It does teach the opposite of scripture. Forget about John 6:44a, No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him:
Yep
Agree 100%
It isn't the public proclamation that is being objected to. (By most posters.) It depends of what is preached before the call to come forward, and it is the way in which the "invitational" prayer is often worded. As the lesser inviting the greater to be Lord of their life. Or to come in and dine with them. Jesus is Lord. He is everybody's Lord and judge. We owe him. He does not owe us. If the call is answered from the person's heart, then fine. No one comes to him knowing everything. Usually not knowing much of anything. A hard heart will not do that. If it is not a hard heart it is because God has softened it, turning them towards him instead of away from him which is the condition of the natural man.
Neither do I.
Don't you see both regeneration and conversion?
Yes, it is relevant. It refutes the Calvinist concept of election. Romans 10 makes it clear that believing and confessing are requirements for being saved. The Calvinist concept of election denies any such requirements.
Yep I do. But I've heard arguments here using the word "conversion" 20 different ways. It's getting more and more difficult feeling like I'm talking about the same thing, even if they are both results of the same thing.
I've been urged to put you on ignore. PLEASE explain, how Romans 10 makes it clear that believing and confessing are requirements for becoming saved. All I see there is that if you do this you will be saved. That could (apart from the rest of scripture) mean that they are a cause of regeneration and salvation, or it could mean they are a RESULT of regeneration (and salvation). The Greek is not specific, and the context even less surely presenting any notion of "cause". You want something we do to cause salvation. I want to know how that is possible, when salvation is by GRACE. Is it only partly of grace?
Calvinism (or the Doctrines of Grace) certainly does not deny the requires to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and to repent/confess to be saved. For example, the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, which is based on the Doctrines of Grace, includes this on saving faith or belief: "The grace of faith, whereby the elect are enabled to believe to the saving of their souls, is the work of the Spirit of Christ in their hearts, and is ordinarily wrought by the ministry of the Word; by which also, and by the administration of baptism and the Lord's supper, prayer, and other means appointed of God, it is increased and strengthened." The same confession has a whole chapter on repentance.
Oh, I can see regeneration and justification in the passage. I don't agree with your definition of conversion, but that is a different subject. But I absolutely do not see your concept of election in that passage; and that because it is not there. There is nothing in Romans 10 that speaks about any of TULIP -- nothing. In Calvinism, faith comes not by hearing but by being regenerated. Romans 10 rejects that. To be saved is to be regenerated, justified and (initially) sanctified; thus, to be regenerated is to be saved.
Faith is the fundamental requirement or condition for being saved. It is not the only one, but it certainly is the critical one. And that comes by hearing the word of God (the word about Christ) not from regeneration. Regeneration is one aspect of being saved. Justification and (initial) sanctification are two other aspects of being saved. All occur at the same instant in time in the life of the repentant believer. To be saved is to be regenerated, justified and (initially) sanctified and that comes through faith which comes by hearing.
The grace of faith??? Faith in God is believing in God. That is by definition. They are one and the same. Faith is not enabling to believe in God. Faith is believing in God.
I agree that faith and belief are the same, and having faith in God is the same as believing in God. Indeed I am told that the two English words translate the same word, pistis, in New Testament Greek. And a person has faith because of God's grace, or undeserved favour, which I imagine is why the Confession used the phrase, "The grace of faith."
The concept of faith because of God's grace is a bit of confusion. God's grace is the basis for, among other things, the special revelation of His written word. It is that written word which presents the gospel message which one either believes or rejects. In believing God's word and thereby believing in God, i.e., having faith in God, Romans 10 says that one is saved. Thus, in being saved, one is justified, regenerated and (initially) sanctified.
I don't think it causes confusion to say that faith/belief comes as a result of God's grace. It fits with what Paul writes in Ephesians 2 where he repeatedly says that salvation is all of God's grace.
