IRT: "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."
The idea that we must accept or reject God is quite clearly stated in the scripture, see Luke 13:34,
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!"
and as concerns obedience:
"But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;
Who will render to every man according to his deeds:
To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:
But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,
Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile;
But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile:
For there is no respect of persons with God." (Romans 2:6-11)
and Hebrews 5:9
"And being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him;"
Note that it is not our obedience that saves us, but God's grace. He simply requires that we obey Him. But since it is God who saves us, as well as God who sets the conditions, it is rightly Christ centered.
IRT: "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."
But it does not follow that He forces it irresistably.
IRT: "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."
There is no glory or boasting in what I believe; the big difference is that what I believe is supported by the scripture.
IRT: "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."
If you mean works of the law, you are correct, if you mean obedience, you have no Biblical backing.
IRT: "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."
Where do you get that from? God will not give His grace to those who reject it.
See Hebrews 12:15 "Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;"
IRT: "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."
That's nice. But met conditions are not merits, as I have proven at length.
IRT: "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."
I don't think you quite understand what grace means. Grace is more than favor, it is divine influence whereby men can receive the gospel. Obedience to God is not works, it is a condition to receiving God's saving grace and being saved. Obeying God gives one no opportunity to boast, for were it not for God's grace, the obedient would be just as lost as the disobedient. This whole "nothing you can do can have anything to do with salvation" idea is pure fiction, and not supported in the Bible.
