Wait for the next thrilling installment!
Yes, I'm just making some odious remarks in the Origen thread. Some good comments until I arrived. Coming across?
Someone will ask, "
Will God save men eventually against their will?"
The answer is no! He will have no need to do that, for
all men will be one hundred percent willing when God reveals Himself to them. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped, and the doors of the prison house shall be opened. We have only to consider the case of Saul of Tarsus to understand the miraculous power of the Lord to change the leopard's spots and melt the heart of stone.
There are those who suppose that God could not convert a soul unless that depraved and lost soul gives to almighty God that permission. I only wish they would ask the apostle Paul, that great despiser of Christ and hater of His Church, that persecutor of Christians, who while on his way to Damascus was suddenly cast to the ground and converted.
No man was ever more hateful toward Christ than was Saul of Tarsus, yet, when his turn came to see the light,
he changed in an instant, crying out in fear and trembling and with bitter repentance, "Who art You, Lord?" and "What will You have me to do?"
Did God ask Saul of Tarsus whether or not he wanted to be saved? Or did He say to Ananias, "
He is a chosen vessel unto Me to bear My name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel" (Acts 9:15)? It is only God who can change the human heart, and when God wills to change every single human heart in earth and in hell, each will be changed in an instant. Some suppose that God is desperately trying to convert every human being in the world ... ah, but He cannot do it, because mighty man, sovereign man, will not allow it! Yahweh does all of His pleasure. “As I have purposed so shall it come to pass," says the Lord. Where do these man-made preachers get the notion that man is a
FREE MORAL AGENT? Indeed, he may be free in some minor things that concern his personal conduct, but concerning God's eternal purpose for him
HE IS NOT FREE to do his own will, for "it is NOT OF HIM THAT WILLS or HIM THAT RUNS, BUT GOD THAT SHOWS MERCY" (Rom. 9:16). God in His great mercy has condescended to extend mercy to all men, He sent His Son to die for all men, to redeem all men, to reconcile all back to God, and in due time He sent also His Holy Spirit to invincibly draw them unto Himself. In the day of the power of God, men are made willing and, having been quickened by that Spirit, renewed in mind, having been given a heart of flesh, they do come most willingly, having been made willing
BY HIS POWER. What an exalted view is this of our OMNIPOTENT GOD AND SAVIOR!
Source:
The Savior of the World, by J. Preston Eby
Kindgdom Bible Studies Savior of the World Series Part 1