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The indifference of synergism and monergism when taken to the extreme

Introduction

Picture this: a tug of war. Synergism on the left side and monergism on the right side—only one winner, and the winner wins it big.

But what if I told you... that the woman who you see is actually the same man dressed up as that woman... and because of refraction (flat earth) we see the same man battling himself... A schizophrenic battle, but a real battle nonetheless... If he wins, he loses it all but gains it all back. If he loses, he wins it all and loses nothing. What nonsense is this? A fair question that can only be answered by delving deeper and first defining the two terms.

Synergism is defined as the cooperation between God and man in the process of salvation. Picture this: you hold hands with God: la la la. You saved me! No, I saved me! No, we saved me! AND THEN BAM GOD HANGS UP THE PHONE AND NOW YOU'RE IN HELL!!! This is the very reason why I told you to picture it, as few words cannot describe the horrors of this view (but a picture is worth a thousand words).

Monergism is defined as salvation being entirely the work of God without any contribution of man. You have heard recently that a picture is worth a thousand words, so picture this: I baked you a salvation muffin, but damn it! I don't want to hear whether or not you will like it so BAM YOU ARE STUFFED WITH IT, IT'S ON YOUR FACE ETC.! Hey, at least you are not in hell! But the homeless begger down the street salivating over the muffin dies and goes to hell.

You are now generally acquainted with the idea of synergism and monergism.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.— John 3:16 —

Accusations of strawman

Some may say that I have engaged in somewhat of a strawmannery. This is a fair point, so I have taken to recreate an understanding of either side's view of John 3:16.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever he wants without their input should not perish, but have everlasting life.— monergist's John 3:16 —

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever cooperates and contributes should not perish, but have everlasting life.— synergist's John 3:16 —

Essentially a dichotomy is constructed where either one of them standalone make little sense if you have basic biblical knowledge. Synergism makes it sound like the Orthodox Theosis where we become like God or just work salvation where we work for salvation, and monergism makes it sound like people are just some field of crop where some get torched and some get saved as nothing more but the carryings about of a mechanical process.

But what about the title? Isn't it clickbait?

The horseshoe of synergism and monergism

In political theory, some note the similarities of the far-left and far-right and describe it as a horseshoe—the so called horseshoe theory. Without going into too much detail, it is very much true in that if both parties were much larger in presence then they both would engage in mutual reactionary attacks back and forth, and the power would be split between them so that they both from the outisde appear as just some authoritarian civil war.

In the context of synergism and monergism, they are also the same in that (although they will argue about the means and so on) they both will be expecting some kind of outward or inward-expressed-outward change. Let's consider each position seperately to understand the logic.

In synergism (for example Orthodox traditions), man must work with God. If you don't work with God then you don't have salvation.

In monergism (for example Calvinist traditions), God transforms man so much so that he will perform what a saved person must because it is God working through him.

So you see how they both affirm the same thing on the outside? In any case, if you don't have the works, you don't have salvation, but, of course, man likes to engage in a lil' autistic quabble over details and bring about fruit-inspection Christianity (this is also vanity).

The final solution

Both have elements of truth.

Synergism is right in that man's will is involved as there are many verses pointing this out.

And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.— Revelation 22:17 —

Monergism is right in that salvation is of God alone.

But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.— Jonah 2:9 —

And how can both be true? Well, pick a real life example. Suppose the house is on fire and a singular fireman saves you. The fireman then has something to say.

I alone saved you from the house.

— hypothetical fireman

Is the fireman correct in saying so? Any average person wouldn't find an issue with this, yet people also acknowledge that (provided the person was conscious) he could have stiffled his own salvation by, for example, kicking and screaming or jumping into the fire. However, in Christendom we would rather have people autistically quabble over such basic things as these before adopting common sense.

THE END