25: The Angel and the Pool
Soon after the calling of Matthew, Jesus travels to Jerusalem for a feast, as described in John 5: After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. During the initial phases of this trip, Jesus encounters an man who had been an invalid for…
On Salvation and Slavery
(or Reconsidering the Process of Salvation) Modern Christians are obsessed over the process of salvation. How does God save us? Does God regenerate us before we can produce faith, or is salvation a result of faith? Before we dive too deeply into this topic, two observations are in order. First,…
On Changing the Heart without Assent
A rather standard deterministic view of salvation runs something like this: Unregenerate humans are unable to desire salvation. The reason for this inability varies, but for the purposes here, it is unimportant. God changes an unregenerate person’s heart, so they now desire salvation. The person places their faith in Christ,…
Salvation, Active and Passive
One important argument for deterministic predestination to salvation is passages where salvation is spoken of as a passive event. For instance, in 1 John 5:1, we find— Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God… The latter part of this sentence, “has been born of…
