The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum Man-Centered vs God-Centered

Dear JoshT,<br><blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>[color:"blue"]God must choose us before we can accept or reject Him. The whole 'man-centered' catch phrase is just a word game to discredit sound Biblical and spiritual reasoning. Unless it is God's will, no one can be saved; this does not preclude the fact that God has sovereignly decreed that we must obey His commands to be saved. Though man has a part to fulfill, it is God who gives him the power to do so, and God who decreed what man must fulfill; therefore it is truly God-centered.</font><p><hr></blockquote><p><br>It becomes man-centered when you make it conditional. After God chooses… then man must accept of reject. Your further statement: "we must obey His commands to be saved," continues your focus on man and his works of obedience as part of his salvation. Your concern about eternal security is wrapped up in this argument as well. Thus calling it man-centered is appropriate. <br><br>Since God has provided this redemption or atonement at His own cost, it is His property and He is absolutely sovereign in choosing who shall be saved through it. There is nothing more steadily emphasized in the Scripture doctrine of redemption than its absolutely gracious character. The doctrine of Predestination cuts down every self-righteous imagination which would detract from the glory of God. It convinces the one who is saved that he can only be eternally thankful that God saved him. Hence in the Calvinistic system all boasting is excluded and that honor and glory which belong to God alone is fully preserved.<br><br>Grace and works are mutually exclusive; and as well might we try to bring the two poles together as to effect a coalition of grace and works in salvation. As well might we talk of a "purchased gift," as to talk of "conditional grace," for when grace ceases to be absolute it ceases to be grace. Therefore when the Scriptures say that salvation is of grace we are to understand that it is through its whole process the work of God and that any truly meritorious works done by man are the result of the change which has already been wrought.<br><br>Arminianism destroys this purely gracious character of salvation and substitutes a system of grace plus works. No matter how small a part these works may play they are necessary and are the basis of the distinction between the saved and the lost and would then afford occasion for the saved to boast over the lost since each had equal opportunity. But Paul says that all boasting is excluded, and that he who glories should glory in the Lord (Rom. 3:27; 1 Cor. 1:31). But if saved by grace, the redeemed remembers the mire from which he was lifted, and his attitude toward the lost is one of sympathy and pity. He knows that but for the grace of God he too would have been in the same state as those who perish, and his song is, "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake."<br><blockquote>"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." (I Peter 1:3-5)</blockquote><br><br><br><br>Wes<br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br>