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brandon said:
Being saved is a gift from God in which our hearts are renewed and our eyes are opened to the truth that Christ atoned for our sins.

It seems everyone is an Arminian when they first become Christians. From our perspective it is we who make the decision. Someone only becomes a Calvinist after reading and studying the Word, working out their salvation with fear and trembling.

Just because they haven't understood how they became a Christian I don't think means they aren't one.
The issue is inescapably whether what a person believes has any bearing upon one's salvation. If it doesn't matter, then everyone is going to be saved since everyone believes something. However, if it is as Paul writes, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power unto salvation." (Rom 1:16), then it is essential that the one who preaches/teaches knows what the Gospel of Christ is according to the Bible and that the one who hears actually hears the biblical Gospel. To the degree that either the message is distorted in its presentation or the hearer fails to hear all of the truth, then invariably there are negative consequences.

Now, it is true that God is sovereign and can and does save His elect sometimes despite of the lack of a sound Gospel or the hearing of it. But those instances are by His sovereign choice and exceptions rather than the rule.

Since we here hold that Calvinism is the most accurate representation of the teaching of biblical doctrine and the Gospel, then it only stands that all else are deficient to one degree or another. To go even further, Pelagianism, semi-Pelagianism and Arminianism are damnable heresies which have been condemned by historical counsels and all churches of the Protestant Reformation. The main reason is that they all teach synergism; salvation by works or a combination of faith + works. Thus, if a person who verbally affirms Arminianism, they deny: "Sola Gratia, Sola Fide and Solus Christus", without which no one can be saved. To put it very simply, a true Arminian relies upon his/her decision as that which saves (works) and not upon Christ alone (by grace through faith alone).

For more, see these two articles:

1) There are Only Two Religions in the World by Ernest Reisinger.
2) Do You REALLY Believe that Salvation is by Grace Alone?

In His grace,


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simul iustus et peccator

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