The Calvinism Debate - Way of Life Literature

Irresistible GraceGod’s call to the elect is effectual and cannot be resisted.e dead sinner is sovereignly regenerated and granted the“gi of faith.” “at some, in time, have faith given them byGod, and others have it not given, proceeds from his eternaldecree; for ‘known unto God are all his works from thebeginning,’ etc. (Acts 15:18; Eph. 1:11). According to whichdecree he graciously soens the hearts of the elect, howeverhard, and he bends them to believe; but the non-elect heleaves, in his judgment, to their own perversity andhardness” (summary derived from the Synod of Dort). eWestminster Confession adds the following: “is effectualcall is of God’s free and special grace alone, not from anythingat all foreseen in man, who is altogether passive therein, until,being quickened and renewed by the Holy Spirit, he isthereby enabled to answer this call, and to embrace the graceoffered and conveyed in it. Others, not elected, although theymay be called by the ministry of the Word, and may havesome common operations of the Spirit, yet they never trulycome unto Christ, and therefore cannot be saved...”Perseverance of the Saintsose who are sovereignly elected and regenerated willcontinue in the faith. “ose whom God hath accepted in theBeloved, and sanctified by His Spirit, will never totally norfinally fall away from the state of grace, but shall certainlypersevere to the end; and though they may fall throughneglect and temptation, into sin, whereby they grieve theSpirit, impair their graces and comforts, bring reproach onthe Church, and temporal judgments on themselves, yet theyshall be renewed again unto repentance, and be kept by thepower of God through faith unto salvation” (Abstract ofPrinciples, 1858).4