you should being willing to acknowledge that not all Christians have the spiritual gift of faith.
And I am, and I do. But even in your statement here, which is true, nothing is being said here about whether Christians have faith or not; they do. I'm not sure why you insist, even generally speaking, not being
particularly gifted in something necessarily means then that you can't do or don't have that thing. Just to give you a very simple analogy (again), I'm not a gifted enough golfer to play on the PGA Tour, but I can play golf. Likewise, I may not be particularly gifted a particular spiritual gift, but that does not mean that I can't do it or don't have it at least to some small degree.
I'm asking you where Paul ever mentions "particular gifts of the Spirit". Hello?
And I am saying (yet again) again that
I never did. What is in view in 1 Corinthians 12 regarding any one of the spiritual gifts is that individual Christians being
particularly gifted ~ meaning gifted far beyond other Christians regarding any one of them. Yet again, Paul is talking about individual Christians being
particularly gifted in any one (or more, possibly) of the spiritual gifts, and this is by the design, the will, of God.
You are saying that we all have a measure of all of the spiritual gifts, but are just not particularly gifted in all of the spiritual gifts, right? I'm asking you to show where that is ever indicated in scripture.
There is no Scripture that indicates otherwise. And the silence is deafening.
You do not agree with me on what that means because I disagree with your contention that faith is a work.
That's... absolutely not my contention, and never has been. My contention, Spiritual Israelite ~ and I've said this many times ~ is that you at least inadvertently make our faith out to be a work, and you do so by saying things like, "It's what the Holy Spirit does AFTER we have accepted Christ
and put our faith in Him in order to make us into born again..." By saying this, again, you may not mean to, but you make it out to be something we do... a work... that somehow merits salvation. And we know that salvation is by grace, so it cannot be because of works of any kind.
You think salvation being "not of yourselves" includes being not of faith because you think faith is a work.
No, that's not what I think, which I've said over and over again (see above), which causes me to think you're purposely making things I've said into the opposite of what I actually did say. See directly above.
But, Paul contrasted faith with works. He only said that salvation is not by works. He didn't say it is not through our faith. He indicated that salvation IS through faith, but is NOT by works. And he indicated that good works FOLLOW salvation that comes by grace through faith.
Absolutely. Which I've said to you and others many, many times. Absolutely. But yet you still say, "It's what the Holy Spirit does AFTER we have accepted Christ and put our faith in Him in order to make us into born again," which is a contradiction of what you say here, which is just astounding.
But, when we're born again that is an act of the Holy Spirit, not of the flesh or the will of man. It's what the Holy Spirit does AFTER we have accepted Christ and put our faith in Him in order to make us into born again children of God.
So... here it is: our being born again of the Spirit "is an act of the Holy Spirit"... previous to which we were
dead in our sin,... That's good so far... <
smile> Yeah, in which case we would
never put our faith in Him. But continuing on you say, "He makes us born again
after we have accepted Christ and put our faith in Him in order to make us into born again... children... of God..." I, uh, you know, I'm sorry, I truly am, but I can't help but laugh... I mean, that's like saying in baseball that a batter can't hit a home run until the pitcher actually pitches the ball (which is correct, of course), but the batter hits the homer and then the pitcher actually pitches the ball
after the batter has already hit it (which is impossible)... Yes, I know how ludicrous that sounds, but that's what you're doing. Oh... he "free-willed" it out of the park,
and then the pitcher actually pitched the ball...
No, Jesus is the Author and Finisher... Founder and Perfector... of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). He is responsible for it beginning
and coming to full fruition. You know, to understand how faith works in us, and God's working faith in us, Romans 4 is fantastic. You should clearly see there that
faith is not the prerequisite of our salvation (it cannot be, because we don't have it unless God gives it to us ~ again, His assurance and conviction by the Spirit, the very definition of faith; we cannot have it before He gives it (see my baseball analogy again <
smile>)
but rather the vehicle through which we are saved. I mean, read what God says about Abraham in Romans 4, particularly that Abraham's faith did not
make him righteous, but that
through faith ~ God's assurance ~ God credited him with righteousness. It was an action of God, His work. And not only that, but also that Abraham "
grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised." He did not give himself faith, nor did he make it stronger. We are all like Abraham. Only God brings things into existence from nothingness. This is how God works in us.
So, tell me how exactly those who do not have faith in God and (supposedly) have no ability to have faith have no excuse for suppressing the truth in unrighteousness and for not glorifying God and being thankful to Him?
Well, first, you really answered your own question by saying they suppressed the truth (as Paul did in Romans 1), which is an act of the (very free) will... <
smile> And second, Paul says that
"what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them... His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made." And yet they still suppress the truth... exchange the truth for a lie and worship creation rather than the Creator," just as Paul says. And this is why... thus Paul's "so" or "therefore" ... they have no excuse.
Grace and peace to you.