This article rejects the concept of irresistible grace, contending that mankind has the free will to resist to the prevenient grace of God.
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The key emphasis of Wesley's theology relates to how Divine grace operates within the individual. Wesley defined the Way of Salvation as the operation of grace in at least three parts: Prevenient Grace, Justifying Grace, and Sanctifying Grace. Prevenient grace, or the grace that "goes before" us, is given to all people. It is that power which enables us to love and motivates us to seek a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
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The key emphasis of Wesley's theology relates to how divine grace operates within the individual. Wesley defined the Way of Salvation as the operation of grace in at least three parts: Prevenient Grace, Justifying Grace, and Sanctifying Grace. Prevenient grace, or the grace that "goes before" us, is given to all people. It is that power which enables us to love and motivates us to seek a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
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It exists prior to and without reference to anything humans may have done. As humans are corrupted by the effects of sin, prevenient grace allows persons to engage their God-given free will to choose the salvation offered by God in Jesus Christ or to reject that salvific offer. Thomas Jay Oord offers perhaps the most cogent free will theology presupposing prevenient grace. What he calls "essential kenosis" says God acts preveniently to give freedom/agency to all creatures.
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Thomas Oden of Drew University defines prevenient grace as "the grace that begins to enable one to choose further to cooperate with saving grace. By offering the will the restored capacity to respond to grace, the person then may freely and increasingly become an active, willing participant in receiving the conditions for justification."John Wesley's Scriptural Christianity (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994), p. 243. Infant baptism is seen in Methodism as a celebration of prevenient grace.
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He did not divorce faith from reason. Tradition, experience and reason, however, were subject always to Scripture, Wesley argued, because only there is the Word of God revealed "so far as it is necessary for our salvation." The doctrines which Wesley emphasised in his sermons and writings are prevenient grace, present personal salvation by faith, the witness of the Spirit, and sanctification. Prevenient grace was the theological underpinning of his belief that all persons were capable of being saved by faith in Christ.
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Clarke followed Wesley in opposing a Calvinistic scheme of salvation, preferring instead the Wesleyan- arminian positions regarding predestination, prevenient grace, the offer of justification to all persons, the possibility of entire sanctification, and assurance of salvation.
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Arminians, such as Methodists, also believe and teach total depravity, but with the distinct difference of teaching prevenient grace.Arminius, James The Writings of James Arminius (three vols.), tr. James Nichols and W. R. Bagnall (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1956), I:252.
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Calvinist teachings deny that this power to believe is available to all, considering it inconsistent with the sovereignty of God. Rather than believing God can provide a person with grace that "enables sinful man to believe", Calvinism concludes that only those who God has first Regenerated may believe, and such must believe because it is God's Unconditional election rested solely in God's sovereign will which causes them to believe in response to God's Irresistible Grace. Each of these Calvinist doctrines are premised upon the rejection of Prevenient Grace and the conclusion that Prevenient Grace is inconsistent with the sovereignty of God.
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The Wesleyan- Arminian theology of the Methodist Churches teaches that humans, though being born in total depravity, can turn to God as a result of prevenient grace and do good; this prevenient grace convicts humans of the necessity of the new birth (first work of grace), through which he is justified (pardoned) and regenerated. When the believer is entirely sanctified (second work of grace), his/her original sin is washed away. After this, to willfully sin would be to fall from grace. Methodist theology firstly distinguishes between original sin and actual sin: It further categorizes sin as being "sin proper" and "sin improper".
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In his book Introduction to christian theology, Wiley argues for the Arminian views of unlimited atonement, conditional election and prevenient grace in opposition to the main points of Calvinism and also the Penal substitution theory. In Christian theology, he stresses that the prevenient grace, operates in a continuous way from "the first dawn of the moral life". This would allow a synergistic co-operation with the human will, that doesn't undermine the responsibility and the total depravity of man. Wayne Grudem considers this work to be the best Arminian systematic theology from the twentieth century, but not reaching to the level of John Miley’s.
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Protestant Arminians, such as Methodists, are synergists but may also claim the doctrine of sola gratia, though they understand it quite differently than Lutherans and Calvinists do. Arminians believe that God saves only by grace and not at all by merit, but man, enabled by what is referred to as "prevenient grace", is enabled by the Holy Spirit to understand the Gospel and respond in faith. Arminians believe that this is compatible with salvation by grace alone, since all the actual saving is done by grace. Arminians believe that humans are only capable of receiving salvation when first enabled to do so by prevenient grace, which they believe is distributed to everyone.
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In order for humans to even want to be able to choose, God must empower their will (so that they may choose Christ) which he does by means of prevenient grace. Thus God takes the very first step in salvation, preceding any human effort or decision. Methodists justify infant baptism by this principle of prevenient grace, often arguing that infant baptism is God's promise or declaration to the infant that calls that infant to (eventually) believe in God's promises (God's Word) for salvation. When the individual believes in Jesus they will profess their faith before the church, often using a ritual called confirmation in which the Holy Spirit is invoked with the laying on of hands.
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The Methodist Quarterly Review states that Some Reformed theologians have mistakenly used the term "Arminianism" to include some who hold the Semipelagian doctrine of limited depravity, which allows for an "island of righteousness" in human hearts that is uncorrupted by sin and able to accept God's offer of salvation without a special dispensation of grace. Although Arminius and Wesley both vehemently rejected this view, it has sometimes inaccurately been lumped together with theirs (particularly by Calvinists) because of other similarities between their respective systems such as conditional election, unlimited atonement, and prevenient grace. In particular, prevenient grace is viewed by some as giving humans back the freedom to follow God in one way or another.
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This is in contrast to a belief that God's prevenient grace (or "enabling grace") enables all to respond to the salvation offered by God in Jesus Christ so that it is each person's decision and response to God's grace that determines whether Christ's atonement will be effective to that individual.
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Abel Stevens published a lengthy biography of Bangs one year after his death in 1862. Bangs defended Arminianism against the Calvinism of his day. He was a strong believer of prevenient grace but not at the expense of total depravity. He argued that because of grace, humankind does have the ability to respond to God.
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The Eastern Orthodox Churches affirm salvation by grace, teaching: Being synergists, those of Wesleyan- Arminian soteriology, such as Methodists, take a different approach to sola gratia than Lutherans and Reformed Christians, holding that God, through prevenient grace, reaches out to all individuals though they have the free will to cooperate with that grace or reject it.
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As a Lutheran, Lenski shows little sympathy for Reformed theology in his commentaries. Lenski had sometimes distanced himself from the Calvinism-Arminian debate. However he practically adopted the main distinctive tenets of the Arminian soteriology. Though not using the exact terminology, he held to conditional election, unlimited atonement, prevenient grace and conditional preservation of the saints.
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So as a result of the Calvinist understanding of God's sovereignty, one must conclude that God's election does not depend upon any human response, necessitating a belief in (1) both Total Depravity and Unconditional Election, (2) Irresistible Grace rather than Prevenient Grace, and (3) Limited Atonement; if any of these beliefs are rejected, this logic fails.
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Methodists also use infant baptism symbolically, as an illustration of God approaching the helpless. They see the ceremony additionally as a celebration of God's prevenient grace. Wesley was an Anglican minister who held to Arminian theology, unlike most Anglicans who held to Reformed (Calvinist) theology as taught in the 39 Articles. Augustus Toplady, John Newton, and George Whitefield were all Anglican ministers and Calvinists.
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Christians who were influenced by the teachings of Jacobus Arminius (such as Methodists) believe that while God is all-knowing and always knows what choices each person will make, and he still gives them the ability to choose or not choose everything, regardless of whether there are any internal or external factors contributing to that choice. Like John Calvin, Arminius affirmed total depravity, but Arminius believed that only prevenient grace allowed people to choose salvation: > Concerning grace and free will, this is what I teach according to the > Scriptures and orthodox consent: Free will is unable to begin or to perfect > any true and spiritual good, without grace.... This grace [prœvenit] goes > before, accompanies, and follows; it excites, assists, operates that we > will, and co operates lest we will in vain.Jacobus Arminius, The Works of > James Arminius, D.D., Formerly Professor of Divinity in the University of > Leyden (Auburn, NY: Derby and Miller, 1853), 4:472. Prevenient grace is divine grace which precedes human decision.
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Wesley also clarified the doctrine of prevenient grace and preached the ability of Christians to attain to perfection (fully mature, not "sinlessness"). While Wesley freely made use of the term "Arminian", he did not self-consciously root his soteriology in the theology of Arminius but was highly influenced by 17th- century English Arminianism and thinkers such as John Goodwin, Jeremy Taylor and Henry Hammond of the Anglican "Holy Living" school, and the Remonstrant Hugo Grotius.
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This has fueled much debate within Methodism over the purpose of infant baptism, though most agree it should be continued. Wesley and the Methodists would agree with the Reformed or Presbyterian denominations that infant baptism is symbolic. Infant baptism is particularly illustrative of the Methodist doctrine of prevenient grace. The principle is that The Fall of Man ruined the human soul to such an extent that nobody wants a relationship with God.
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Furthermore, God's prevenient, justifying, and sanctifying grace interact dynamically in the lives of Christians from birth to death. According to Wesleyan understanding, good works are the fruit of one's salvation, not the way in which that salvation was earned. Faith and good works go hand in hand in Methodist theology: a living tree naturally and inevitably bears fruit. Wesleyan theology rejects the doctrine of eternal security, believing that salvation can be rejected.
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Wesleyan theology maintains that salvation is the act of God's grace entirely, from invitation, to pardon, to growth in holiness. Furthermore, God's prevenient, justifying, and sanctifying grace interact dynamically in the lives of Christians from birth to death. For Wesley, good works were the fruit of one's salvation, not the way in which that salvation was earned. Faith and good works go hand in hand in Methodist theology: a living tree naturally and inevitably bears fruit.
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"No one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit. Every time we begin to pray to Jesus it is the Holy Spirit who draws us on the way of prayer by his prevenient grace."Catechism of the Catholic Church, §2670 The Second Council of Orange of 529 stated that faith, though a free act, resulted even in its beginnings from the grace of God, enlightening the human mind and enabling belief.Cf. Denzinger, Heinrich Joseph Dominicus.
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Semipelagianism was a doctrine of grace advocated by monks in and around Marseilles in Southern Gaul after 428. It aimed at a compromise between the two extremes of Pelagianism and Augustinism, and was condemned as heresy at the Second Council of Orange in 529 AD after more than a century of disputes. Augustine wrote of prevenient grace, and expanded to a discussion of predestination. A number of monastic communities took exception to the latter because it seemed to nullify the value of asceticism practiced under their rules.
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Commentary on the Summa Theologica of St. Thomas, "Grace", Chapter Four Prevenient grace (from the Latin "to come before") was discussed in the fifth chapter of the sixth session of the Council of Trent (1545-1563) which used the phrase: "a Dei per dominum Christum Iesum praeveniente gratia" (rendered "a predisposing grace of God through Jesus Christ").Council of Trent, session 6, chapter 5 Those who turned from God by sins are disposed by God's grace to turn back and become justified by freely assenting to that grace.
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Millard Erickson, Christian Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1985), p. 925: "It is here that many Arminians, recognizing human inability as taught in the Scripture, introduce the concept of prevenient grace, which is believed to have a universal effect nullifying the noetic results of sin, thus making belief possible. The problem is that there is no clear and adequate basis in Scripture for this concept of universal enablement." They argue that because this grace is supposedly given to all alike, the determining factor in salvation becomes the will of man.
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Witherington is Armininan in his theology and refers to Arminianism as Wesleyanism. In The Problem with Evangelical Theology Witherington claims that Arminianism can show exegetical weakness when it comes to the experience of perfection. On the other hand he strongly challenges the exegetical foundation of Calvinism on each of its tenets. He particularly insists on the doctrine of Conditional preservation of the saints, and Prevenient grace in various publications, generally referring to the character of God and the nature of his grace and love as a justification for it.
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Some synergists believe that because man is made in the image and likeness of God, he has the ability to make free choices for good or for evil. Other synergists believe man is unable to do good but God has extended grace to all people which gives them the ability to have faith in Christ (see prevenient grace). Synergists believe salvation is a matter of human and Divine synergy, not divine choice alone without human cooperation. Some synergists believe that monergism is fatalistic; because they interpret it to believe that a man is not free to resist God's (outward) call.
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This grace is the present work of God to turn us from our sin-corrupted human will to the loving will of the Father. In this work, God desires that we might sense both our sinfulness before God and God's offer of salvation. Prevenient grace allows those tainted by sin to nevertheless make a truly free choice to accept or reject God's salvation in Christ. Justifying Grace or Accepting Grace is that grace, offered by God to all people, that we receive by faith and trust in Christ, through which God pardons the believer of sin.
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Arminian soteriology—held by Christian denominations such as the Methodist Church—is based on the theological ideas of the Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Arminius (1560–1609). Like Calvinists, Arminians agree that all people are born sinful and are in need of salvation. Classical Arminians emphasize that God's free grace (or prevenient grace) enables humans to freely respond to or to reject the salvation offered through Christ. Classical Arminians believe that a person's saving relationship with Christ is conditional upon faith, and thus, a person can sever his or her saving relationship with Christ through persistent unbelief.
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This grace is the present work of God to turn us from our sin-corrupted human will to the loving will of the Father. In this work, God desires that we might sense both our sinfulness before God and God's offer of salvation. Prevenient grace allows those tainted by sin to nevertheless make a truly free choice to accept or reject God's salvation in Christ. Justifying Grace or Accepting Grace is that grace, offered by God to all people, that we receive by faith and trust in Christ, through which God pardons the believer of sin.
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Both Calvinists and Arminians generally accept the concept of common grace in that there are undeserved blessings which God extends to all humankind. However, the Arminian sees this common grace including what has been termed "common sufficient grace" or the Wesleyan "prevenient grace" whereby the effects of the fall are offset such that all persons now have free will and the moral ability to understand spiritual things and turn to God in Christ for salvation. The Calvinist maintains that God's common grace does not improve man's unregenerate nature, nor does it improve his ability to change his moral standing before God.
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The Westminster Confession of Faith,9.3 However, in Arminian theology prevenient grace (or "enabling grace") does reach through total depravity to enable people to respond to the salvation offered by God in Jesus Christ. Total depravity does not mean that people have lost part of their humanity or are ontologically deteriorated. Just as Adam and Eve were created with the ability to not sin, people retain that essential ability to either sin or not sin, even though some properties of their humanity are corrupted. It also does not mean that people are as evil as possible.
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Or must God's grace be irresistible in order to reach humanity (as Calvin taught), so that it is impossible for anyone to be saved unless God first extends to them His irresistible grace? Stated in this manner, there is no substantial difference in total depravity as embraced by Calvinists and Arminians; both agree that humanity is in a state of depravity which prevents them from responding to God. Rather, the two groups have a different belief in the grace which God extended to humanity in response to total depravity. Calvin taught Irresistible Grace; Arminius taught Prevenient Grace.
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It is the teaching that, as a consequence of the fall of man, every person born into the world is enslaved to the service of sin as a result of their inherent fallen nature and, apart from the irresistible or prevenient grace of God, is utterly unable to choose to follow God, refrain from evil, or accept the gift of salvation as it is offered. It is advocated to various degrees by many Protestant confessions of faith and catechisms, including those of some Lutheran synods, and Calvinism, teaching irresistible grace.Canons of Dordrecht, "The Third and Fourth Main Points of Doctrine"Westminster Larger Catechism, Question 25.Heidelberg Catechism, question 8.
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Irresistible grace (or efficacious grace) is a doctrine in Christian theology particularly associated with Calvinism, which teaches that the saving grace of God is effectually applied to those whom He has determined to save (the elect) and, in God's timing, overcomes their resistance to obeying the call of the gospel, bringing them to faith in Christ. It is to be distinguished from prevenient grace, particularly associated with Arminianism, which teaches that the offer of salvation through grace does not act irresistibly in a purely cause-effect, deterministic method, but rather in an influence-and-response fashion that can be both freely accepted and freely denied.
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Methodists believe Jesus Christ died for all humanity, not a limited few: the doctrine of unlimited atonement. Wesleyan Methodists identify with the Arminian conception of free will, as opposed to the theological determinism of absolute predestination. Methodism teaches that salvation is initiated when one chooses to respond to God, who draws the individual near to him (the Wesleyan doctrine of prevenient grace), thus teaching synergism. Methodists interpret Scripture as teaching that the saving work of Jesus Christ is for all people (unlimited atonement) but effective only to those who respond and believe, in accordance with the Reformation principles of sola gratia (grace alone) and sola fide (faith alone).
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In its Book of Discipline, the EMC describes itself as being "orthodox in belief, pre-millennial regarding the second coming, missionary in outlook, evangelistic in endeavor, cooperative in spirit, and Wesleyan in doctrine." Theologically, the EMC is Wesleyan-Arminian and teaches a Holiness message, emphasizing the inerrancy of the Bible and the power of the Holy Spirit to cleanse a Christian from sin and to keep him or her from falling back into a sinful lifestyle. The EMC believes in salvation through faith by grace. A further doctrine, "prevenient grace," holds that God allows every person to make a choice in response to the Gospel, and apart from that grace man cannot freely choose to follow Christ and be saved from God's future judgment.
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They interpreted the Anglican formularies of the 39 Articles of Religion, the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, and the Second Book of the Anglican Homilies from a Calvinist perspective and would have been more in agreement with the Reformed churches and the Puritans on the issue of infant baptism. The Catechism in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer shows that baptism was an outward sign of an inward grace. Prevenient grace, according to the Calvinist Anglicans, referred to unconditional election and irresistible grace, which is necessary for conversion of the elect. Infants are to be baptised because they are children of believers who stand in surety for them until they "come of age" and are bound to the same requirements of repentance and faith as adults.
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Both the doctrines of entire sanctification and prevenient grace are usually interpreted in less rigid fashion by most church members, viewing spiritual perfection as something to strive toward, being already sanctified and forgiven for their sins under the sacrifice of Christ. Hence, thinking in a circular and very Greek fashion, one would be perfect, since one would be forgiven; however, since Christ was also human, and one is still entirely alive and living in the world, then one would still need to continue striving to live the best, or most "perfect" life possible, because Christ was God and man. And so, the dilemma continues in theological interpretation. In recent years, Nazarene theologians have increasingly understood the movement's distinctive theological doctrine, entire sanctification, as best understood in terms of love.
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Unconditional election (also known as unconditional grace) is a Reformed doctrine relating to predestination that describes the actions and motives of God prior to his creation of the world, when he predestined some people to receive salvation, the elect, and the rest he left to continue in their sins and receive the just punishment, eternal damnation, for their transgressions of God's law as outlined in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. God made these choices according to his own purposes apart from any conditions or qualities related to those persons. The counter-view to unconditional election is conditional election, the belief that God chooses for eternal salvation those who he foreknows will exercise their free will to respond to God's prevenient grace with faith in Christ.
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Calvinists believe that Wesleyans teach that God seeks all people equally, and if it weren't for the fact that some were willing to respond to his promptings and persuasions, no one would be saved. They see this dependence on the will and choice of the individual as a good work required for salvation and thus an implicit rejection of salvation by grace alone. Conversely, in Calvinism it is singularly God's own will and pleasure that brings salvation (see monergism) lest salvation be, at least in part, "of ourselves" in contrast to Ephesians . Wesleyans counter these objections by claiming that God has initiated salvation through prevenient grace, and while human beings still maintain God- given free will to respond to that initiative, salvation is still initiated (and ultimately activated), by God, through justifying grace.
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" Prevenient Grace Such God-given grace explains the ability of humans to respond to God's calls to repent and believe. As stated in 2 Peter 3:9, "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. To Arminianism this verse and many similar verses evidence that the power to repent is within human free will as ordained by the sovereign God. Rather than accepting that "all" may repent, Calvinism teaches Limited Atonement to explain that 2 Peter 3:9 and similar salvation oriented verses, such as John 3:16, do not apply to "all" but only to those who God elected for salvation who must repent due to the Irresistibility of God's grace as directed to the elect.
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Total depravity (also called absolute inability and total corruption) is a theological doctrine that derives from the Augustinian concept of original sin. It is the teaching that, as a consequence of the fall of man, every person born into the world is enslaved to the service of sin and, apart from the efficacious or prevenient grace of God, is utterly unable to choose to follow God or choose to accept salvation as it is freely offered. It is also advocated to various degrees by many Protestant confessions of faith and catechisms, including those of Lutheranism,The Book of Concord, "The Thorough Declaration of the Formula of Concord," chapter II, sections 11 and 12; The Augsburg Confession, Article 2 Arminianism,Arminius, James The Writings of James Arminius (three vols.), tr. James Nichols and William R. Bagnall (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1956), I:252 and Calvinism.
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A Sistine Chapel fresco depicts the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden for their sin of eating from the fruit of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Total depravity (also called radical corruption or pervasive depravity) is a Christian theological doctrine derived from the concept of original sin. It teaches that, as a consequence of man's fall, every person born into the world is enslaved to the service of sin as a result of their fallen nature and, apart from the efficacious or prevenient grace of God, is completely unable to choose by themselves to follow God, refrain from evil, or accept the gift of salvation as it is offered. The doctrine is advocated to various degrees by many Protestant denominations, including some Lutheran synods, and all Calvinist churches.
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Christians associated with Arminianism, such as John Wesley and part of the Methodist movement, reject this Calvinist doctrine. They believe that as Adam and Eve were free to choose between right and wrong, humanity is able, as a result of the prevenient or preceding grace of God through Jesus Christ, to choose to turn from sin to righteousness and believe on Jesus Christ who draws all of humanity to Himself. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. . In this view, (1) after God's universal dispensation of grace to mankind, the will of man, which was formerly adverse to God and unable to obey, can now choose to obey through the work of Christ; and (2) although God's grace is a strong initial catalyst to effect salvation, it is not irresistible but may be ultimately resisted and rejected by a human being.
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John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, was heavily influenced by the thought of Dutch Reformed theologian Jacob Arminius and Hugo Grotius' governmental theory of the atonement. Hence, he held that God's work in us consisted of prevenient grace, which undoes the effects of sin sufficiently that we may then freely choose to believe. An individual's act of faith then results in becoming part of the body of Christ, which allows one to appropriate Christ's atonement for oneself, erasing the guilt of sin.John Wesley: Sermon 5: Justification by Faith According to the Articles of Religion in the Book of Discipline of the Methodist Church: However, once the individual has been so justified, one must then continue in the new life given; if one fails to persevere in the faith and in fact falls away from God in total unbelief, the attachment to Christ — and with it, justification — may be lost.
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Perseverance of the saints is a Christian teaching that asserts that once a person is truly "born of God" or "regenerated" by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, nothing in heaven or earth "shall be able to separate (them) from the love of God" (Romans 8:39) resulting in a reversal of the converted condition. Sometimes this position is held in conjunction with Reformed Christian confessions of faith in traditional Calvinist doctrine which argues that all men are "dead in trespasses and sins" and so apart from being resurrected from spiritual death to spiritual life, no one chooses salvation alone. However, it must be distinguished from Arminianism which also teaches that all men are "dead in trespasses and sins" and could not respond to the gospel if God did not enable individuals to do so by His prevenient grace. Calvinists maintain that God selected certain individuals before the world began and then draws them to faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.
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The canons of the Second Council influenced the interpretation of Augustine in the later medieval Western Church, such as by Thomas Aquinas. Classical Protestantism affirms the theology of the Second Council of Orange and has appealed to its conclusions to make a case that the Lutheran and Calvinist doctrines of sola gratia, sola fide, solus Christus, and original sin as total depravity had already been taught much earlier than the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. Arminian theologians"Arminian Theology: Myths and Realities", By Roger E. Olson (InterVarsity Press, Aug 20, 2009), Page 81"Jacob Arminius: Theologian of Grace", By Keith D. Stanglin, Thomas H. McCall (Oxford University Press, Nov 15, 2012), page 153 also consider the Council of Orange historically significant in that it strongly affirmed the necessity of prevenient grace and yet did not present divine grace as irresistible, deny the free will of the unregenerate to repent in faith, or endorse a strictly Augustinian view of predestination.
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Scholastic Calvinists have sometimes debated precisely when, relative to the decree for the Fall of man, God did his electing - see supralapsarianism and infralapsarianism - though such distinctions are not often emphasized in modern Calvinism. The Reformed position is frequently contrasted with the Arminian doctrine of conditional election in which God's eternal choice to save a person is conditioned on God’s certain foreknowledge of future events, namely, that certain individuals would freely exercise faith and trust in response to God's offer of salvation. The Arminian doctrine agrees that the influence of sin has so inhibited the individual's volition that no one is willing or able to come to or follow God, but the Arminian doctrine of prevenient (or "enabling") grace is considered sufficient to enable a person to believe and repent before regeneration. Based upon God's certain foreknowledge of individual human response to the gospel of Jesus Christ, God justly and sovereignly elected individuals to salvation.
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