Sapper Woody,
I'm going to try to address what you wrote here and I'm hopefully what I have to say will be profitable to you (and others) even if you don't agree...
I would agree that man is drawn to God and that he cannot just "decide" to be saved. Man indeed has to be drawn by the Holy Spirit, as you suggest.
However, that last little piece, the decision to accept or reject Christ isn't outside of that drawing. Jonathan Edwards said, "We are free to choose, but we are always a slave to our greatest desire." Therein lies the problem--it is not what we do, it is who we are that is the problem. Christ said things like murder, etc. come from the heart. Genesis reports that the desire of man's heart is only evil continually. In the Prophets we're told that the heart is desperately wicked and then asks the rhetorical question, "Who can know it"--expecting the answer no one, not even us.
So, in essence, a drawing that only brings you to the precipice isn't, ultimately, a drawing because it doesn't deal with the root issue--the heart.
In Irresistible Grace, we say that God makes the unwilling willing by changing their heart. In other words, He gives us new desires and then we are then enslaved as bond-servants to that great desire--Christ (see the Edwards quote above).
So, there is free choice, but it's the free choice exercised by a heart that has already been changed by the Holy Spirit (see John 3; Ezekiel 36).
As Dr. Timothy Paul Jones has said in his new book, PROOF: Finding Freedom through the Intoxicating Joy of Irresistible Grace, "The spiritually dead don’t choose God's gift for the same reason prison escapees don’t voluntarily visit the police."
Archangel has given the Calvinist view here. But is it what scripture teaches? Does scripture teach that we are enslaved by a sin nature and will always choose against God? I do not believe it does.
Rom 6:16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey;
whether of sin unto death,
or of obedience unto righteousness?
17 But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
18 Being
then made free from sin, ye
became the servants of righteousness.
Paul taught that we have the ability to yield ourselves, "whether" of sin unto death, "or" obedience unto righteousness.
In verse 17 Paul thanks God that when these persons were servants or slaves of sin, they obeyed the gospel. Being "then" made free from sin, they became servants of righteousness.
This shows they obeyed the gospel while they were yet sinners and slaves of sin. It was only AFTER believing the gospel they were made free of sin and "became" servants of righteousness.
So, this refutes the Calvinist view that a sinner cannot repent and obey the gospel.
The question here is this: If all mankind's sins are atoned for, why does anyone go to hell?
Now, one might counter: Unbelief is a sin. But, then the conundrum is why that sin is unatoned for when the claim is made that all sin is atoned for.
At some point, if one rejects a limited atonement, one has to deal with why God is requiring of double payment of the sins of the non-believers. If Christ paid for their sins on the cross--and God's wrath was poured out on Christ for those sins--why does He pour out His wrath again on unbelievers in hell?
We only receive the atonement or redemption "in him".
1 Cor 1:30 But of him are ye
in Christ Jesus, who of God
is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and
redemption:
Eph 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ:
Eph 1:7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
Jesus provided redemption for every man, but we only have access to this redemption "in Christ". We must believe to receive the redemption paid by Jesus.
I'd agree with this. The reason God sees the Christian as sinless is not because of Christ's death as that only pays for our sins. Instead, God sees us as righteous because of the life of perfection Christ lived in our stead. In other words, Christ is our substitute in life--living the perfect life we could not have lived--and our substitute in His death--bearing the wrath of God that we deserved to bear. We are, as the song says, dressed in His righteousness alone. It is not our righteousness, it is an alien righteousness--Christ's righteousness.
I would disagree with this, I believe the scriptures teach unregenerate man can do good, but any righteousness he would do is made filthy and torn by sin he commits.
Eze 18:24 But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live?
All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and
in his sin that he hath sinned,
in them shall he die.
The scriptures show that a man can do righteousness(es), but that the moment he sins all his righteous works will not be mentioned, but "in his trespass", "in his sin", "in them" shall he die.
This is actually how all law works. You could be an honest citizen your whole life, but one day rob a bank. Will a judge let you go because you have been good 99.94% of your life? NO. Even if this is your first and only crime, you must pay for it and go to jail. God's law works exactly the same, if you sin just once, you must die.
The wages of sin is death. The moment you sin you are "sold under sin" (Rom 7:14) like a slave in the ancient market. You now belong to sin, he is your master, and there is only escape, and that is death.
The moment you believe on Jesus you are baptized into his body. We died with him to sin on the cross, but we were also raised with him to life. Sin is no longer our master, he holds no power or authority over us, we are now under grace.
My comments earlier should also apply to much of what is said here.
However, you mention "I believe that opportunity will be given to every man at least once in their lifetime." What about those who never hear the Gospel? What about those who lived on the North American continent in AD500. No missionary brought the Gospel here. They didn't have an opportunity, much less a missionary. As Romans 10 asks, "How will they hear without a preacher?" The implied answer is, they won't. So, what about those to whom no preacher is sent?
I hope my answers have been helpful.
Blessings,
The Archangel
Probably the greatest unanswered question in Christianity is what happens to people who never hear the gospel. I have never heard a truly convincing answer to this question.
My only answer would be that God is just and judges people fairly. He holds people accountable for what they know. The more you know and understand of God and his word, the more accountable you are.
Luk 12:47 And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.
48 But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.
Now, I cannot say for certain what this scripture is saying, but those who do do not know God's word, yet did commit things worthy of stripes will be beaten with few stripes.
What does that mean "few stripes"? I do not want to speculate, but it certainly shows they will receive less severe punishment, or limited punishment, but I am not certain.
I tend to believe as you Sapper Woody, that everybody hears the gospel once in their life, but only God knows the answer to that. What we do know is that God will treat all persons fairly and justly.
