Dear Joe,<br><br>For starters, foot washing is a figurative term. I was referencing John 15:8.<br><br>Secondly, you are correct in stating that a dead man can do nothing to save himself. True. I do believe that man has no potential to seek or serve God until God draws him *and yes,* changes his condition first. Your logical error is assuming that a person is regenerated (or as you also implied, "born again") before accepting Christ. I disagree on that point. 1 John gives a vivid description of one who is born of God, but this is not the state of a person who has not repented yet.<br><br>When the Holy Spirit convicts a person of sin and draws them to Christ, He shines the light of life that Christ brought into the world, so in a sense the person is made alive; but they are only truly alive when they repent and believe on Jesus Christ.<br><br>You wrote:<br>"So the elect become the elect by the WORK of not resisting?"<br><br>Yielding to God is not a work, just as believing in God is not a work. If you think it is, then explain why faith and works are contrasted so many times in scripture. But as far as men are concerned, surrendering to God and believing (though faith is of God, we must live by it) is an element of responsibility on our part if we are to be saved. In Act 2:40, when it says, "Save yourselves from this untoward generation" Peter was not telling the men that their good works could save them. As we both know, only Jesus' sacrifice on Calvary could do that. The best analogy I can think of to illustrate what Peter meant is a man drowning. The man who is drowning is approached by a rescue boat, and is tossed a life ring by one of the crew. The man reaches out and grabs it and is slowly hauled into the boat. Now I must ask you, did that man save himself? Well, in a way he did (he wasn't a total moron and grabbed the ring), but in reality, the crew of the ship saved him. The man who was saved has nothing to boast of, he gets no credit or glory, he only saved himself because he responded like he had a wink of sense. In the same way, when the Holy Spirit draws a man to Christ, the man must respond by yielding to God, he does no works of righteousness to obtain his salvation, gets no credit, and receives no glory. He saves himself only because he relies on God to save him. <br><br>You wrote:<br>"By all means show us that they can fall away afterwards." <br><br>I already have. Though your response to my post was well versed, I pointed out in my reply that not only the tree of life, but the holy city would also be taken away if a man violated this final warning in scripture. Please note: There is no in-between, you are either living in New Jerusalem together with God (as all who overcome do -- Revelation 3:12), or burning in Gehenna outside.<br><br>Revelation 22:15 "For without [the city] dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie."<br><br>You wrote:<br>"So God sometimes chooses not to be fully God...interesting theology. <br><br>Request you stop over-exaggerating my case. It only makes your case look weaker. If God exercises His complete sovereignty in all things, then how did Lucifer fall into sin? We both know that God is not the author of confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33), so how his fall come about if God was still being totally sovereign? Did He cease to be God then according to YOUR theology? For that matter, why don't all Christians abstain from fornication? It is God's will after all (1 Thessalonians 4:3) Why don't all Christians give thanks in everything, it is also God's will (1 Thessalonians 5:18).<br><br>You wrote:<br>"Who said anything about forcing, after He irresistably draws you and changes you you willing come to Him."<br><br>I believe that irresistably drawing would effectively be forcing, be it gentle or not. But pardon my confusion of terms.<br><br>And I was just joking about the Armenian thing, but seriously, if I recall correctly, Arminius didn't exactly teach that it was possible to fall away; he said it was an open question. I do firmly believe it is possible to fall away so I would think I am not exactly an Arminian.<br><br><br>In Christ,<br>Josh
