IRT:<br>"you say your salvation is not contingent on good performance...but it's PRECISELY YOUR ULTIMATE PERFORMANCE/DISPOSITION (i.e., YOU, YOURS) that supposedly determines your entrance into God's presence on that Last Day. How can you deny your own contribution...your 'works'....your 'will'? "<br><br>Ah yes, the classic overdrawing of the other side's case. What I believe is that man does have a responsibility laid upon him by God to be saved. There are several conditions which are neither work nor merit, but simple requirements God demands if we are to be saved and preserved. Several of these are clearly spelled out in scripture (James 4:6, Hebrews 3:15, Luke 18:17).<br><br>As to Romans 9:16, I agree that God is the Author of salvation, and that there is nothing a man can do in his own power to be saved. This passage does not in any way negate the conditions that the Author of salvation has set for those that are to be saved. <br><br>IRT:<br>"As for Calvinism being unscriptural? Please....tell that to the hundreds of Spirit-wrought teachers/preachers/theologians and the countless millions of believers across denominational lines over the centuries who have found it not only scriptural...but the very blessed essence of the Gospel. Might it be YOU with the 'problem' NOT seeing 'grace' in all it's fullness, beauty and wonder?"<br><br>To answer that in order:<br>Gladly and not likely.<br><br>It makes no difference to me if 10 or 10,000,000,000 people all believe the same thing. I would say that there are more Arminians in the world than Calvinists (at least in this century), but this does not prove Arminianism any more than the fact that most of the reformers were Calvinist. No scripture exists that proves unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistable grace, or guaranteed perseverance of the saints (total depravity is debatable, depends on what you mean by it). Neither Calvinism or Arminianism (or any other soteriological doctrine, including mine) is the essence of the Gospel -- Jesus is the essence of the Gospel It's about the One Who saved me, not how I believe I was saved. If a doctrine were the Gospel's essence, then people who couldn't understand predestination (e.g. the senile) could not be saved.<br><br><br>In Christ,<br>Josh