An Exchange with Some Mormon Missionaries pt 2
Hank December 8th, 2007
Here is the second email I received from the Mormon Missionaries last year.
Continue Reading »
Archive for the 'What is Grace?' Category
An Exchange with Some Mormon Missionaries pt 1
Hank November 28th, 2007
Last December I had to opportunity to speak and engage some Mormon missionaries here in KC Northland (Read my two posts Two Unexpected Visitors and The Visitors Return for my summary of the events). Shortly after that, I received two emails from one of the missionaries, I don’t remember his name and I also want to keep him anonymous. For the longest time I couldn’t find them and I really wanted to post them to see what other Christians thought of it. The following is the first of the two emails. I am curious to see your reactions to this understanding of grace and salvation (Honzo, sorry I hijacked your “What is Grace” post series but I thought it applied; you can feel free to remove it from the series).
Continue Reading »
Grace in Reformed Theology
Honzo February 1st, 2007
This is the second post in my response to Henry Thomas’ post asking what Grace was. My first post tried to look at how Catholic theologians looked at grace. Like that post, this one draws off of Gareth Reese’s book, New Testament Epistles:Romans.
In a nutshell, in Reformed theology, grace is something that God does to a person to save him or her. However, there are several distinctions that need to be made in regards how the process of a human receiving God’s grace works out.
The first distinction that needs to be made is between Common grace and Special grace. Common Grace is something that God grants to all persons. It refers to the blessings and favor that God shows mankind. Outworkings of this type of grace are to be found in our good deeds, our art, our philosophy, among other things. This grace allows humans to live in harmony to each other. It needs to be noted that this grace does not affect human’s need to be saved; it is merely a blessing, or favor that God shows us out of His love for us. Calvin saw our depravity as something that completely affected humans and due to this, we could do nothing correctly. In addition to this, saving grace was particular to the elect. Still, humans did, on occasion do good works and build great societies. Therefore, there must be some action on God’s part that allows humans to do these things. Common grace is the answer.
Next there is Special Grace. This grace only affects the “elect”. Special grace has several attributes, it is:
- Prevenient ” allows one to want to respond to God, without this, no human on earth even wants to seek God.
- Efficacious ” the grace that is given works, it cannot fail. If God gives one this grace, the grace produces the effect it was intended to effect.
- Irresistible - the giving of the grace cannot be rejected.
- Sufficient ” the grace is enough, it is adequate for the believer. Those that are called and do not believe are therefore not given this grace, they are merely called.
There is no synergism, or co-operation here. The act is done completely and solely by God. The person who is elected is a passive recipient to this grace. Grace precedes belief. Grace enables one to believe. Reformed theologians find evidence of this in the lines of Ephesians 2:8: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” They see this as evidence that 1) Grace comes before and is a causal agent in the belief of the elect and 2)that absolutely nothing can be done on a human’s part or that would be a work that saved a person.
If I have erred in this sketch, please let me know. I’ll make corrections as needed.
Grace in Roman Catholicism
Honzo December 22nd, 2006
Casey asked what grace was. I want to look at is a series of posts different views of grace, starting with the Catholic version. This is a short overview taken from a non-Catholic scholar, Gareth Reese, a Restorationist Theologian. I have tried to make a condensed version of his synopsis here. Since I am not that familiar with Catholic theology, I will make any amendments that are needed.
In Roman Catholic Theology (RCT) the fall disabled the image of God in humans. The image of God is the divine attributes of the soul given to humans in Adam and Eve. Among the divine powers and virtues are not the will and reason. They are natural attributes of humans and not supernatural ones. Sanctifying grace is something that God does to a human. It is the infusion of the divine powers and virtues back into the human. It is a permanent effect of God on the human. It gives the person the ability to perform supernatural actions. Hope, love, and faith are three virtues that are infused by this type of Grace. This restores humans back to the pre-fall condition.
Actual grace is help by God that allows the soul to preform an action or make a turn of the will. Two sub-types of this grace are Efficacious and Sufficient. Efficacious grace is a form of actual grace that is necessarily followed by an “effect for which it was intended.” Another form of actual grace is Sufficient Grace that is not efficacious because of the possible resistance of the recipient. When the grace cannot be resisted by a human’s will, it is called irresistible grace. Prevenient grace aids the will in having faith. When God helps a person in their (willful) struggle to become a stronger Christian, this is termed co-operative grace.
Source: Gareth Reese, New Testament Epistles:Romans, p 47-48
The Mother of all Theological Questions in a Christian Mind
Casey November 28th, 2006
I have a question that I would like to throw at you guys. As a Christian, this question is one of the most important ones you can ask yourselves as all of Christianity hinges on this question, as well as other questions. But here it is:
What is grace?