Liberals take liberty with the text. They are free to have their own opinions, but their views are largely not based on Scripture. So I don’t think their opinions invalidate my claim that the Bible makes this utterly clear.

I know it’s controversial but I’d also argue that if you looked at history you’d see the Catholics view on works is based more on getting enough money to fund the production of Vatican City than a certain interpretation of the Bible.

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As for free will, it’s become a bit of an obsession in Western Christianity despite having very little real mention in Scripture. However, free will and human responsibility is there to some degree.

The Bible holds human responsibility and God’s ordination at the same time without any thought of contradiction.

On the topic of the new birth I think it makes a lot of sense. All humans freely chose of their own will to reject God. God predestined some humans to have a new heart that they may also freely choose to come to him. Free will isn’t stopped but it just has limits to it’s resources.

For example I can do whatever I want to, but also I can’t give birth children. My body doesn’t give me that capability. Does that limit the amount of freedom I have? No, I’m free to do whatever I want within the constraints of my body.

Same with human beings. Some people’s hearts will just never come to him, but they freely choose everything they do. Some people’s heart will come to him, and they are free in that and doing everything.

I know…ridiculously oversimplified but hopefully gives some idea.

Thanks again for your responses.

The Bible makes this utterly clear….

The fact that many learned Christians still disagree about this should show that it is far from clear.

Predestination, choice by God. God chooses you to have faith. Thus he puts his Holy Spirit in you that you will cry out to him for help.

You believe in predestination? So where does this leave free will?

So what precedes faith?

Predestination, choice by God. God chooses you to have faith. Thus he puts his Holy Spirit in you that you will cry out to him for help. This is called the new birth or the new creation in the Bible and theologians often call it regeneration.

So it goes Predestination -> Jesus atoning for sin of the elect -> Faith -> Sanctification (performing good works) -> Eternal Life. There’s a few more steps in the progression but that’s a basic overview.

They all tie in, but at it’s particular point faith is the one thing necessarily. That’s why it is still Biblical to say we are justified by faith alone, even though the Bible also talks about predestination and sanctification.

Christians call this the Ordo Salutis or “Order of Salavtion”. There are some differences between Christians (Arminians would say faith comes before predestination) but really that’s about it.

There are certainly bits of the Bible that say faith alone is not the only thing required, what is important is the stage at which these things are required.

In football (or “Soccer” if you’re an American) at various points in the game you have to do different things. If you’re a goalkeeper, and the ball is coming towards you, you must use your hands to stop it going into the goal. However, if you used your hands to score a goal you’d get sent off.

It’s the same in a Christian’s life at certain points things are required and at other times they are dangerous.

Humans have absolutely no way to be saved on their own. If we tried to achieve our way to God we wouldn’t get that, as perfection is the required mark. Therefore, trying to start our Christian life with works would just be a failure. The Bible makes this utterly clear (Romans 9:30-32 for instance in reference to the Jews failure because of attempting to be saved by works).

However, works are very important. It is clear that Jesus will use them to sort those who have faith in him from those who don’t (Matthew 25:31-46). How does this work if we’re justified by faith?

If we have faith in Jesus, he will take over as ruler of us from sin and give us the Holy Spirit so we can have some victory over it. Therefore, those who have faith will have some good works to bring that will show themsleves to be able to come to the resurrection of life.

The Bible does say that those who do good will be the ones in heaven. But how can we do good when God says “No one does good, not even one” (Romans 3:12)? Not one of a natural humans deeds are good.

If we are justified by faith in Christ, his works are attributed to us. But also our small works, containing perhaps the smallest fragment of goodness, are a testament to the fact we had faith in him.

Does that make sense?

In your article you mentioned baptism and predestination too. I’m still figuring out where the Bible stands on baptism so I’m afraid I can’t give you a definite answer on that one, as obviously it differs as to whether infants can or can’t be baptised, an issue I’m not yet decided on.

However, predestination is a very interesting one and I’ll try and drop another comment off to answer that one for you.

“And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.” –John 5:29 (KJV)