I hit enter before I was finished:
Scott -
Here is your answer, but I truly believe you've closed your eyes and ears and heart to the truth so I doubt you'll accept it.
Deuteronomy 30:11 to the end of the chapter which says the Word is in us, we have to choose between Loving God and death.
*We have a choice, and before you discount Deuteronomy - remember how often Christ quoted it.*
All have sinned.
God calls to all men today, just as He called to them in Deuteronomy. Today - our choice is Christ or damnation. He calls us all, He frees us all to make the choice.
John 3:35 "The Father loves the Son and and has placed everything in his hands. 36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejectsthe Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him."
*If you "reject" Christ. Active verb. Remains - We are born in sin, we are offered Christ, if we reject Christ, God stays angry, if we accept Christ God forgives. Simple concept. NOT - we are born in sin and God is so angry that he only lets a few accept Christ. WE REJECT. EVERYONE who goes to hell REJECTED Christ, it isn't that they were not called, or that they were not free to accept, they REJECTED*
Matthew 7:7 "Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
*Active verbs. ASK, SEEK, KNOCK. You say we can't seek Him. He spoke to men who were lost when He spoke those words.*
Matthew 9:12-13 "On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: I desire mercy, not scarifice. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
*God desires mercy. God came for sinners*
Matthew 10:32 "Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will acknowledge him before my father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my father in heaven."
*Whoever does/whoever doesn't. But beyond that - - He will DISOWN us, not He will not allow us join his family, but rather He will remove us from his family. We hear Him calling, if we fail to respond, THEN He rejects us. You have the cart before the horse in your teaching.*
Matthew 18:6 "But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.
*I should have highlighed "anyone". God will punish you if you cause a child to sin. If ~YOU~ cause it. This is man's sin, not God's.*
Matthew 18:12 and on
"What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the 99 on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the 99 that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.
*That was Christ saying that God isn't willing for even 1 to be lost, and you basically call Christ a liar when you say that He doesn't "free" some to be saved.*
Matthew 23:13 "Woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.
*YOU --- humans, pharisees, teachers... YOU shut the door, not God, humans.*
Matthew 28:18 "Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
Mark 16:15 He said to them, "Got into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and in baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
*Believe and you WILL be saved. Don't believe and you WILL be condemned - FUTURE tenses. *
Luke 5:31 "Jesus answered them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentence."
Luke 7:48-50 Then Jesus said to her, "Your sins are forgiven." The other guests began to say among themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?" Jesus said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."
*Not "the faith I allowed you express." Simply and straightforward "your faith".*
Luke 10:16 "He who listens to you listens to me; he who rejects you rejects me; but he who rejects me rejects him who sent me."
*Active verbs, not passive. Responsibilty is on individual to accept or reject.*
Luke 12:8 "I tell you whoever acknowledges mebefore men, the Son of Man will also acknowlege him before the angels of God. But he who disowns me before men will bedisowned before the angels of God. And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgive, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven."
*ALL future tenses. All cause and effect.*
Luke 15:7 "I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who do not need to repent."
*Why? If you're right - if God already decided who could or couldn't repent - why would the heaven's rejoice?*
Luke 15:10 "In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."
*Again - why? And also - how CAN a sinner repent by your theories?*
John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the World to Condemn the world, but to save the world. Whoever believes in him is not condemended, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.
Mark 3:28-30 "I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them. But whoever blashphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin. He said this because they were saying "He has an evil spirit."
*Telling lies about the Holy Spirit is unforgiveable.*
John 5:24 "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and belives him who sent me has eternal life, and will not be condemnded; he has crossed over from death to life."
*He crossed over, he made a change, he made a choice, he believed.*
For those who claim I'm wrong to expect God to be fair, Christ speaking, John 5:30 "By myslef I can do nothing: I judge only as I hear, and my judgement is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me."
John 5:39 (LOOK CAREFULLY AT CAUSE AND EFFECT) You dilgenelty study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
*You refuse to come to me. The burden is BACK on the sinner.*
John 6:26 Jesus answered, "I tell you teh truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs, but because you ate the loaves and had yoru fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval. Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the words God requires." Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.
*Our job, our duty, our work is belief. THAT is the condition of salvation. The "work" you say God doesn't require is, according to Christ Himself - the one work that IS required.*
John 6:35 "Then Jesus declared, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty .
*Active verbs*
John 6:49 "It is written in the Prophets; They will all be taught by God. Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me."
*God teaches all, those who listen to God, and learn from God will come to Christ. Again, the burden is on us.*
John 11:25 "Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies. And whoever lieves and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" "Yes Lord," she told him. "I believe you are the Christ, the Son of God, who has come into the world."
*Believe*
John 12:44 Then Jesus cried out, "When a man believes in me, he does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. When he looks to me, he sees the one who sent me. I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in the darkness. As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it. There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day."
*There it is again - rejection, failure to accept*
