An attempt to narrowly define how a person becomes a Christian.

Date:   5/26/2005 12:27:13 PM ( 19 y ago)

What causes choice? Some believe that each and every choice must have been caused by an event (event causation). But this does not answer the question at all; it only pushes it back one level (what caused the event that caused the choice?). I believe there is another cause of choice: sentience or free agency. This is, IMO, the way in which we were made in the "image" of God. Agent causation is primary; it requires no event. That is the nature of any "first cause". God is the First Cause of everything and everyone, but He saw fit to create others in His image, so we are also "first causes" of our choices.

This explains why one person will choose to reject the gospel while another chooses to accept it. It is a primary cause, one which cannot depend on something else. When confronted with a box of identical chocolates, and told we can only have one (!), how do we make the choice? What event or parameter we face makes us pick up chocolate #12 and not #8? The philosophies of man have no explanation. The fact is that we are primary agents. Our choices may be restricted (only one chocolate can be taken), but it's a choice none the less. If there were only one chocolate in the box it would not be a choice at all.

Salvation is a gift freely offered to us. We did not earn it or invent it. But gift givers never force a person to accept a gift, and neither does God. He bought it for all, and He offers it to all. But few choose to accept it. That is their right and their choice, for without any alternative there would be no choice. To accept the gift we place our trust, our faith, in what Jesus did on the cross.

So faith, instead of being a gift itself, is our reaction to what we hear and understand, not what we feel. This means knowledge. There is no difference at all between "head" knowledge and "heart" knowledge. You either understand something or you don't. You believe it or you don't. Only you and God know whether you're just mouthing the words or you really believe it.

But you can't believe something if you've never heard of it or don't understand it. You can hear and understand but not accept. But if you hear, understand, and accept it, you believe it. Feelings have nothing to do with it. So saving faith means that you:

1. hear the gospel
2. understand it
3. accept it

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URL:   http://www.curezone.org/blogs/fm.asp?i=973930

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