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Encounter Messages  /  The Early Christian View of the Kingdom Parables  /  Discussion Questions
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Question 8
Bill Shiley says teachers who hold to monergistic grace may call for godliness, yet they destroy its root. Why does he see personal choice as the root of fruit, and how does that challenge what many Christians assume about faith and freedom?
Another way to ask: Bill Shiley says monergistic grace destroys the root of fruit even when teachers call for godly living. Why does he say our own choice is the root, and how does that challenge what many Christians think?

Direct Answer

Bill sees choice as the root because the soil is people, and the difference between the soils is how they respond to the word. If hearers can only wait for God to change them, the call to bear fruit loses its footing.

Support from the Message

- He describes monergistic grace as God changing the soil while hearers can do nothing but sit and wait. - He traces it to Augustine, then to Calvin and Luther, and says most Protestant teachers build on it. - He says this view holds that humans cannot do any good, or even exercise faith, unless God first regenerates them. - He answers with the historic view: God gives the seed, and people choose to receive and nurture it. - He points to God calling people to choose life in Genesis, with Moses and Joshua, and through the prophets.

Discussion Follow-up

If a friend said he was waiting for God to change him, how would you answer from the parable of the sower? How has your own background shaped your view?

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