A Calvinist seminary professor lectured on the incompatibility of salvation by grace alone through faith alone and belief that in order to be saved a person must freely accept the grace of God.\u00a0 \u201cArminianism makes the individual person\u2019s free choice the decisive factor in his salvation.\u00a0 Therefore, in his theology, salvation cannot be a free gift.\u00a0 By choosing it freely the person is contributing something to his own salvation.\u00a0 That\u2019s a meritorious work and therefore his salvation would not be absolutely the work of God.\u201d<\/p>\n
After his lecture, while resting in his office, a student knocked on his door and comes in for a chat.\u00a0 \u201cProfessor, I don\u2019t know where else to turn.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have parents that can help me.\u00a0 I\u2019m coming to you as a last resort to see if you have any advice.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been ill lately and can\u2019t work.\u00a0 I\u2019m about to be evicted from my apartment and I have nowhere else to go.\u00a0 I haven\u2019t eaten in three days because I have no money.\u00a0 Unless a miracle happens, I\u2019m going to be homeless.\u00a0 Can you tell me where I can find help or at least pray with me that God will supply my need?<\/p>\n
After some prayer and reflection, the professor took pity on the poor student and gave him a check for $1,000\u2013just enough to pay a couple months rent and stock his kitchen with food while he regained his health and found a new job.\u00a0 It was truly a life saving response to the students\u2019 need.<\/p>\n
The student took the check, endorsed it, and deposited it in his bank account and then paid his rent and went on a grocery shopping spree.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A week later, the student was telling another student about the professor\u2019s generosity: \u201cBoy, did he ever save my life.\u00a0 If it wasn\u2019t for him, right now I\u2019d be living under the interstate bridge and begging for food.\u201d\u00a0 The other students said, \u201cWow, you must really be grateful to the professor.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cYes,\u201d was the reply, \u201cbut I take some of the credit, too.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cHow so?\u201d the other student asked.\u00a0 \u201cWell, after all, my reaching out and picking the check up off his desk when he laid it down in front of me and my endorsing it and depositing it in my bank account were my contributions to the rescue effort.\u00a0 I deserve some of the credit.\u00a0 After all, I endorsed the check; that was the decisive factor in my being rescued.\u201d<\/p>\n
The student who heard this was shocked and dismayed.\u00a0 He immediately went to the Calvinist professor and said \u201cDid you know that student you gave money to is going around taking some of the credit for being rescued?\u00a0 He\u2019s claiming that he partially earned the money by endorsing the check.\u00a0\u201d<\/p>\n
The professor was livid with anger at the ungratefulness of the student.\u00a0 \u201cHow dare he!\u00a0 That was a pure gift; he didn\u2019t do anything to deserve any credit for it.\u00a0 He\u2019s ungrateful as well as stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n
The reporting student said, \u201cBut professor, in your lecture you said that our free will decision to accept the grace of God would make it not a pure gift.\u00a0 You said our mere decision to allow God to save us, if it were truly free and not itself an act of God in us, would amount to \u2018the decisive factor\u2019 in our salvation.\u00a0 How is that different from that student\u2019s claim about accepting the money you offered him?\u00a0 By your logic it seems he is justified in boasting\u2013at least just a little. Why aren\u2019t you willing to share the credit with him?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Calvinist seminary professor lectured on the incompatibility of salvation by grace alone through faith alone and belief that in order to be saved a person must freely accept the grace of God.\u00a0 \u201cArminianism makes the individual person\u2019s free choice the decisive factor in his salvation.\u00a0 Therefore, in his theology, salvation cannot be a free […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n