How Does God Give Faith, Thru Force Or Thru Means?
The following passages prove God does not give us faith is the sense that He forces us to believe (as the Calvinists say):· Matt 23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!· Acts 7:51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.· Matt 13:15 … and their eyes they have closed …· Acts 16:30-31 … Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved … [God doesn’t do the believing for us]God does “deal” faith to men (Rom 12:3), but only in the same sense that He grants repentance to men (Acts 11:18) - in the sense that he leads men to repent (Rom 2:4). God does not force faith upon men; He would be a respecter of persons (Acts 10:34) if He gave faith to one and not all. Instead He leads men to believe through His word (Rom 10:17). God gives faith in the same way He gives us our daily bread (Matt 6:11) - not miraculously thru raining down manna from heaven, but through means (our jobs). Likewise the way God gives us faith is not through miraculous force, but through the means of the gospel (Rom 1:16) – divine persuasion.