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The bottom line is that God decides who He enlightens with the Gospel, and who He leaves to their own devices. You can't become a believer unless God decides that you can. The fact is that He has decided from the foundation of the world who is elected to be a believer in Christ, and who is to remain reprobate. This means that you are totally helpless to decide your own future.
The fact is that you are condemned already through your unbelief. As I said to our other friend, if you have heard that you are a condemned sinner, and that Jesus died on the Cross to take your sinfulness upon Himself and that if you decide to embrace Christ as your Saviour you will be saved from a future in hell, and have decided to reject it, then there may be no further hope for you and God may very well just leave you to go through the rest of your life and go out into eternity to face whatever is there for you.
If you have discussed religion with Christians, or on this forum, then you would have heard the Gospel as I have described it. If you decided not to believe it and chose not to come to Christ when He promised that they who come to Him He will in no wise cast out, then what will happen in the future will be your responsibility. You heard the invitation to be saved through what Jesus did for you on the Cross and refused it. That makes you responsible and not God. All God has done is to accept your choice and leave you on the road to your future in which you were already on from the moment you were born.
There is no such thing as free will. We have only one of two choices. Believe the Gospel of Christ or reject it. If we believe the Gospel, we are committed to doing God's will for our lives, and that is clearly set out in the Scriptures. If we choose to reject the Gospel, we can do nothing else but to continue sinning and be condemned for it.
As I just posted, there is no such thing as free will. The unconverted sinner is in bondage to sin. They can do nothing but continue to sin. Converted believers are committed to the will of God for their lives.
Yes. Although my Pentecostal ID is pretty well irrelevant, I was chosen because I believed the Gospel when it was preached to me. I embraced Christ and repented of my sins.
If that's what you want to do, then I won't stop you. Nevertheless, the invitation to come to Christ will be there for you for the rest of your life just in case you change your mind.
If you heard the Gospel of Christ, that He died on the Cross to take away your sin, and that He invites you to come to Him and put your faith in Him for salvation, and chose to reject it and continue to see yourself as an atheist, then it was your decision. That is the mystery - that you decided against Christ, and yet God made you reprobate from the foundation of the world through His foreknowledge. I know you won't believe this, but this is not surprising, because if you don't believe the Gospel, none of this will make much sense to you.
Free will is the basis of the Pelagian heresy where salvation depends on man alone and his free will to chose for Christ. The heresy is the basis of Prosperity teaching that God does only what we choose to give Him permission to do.
Ah, c'mon. You don't need me to spell it out!
Non-answer. Do I need to help you grasp the metaphor I was continuing with?
