Prevenient grace

[Deacon110]

Just as the title sounds. I’m interested in understanding this teaching more. The basics as I understand it are as follows:

• regeneration precedes Faith. Meaning GOD has to “stir” something in us before we can even begin to say yes to have faith.
• this regeneration is "stirred in everyone essentially giving everyone the ability to say yes. But GOD ultimately decides who says yes and who says no.
• once GOD says yes for you, you then become one of the “elect” and can never fall away from your faith. In a sense once saved always saved.

Please tell me if I’m wrong on something or missed something

PEACE

 

[willj1365]

I would say that you are wrong when you said "But GOD ultimately decides who says yes and who says no.

That would remove free will.

 

[SyCarl]

Just as the title sounds. I’m interested in understanding this teaching more. The basics as I understand it are as follows:

• regeneration precedes Faith. Meaning GOD has to “stir” something in us before we can even begin to say yes to have faith.
• this regeneration is "stirred in everyone essentially giving everyone the ability to say yes. But GOD ultimately decides who says yes and who says no.
• once GOD says yes for you, you then become one of the “elect” and can never fall away from your faith. In a sense once saved always saved.

Please tell me if I’m wrong on something or missed something

PEACE

From at least a Protestant perspective you seem to be mixxing Calvinist and Arminian together. Prevenient grace is more an Arminiean belief that God’s grace makes it possible for all people to believe. Most Calvinists would reject this view.

With respect to God’ making the ultimate decision this is more in keeping with the Calvinist principles of unconditional election and irresistable grace. Similarly once saved always saved falls under what Calvinists would call Perseverance of the saints. Most Armineans would not accept these ideas.

 

[BeProf]

To second and expand upon what Sy said…

Prevenient grace is a fixture of Wesleyan theology. It teaches that God universally cancels out the effects of original sin to the extent that it enables one to make a genuinely free choice regarding obedience to God. Prevenient grace is not a “one and done” kind of thing whereby you are given a choice to accept or reject God and then that’s it. In the same way that Sanctifying Grace works in the lives of christians to allow them to grow in the christian faith, Prevenient Grace works in the lives of non-christians to prepare them to receive the christian faith. Both of these graces can be resisted.

This is in contrast to the Reformed principle of Common Grace. Common Grace is exactly that - the grace of God that is common to all mankind, the Elect and the non-elect. God’s providence in caring for all the creation. God’s establishment of civil authorities to restrain evil and punish the wicked. The basic, natural understanding of right and wrong common to all men. All of these are examples of Common Grace. Common Grace does not and cannot save because it does not and cannot regenerate the human heart. Only God’s Special Grace, bestowed only on the Elect, can do that. Like Special Grace, Common Grace cannot be resisted or rejected because it depends solely on God and not on our response to Him.

Non-Wesleyan Arminians have a similar concept to Common Grace that, while not defined as precisely as Wesley’s Prevenient Grace, nevertheless is, according to their belief, sufficient grace to overcome the effects of original sin.

 

[Contarini]

Just as the title sounds. I’m interested in understanding this teaching more. The basics as I understand it are as follows:

• regeneration precedes Faith. Meaning GOD has to “stir” something in us before we can even begin to say yes to have faith.
• this regeneration is "stirred in everyone essentially giving everyone the ability to say yes. But GOD ultimately decides who says yes and who says no.
• once GOD says yes for you, you then become one of the “elect” and can never fall away from your faith. In a sense once saved always saved.

Please tell me if I’m wrong on something or missed something

PEACE

I didn’t think Calvinists (the position you are describing) generally used the term “prevenient grace,” precisely because they believe that regeneration logically precedes faith. Prevenient grace is the grace that brings you to faith. For Calvinists this is what regenerating grace does. Although they would certainly say that grace operates in the elect in some form even before regeneration, and there’s no reason not to call that “prevenient grace”–very possibly some Calvinists do. The moderately Calvinist (depending on how you define “Calvinist”) 39 Articles speak of “the grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have a good will, and working with us, when we have that good will.” This is presumably Wesley’s most immediate source for the concept of prevenient grace.

One other note: in Calvinism you don’t “become” one of the elect. You are elect from all eternity–or you aren’t! At some point the elect will become “regenerate” and place their faith in Christ, and while they may fall into sin for a time they will never wholly fall away from faith in Christ, and they will never comfortably and permanently remain in sin.

Edwin