Oh yes, it is a choice. No certain extent. We all have free will given to us by God, the matter is whether or not to follow Him.
We all have a strong intuition that we have a free will, and it's no wonder we read the bible based on that axiom. I don't believe in free will in any case, but that's a different discussion. The question here is if the bible teaches it. As far as I can remember, the only person the bible explicitly says has a free will, is God. And there are countless examples of God deciding what people choose.
I should clarify that choice and will aren't the same thing. Just because you choose something doesn't mean your choice was free. The illusionist Derren Brown has a lot of examples of how people think they are making up their own minds, so to speak, but in reality they've been primed by him to choose a particular thing or even to see things in a particular way.
Yes, Paul had a choice and he absolutely chose without a doubt in his mind to follow the risen Christ. He could have chosen not to, but that is not the choice he went with.
I can't really imagine that Paul could have somehow freely chosen to believe that whatever happened wasn't God, that it was a hallucination or whatever. Or that he could've gone "nah, I think I'd rather go on and persecute the Christians."
If he could have chosen differently, or if Judas could have, or basically any other important person in the bible, then God's plan could -and would- be thwarted. It would mean that God didn't really ordain anyone to do anything, he just knew beforehand what would happen. Anything could've gone either way.
I don't recall Paul ever saying that saints are not saints.... Paul does say this though: Romans 1:7 and Philippians 1:1
We are all called to become saints which means a choice to either follow Christ or not, but God wants all to be reconciled to Him.
I think you might be confusing ordained with predestination. All this means is that God knows who are His since the beginning of creation. God knows the hearts of mankind.
If you mean God's plans cannot be thwarted, you're right. God hardened the heart of Pharaoh to fulfill His plan to free His people, but He did so wanting them (Egypt) to repent and follow God.
I think you misread me a little. I didn't say Paul said the saints aren't saints. But that they are saints not by their own choice, but by
God's choice. And as far as I can tell the bible doesn't say God simply
knew who was going to believe. He
decided who was going to believe.
The two main problems with that idea is of course that it conflicts with our intuition that we have free will, and that it if you believe in eternal torment for not believing, it makes God a monster. So it depends on how you see those two things. IMO, the bible teaches neither. Just mentioning it to point out that believing in predestination, or "fate" if you will, doesn't necessarily render the bible inconsistent.
But the choice is still always there for all.
Surely not for all? I mean, at the very least you would have to believe God exists and can and wants to save you, right?
For the answer to that question you have to read the next verse. God will always explain Himself if one asks.
That's not my experience, unfortunately. And looking at the myriad of conflicting denominations out there, I'm not confident that he's explaining himself to anybody else either.
No one can resist the hand of God because His plans will not be thwarted. There seems to be confusion between choice and God's plans.
If God has a plan for me which will not be thwarted, how can I have a free will?
That's fine, I can't change your mind. You've already admitted this is by your own interpretation, and I can tell you with certainty that the information I have been given is from God. I have tried to interpret my own way too once, that didn't go well at all.
You wouldn't be the first one to be certain that it's God himself who has given you information. Why should I put more faith in you than in some cult leader, or the Catholics or whoever else?
It's not like you're not interpreting scripture yourself.