Hey I like those squinty eyes on that icon. Seriously though...
In answer to your questions:
1. No. I think that would be giving people too much credit for something they all too frequently take credit for anyway.
2. The bare minimum, to me, is that they need to know enough to have a good grip on what a sinner is, know that they are one, and have enough on the ball to deduce or admit that they can't do a thing about it without help. They also need to know what Christ has done and who he is and BELIEVE it. At that point if they've got any sense at all and they're under conviction they should know that they need to fall on their face before God and ask for forgivness and Salvation.
More than I thought, but still not a ThD.
Quoth Pilgrim:
And lastly, it appears that you hold that one is saved through, by, or because of some "experience" <<"once they do experience salvation, they're saved">>. So, what is this "experience" that brings about salvation? Is this experience totally void of the intellect?
If by experience you mean jumping a pew, splashing in the baptistry, and buying a shiny new bonded leather KJV bible so you can dust it off every Easter Sunday, then no. You can't get there from here.
The man born blind in John 9:38 said "I believe" and worshiped him, but he had a great deal of background instruction with regards to the Messiah and probably had thought a great deal about it too. Demons are reputed to be great believers in God, though, so I don't think its enough to just say "I believe."
I'm of the opinion that the Holy Spirit does a great deal of backgroud work and teaching before a person ever reaches the point that they are faced with the decision to believe or not. While I've known a great number of adults whose mental faculties barely qualified for intellect status they still were saved because they recognized what they were and who he was and asked him to save them. Using the word
experience was merely mental short hand for something thats indescribable.
