Denying God

I've been pondering the Arminian (semi-Pelagian) and Pelagian belief that God can't play favorites; that is, everyone is equally enabled to come to saving faith and the choice is up to us. It matters little for my purposes here that the one affirms the necessity of grace while the heretical Pelagianism denies that grace is needed at all, although this of course in itself makes semi-Pelagianism vastly superior to full Pelagianism; in the end the semi-Pelagian view is, like their teaching of grace, insufficient.

In both cases, all men are equally enabled to come to saving faith, whether by universal prevenient divine grace or by nature.

And here is the Achilles' heel of this belief; all things being equal, all responses to the gospel should be the same, right? But of course they are not, so all things aren't equal. Something makes people differ. And according to both Pelagianism and semi-Pelagianism (Arminianism), what makes people different cannot be God or grace, as all people are equally enabled. So let us now slide down this slope a ways:

Perhaps believing the gospel is due to intelligence (or even lack thereof)- well, we can't give God the credit for individual intelligence because that would make God play favorites. Perhaps unbelief is due to natural skepticism- we can't give God credit for any natural limitations or abilities if any of these things may be a deciding factor in belief or disbelief, because that would mean God would have to interfere with man's free-will choices. Maybe it is in the raising- maybe being brought up in a godly family stacks the deck in favor of belief- well, we can't allow God to be involved with our family upbringing, if it may bring us to the cross, because God can't interfere with our choice, because that would make things unequal.

God can't have anything to do with where we are born, when we are born, our upbringing, our natural abilities and limitations and dispositions, social factors such abuse or nurture or anything else that may be a factor in bringing us to saving faith, because if he did, that would be graciously providing for one person and denying another person. The only option for the Arminian or Pelagian is to deny all these factors as having anything to do with whether or not we believe the gospel or you wind up with Deism, with a god who is not involved with his creation at all.

I would agree that none of these factors can cause saving faith. In fact, God is intimately involved with all of these things, but given ideal circumstances concerning all of these things (and hundreds more), they would be insufficient to bring a person to believe the gospel. The Arminian and Pelagian must agree too or else deny that God relates to creation.

This is truly a conundrum- it would seem that saving faith is truly miraculous, if we have a sovereign God that is involved with internal and external influences on our lives, and that none of these influences can bring us to saving faith without having God choosing to help some people but not others.

So what is the difference? Why does one believe and another does not?

Is it that one loves sin more than the other? What causes one to love sin more than the other? It can't be natural disposition, intelligence, upbringing, or any external or internal factor that God has anything to do with. So we must either deny that God controls or influences any of these factors or deny any of these factors as having influence on whether or not we believe.

I'm tired of playing this game. God is what makes people differ. It is divine, effectual grace that enables saving faith in one person while withholding that grace leaves another person in unbelief. It is the Spirit that gives life, the flesh is no help at all- and neither are all these other factors. God saves through the preaching of the gospel by the power of the Holy Spirit everyone whom he chooses for salvation, without being limited by upbringing, natural limitations, race, social oppression, or any other internal or external influence on our lives. Saving faith is a miracle of divine grace.

So now do we become fatalists? Do we just "let go and let God"? God is going to accomplish his will concerning salvation irregardless of what we do anyway.

No! God ordains the ends as well as the means. Our prayers, bringing our children up in the fear of the Lord, witnessing through sharing the gospel and through godly lives and nurturing and loving people are all influential factors that God can and does use to bring a person to the cross. But they are insufficient in of themselves- they cannot turn the point, they cannot cause a person to believe. It takes a miracle of divine and sovereign grace.