Christianophobia

Not a common word in your vocabulary? Mine either, but this article from the Christian Post shows a scientific study of people who hate Christians and Christianity. Though truly their hate is for the Lord Jesus. (John 15:18)

Sociologists: 'Christianophobia,' Anti-Christian Hostility Infects Powerful Elite Subculture (Interview)

A small, but elite group of Americans demonstrate signs of anti-Christian hostility, sociologists David Williamson and George Yancey claim in their new book, So Many Christians, So Few Lions: Is There Christianophobia in the United States?

Later—

CP: Why did you, and co-author David Williamson, want to research and write about anti-Christian hostility?

Yancey: There is a lot of literature on hostility toward many different groups but just about none on hostility toward Christians. Yet when we collected qualitative data from cultural progressive activists we quickly saw some of the unnecessary vitriol and fears within many of our respondents. We also saw the social status of those who exhibited this hatred and many of them would be in positions that allowed them to at least subtly act on their anger and fears. That motivated us to take a more systematic look at Christianophobia and speculate on how this phenomenon influences certain social aspects in…

This is important as we see a continual hatred for God is our society.

The Bible speaks of this:

1. Foretold (Matthew 10:22, Matthew 24:9, and John 15:18)
   
2. These hate Jesus, because He tells them the truth and exposes their evil deeds. (John 7:7, John 3:20)
   
3. Christians are hated by these, because we have our faith in Jesus (John 15:19) and try to live godly lives (2 Timothy 3:12).
   
4. We are not to be surprised. (1 John 3:13)
   
5. We need to be firm and not deny Christ (Matthew 10:39). He will give us the strength we need (Jude 1:24-25).
   
6. Jesus was treated with hate by the elite and others, so also we can expect it. At least we know Jesus understands when we suffer. (Matthew 10:25).
   
7. We are NOT to hate but pray for them and show them love. (Luke 6:27). Nevertheless we are to hate evil and know that God will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5) and at some time He will deliver us, even though that deliverance might be to heaven itself (Psalm 97:10).
   
8. We are NOT to wish or pray for them to die but to pray that they repent. (Compare Proverbs 6:16-19. God will punish).
   

Matthew Henry in a comment on John 15:18 writes:

The world's enmity against the followers of Christ: it hateth them. Note, Whom Christ blesseth the world curseth. The favourites and heirs of heaven have never been the darlings of this world, since the old enmity was put between the seed of the woman and of the serpent. Why did Cain hate Abel, but because his works were righteous? Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing; Joseph's brethren hated him because his father loved him; Saul hated David because the Lord was with him; Ahab hated Micaiah because of his prophecies; such are the causeless causes of the world's hatred.

 

And we need to live godly lives. Matthew Henry again:

 

Because they do not belong to it (John 5:19): "If you were of the world, of its spirit, and in its interests, if you were carnal and worldly, the world would love you as its own; but, because you are called out of the world, it hates you, and ever will." Note, 1. We are not to wonder if those that are devoted to the world are caressed by it as its friends; most men bless the covetous, Psalm 10:3; Psalm 49:18.

 

Concerning Hebrew 13:506, Matthew Henry writes:

 

God hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee, (Hebrews 13:5-6). This was said to Joshua (Joshua 1:5), but belongs to all the faithful servants of God. Old-Testament promises may be applied to New-Testament saints. This promise contains the sum and substance of all the promises. I will never, no, never leave thee, nor ever forsake thee. Here are no fewer than five negatives heaped together, to confirm the promise; the true believer shall have the gracious presence of God with him in life, at death, and forever.

 

This has always been the lot of true believers. Let us pray for one another and help one another. We need fellowship from our fellow believers (Malachi 3:16 and Psalm 94:19),

Slow Motion Shutter

You may have seen this already, but I found it to be fascinating.

 

http://youtu.be/CmjeCchGRQo

God gives us a new Heart

God gives us a new heart (Some notes/study)

 

A1 Objectives

B1 Describe the role of the laws Jesus used in the Sermon on the Mount.

B2 Recognize that God requires obedience from the heart.

 

A2 Scriptures

B1 Matthew 5:17-30

B2 Matthew 5:43-48

B3 James 2:8-11

 

A3 Notes

B1 Jesus and the Law and Prophets

C1 Matthew 5:17-30

D1 Fulfill ("Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. (Matthew 5:17, EMTV)

E1 Means to obey every single law perfectly. All 613 commandments required by God.

E2 As a checklist needs to be completed so also the Law.

E3 To graduate from college one must fulfill all the requirements. Once they are fulfilled, the student graduates and does not have to do any of those requirements again.

E4 The Greek words means to fill to the very top, execute (an office), finish (a task), etc.

E5 But Jesus answered and said to him, "Permit it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he permitted Him. (Matthew 3:15, EMTV).

F1 Jesus needed to be baptized, not because He needed to repent and confess His sins, for He had never sinned.

F2 He needed to be baptized because that was a requirement of God's Law.

E6 Therefore do not let anyone judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or of a new moon or of Sabbaths, (Colossians 2:16, EMTV).

F1 Christians do not have to fulfill the Law, because the Lord Jesus has fulfilled it.

F2 Now we have a new covenant, a new set of rules.

D2 Abolish

E1 Means to do away with. Treat them as if they had never existed.

E2 Jesus fulfilled all obligations to the Law, thus since all were fulfilled, completed, and obeyed, they could be done away with and replaced by another set of rules.

E3 The Greek word means to disintegrate, demolish. Think of a sand castle at the sea shore.

E4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. (Romans 10:4, EMTV). For Christ has brought the Law to an end, so that everyone who believes is put right with God. (Romans 10:4, GNB92)

E5 And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, does not annul the covenant previously confirmed to Christ by God, so that it make the promise of no effect. For if the inheritance comes by the law, it is no longer of promise; but God has given it to Abraham by promise. Why then the law? It was added on account of transgressions, until the seed should come to whom it had been promised; and it was commanded through angels by the hand of a mediator. Now the mediator is not for one person, but God is one. Therefore, is the law against the promises of God? By no means! For if a law had been given which was able to give life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. But the Scripture has confined all under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, having been hemmed in for the faith which was to be revealed. Therefore the law has become our guardian, leading us to Christ, so that we might be justified by faith. (Galatians 3:17-24, EMTV)

D3 Jot and Tittle

E1 Jot

F1 In English it would be the smallest letter, which is i.

F2 In Hebrew it is the smallest letter, which is yod. Yod is similar to a , (comma) or ' (apostrophe).

E2 Tittle

F1 In English it is the dot above the lower case I (i) and J (j).

F2 In Hebrew it is a small mark to distinguish similar looking letters.

D4 The Law is the Old Testament commandments.

D5 The Prophets are the other writings of the Old Testament. In one sense all the writers of the Old Testament were prophets.

D6 This also confirms that the Law and the Prophets were God's word and absolutely authoritative.

D7 The regular people believed that the scribes and Pharisees were the ultimate followers of the Law.

E1 If someone had to exceed this, it would be impossible. (That is the point of the law).

E2 Nevertheless, the scribes and Pharisees did NOT fulfill the underlying principle of the law, for their hearts were not right before God.

D8 Jesus clarifies some of the finer points of the Law.

E1 It is not just deeds that God looks at but thoughts, desires, words, and deeds.

E2 One who murders is guilty. One who hates and wishes to murder is a murderer at heart and will receive that same punishment.

E3 Anger without a cause is important. Most translations do not have it, so making the Lord Jesus a vile, sinning hypocrite. "God hates injustice and will judge it. Less than 2% of the Greek manuscripts, of inferior quality, omit "without cause" (as in NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.). NIV, NASB and LB favor us with a footnote informing us that "some manuscripts" add 'without cause'--by "some" they mean 98% of them!! More serious, the shorter text has the effect of forbidding anger, which would contradict other Scriptures (Ephesians 4:26, Psalm 4:4) and the Lord's own example (Mark 3:5)." Wilbur Pickering's note on the passage.

E4 The Lord speaks of murder, adultery, and others

C9 Matthew 5:31-42 are left out. These deal with oaths (true and false oaths) and revenge.

C10 Matthew 5:43-48 deal with how to treat our enemies.

C11 James 2:8-11

D1 The Royal Law

E1 God is the King.

E2 God's Law is the royal Law.

D2 Neighbor (anyone we meet).

D3 Partiality

E1 We need to treat everyone the same.

E2 Treating them with kindness, compassion, and respect as much as possible.

E3 Partiality is sin.

E4 Partiality is a transgression of the law.

D4 One mistake, slip, white lie, error or lapse in judgment is enough to send to die and hell.

E1 The penalty for breaking the law once is the same as breaking it many times--death and hell.

E2 Includes sins when there is ignorance or unintentionally makes one guilty.

 

A4 Questions

B1 Did Jesus completely obey every law and rule required in the Old Testament?

B2 What about marriage laws?

C1 He did not need to fulfill those laws.

C2 He was obligated to fulfill those laws that he was subject to.

B3 What does it mean when Jesus states, "...one iota or one tittle shall by no means pass away from law until all things are fulfilled?" (Once fulfilled then can pass away).

B4 They needed to obey ALL the commandments? Can anyone do this? (No, that is the purpose of the law).

B5 In Matthew 5:22 the Lord Jesus mentions hell fire. Does He really expect us to believe that?

B6 Regarding Matthew 5:43-48 are we to wish anyone to die?

C1 No, we should pray for their salvation.

C2 No, we should forgive them. What is forgiveness?

D1 Forgive is to release.

D2 In this case to release them to God, and He will do what is right.

B7 What is an enemy?

C1 A threat to a person or group.

C2 Associated strong emotions as hatred, fear, and distrust.

C3 Something must be done to neutralize the enemy as banish, imprison, punish, or kill.

C4 Jesus said that we must try to treat them well, nicely, as possible. He is the example of this.

C5 The Lord God sends rain on the just and the unjust.

B8 In Matthew 5:48 what is God's standard for us? (Perfection). ""Perfect"--the Father is our point of reference; we are to be like He is. A standard is a standard; it is not invalidated just because we may feel that it is unattainable. Comparing this passage with texts like Deuteronomy 7:10, "He repays those who hate Him to their face," and Psalm 5:5-6, "You hate all workers of iniquity," I take it that we must distinguish between personal enemies (those who oppose us for personal reasons) and enemies of God and His truth. To be like the Father we also must hate workers of iniquity (because of the consequences to others)." Wilbur Pickering comment on this passage.

 

 

 

Book of Revelation Update

I have updated the Welcome Bible Book of Revelation.

The Revelation of St John

I have been working on the Welcome Bible paraphrase for many years starting in 2001. This is probably my 12^th revision.

I'll continue to revise and update the other books/epistles as I have time.

Psalm 95:1 A Devotional Thought

OH come, let us sing to the LORD! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. (Psalms 95:1, NKJV)

Psalms 95 is an invitation to come and worship God.

This verse is in parallelism. Parallelism is common in Hebrew poetry. Basically it is saying one thing two different ways. This is to reinforce, interpret, or even in what seems to be opposite but has a common theme. Two articles that will help are here and here.

In this verse the common idea is to sing. This is expressed in two similar ways.

1. Let us sing to the LORD.
   
2. Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
   

The words sing and shout joyfully are expressing the same idea, as are the words LORD and Rock of our salvation.

The word for sing is rânan (H7442). This word means to make a loud sound as shouting, talking, or singing loudly. So the singing is not to be to one's self but for a large group to make a large sound with their singing. The loud singing isn't because the LORD is deaf but rather as a testimony to others. It is used, for example, in Leviticus 9:24 when God's fire fell and burnt everything on the altar. The people seeing this screamed and fell on the faces. It is usually translated sing and indicates the type of singing—loud singing.

The word for shout joyfully is ruwa` (H7321) which is to make such a large sound that it splits the air, breaks something as a very loud shout to warn others of a coming disaster—LOOK OUT! It is used for example in Joshua 6:20 when the people shouted and Jericho's wall fell. It is also used in Ezra 3:11 and Ezra 3:13.

This singing is to be to the LORD. He is the only God and the psalmist wants everyone to know it. The Rock of our salvation is descriptive of God. This rock is solid and unmoving. His salvation is solid and unmoving, too. Compare Psalm 62:7. The Christian knows that this Rock is the Messiah, Jesus (1 Corinthians 10:4).

We thus can freely sing, loudly sing, for joy. Salvation has been granted, and we look forward to the time that Messiah is ruling in Jerusalem.

And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, and like the sound of many waters, and like the sound of mighty thunders, saying, "Hallelujah! For the Lord God Almighty has begun to reign! (Revelation 19:6, EMTV)

Colossians 1:9-20 Notes

Chapter 1:9-20

 

A1 Scripture

B1 For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. (Colossians 1:9-20, NKJV)

B2 For this reason we have always prayed for you, ever since we heard about you. We ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will, with all the wisdom and understanding that his Spirit gives. Then you will be able to live as the Lord wants and will always do what pleases him. Your lives will produce all kinds of good deeds, and you will grow in your knowledge of God. May you be made strong with all the strength which comes from his glorious power, so that you may be able to endure everything with patience. And with joy give thanks to the Father, who has made you fit to have your share of what God has reserved for his people in the kingdom of light. --- He rescued us from the power of darkness and brought us safe into the kingdom of his dear Son, by whom we are set free, that is, our sins are forgiven. Christ is the visible likeness of the invisible God. He is the first-born Son, superior to all created things. For through him God created everything in heaven and on earth, the seen and the unseen things, including spiritual powers, lords, rulers, and authorities. God created the whole universe through him and for him. Christ existed before all things, and in union with him all things have their proper place. He is the head of his body, the church; he is the source of the body's life. He is the first-born Son, who was raised from death, in order that he alone might have the first place in all things. For it was by God's own decision that the Son has in himself the full nature of God. Through the Son, then, God decided to bring the whole universe back to himself. God made peace through his Son's blood on the cross and so brought back to himself all things, both on earth and in heaven. (Colossians 1:9-20, GNB92)

 

A2 Outline: The Preeminence of Christ

B1 Paul's Prayer for the Colossians' Christian Life Colossians 1:9-14

C1 Continual Prayer

D1 For them to be filled with knowledge of His will

E1 In wisdom

E2 In spiritual understanding

E2 To walk (live the Christian life)

E1 Walk worthily

E2 Fully pleasing Him

E3 Fruitful in every good work

E4 Increasing in the knowledge about God

E5 Strengthened with all power

F1 That comes from God

F2 For patience

F3 For longsuffering with joy

C2 Giving thanks to the Father who

D1 Has qualified us to be partakers of the saint's inheritance

D2 Has delivered us from the power of darkness

D3 Has conveyed us into His Son's kingdom. The Son has given us

E1 Redemption

E2 The forgiveness of sins

B2 The Preeminence of Christ Colossians 1:15-20

C1 He is

D1 The image of the invisible God

D2 The firstborn over all creation

C2 He has

D1 Created all things

E1 In heaven

E2 On earth

E3 Visible or invisible

E4 Ranks/levels

F1 Thrones

F2 Dominions

F3 Principalities

F4 Powers

C3 All things were created through Him and for Him

C4 He is before all things

C5 All things consist in Him

C6 He is the head of the body (the church)

C7 He is the beginning

C8 He is the firstborn from the dead

C9 He has the preeminence in and over everything

C10 He has all the fullness of God

C11 He is the only Savior, the Reconciler

D1 Of things in heaven

D2 Of things on earth

D3 Made peace by/through the blood of the Cross

 

A3 Notes

B1 The idea of always praying does not mean they pray 24/7/365 as if there is nothing else to do. It is a prayer life day by day whether in a scheduled prayer time or when he thinks about them.

B2 The knowledge of His will refers to knowing God's will.

C1 What God's will is. How to apply this knowledge.

C2 This can only be done by studying the Bible.

C3 The word knowledge here refers to not just knowing by rote but in knowing the ins and outs, the principles, and the application.

B3 The knowledge of His will.

C1 Knowledge of what His will is.

C2 Two possibilities

D1 To be wise and have spiritual understanding, thus how to apply God's will in whatever situation we face and to do this with wisdom and spiritual understanding.

D2 To handle this knowledge with wisdom and spiritual understanding.

B4 Wisdom is taking knowledge and using it correctly in any situation.

B5 Understanding is knowing the ins and outs of something.

C1 I can know that a certain medicine is used for an illness, but understanding would be to know why and how it works.

C2 Spiritual understanding would be the highest as in why does God offer salvation to humans, what God is against covertness.

B6 The whole purpose of knowing God's will in wisdom and spiritual understanding is to live a Christian life in thoughts, desires, words, and deeds. It would also include the correct motive.

B7 Walk worthy of the Lord means life my life in such a way that God would be pleased.

B8 Fully pleasing is God is pleased. No one can do this, of course, except the Lord Jesus himself. (Matthew 3:17).

B9 Being fruitful in every good work.

C1 The result/s of our life, what we do, what we say, and what we think.

C2 Fruitful relates to the fruit of the Spirit, not material success. (Ephesians 5:9 and Galatians 5:22-23).

C3 Jesus is the vine, and we are the branches that bear fruit. (John 15:5)

C4 God prunes the branches so more fruit can be produced. (John 15:2)

B10 Increasing in the knowledge of God.

C1 Know more about how He thinks, does, and is.

C2 Characteristics of God.

B11 Strengthened with all might. God helps us to achieve the above. He is the one who works these things into our lives. (John 15:4-5)

B12 Patience and longsuffering. The Christian life is filled with many perils whether they are spiritual, emotional, or physical.

C1 These perils are solely because one is a Christian.

C2 We all stumble and need to realize others stumble as well.

C3 For this we need prayer and forgiveness.

C4 We need to know that God does have a standard and need to encourage each to follow this standard. C5 A particular group of people, church group, or whatever may have a standard, but that is a church or personal standard, but we need to foremost know and follow God's standard.

B13 Joy is the emotion of peace and something pleasing that has happened. The Greek stands for cheerfulness. It is hard to imagine but with God's help we can endure longsuffering with joy.

B14 The Father is the one who qualifies us to be partakers of the inheritance of God's people. We do not qualify ourselves. Qualify is to be up to a set of standards.

B15 Partakers are those who have some action in common.

C1 A group of people can each have a piece of a pizza; they are partakers.

C2 In this case the partakers are those qualified by God to each partake in the saint's inheritance, which is heaven with all its blessings. (Matthew 25:34, Acts 26:18, 1 Peter 1:2-5)

B16 In the light is opposite of in darkness.

C1 Darkness is illustrative of sin and punishment.

C2 Light is illustrative of righteousness and heaven.

B17 He, God, has delivered us from the power of darkness to convey us to the kingdom of His Son.

C1 The power of darkness is sin and the devil's way. (Ephesians 6:12, 1 Peter 2:9)

C2 The deliverance was accomplished by ministry of Jesus Christ. (Isaiah 53:12, Acts 26:18, Hebrews 2:14)

C3 Conveying is the idea of carrying from one to another.

D1 The Greek word has the idea of transfer.

D2 We are transferred from being slaves to the devil, sin, and death, so being bond-slaves of God, righteousness, and life. (Titus 3:3-6)

B18 Redemption is a buying back.

C1 We have been sold to sin by birth and deeds and redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ.

C2 Jesus died.

C3 His blood was the atoning sacrifice for sins.

C4 No shed blood, no redemption.

C5 The wages of sin is death.

C6 Someone has to pay this debt.

C7 We cannot, so the Lord Jesus did.

C8 Sins are forgiven, because the debt, death, has been paid.

B19 Some things about the Lord Jesus

C1 Image of the invisible God. Through our various senses we connect to the world around us. God is not material so we cannot connect physically to Him. Jesus is God in the flesh which could be. (1 John 1:1)

C2 Firstborn. This is the position of special privileges. Jesus is not the first created but the creator who is the authority over everything created.

C3 The creator of everything. Jesus was not created but the creator.

C4 Jesus is the creator of everything in heaven--the angels, and everything on earth.

C5 Thrones, dominions, principalities, or powers. Most believe these to be angelic orders, ranks, positions of authority and privilege.

C6 Everything was created for Him. For His pleasure, enjoyment, and fellowship.

C7 Consist has the idea of holding together. Because of the physical laws of today's universe things run down. He is the one who holds all together. (Hebrews 1:3)

C8 Head of the body. The body is the church. The church are the believers who have placed their faith into Jesus Christ by believing in what He has done and who He is. The Epistle to the Ephesians speaks much about this. He is the Lord, the boss. He is the highest position and power.

C9 The firstborn from the dead is the fact that Jesus was the first to be resurrected who will never die again. The other resurrections died again.

C10 All these things about Christ show that He is the highest of everything and everyone.

C11 All the fullness. That is Jesus, the man, is Jesus, the Son of God--God himself.

C12 There is no reconciliation between God and man except through Jesus. No religious leader, nothing a person can do, no ritual, no assistance from us. It is Christ and only Christ--Jesus is the only Christ (Messiah). This was done because Jesus paid the penalty for sin by dying and the shedding of His blood.

Prevenient Grace

Prevenient grace is the grace that precedes.

A Calvinist believes in prevenient grace as the grace that precedes salvation. An article on the question #50 on monergism.com states, "It is true, of course, that the regenerating grace of God must come before faith, and so in that sense it is prevenient." It is believed by Calvinists that "God grants his quickening grace to unbelievers, it does not merely given them the option to be alive--it makes them alive." In other words only the elect receive this grace but the nonelect only receive hell in its fullest without any chance for salvation (for God's glory, of course).

J. I. Packer in an article on "Regeneration" from his theology book "Concise Theology" writes,

"Regeneration is monergistic: that is, entirely the work of God the Holy Spirit. It raises the elect among the spiritually dead to new life in Christ (Eph. 2:1-10). Regeneration is a transition from spiritual death to spiritual life, and conscious, intentional, active faith in Christ is its immediate fruit, not its immediate cause. Regeneration is the work of what Augustine called 'prevenient' grace, the grace that precedes our outgoings of heart toward God."

A classical/reformed Arminian or Wesley Arminian would believe that since all humanity is dead because of sin, no one seeks God. NO ONE SEEKS GOD! So the Scripture teaches in Romans 3:9-18. God is the first. God initiates. God seeks mankind. No human seeks God. God is the one who begins and ends salvation. Every single human being would absolutely go to hell deservingly so unless God starts, initiates, begins, and seeks mankind.

A. W. Tozer wrote,

"Christian theology teaches the doctrine of prevenient grace, which briefly stated means this, that before a man can seek God, God must first have sought the man.

Before a sinful man can think a right thought of God, there must have been a work of enlightenment done within him; imperfect it may be, but a true work nonetheless, and the secret cause of all desiring and seeking and praying which may follow.

We pursue God because, and only because, He has first put an urge within us that spurs us to the pursuit. "No man can come to me," said our Lord, "except the Father which hath sent me draw him," and it is by this very prevenient drawing that God takes from us every vestige of credit for the act of coming. The impulse to pursue God originates with God, but the outworking of that impulse is our following hard after Him; and all the time we are pursuing Him we are already in His hand: "Thy right hand upholdeth me."

In this divine "upholding" and human "following" there is no contradiction. All is of God, for as von Hegel teaches, God is always previous. In practice, however, (that is, where God's previous working meets man's present response) man must pursue God. On our part there must be positive reciprocation if this secret drawing of God is to eventuate in identifiable experience of the Divine. In the warm language of personal feeling this is stated in the Forty-second Psalm: "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?" This is deep calling unto deep, and the longing heart will understand it.

–Excerpted from A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God, chapter 1 (this was found on evangelicalarminians org.

Thus God gets all the glory for salvation. When Jesus commanded, "Repent" a person can resist or not resist. "You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, you also do. (Acts 7:51, EMTV)

Most Calvinists and Arminians preach the Gospel. Starting with the Law of God showing all that they are not good but evil and are deserving of hell fire, they proceed to the grace of God found only in the shed blood of Jesus Christ, who is the only savior.

But the Scripture has confined all under sin that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. (Galatians 3:22, NKJV)