What is Prevenient Grace?
What is Prevenient Grace?
One member of The Society of Evangelical Arminians explains: “God uses the Law to convict people of their sin and lead them to know they are sinners and trapped in their sins. The Holy Spirit uses the Law to instill fear of the coming Judgment and the need for a Savior. The Holy Sprit calls sinners through the Gospel and reveals that Christ is the Savior. Only willful resistance thwarts conversion.” (SEA)
However, Calvinists believe that due to the extent of the fallen nature of man, all of God’s efforts will be met with unyielding resistance, unless God makes conversion irresistible:
One Calvinist explains: “Calvinism stands on the doctrine of Total Depravity. Everything flows from that. If that is true, the other points of TULIP all follow.”
Conversely, Arminianism stands on the doctrine of Prevenient grace.
Calvinist, Jack Cottrell, explains: “Not all Arminians affirm total depravity and original sin. Even those who say they do (mostly Wesleyan Arminians) have a device called ‘prevenient grace’ that nullifies the total depravity for all people and enables all to respond to the gospel with free will. I define an Arminian as anyone who accepts (significant) free will, i.e., who believes that any sinner can respond positively to the gospel message (via faith & repentance) without the selective, irresistible gift of enabling grace posited by Calvinists as the answer to total depravity.” (Depravity: Total, Partial, or None at All?, emphasis mine)
Calvinist, James White, writes: “Why should we give thanks to God upon hearing of the faith of fellow believers, if in fact having faith in Christ is something that every person is capable of having without any gracious enablement by God?” (Debating Calvinism, p.20, emphasis mine)
But Arminianism does affirm the “gracious enablement by God.” Arminians simply disagree that it is irresistible. The Arminian doctrine of preceding grace is known as Prevenient Grace.
Arminian, Roger Olson, explains: “A crucial Arminian doctrine is prevenient grace, which Calvinists also believe, but Arminians interpret it differently. Prevenient grace is simply the convicting, calling, enlightening and enabling grace of God that goes before conversion and makes repentance and faith possible. Calvinists interpret it as irresistible and effectual; the person in whom it works will repent and believe unto salvation. Arminians interpret it as resistible; people are always able to resist the grace of God, as Scripture warns (Acts 7:51). But without prevenient grace, they will inevitably and inexorably resist God’s will because of their slavery to sin.” (Arminian Theology, p.35, emphasis mine)
Olson adds: “Arminians believe that if a person is saved, it is because God initiated the relationship and enabled the person to respond freely with repentance and faith. This prevenient grace includes at least four aspects or elements: calling, convicting, illuminating, and enabling. No person can repent, believe and be saved without the Holy Spirit’s supernatural support from beginning to end. All the person does is cooperate by not resisting.” (Arminian Theology, pp.159-160, emphasis mine)
Essentially, men do not choose to receive grace. Grace is already there, and in operation by the Holy Spirit. The choice is whether it will be resisted, as Israel had resisted God’s grace (Acts 7:51), and grieved the Holy Spirit. (Ephesians 4:30) People also receive various measures of grace, depending upon how they respond to God’s grace. As a result, some are hardened. This is why John 12:39 states that certain people “could not believe,” as it pertains to the warning through the prophet Isaiah: “He has blinded their eyes and He hardened their heart, so that they would not see with their eyes and perceive with their heart, and be converted and I heal them.” (John 12:4) The habitual hardening of one’s heart results in the forfeiture of grace.
Daniel Whedon on Prevenient Grace: “Ask then what fully caused the Will in its conditions to cause the volition and the reply is, nothing. However, in the cause of the volitional decision to repent, God’s prevenient grace does exert an enabling influence on the will.” (Freedom of the Will: A Wesleyan Response to Jonathan Edwards, p.74, emphasis mine)
Whedon adds: “…the grace of God frees the Will from being completely bounded by sin since the Fall, but it does not determine or cause which way the Will volitionally decides.” (Freedom of the Will: A Wesleyan Response to Jonathan Edwards, p.74, emphasis mine)
In response to Calvinist, Jonathan Edwards, Whedon writes: “Edwards continues to say, ‘Now it must be answered, according to the Arminian notion of freedom, that the Will influences, orders, and determined itself thus to act. And if it does, I say it must be by some antecedent act.’ (65) But, we reply, as our ‘notion of freedom’ requires no anterior causing or ordering of the Will to act, as we hold the Will in its condition to be a complete cause acting uncausedly, there is no requisite for any ‘antecedent act.’ And so again the necessitarian cobweb is broken.” (Freedom of the Will: A Wesleyan Response to Jonathan Edwards, p.105, emphasis mine)
In other words, while yes, there are always external influences, including God’s influence of Prevenient Grace, man, being a self-volitional being, is therefore of himself, one of those influences, and thus acts freely and uncausedly in his choices.
Calvinist, R.C. Sproul, writes: “The $64 question for advocates of prevenient grace is why some people cooperate with it and others don’t. How we answer that will reveal how gracious we believer our salvation really is.” (Chosen By God, p.125, emphasis mine)
Sproul explains: “But Adam and Eve were not created fallen. They had no sin nature. They were good creatures with a free will. Yet they chose to sin. Why? I don’t know. Nor have I found anyone yet who does know.” (Chosen By God, p.31, emphasis mine)
Free Will, inherited from Adam & Eve, is why some cooperate with God’s intervening grace, while others do not.
Sproul adds: “The $64,000 question is, ‘Does the Bible teach such a doctrine of prevenient grace? If so, where?’” (Chosen By God, p.125, emphasis mine)
One member of The Society of Evangelical Arminians writes: “Calvinists believe that ‘God always wins. He can’t stand losing. He chooses NOT TO EVER LOSE.’ He therefore believes the Spirit’s action will always be successful, and asserts that those who do not believe did not have the Spirit work on them, because that ‘prevenient grace’ is Irresistible. Arminians believe it is resistable, in the same way that the rich young ruler resisted Jesus’ call, despite being convicted of his lack of righteousness. In short, Arminianism ascribes more emotional maturity and resilience to God than the Calvinist, who ascribes to God the character of a two-year old. Arminianism holds that the convicted sinner, by agreeing to the Holy Spirit’s evaluation of his spiritual state and following the promise that believing in Jesus Christ would result in the taking away of his corruption and wickness, is converted and saved, resulting in peace with God.” (SEA)
Question: Why did sinless creatures, Adam & Eve, choose to disobey God? Even R.C. Sproul cannot explain it:
Question: Why did certain angels fall, while others remained faithful? The answer cannot be because they were totally depraved, since God had created them as sinless creatures.
Answer: Sproul said it himself: “Free Will,” which was inherited by Adam’s descendants, along with his knowledge of good of evil. Having the encumbrance of a fallen nature, mankind, all the more needs God’s preceding grace in order to repent, believe and be saved.
Articles on Prevenient Grace:
Kevin Jackson: Prevenient Grace
Eric Landstrom: A Short Listing of Proof Texts for Prevenient Grace
Matt O’Reilly: Prevenient Grace in the Early Church?
Ordo salutis of Arminianism:
1. Election in Christ
2. Prevenient grace
3. Gospel call
4. Inward call
5. Conversation
6. Justification
7. Regeneration
8. Sanctification
9. Glorification
10. Christian’s Call (vocation in Christ)
11. Predestined inheritance in Christ
Question: What if God was powerful enough, so that if He wished to do so, He could enable an unregenerate person to receive Him, without simply making him preemptively regenerate? What if God was so powerful that He didn’t need to use an irresistible grace? What if God was able, and capable, of enabling a lost person to voluntarily receive Him? Could He do that? Is He powerful enough? Or, is man so depraved, that he exhausts the power of God?
One member of The Society of Evangelical Arminians explains: “I see Prevenient grace as enabling instead of transforming. Saving grace is transforming, but Prevenient grace enables. To enable is like holding up a baby while it’s in the pool. That hand stops the child from drowning, but the child’s inability to swim doesn’t change because of its initial presence. The hand must stay, for the moment it is removed, the child will drown. Likewise with Total Depravity. Before we are saved, we are Totally Depraved, but that is not experienced, since God holds us up, continually enabling us, until we turn our backs on Him completely and reject Him. Then He lets go...” (SEA)
Question: Is God capable of creating and utilizing such “prevenient grace”?
Answer: If God is omnipotent enough, then Calvinists will have conceded the logical potentiality for Arminianism.
