It seems (to me, at least) that theologians have not built soteriology on the book of Acts. Can we even get theology from a narrative? What if we can and discover a wonderful doctrine of salvation? Yes to both questions.

And let’s use the outline format, for clarity and conciseness.

I use the NIV here. But if you need more translations, please click on this link:

biblegateway.com.

Let’s begin.

I.. Salvation in Acts

A.. Brief intro.

S-E-R-F-F-F-B-OR-D:

The acronym is not a flower like a tulip. It is instead a mnemonic device that is playfully intended to sound like “surfboard” a “bored serf” or “serf bored.” Be sure to hold your exhale on the three F’s! It boils down my view of salvation to its simplest interaction between God and humans and the Spirit-empowered gospel of grace. It is based mostly on my study of the book of Acts. I also refer a few times to the epistles, and so Acts and the epistles agree on the following basics.

Book of Acts and Paul’s Epistles: Match Made in Heaven?

B. An objection and reply

“Remember, you can’t build theology on narratives!”

However, I believe we can draw theological conclusions from narratives, especially where salvation and conversions actually happen in them, namely the book of Acts. Also, speeches are spoken, powerfully, in Acts. So the book is not only and entirely narrative. The stories in Luke’s history book are embedded with the gist of the Spirit-imbued gospel and people’s response, drawn by the Spirit if they say yes. It is Luke’s renewal or charismatic theology.

In addition, here are Scriptural examples of building theology on narratives.

In Acts 11, when Peter had to explain his eating with Cornelius and the Gentiles’ conversions, Peter appealed to his vision and Cornelius’s experience with the Holy Spirit. The elders accepted it (Acts 11:1-18). In Acts 15, Peter reminded the assembly that God gave the Gentiles the Holy Spirit and cleansing. Gentiles are saved through grace just as Jews are (vv. 7-11).

At the Jerusalem Council, fresh after their first missionary journey, Paul and Barnabas also explained how God accepted the Gentiles by the evidence of signs and wonders (Acts 15:12).

Paul builds his justification by faith apart from the works of the law on Genesis 15:6, one verse alone, tucked away in the narrative about Abraham, before the law of Moses came around  (Rom. 4 and Gal. 3).

Deep theology is built into Jesus’s parables, like accepting Gentiles and rejecting the Jerusalem and temple establishment. Calvinists and Provisionists dispute over the Parable of the Prodigal Son, a story (Luke 15:11-32).

Didn’t Calvin and Luther write commentaries on the Bible and draw theology from the narrative sections? Yes, they did. Don’t systematic theologians scan the entire Bible in all its genres to develop their theology? Yes, they do.

Therefore, doctrine changed based on God’s intervention in people’s lives or seen in the stories. Theology can absolutely be built on narratives.

C. Clarification

One last word before we begin: this acronym is built on the foundation of God the Father’s offer of salvation through his Son’s life, atoning death on the cross, his resurrection, and redemption. We receive salvation by grace alone and faith alone. God is totally responsible for the plan and scope of salvation, and we are responsible for our sin. Our response in faith to the gospel does not constitute a work. The acronym merely looks into the elements of salvation.

D.. Basic meaning

S – Sinners

E – Empowerment

R – Repentance

F – Faith

F -Forgiveness

F – Filled with the Spirit

B – Baptism

OR – Conjunction OR that also serves a theological purpose

D – Deny or resist the gospel

E.. Explanation

It could read like this: sinners without Christ hear the gospel from empowered preachers, and in the presence of God, are empowered to repent and believe, receive God’s forgiveness, are water baptized and filled with the Spirit or are filled with the Spirit and are water baptized; OR they deny or resist the gospel and say no.

1.. Sinners without Christ

When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37)

All throughout the book of Acts and many passages in the epistles, people are sinners in need of salvation because the gospel was brand new on the global stage. This implies that they were without God and needed salvation. This further implies they were sinner who needed God’s grace for salvation.

And Ephesians 2:1 says that people are dead in their trespasses and sins.

Romans 3:23: “For all have sinner and fallen short of the glory of God.” Paul loved to read Isaiah, and he surely had in mind Isaiah’s vision of God and the prophet’s sense of sinfulness in the presence of God’s glory (Is. 6:1-7).

I already covered the complication of imputed sin or inherited sin or personal sin in an earlier post in the section Hamartiology. I believe people are born with a sin nature in need of Christ and his salvation.

2.. Empowered by the Spirit

Maybe we should call this point the Environment of Empowerment. This empowerment happens both in the preachers because in Luke’s charismatic theology in Acts and in the atmosphere. which is charged up with God’s power. It is not about regeneration before repentance and faith. (Regeneration as such is not a theme in Acts, as in other passages in the NT.) It is about the Spirit empowering the preachers and influencing the hearers to receive the gospel.

The power of God does not confirm the apostles but the message.

This section can support the one titled Filled with the Spirit (no. 6).

Now we’re ready to look at the Scriptures.

Paul to the Corinthians:

⁴ My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, ⁵ so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power. (1 Cor. 2:4-5)

Clever words and turns of phrases are insufficient. Faith needs to be based on God’s power. But also the message is the key that opens up the heart and tells people what and how to believe, in whom to place their faith. The demonstration is of the Spirit’s power.

In Acts 1, Jesus told the eleven to wait for the power from on high, after the Spirit comes on them (Acts 1:8). The power of the Spirit.

In Acts 2, when the one hundred and twenty were filled with the Spirit, Peter stepped forward and preached the gospel with power. We have to assume that this initial empowerment is threaded through the entire book of Acts (1:8 and Luke 24:46-48).

Peter was filled with the Spirit before he preached to the Sanhedrin, the highest court and council in the land (Acts 4:8).

The community in Jerusalem is praying for empowerment and boldness.

³⁰ Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” ³¹ After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. (Acts 4:30-31)

“Hand” speaks of God’s power, The gospel, backed up by the Spirit, has power resident within it, just by people merely hearing it. Romans 1:16: “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes.” And so the gospel itself, empowered by the Spirit, is sufficient to spark saving faith and bring salvation, and then people respond with yes to it.

The power of the Lord was powerful enough that miracles broke out. Peter’s shadow could heal people by God’s power. Both men and women believed in the Lord.

¹⁴ Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. ¹⁵ As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. ¹⁶ Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by impure spirits, and all of them were healed. (Acts 5:14-16)

In Acts 8:5-13, Philip, not an apostle, was so empowered by the Spirit that when he proclaimed the gospel (vv. 5, 12), people repented and believed (vv. 12-13). He also worked signs and wonders—mostly healings and deliverances (v. 7). These signs and wonders confirm the power of the gospel through the Spirit.

Some believers in Jerusalem left when Saul (later Paul) persecuted them. Some escapees preached the gospel to Greeks in Antioch, and “telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord” (Acts 11:20b-21). Once again the hand of the Lord indicates God’s power. The gospel message was powerful enough to elicit saving faith in them.

The apostles in Jerusalem sent Barnabas to Antioch, and he approved of what the grace of God had done (Acts 11:23). That is, to repeat for emphasis and clarity, grace is powerful enough to elicit saving faith in the hearers and is the foundation of the gospel.

Paul told the Ephesian church elders that his task was to preach the good news of God’s grace (Acts 20:24). A large Christian community grew there. Paul calls the message of truth the gospel of their salvation (Eph. 1:13; Col. 1:5). The churches in the two towns of Ephesus and Colossae thrived.

The gospel did not come to the Thessalonians with mere empty words but with power, with the Holy Spirit (1 Thess. 1:5).

Paul preached the gospel throughout the many regions, with the power of signs and wonders and miracles (Rom. 15:19-20). “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power” (1 Cor. 2:4). So we see two things that were empowered by the Spirit: the preacher and the gospel.

Now what about the hearers? I believe that God’s Spirit was at work in the hearers, both personally in their hearts and by the powerful atmosphere or environment of miracles and the Spirit’s presence.

In Acts 10, God sent his angel to Cornelius (vv. 3-6) and a vision to Peter (vv. 9-16). Then the Spirit spoke to Peter (vv. 19-20). Peter proclaimed the gospel, but God himself interrupted him. “While Peter was speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message” (v. 44).

Next, in Paul’s missionary journey, he performed signs and wonders (Acts 13-14), which work on the hearts of the hearers, but it is the message of the gospel that is decisive. “When the Gentiles heard this [Paul’s long message], they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed” (Acts 13:48). God was already at work when they believed. The message of the gospel softened their hearts.

Does Acts 13:48 Teach Divine, Hard Determinism?

Lydia was a God-worshipper, so God was softening her heart, too (Acts 16:13-15).

Paul put blindness on a certain on Bar-Jesus Elymas, a sorcerer. The proconsul Sergius Paulus was amazed. “When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord” (Acts 13:12). Miracles open the heart and back up the gospel, but the teaching about the Lord was decisive.

Today, recall the stories you may have heard that say God gives visions of Jesus to some Muslims. The message is: “Follow me” (or words to that effect). They have to go to a church or missionary to hear the full gospel.

God is always at work behind the scenes before people repent and believe. God draws people to himself. “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). “‘And I, when I am lifted up from the earth [on the cross], will draw all people to myself’” (John 12:32). The Spirit-empowered gospel can produce salvation in the hearers as God woos and draws them.

Even though the atmosphere of the preaching of the gospel is Spirit empowered, the hearers still need to cross the bridge to salvation by repenting and believing.

So let’s look at the next two elements.

3.. Repent

We will learn in the next post on repentance and faith that this verb means a change of mind and a 180 degrees turn.

³⁸ Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹ The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.” (Acts 2:38-39)

Three thousand got saved (v. 41).

Peter said the same to even more people of Jerusalem (3:19) and to turn from their wicked ways (v. 26), for turning is also repentance.

Let’s expand on Acts 3:26. Peter uses a synonym for repentance, “turning”:

“When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.” (Acts 3:26)

In the context of the above verse Peter latched on to the teaching of the blessing of Abraham, as seen in Galatians 3, for example. Jesus the Messiah is the blessing to these Jews. Later, the Messiah will be the blessing to all the nations. But in the broader, general context, everyone must turn from their wicked ways.

Peter told the magician Simon to repent (Acts 8:22).

The people of Lydda and Sharon saw Aeneas healed and turned to the Lord (Acts 9:35).

In Syrian Antioch “a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord” (Acts 11:21).

Paul told the Athenians that God is calling all people everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30). Note the universal call to repent in that verse.

Paul said to King Agrippa that the apostle proclaimed repentance to those in Damascus, Jerusalem and Judea, and then to the Gentiles, once again showing the universal call to repent (Acts 26:20).

Paul writes to the Thessalonians that they had turned to God and away from idols (1 Thess. 1:9). When people hear the Spirit-inspired gospel, they sometimes respond positively by turning from or repenting of their sins. Other hearers say no.

When people do repent, they must demonstrate their repentance: Paul speaking to King Agrippa and Festus, telling his Damascus road experience and his subsequent mission:

I preached that they should repent and turn to God and demonstrate their repentance by their deeds (Acts 26:20)

The next major element to salvation mainly in Acts is faith

4.. Faith or believe

We don’t need to spend much time here because the second and third points explain key verses.

Paul and Silas and the jailer at Philippi:

³¹ They [Paul and Silas] replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” ³² Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. ³³ […] then immediately he and all his household were baptized. ³⁴ The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household. (Acts 16:31-34)

The Spirit-empowered gospel is so sufficient that it not only prompts repentance, but also saving faith. Recall that Romans 1:16 says the gospel is the power of God leading to salvation, to saving faith. This opening thesis of the powerful gospel should guide our interpretation of all of Romans.

In Acts 18, in Achaia (probably in or near Corinth): Apollos preached so effectively that “he was a great help to those who by grace had believed. For he vigorously refuted his Jewish opponents in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah” (Acts 18:27-28). He demonstrated through preaching from the Bible that Jesus was the Messiah. It was through grace that they had believed. Grace prepares the way and the heart, and people believe.

Ephesians 2:8 says that it is by grace we are saved through faith.

Next, “For it is with the heart that you believe and are justified” (Rom. 10:10). The heart has to believe it first and then God declares the believer righteous. Faith has to go deeper than intellectual assent.

In Romans 10:14-15, Paul explains that faith in the message of the gospel has to be preceded by God sending preachers who proclaim the gospel.

Many in Jerusalem heard the message and believed when the lame man was healed and Peter preached the gospel (Acts 3 and 4:4), including women (Acts 5:14). This is a powerful gospel.

The Samaritans heard Philip and saw the signs and wonders and believed (Acts 8:12). The source of their belief was the grace-filled and Spirit-empowered gospel.

The people of Joppa saw Tabitha dead and then alive, so they believed in the Lord (9:42). We can believe that Peter explained that what happened was from the Lord (see Acts 3:12, 16).

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, is born of God (1 John 5:1).

Romans 4, in its entirety, is about believing and placing faith in Christ, apart from the works of the law.

The same conclusion in the section on repentance applies here. The gospel by the empowerment of the Holy Spirit prompts faith in the Son of God. This is Luke’s basic charismatic theology of Acts. And I say it is the same theology in the epistles, if you know where to look.

5. Forgiveness

Paul is on trial before King Agrippa. The apostle is recounting his testimony seen in Acts 9, and ascended and heavenly Jesus is speaking to him:

¹⁷ I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them ¹⁸ to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’ (Acts 26:17-18)

Paul’s message will open the eyes of Gentiles and transfer them from darkness to the light, from the power of Satan to God; Paul was anointed and empowered to preach, and the message was anointed and powerful. The Spirit did this to him and it. That’s just how powerful the message is.

Recall that Peter said to the pilgrims and citizens of Jerusalem at Pentecost that they should repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38).

Peter preached to the Sanhedrin, the highest court and council of Judaism, that God exalted Jesus so that he may bring repentance and the forgiveness of sins (Acts 5:31).

Peter preached a hard message to Simon the sorcerer, telling him to repent, so that the Lord may forgive him of his wickedness (Acts 8:20-22).

Peter told his audience in Cornelius’s house the greatest message of all: Anyone who believes in Jesus receives the forgiveness of sins (Acts 10:43).

Paul proclaimed and offered to the people of Pisidian Antioch the forgiveness of sins (Acts 13:38).

Repentance and faith in Christ brings forgiveness of sins. This is a wonderful message of hope for humanity.

6. Filled with the Spirit

This section goes along with Luke’s charismatic theology in Acts. Sometimes the infilling with the Spirit is called the baptism of the Spirit (see Acts 1:5). Interestingly, though, Acts never uses the noun baptism of the Spirit, but only the verb baptize. This shows the Spirit’s activity.

This section coordinates well with Empowerment (no. 2).

In Acts 2, about one hundred and twenty were filled with the Spirit.

At Pentecost, Peter preached the promise of the Spirit to them (Acts 2:38-39).

The Samaritans in Acts 8 believed and were baptized in the atmosphere of the Spirit’s power:

¹² But when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. [,,,] ¹⁵ When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, ¹⁶ because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.   ¹⁷ Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. (Acts 8:12, 15-17)

After the hearers respond to the gospel and are saved by believing it, they are baptized with the Spirit.

Cornelius and his household were filled with the Spirit and were baptized in water (Acts 10:

⁴⁴ While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. ⁴⁵ The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on Gentiles. ⁴⁶ For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.

Then Peter said, ⁴⁷ “Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptized with water. They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.” ⁴⁸ So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days. (Acts 10:44-48)

Some disciples at Ephesus had not yet received the Holy Spirit. Look what happens to them:

 ⁶ When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. (Acts 19:6)

Paul wrote the the Ephesians: “Instead, be filled with the Spirit” (Acts 5:18). The verb tense is present continuous, so it could read as “be continually filled with the Spirit.”

When we are baptized in or with the Spirit, we enter into the church or body of Christ:

¹² Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³ For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. (1 Cor. 12:12-13)

We can drink deeply of the Spirit.

I will cover this topic more thoroughly here in Theology 101, under pneumatology: The Infilling and Empowerment of the Holy Spirit.

Sec. 7, 1 Pneumatology, the Doctrine of the Spirit: The Basics

2 The Infillings and Empowerments of the Holy Spirit

4 The Holy Spirit and the Believer

7. Baptism in water

As noted, after the Samaritans respond to the gospel and are saved by believing it, they are water baptized and baptized with the Spirit (Acts 8:12).

About three thousand pilgrims and Jerusalemites were baptized in water (Acts 2:38-41). Verse 40 says: “Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.” Note that they accepted the message.

Cornelius and his household were filled with the Spirit and were baptized in water (Acts 10:47)

Philip baptized the eunuch just after he responded to the gospel message (Acts 8:38-39).

Ananias baptized Paul (Acts 9:18).

Lydia and her household were baptized, and so were the jailer and his household (Acts 16:33).

Crispus and his household were baptized (Acts 18:8).

Some disciples at Ephesus were water baptized in Jesus’s name, so their water baptism under John the Baptist was incomplete (Acts 19:5).

However, in many places in Acts conversions happened, but Luke does not record water baptism. Acts 13-14, two chapters describing Paul’s and Barnabas’s first missionary journey, is the best example. Never once in those two big chapters did Luke record water baptism. Why would Luke omit it? His style of writing is that once he introduces a topic, he assumes his readers will carry it forward throughout his history. Yet, it still may show that water baptism was not high on Luke’s agenda.

It’s clear that water baptism was not high on Paul’s agenda, either:

¹³ Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? ¹⁴ I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, ¹⁵ so no one can say that you were baptized in my name. ¹⁶ (Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t remember if I baptized anyone else.) ¹⁷ For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. (1 Cor. 1:13-17)

Christ’s commission to Paul was not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. But the others were baptized with water.

I don’t want to belabor the point. Water baptism was the norm for new converts. In Acts 2:38, one verse, people repent and are baptized for the forgiveness of sins.

8.. OR

This conjunction serves a theological purpose. It express people’s option to negatively respond to the same powerful gospel.

9.. Deny or resist or refuse the gospel

In Pisidian Antioch, some refused and became abusive, while others people believed and were filled with joy.

⁴⁹ The word of the Lord spread through the whole region. ⁵⁰ But the Jewish leaders incited the God-fearing women of high standing and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region. ⁵¹ So they shook the dust off their feet as a warning to them and went to Iconium. ⁵² And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. (Acts 13:49-52)

People have enough free will to refuse the Spirit-empowered gospel, but they do not have enough free will or inner strength to repent and believe whenever they want. They cannot strut their way into salvation by their willpower. They need prevenient grace and the Spirit’s prevenient wooing. (As noted elsewhere, prevenient means: ven- = coming, and pre = before, so it is grace that comes before repentance and faith.) We can also say the same about the prevenient work of the Spirit. He draws and works on people, often without their realizing it. This point does not teach effectual or irresistible grace. People can resist God’s grace because he graciously granted them a certain measure of free will.

F. Summary

All throughout Acts people heard the gospel, and some converted, that is repented and believed, and others said no.

The prominent ones who refused the gospel are the Sanhedrin and Saul (Acts 1-9), but he converted later in Acts 9. Some members of the council believed or were sympathetic to Jesus: Joseph of Arimathea (Matt. 27:57; Mark 15:43; Luke 23:51) and Nicodemus (John 3:1-15; 7:47-52; 19:38-42).

In Acts 2:41, three thousand believed, and this is positive, but there were many times more than this number in Jerusalem.

In Acts 4:4, the number grew to five thousand, and this is good, but still others in Jerusalem did not join the Messianic Jewish community (see 5:13).

Many Jews and some Gentiles refused to believe Paul’s message, out of jealousy (Acts 13:45).

The same is true of the people of Iconium; some sided with the Jews, others with the apostles (Acts 14:2-5). The Greek text says they disobeyed or refused, and this also happened in Lystra and Derbe (Acts 14:19).

In Thessalonica and Berea, the response was mixed, some believed, other did not, even though they all heard the same gospel. Credit to the Bereans who searched the Scriptures (Acts 17:1-15). But the response was still mixed.

In Ephesus, some hearers became obstinate and disobedient or unpersuaded, signs of refusal, and did not turn from their sins (repent) and accept the gospel (Acts 19:9). Others believed and a large church thrived there.

Acts 4:11 and 1 Peter 2:7 say that for the ones who believe in Christ, the cornerstone whom God lays in Zion, is precious and chosen. But some builders rejected the cornerstone.

Finally, 1 John 2:23 teaches us that the liar is the one who denies that Jesus is the Messiah. And so God’s powerful gospel of grace can be resisted.

G. My own view

So what am I in terms of responding to the gospel and salvation? Does the acronym make me a synergist? I don’t like the term, nor its opposite, a monergist.

But let me answer the questions.

No, I am not a synergist because coming to Jesus in faith is not a work. God was drawing or wooing me. God is one hundred percent responsible for the plan of salvation and my salvation. And I am one hundred percent responsible for my sin. Think of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32). He was responsible for his sin, and the father was responsible for restoring his son (vv. 20, 22-24), after the son had come to his senses (v. 17), and returned to his father (v. 18), and the father rescued him from his old life of sin. God’s whole plan of salvation is so powerful that when it is preached, some people respond to it, saying yes. This response is not a work. My response to the gospel was not a work, either.

To be clear, human free will is not strong enough for people to be saved on their own. They cannot strut into God’s kingdom and truly belong to his church on their own willpower. They need God’s power working on them, and the Spirit-energized gospel is powerful enough to elicit saving faith, so they can respond positively to it with yes. However, human free will can empower them to walk away from this same gospel, heard at the same time as those who accept it. The gospel offers its refusers their liberty. God woos. He does not rape.

I just said I’m not a synergist, but maybe I am, if the previous paragraph describes synergy.

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This post is a shortened version of Section VI. of this post:

Sec. 8, 1 Soteriology, Doctrine of Salvation: The Basics