The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum gives grace to the humble

In reply to:

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[color:"blue"]3. God chose to save Saul because He foreknew that Saul would humble himself and repent in the light of the God's grace.

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Without a doubt, you do subscribe to a "conditional grace", which is based upon what man DOES and not even upon some ill-conceived and/or arbitrary choice in God alone. According to your statement here, which is unquestionably consistent with your soteriological synergism, God's act of "choice" is pre-conditioned upon what Saul (anyone) does. The inescapable labyrinth which this view creates has already been discussed in part, e.g., in these past messages:

Foreknowledge "1"

Foreknowledge "2"

Foreknowledge "3"

Foreknowledge "4"

And most assuredly, your erroneous view of "foreknowledge" is in total contradiction of what the Scriptures teach in regard to God choosing those whom He has determined to save from all eternity, and before they had either done good or evil (cf. Eph 1:4-11; Rom 9:11ff; et al) Of course, if we were to grant you, for the sake of argument, that your redefining of "foreknowledge" and "predestination" were correct, you are still left with an insurmountable problem. [img]http://www.the-highway.com/w3timages/icons/evilgrin.gif" alt="evilgrin" title="evilgrin[/img] For if, as you are wanting to argue, that God "foreknew", i.e., somehow observed Saul humble himself and repent, thus moving God to choose him, then to what was Saul chosen? Was he chosen to a "possibility salvation" wherein there was no sure end? Was he chosen to an infallible salvation? If the former is true, then it cannot be said that God "foreknew" anything at all. For what is it that God could possibly know until Saul had lived his entire life and made all the myriad decisions he would during that life? If the latter is true, again using your "reasoning", i.e., God's choosing included a sure end, which was Saul's eternal salvation, then every thing and decision that Saul/Paul was to make throughout his life was immutable. In short, he couldn't have chosen anything but to humble himself, repent and persevere to the end. There could be no possibility of him falling away and being damned.

You see Josh, this type of convoluted thinking only serves to confuse things all the more and the end is far worse than from where you began. It simply is nonsense! It's been tried before, found wanting and failed miserably throughout the history of the Church. Of course, the majority opinion sides with you, that I will sadly admit. Those favoring your view are Rome, most Protestant denominations and every sect and cult that has every existed on earth. In each and every case, grace has been intermixed with works; call it "conditions" if you will, but it doesn't change the reality of what it really is: "God helps those who choose to be saved" = [color:red]SYNERGISM which is the mortal enemy of Grace.... free and sovereign Grace.