View source for Talk:To become a Christian you must believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord

This would imply a mere human does all the work. This statement brings up the question of predestination and freewill.

Predestination implies if you are coming to the point of wanting to believe in your heart that means God has done the work of providing your corrupt soul with the ability to believe and worship him.

Whereas freewill implies God is waiting for you to accept but since we are corrupt by the very nature of sin we cannot accept. This would imply we are holy enough to understand God's love and power without actually being saved yet by him.

It is a very interesting debate and at one point I would promote the freewill concept, but as I starting reading more in the bible I am swaying toward predestination. More of the bible talks about God doing all the work and not man which leads to the predestination theology.


Answer from a Catholic perspective:

There is an important distinction between God's Grace that meets the free will of Man, and Predestination. In Catholic understanding, faith is conferred through God's Grace - but at the same time, Man is also free to disobey God and to refuse His Grace. (It is as if someone wanted to give you a million dollars and you refused to have it...) The idea of the utter corruption of the soul comes from Calvin and is not an "original" Christian concept. In Catholic understanding, though the soul of Man is tarred by Original Sin (this is washed away at Baptism) and through the concupiscence (penchant towards sin) resulting from Original Sin, Man's soul is not utterly corrupt, because after all, it is made in the Image of God. Thus, Man is still able to appreciate the Grace of God and accept it.

The previous article also professes the Once Saved Always Saved (OSAS) standpoint, meaning that after having professed Jesus Christ as Lord, you are sure to enter Heaven. This view is typical of some American evangelical groups, but contrary to the position of most Christian denominations, including many Protestant ones. In this more universally accepted view, it is only at the moment of death that it is decided whether someone will enter Heaven or not. One may for example be a very religious person, yet still commit great sins (murder, theft, adultery, etc.). The OSAS point of view would leave such deeds without consequences in the afterlife.

In the Catholic point of view it is only by repentance that we can achieve the forgiveness of sins. In Catholicism and Orthodox Christianity, this forgiveness is conferred by the sacrament of Penance (Confession), where Christ - speaking through the priest - forgives the sins confessed.