The Calvinists would often make mention of terms such as sovereign grace, efficacious grace, irresistible grace, etc.  to mean something different or to emphasize their doctrine.  When a Calvinist speaks of  "enabling grace" he meant that God's grace cannot be resisted.  The term enabling grace is acceptable to us depending on how it is defined.    When we use such term, we mean differently from the Calvinists.  We can use the term "enabling grace" to refer to God's ability to give sinners freedom of choice under His divine grace and His ability to save those who humble, repent and believe under the Spirit's and the gospel's influence.  Is God's grace able to save?  Yes, God is able to save by His grace but he chooses to save those who humble and believe.  It  also refers to the guidance and greater grace bestowed by the Spirit to a person who humbles in order to aid such person to repent and believe in Christ. There is no question as to God's ability because God is always able.  The question is whom does God want to save?  The Scriptures shows that God wants to save all men but chooses to save the humble and believing sinners, not the proud and unbelieving person.  (I Cor.1:26-27, James 2:5, Rev. 21:8).  No one can prove from the Scriptures that it is God's decree and choice  to save the unrepentant proud person.  (2 Thes.2:12).

The Calvinists do not believe that sinners can have a freedom of choice under God's grace.  The question here is whether God has an influence on the unregenerated.  The Calvinist's view is that God's grace makes able only those who are already regenerated but they do not believe that God's grace gives unregenrated sinners the ability to make a free choice either to accept God's offer of salvation or reject..  Calvinists believe that God's grace cannot give men the ability to make a free choice to respond to God's call or resist because they believe that the unregenerate can't choose God but always the devil and they think that the regenerated has no choice at all but to believe.

Oftentimes, there is no end to the arguments of this issue due to misunderstanding of terms being argued.  In order to establish a good rapport and to have a productive discussion,  terms or words should be well defined.  Asking questions would help erase misunderstanding such as:  What do you mean by "enabling grace"?  Is it the ability of a person to make a free choice or it is the ability of a person to trust Jesus?  I believe that God's initial grace gives men the freewill either to accept salvation by faith or reject.  God's invitation of sinners to salvation through the gospel is an expression of God's grace.  However, no one can make a choice, either to accept or reject God's invitation unless an invitation is offered to him (Rev.22:17; John 12:47-48).  I also believe that when a person humbles under God's initiating grace,  and he repents under the conviction of the Holy Spirit, God gives him more grace through the Holy Spirit helping or aiding him to exercise faith in Christ. (James 4:6).  God's grace is bestowed to all but is effective to those who believe.  Salvation is offered to all and the death of Jesus is sufficient for all but is effecient to those who believe (I Tim. 2:4-6; 4:10).  Jesus is the Savior of all men not just some men ( I John 4:14).

The Calvinists when asked, What do you mean by "enabling grace", he would say, "It is the ability of a person to repent and believe in Jesus"?  The next question we should ask is,  "When is it given by God to a person?"  Before regeneration or after?  Do they mean that such grace is given only after regeneration?  If "enabling grace" refers only to the ability to trust in Jesus, has God any condition for a person to receive that "enabling grace"?  If there is no condition, then salvation would only be received by persons whom God wanted to repent and be saved?  The question is Does God sincerely want all men to repent or just some men?  Why won't God give enabling grace to all men?  If the Calvinist's answer is God wants to save some men only, the question is "For what purpose did Christ preach to the unbelievers, for them to repent or not?  Matt.11:20-24. The Bible teaches that Christ died for all men ( John 3:16, 2 Cor.5:14-15, I Tim.4:10; 2:1-6; Heb.2:9).

All men are lost, proud, totally depraved, unable ro realize his sins and repent apart from the conviction of the Holy Spirit and the grace of God.  (Rom.3:10-19; John 6:44).  However, depraved sinners under divine grace and the influence of the Spirit has the freewill to choose to humble, repent and believe (Acts 16:30-31, John 16:8-9).  The unregenerated sinner under divine influence has the ability to choose either to humble himself or remain proud.  (Prov.29:1; John 12:47-48).  God gives grace to all men (Titus 3:11) but those who respond in humility under God's grace are given more grace to believe (James 4:6).  Calvinists believe that their so called enabling grace leaves men no choice but that such grace causes men to do something without any choice.  God's initial and  common grace is unconditional and He bestows his love to all men, however God's saving grace is conditioned on  man's response to God's grace, and He saves only those who repent and believe.  If the so called enabling grace refers to the grace that gives men the freechoice under God's influence, then it is unconditional.  If it refers to the ability to trust Jesus, then it is conditional.   If grace is the subject in general then it is unconditonal, but the subjects of God's special grace are the believers.  (conditioned on faith).

God wants all men to be saved (II Peter 3:9, I Tim.2:4, Ps.116:15, Ezek. 33:11).  God is not pleased with pride, and there is no scripture that supports the Calvinist doctrine that it is God's pleasure to save the proud.  (Psalm 101:4-6, Jam. 2:5; Prov.8:13).  Under God's common and initiating grace, man has the freewill of choice, remain proud or be humble.  God has chosen to bestow more grace to those who humble, and His Spirit aids the humble convicted sinner to exercise his God-given ability to repent and believe (Mark 9:24, John 6:44).  God has chosen to save those who humble, repent and belive under His divine grace (II Thes.2:13).

Scriptural Proofs that God's grace can be resisted.

John 1:11, Mark 16:15; II Thes.1:7-9; Luke 24:46-48; Acts 10:43; John 12:47-48; I Peter 4:6; John 3:18; John 3:16-20; Gen.6:3; Prov.1:23-33;  Prov.29:1, John 16:8-9; Ps.95:7-11; Heb.3:7-13; Matt.22:1-14; Acts 7:51; Heb.12:25-26; John 5:39-40; John 11:50-51; II Tim.3:8; Rom.1:16; II Pet.2:1; Isa.45.22; Acts 17:30; Acts 26:27-29; Ezek.33:11, 30,31; Matt.23:37; John 13:20; Hos.9:17; Isa.65:2, 11-12,  Isa.66:3-4, Isa.45:9; Isa.1:2; 30:15; 63:10; Jer.2:4, 13; 3:7,10-13; 5:3; 6:19; 7:13, 22-28; 8:5; 9:1-6, 13; 11:7; 13:10-11, 17; 15:6; 17:20-23; 18:10; 22:21; 25:3-4, 7; 26:3-5, 13; 29:19; 32:23, 33; 34:14, 17; 35:14-16, 17.

The Conflict of Calvinism on Total Depravity

The hyper-Calvinists say that if a sinner can have the ability to believe before regeneration then he is not really totally depraved.  The hyper Calvinists believe that the sinner is so totally depraved to the point that God cannot influence his mind and heart unless regenerated by the Spirit.

The light Calvinists also believe in total depravity but they believe that the gospel is essential to regeneration thus they believe that an unregenerated person can believe before being regenerated but it seems that they do not truly believe in  total depravity in the sense that when God calls a man, there's is nothing that will hold man back to sin, and he is without choice but to believe.

The true Baptist position believes both in total depravity and grace of God.  Man is sinful in nature and his mind is always inclined and influenced to sin.  But God extends his grace to all sinful men and he calls sinners to repent and believe.  Under God's influence, the depraved sinner has the choice either to follow the influence of his depraved nature or to follow the influence of the Holy Spirit.

The Calvinists have often charged the Baptists who refuse to believe in Calvinism as "Arminians".   But according to the Calvinists, the Arminians are those who believe that man can come to God without divine influence or grace.  Therefore, true Baptists are not Arminians nor Calvinists.

Questions to the Calvinists

1.  What do you mean by "freewill"?
                  a)  Freedom to choose what is right only
                  b)  Freedom to choose what is wrong only
                  c)  Freedom to choose what is right and wrong.
2.  Has the regenerated person a freewill both to commit sin and to obey God at different times?
3.  If freewill means a freedom to choose right and wrong,  and if a person can have the freewill
     only after regeneration, can the regenerated exercise his freewill not to repent and believe?
4.  Can the devil still influence a regenerated person to sin?
5.  Can God influence the unregenerated person to repent and believe in Christ?
6.  Is God's influence limited only to the regenerated?
7.  Does God ever influence the unregenerated to do good?
8.  Has God the ability to save all men or just some men?
9.  Is it possible for God to save all men without Christ dying on the cross for all men?
10. Would a Holy God accept sinners to heaven without Christ dying for them?
11. Whose will is it that a man won't accept Christ  -- God or man?
12.  Is it God's will that some will reject Christ?
13.  Is it God's will for all men to believe in Christ?
14. If it is God's will for all men to believe in Christ, why do some men reject Christ?
15. Are there people who resisted God's will?