By the grace of God...the things Christians say

 

Many years ago, in the early 1980's, during one of many discussions that I had with my dear Christian friend Don, I made this comment: "I could never stop believing in Jesus".

Don responded: "Don't say that - say, By the grace of God I could never stop believing in Jesus", which sort of made sense to me at the time.  

We believed that, in our own selves, we had no power to come to God.  We also had no power to maintain our faith in God.  Faith itself was a gift from God. This is part of the Calvinistic view.

Question: When I stopped believing in Jesus about 17-18 years after that discussion with Don, was it because God intentionally took his "grace" away from me?  Did God decide that he no longer wanted me to believe in Jesus - and so - he took away my ability to believe in Jesus? 

If the Calvinistic Christian is going to be consistent in their beliefs, don't they have to believe that any and every Christian who leaves the faith and becomes a former Christian, can ONLY leave Christianity if God wills them to leave Christianity - correct?  

And therefor, the Calvinistic Christian should never, ever try to persuade the former Christian to come back into the faith - because - if they left the faith, that was Gods will.

I wonder how Don would answer those questions . . .

Don't Stop Believin'

bob

r.u.reasonable@gmail.com