God changes the heart of a man, like He did to Paul, the man can go from wickedness and hatred to good works.
“Does he have any choice or decision in the matter?”
Man has no choice over whether God is gracious or not. Grace is never compelled, it is a free, undeserved gift.
“If he cannot, then how can he be said to have “free will” at all?”
Man acts according to his inclinations. A heart that has not received graced is inclined towards evil all the time (Gen 6:5) and NEVER seeks after God (Rom 3:11). Yet, when God gives a man His Holy Spirit, he by his free will seeks the things of the Spirit. Men will according to their natural inclinations, man by nature is in sin, so man left to himself according to his nature will not will things that are of the Spirit.
… Huh? The analogy is, does a man who has received grace, who has been given the ability to believe and to do good, have the freedom to choose something other than the good? The question has nothing to do with inability; I’m talking about the regenerate believer here.
Yes, he can — but is he compelled to? Is he made to? Does he have any choice?
That wasn’t the question. Does the man who has received grace have any choice in how he lives his life after receiving grace?
So, you’re saying that, just as the unregenerate sinner cannot choose God (with which I agree), the reborn believer cannot not choose God; i.e. he cannot choose sin. How is it, then, that Christian believers still sin?
Let me get back to you tomorrow 🙂
No problem; take your time. I wasn’t really looking to have a debate anyway, but your answers have been interesting to me. God bless you!
“The analogy is, does a man who has received grace, who has been given the ability to believe and to do good, have the freedom to choose something other than the good?”
Sure, man does good only if he receives grace upon grace. If God does not work and will His grace in man, the man will find the law of his flesh at work.
A good example is Hezekiah. He by Gd’s grace was faithful and godly, but when left to his own he was proud: “Even in the matter of the envoys of the rulers of Babylon, who sent to him to inquire of the wonder that had happened in the land, God left him alone only to test him, that He might know all that was in his heart” (2 Chron 32:31).
So, in the man that has been given grace, apart from more grace when left to himself will freely devise wickedness.
“Yes, he can — but is he compelled to? Is he made to? Does he have any choice?”
Yes, he is compelled by his desire. A mother s compelled to die for her children because of her love. Our inclinations compell us and we respond freely to our inclinations.
“Does the man who has received grace have any choice in how he lives his life after receiving grace?”
Yes, in accordance with the inclinations in his own heart.
“So, you’re saying that, just as the unregenerate sinner cannot choose God (with which I agree), the reborn believer cannot not choose God; i.e. he cannot choose sin. How is it, then, that Christian believers still sin?”
Christians require grace upon grace. If God withdraws grace, as we saw with Hezekiah, his heart still retains the law of the flesh (Rom 7) at work.
If man cannot resist grace then it isn’t grace.
Grace is a free gift OFFERED through Jesus the Christ.
Your belief does not offer praise to God. It is a mechanical response to a tyrannical being. Your belief drains, completely, the Sacrifice of the Lamb of God. If we are automatons, saved at birth, then Jesus died for nothing. Why would He have to be sacrificed if the “elect” are already headed home? There is one word in
John 3:16 that your ilk twists every which way but can’t get it to fit your mold: pas (πᾶς).
Which translates to: any, all, the whole, anyone, everyone…
WHO. SO. EVER. receives Him (Jesus) will be saved. Rom 10:9-13
Thanks for your time, but that still doesn’t really answer my questions. Does God’s grace constrain the regenerate believer? Does the person receiving God’s grace have no choice in how he then leads his life? This seems to be an essential denial of free will, and while many Reformed theologians flat-out admit as much, that man has no free will, many others spend most of their time trying to reconcile these two mutually exclusive ideas, that it is only God who works (“monergism”), and yet man somehow has free will. They escape the issue, as you do, by saying that the regenerate believer is “inclined” by grace to seek God, just as the unregenerate sinner is “inclined” to sin and cannot seek God. But unless man’s free will is set free by grace to choose or reject God (as Augustine argues, the liberum arbitrium liberatum), then he has no more free will than the sinner dead in trespasses. Reformed people say that the believer who rejects God didn’t truly have God’s grace to begin with, or else God removed His grace; and yet this doesn’t account for the case of Adam, who even in his state of original justice chose to disobey and reject God, or for the continued problem of sin in the sincere believer’s life. Reformed thinkers I have read, again, conclude that Adam’s original sin was ordained by God, that it was not his free act at all; and it all goes back, again, to the unavoidable denial of free will.
I missed this reply:
“Does God’s grace constrain the regenerate believer?”
Perhaps from sin. The “constraint” is in reality a miraculous change in heart. The man, with a changed heart, acts freely based upon the inclinations of this changed heart.
“Does the person receiving God’s grace have no choice in how he then leads his life?”
He has a choice consistent with the inclinations of his heart.
“This seems to be an essential denial of free will, and while many Reformed theologians flat-out admit as much, that man has no free will, many others spend most of their time trying to reconcile these two mutually exclusive ideas, that it is only God who works (“monergism”), and yet man somehow has free will.”
In my 37th chapter on Job commentary, which I believe you read, I at great lengths exegeted the Biblical text and referred to both John Cassian and Chrysostom to do just that, I would be interested as to what you think about that chapter of Job.
“They escape the issue, as you do, by saying that the regenerate believer is “inclined” by grace to seek God, just as the unregenerate sinner is “inclined” to sin and cannot seek God. But unless man’s free will is set free by grace to choose or reject God (as Augustine argues, the liberum arbitrium liberatum), then he has no more free will than the sinner dead in trespasses.”
If you read Augustine’s on the Perseverance of the Saints, you will see that Augustine considers perseverance a spiritual gift. Hence we pray for it, because it is in God’s power to do it. Further, those in whom God grants perseverance are predestined to persevere. So, God foreknowledge and power to bestow grace to give the believer the ability to do what he cannot do apart from His grace does not violate free will, but rather gives man by his free will the power to live to his utmost.
“Reformed people say that the believer who rejects God didn’t truly have God’s grace to begin with…”
All men have God’s grace, even the animals are bestowed grace. God makes it rain on the righteous and unrighteous alike. Those who do not persevere cannot blame a defect in God’s grace, because He is not compelled to give to all equally. The defect, rather, is in all men. So the default thereby is those whom God does not predestined, He does not give the gift of perseverance.
So, unbelievers can experience grace, but not the fullness of grace that believers experience.
“…yet this doesn’t account for the case of Adam, who even in his state of original justice chose to disobey and reject God, or for the continued problem of sin in the sincere believer’s life.”
Most in the autonomous free will camp conveniently speculate about Adam, which they infer matters which are not explicit, and ignore explicit accounts of the matter in the rest of Scripture! This is problematic, to say the least.
“Reformed thinkers I have read, again, conclude that Adam’s original sin was ordained by God, that it was not his free act at all; and it all goes back, again, to the unavoidable denial of free will.”
It was ordained by God, obviously: He “works all things after the counsel of His will” (Eph 1:11). God also knew that Satan would deceive Eve and tempt Adam to sin. God did not conveniently turn of His ability to know the future and all of these events transpired by surprise. He, in His foreknowledge, could have destroyed Adam and Satan and easily put the world in totally different circumstances without the fall.
So, the autonomous free will camp ultimately cannot answer why there is suffering in the world without ultimately sacrificing God’s omniscience or omnipotence. God could have easily nipped everything at the bud if He so willed it.
However, God had better plans. And, like Job, we must be silent and let God be God, for He is kind in all His ways (Ps 145:17).
God bless,
Craig
“…choice consistent with the inclination of his heart.”
Good grief man. You contradicted yourself. First you write we have no choice then you write we have a choice. Which is it?
You should expunge yourself of your hubris else you will suffer trying to “persevere”.
You are a sinful man and will be to your death. We all are. The ONLY salvation is Jesus (if we choose).
Another passage you ignore:
He who believes in Him (choice) is not condemned; but he who does not believe (choice) is condemned already…” John 3:18
Great job Craig. I don’t think Catholics really understand they way that the Spirit regenerates and then transforms the Christian heart. I’ve even read some RC apologists describe it as God “raping” us by taking away our free will. How terrible to think! Mainly thanks to R.C. Sproul (Chosen by God), my views on this have changed towards the Reformed view, which I believe is the truly biblical and Christian one.
Amen!
-J.D.