All the terminology used --"they chose hell", "it is not God's fault", etc-- is just another way to put it, I suppose, but the Bible says because they have not believed, which can be taken to imply several different things. In one way of looking at it, man does indeed choose hell, by rejecting Christ. But John 3:18 says he was already condemned.
Did the person really choose hell since everyone is dead in sin, and so -
according to Calvinism - cannot choose to believe?
Since God knows that no one can believe -
according the Calvinism - then God must instead show partiality, electing some to give them faith through regeneration.
God is an impartial and righteous judge, showing no favoritism
However, Scripture makes clear that God is a righteous and impartial judge showing mercy to all.
There are many Scriptures teaching this reality (
Deuteronomy 10:17; 2 Chronicles 19:7; Acts 10:34-35; Romans 2:5-13; Romans 10:10-14; Romans 11:30-32; Ephesians 6:9; Colossians 3:23-25; 1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9; James 2:9; Hosea 4:6).
If God is a righteous and impartial Judge, as Scripture teaches, how is it you feel God can show partiality in judgment - favoring some by giving them faith through regeneration, and condemning the rest without any chance at all?
Where does Scripture teach the regeneration precedes faith? Don't quote a Passage and assume. Anyone can do that. Quote where Scripture actually teaches that.
Does God invite only some to the Wedding Feast (
Matthew 22:1-14), or does God send out His servants to gather all that would come?
Calvinists must alter and reinterpret every one of the following Passages to make it say that God shows partiality. But that is not what these verses actually state.
Romans 11:32 (WEB)
For God has shut up all to disobedience, that he might have mercy on all.
Titus 2:11 (WEB) 11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men
Isaiah 53:6 (WEB) 6 All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
1 John 2:2 (WEB) 2 And he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.
John 1:29 (WEB) 29 The next day, he saw Jesus coming to him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
John 3:14-18 (WEB) 14 As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
John 4:42 (WEB) 42 They said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of your speaking; for we have heard for ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.”
2 Corinthians 5:19 (WEB)
19 … God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning to them their trespasses, and having committed to us the word of reconciliation.
1 Timothy 2:6 (WEB) 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, the testimony in its own times
1 Timothy 4:10 (WEB) 10 For to this end we both labor and suffer reproach, because we have set our trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe.
Hebrews 2:9 (WEB) 9 But we see him who has been made a little lower than the angels, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God he should taste of death for everyone.
Although God has paid the ransom for all people, only those who believe after hearing the Gospel appropriate that ransom to themselves.
The word foreknowledge doesn't mean foresight, unless foresight also means what God knowingly causes
Foreknowledge or foreknew means to love beforehand or to have known beforehand. Foreknow does not mean God knowingly causes.
--not what merely happens by chance or by someone else's sovereignty. How could God NOT know? After all, He CAUSED it. God is not an unwitting victim of the future.
For God to know something is not equal to God causing something.
If a sovereign God chooses to save those who would believe in His Son at the hearing of the Gospel, which is taught in throughout the NT, who are we to say that God is not sovereign for doing so?
Now, to your question, I agree, we are obligated not to resist the Spirit. Are you saying that counters what I say there?
Yes, because
Romans 8:1-4;
Romans 8:12-13;
Galatians 5:13-25; and
Galatians 6:7-9 shows that each person who believes in Jesus must continue to demonstrate his faith by living, walking and reaping to the Spirit to be saved. Not everyone will remain faithful, and many will fall away. But the Scriptures do not teach that, if believer falls away, means they were never saved to begin with.
In contrast, you are saying those God elected to save are guaranteed to be saved. That is why I quote those Passages.
I quote this last because I hope you can see John's construction here: the one who keeps Christ's commands can be known to know Christ. Conversely, if one does not keep Christ's commands he does not know him. John shows that the works is evidence of, not the cause of, belonging to Christ or being in Christ...
John 3:18 (NIV) 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
In
John 3:18, in the context of
John 3:14-18, we see that, unlike what Calvinism teaches, each person has a choice to either believe and be saved, or not to believe and remain condemned. A sovereign God judges each person according to how he responds to his grace.
Blessings