No, as Paul says in Ephesians 2:8-9, God saves us by grace through faith so that we can't brag about saving ourselves in any way. Receiving it is passive, not active, and thus not a work.
Believing is a active verb, a work
It's not an action that we can claim any credit for, because God enables us to do it. It is salvation through faith by grace so that we can't brag about it. Neither can we boast about the works we do for God after he rescues us. It's all in Ephesians 2:8-10.
It is an action, and if a person believes they are saved by that action, by default they are taking credit for their salvation, even if they say God enabled them to do it. And they are boasting by default. The only way to avoid this is admitting election, that its by Gods choice ,it made the difference why one believes and the other doesnt.
So would that mean we should not preach the Gospel, urge people to repent and be Baptized since that would lead us astray (i.e. taking credit, boasting, etc)?
Well, it seems to me that you are saying that it is by no action of our own that we receive salvation and that God acts alone without our actions being involved so that it doesn't matter what we do or don't do.
Also in the passage you cited faith/believing is stated not to be of ourselves but is the Gift of God, its by Grace, that should be made clear in he Gospel of Grace ! See then there is no ground to boast, but praise grace !
I dont see how you come up with such conclusions, I just told you the Gospel should be preached to everyone God gives an opportunity to preach it to,in fact Im preaching it to you now, and I have been preaching it in my posts since day one. What's so difficult about that ? You either believe the testimony of the Gospel or you dont. And God does save His elect on His own by Grace. Salvation is by Grace alone
Oh, I believe that salvation is by grace alone, but John 3:16 seems it depends on our actions to receive it.
You entitled to your opinion
It's not boasting if they say and mean it that God gave them the new birth and faith by his grace. They would be giving God the credit that is due him. The true teaching of biblical election can come later when they are maturing believers instead of even before they become believers, which is the stage we've been talking about. You have to realize that I was an English teacher before I became a pastor, and it's my education background and training that guides me to say these things.
What do you mean by election? If you say to an American unbeliever that God's elected believers by his grace before he made anything, what will he think? He'll probably think that God chose to vote for believers by their merit, as we do in our political elections, and then showed his grace to them when he saved them. Putting myself in their place as an American, that's how I would think.
