Can You Choose Christ On Your Own?

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My question is “Can you choose Christ without the initial stirring of grace by the Holy Spirit?”

Does anyone have the ability, all on their own, to choose Christ or do we require the gift of God’s grace to do so?
 
No one can do it ‘on his/her own’. All require the grace from God initially.
 
Hi,

No we dont have the ability to choose God on our own.

John 6 : 44 says—"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.
 
I am a convert. Mine was a sudden, and arguably miraculous, conversion from atheism.

I do not understand how anyone can be moved to follow Christ without the grace of God. When people reject this grace, yet still have this “God-shaped void” in their heart, they turn to other things, like New Age, Islam, or, as was the case with me, a dedicated atheist, Science-ism (is that a word?).
 
Council of Trent, Session VI:

**Canon 3.
**If anyone says that without the predisposing inspiration of the Holy Ghost and without His help, man can believe, hope, love or be repentant as he ought, so that the grace of justification may be bestowed upon him, let him be anathema.

I.e., if you say you can believe without God, you ain’t Catholic.

From the CCC:
Faith is a grace
[153](javascript:openWindow(‘cr/153.htm’)😉 When St. Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus declared to him that this revelation did not come “from flesh and blood”, but from “my Father who is in heaven”. Faith is a gift of God, a supernatural virtue infused by him. “Before this faith can be exercised, man must have the grace of God to move and assist him; he must have the interior helps of the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart and converts it to God, who opens the eyes of the mind and ‘makes it easy for all to accept and believe the truth.’”
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God Bless,
RyanL
 
Reformed1 said:
My question is “Can you choose Christ without the initial stirring of grace by the Holy Spirit?”

Does anyone have the ability, all on their own, to choose Christ or do we require the gift of God’s grace to do so?
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Without God to create & sustain us, we could not even exist - let alone choose Christ 🙂 That implies preference of Him, which implies love for Him - but where do we get that love from ? Not God - because He is excluded by the terms of the question. From ourselves ? Then we need no grace; & that answer is not possible, because it does not reflect reality - it is an imaginary possibility only.​

And anyway, we can choose Him only because His Father has first chosen us, & drawn us to His Beloved Son. If He does not draw us, we cannot so much as begin to seek Him - never mind coming to Him. He must draw us all the way. We cannot even think of wanting to begin to want Him, unless He takes the first step, and every one thereafter. God must do all things for us - or we can do nothing in Him

Short answer: No ##
 
Reformed1 said:
My question is “Can you choose Christ without the initial stirring of grace by the Holy Spirit?”
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No.

Since other’s have already supported my answer, I’d like to post an article by Jimmy Akin that might be relevant to the direction of your thoughts. I say that because of your user name. Here is the article relating TULIP to Catholic teaching. It will address the concept of total depravity if you scroll down to that heading. It is not particularly deep, being a popular article, but it could point you to how a Catholic might answer a question like the one on your thread here.
 
Pug said:
No.

Since other’s have already supported my answer, I’d like to post an article by Jimmy Akin that might be relevant to the direction of your thoughts. I say that because of your user name. Here is the article relating TULIP to Catholic teaching. It will address the concept of total depravity if you scroll down to that heading. It is not particularly deep, being a popular article, but it could point you to how a Catholic might answer a question like the one on your thread here.
Click to expand...
So far you guys have answered as I thought you probably would.
 
Reformed1 said:
What do you mean by that?
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Just that when you say “So far you guys have answered the way I thought you would” it sounds like you’re going to introduce something else to the discussion. It’s a common (and legitimate, don’t get me wrong) lead-in that I’ve seen many times:

“OK, now that you Catholics have agreed that the Church teaches X, how can that be compatible with Y?”

I could be wrong, of course. But even if I’m right, I’m not suggesting anything sinister by my comment. More anticipation than anything else. Hence I ended with a 🙂
 
VociMike said:
Just that when you say “So far you guys have answered the way I thought you would” it sounds like you’re going to introduce something else to the discussion. It’s a common (and legitimate, don’t get me wrong) lead-in that I’ve seen many times:

“OK, now that you Catholics have agreed that the Church teaches X, how can that be compatible with Y?”

I could be wrong, of course. But even if I’m right, I’m not suggesting anything sinister by my comment. More anticipation than anything else. Hence I ended with a 🙂
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No, I assumed orthodox Catholic teaching required grace to move the sinner to conversion. It’s just that on another post a few posters seemed to take issue with that.

The only other place that I was going to go is “Does God distribute His grace equally to all mankind or does He favor some over others?” but I was going to do that in another thread.

I don’t think this thread or the new one will be a “OK, now that you Catholics have agreed that the Church teaches X, how can that be compatible with Y?” type thing.
 
Hi:
So; in other words you are all saying that God is chosing who will receive His grace. But isn’t that Calvinism. 2 Thess 2;13

forever Baptist
allischalmers
 
allischalmers said:
Hi:
So; in other words you are all saying that God is chosing who will receive His grace. But isn’t that Calvinism. 2 Thess 2;13

forever Baptist
allischalmers
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No, this is not what has been said. None can come to Christ without God’s grace. God offers His grace to all. Some respond to this grace, others do not.
 
Reformed1 said:
No, I assumed orthodox Catholic teaching required grace to move the sinner to conversion. It’s just that on another post a few posters seemed to take issue with that.

The only other place that I was going to go is “Does God distribute His grace equally to all mankind or does He favor some over others?” but I was going to do that in another thread.

I don’t think this thread or the new one will be a “OK, now that you Catholics have agreed that the Church teaches X, how can that be compatible with Y?” type thing.
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OK, understood. Your next question, about equal or favoring, should prove interesting.
 
allischalmers said:
Hi:
So; in other words you are all saying that God is chosing who will receive His grace. But isn’t that Calvinism. 2 Thess 2;13

forever Baptist
allischalmers
Click to expand...
I don’t think this is what they are saying at all and I am a Calvinist. So far, most of us agree that left unaided by God, we wouldn’t choose Christ…or at least that’s what I understand thus far.
 
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