Let me tell you something. St. Robert Bellarmine is the best to ever do it and he remains undefeated. That's why he chose to be in Jesus's society whereas you guys followed Luther or Calvin or Apollos like St. Pauls warns not to do.
If I'm being honest I may need to change it. I am still contra molina on a few issues but he was a master and a fine thomist. I love to read Molina so I am hardly "contra" him as strongly as I was.
I agree that effacious grace is greater in first act as well. I don't accept the dominican scheme which has it that sufficient grace is made effacious by another separate effacious grace. Sufficient grace contains effacious grace but it is made effacious by the free consent of the will, and more is sent when God sends sufficient grace to a creature who is well disposed to receive it.
If I'm being honest I may need to change it. I am still contra molina on a few issues but he was a master and a fine thomist. I love to read Molina so I am hardly "contra" him as strongly as I was.
The nonelect can be baptized, have true faith, be born again, justified, be in the state of grace. The only thing none of them will have is perseverance in death.
@ekkiet Arenโt you concealing the real issue which is that you can only believe if God preselected (predestined) you to believe? Do you believe this or not?
Unless we are โborn again,โ we cannot be saved. (John 3:3)
If predestination is true, it follows that some (the โelectโ) are BORN AGAIN even before they are BORN.
Reflect on that for a moment.
If thatโs a ridiculous conclusion, then quite obviously the premise is false.
@DineshDSouza Indian moment. It doesn't follow. Predestination does not mean that the elect are always saved. It only means that the elect are saved at the moment of their death.
@InquiringAJ@ChildOfStThomas Yes you should be a molinist because simple foreknowledge is nonsense. At least be a dominican so you can accept classical theism. What are we doing here?
You just created passivity in God you do realize that right? It's a common mistake. You're saying God makes the creation blindly, sees what it will do and then reacts to it in real time by influencing things a bit. That's open theism. God knows everything logically prior to His decree, so if He decrees some creation He has already foreknown it and chosen to create it in precisely that way already. How is this not too obvious?
You can just accept middle knowledge and it will account for contingency of creatures perfectly and also not make God into a passive agent reacting to everything, trying to hold together what He decreed without forethought.