Yes. The normal actions of your will and understanding are the only things a person will consciously notice in hearing the gospel and coming to Christ. A lot of people don't realize that Calvinists like Owen and Edwards were adamant on that.
Also, they insisted that our so called inability to come to Christ is moral and not natural. If that were not the case then it could not be blamable for someone not to come to Christ. Someone used the example of a mother who claimed she could not stab her baby with a knife. She did have the ability in fact, but she was so against the thought of such a thing that she really was right when she said she "cannot" do such a thing. The illustration is extreme but it is an important distinction.
When a person gets saved I think we would all agree that several things occur. You have to become aware of the basic facts of the existence of God, and his teaching on our status before him and of our need for forgiveness and so on. This is important: no Calvinist teaches that the facts concerning this are not knowable to the average person upon them hearing the gospel. But what else is going on that makes a person alarmed and under conviction and understanding personally that they indeed are personally in jeopardy and danger and that they are not right with God. This is where Calvinists, and Arminians, and Wesleyans, say that there is a working of the Holy Spirit directly upon the heart of the person in addition to the Spirits work in writing the word and in the speaker or teacher.
This would be the "drawing" of John 6. Arminians say this drawing is on everyone, some say equally, and Calvinists say it is specific to certain individuals. It would also be what all the scriptures in both old and new testament are referring to when talking about receiving "light" for instance. Or in Edwards sermon on how we receive illumination by a supernatural light. Also Jesus discussion of how some don't seem to "hear" him but some do. He obviously doesn't mean physical hearing only.
This came up also with Charles Spurgeon who did a sermon on his own life reflecting back on why he became a Christian. He said himself we are all saved as Arminians, meaning that we do indeed consciously "decide" for Christ but when you really think about why you did this you realize if was not just your own evaluation and decision at play here.
Now, once your understanding is truly there you find yourself saying as the Jews did in Acts "What should we do?" Your heart has been opened, you understand, and you want to know how to be right with God. You do still need the gospel message. The question comes up as to whether all this in not in the normal ability and understanding of man and whether the word itself is all that is needed - or is a work of the Spirit like I describe truly necessary. That is where opinions of good men differ. I can add more scripture but this post is already way too long. But I hope it shows where I'm coming from.
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I am commenting in this post on your comment above that I have highlighted.
Dave, I am sorry but you just gave your opinion. You did not make a scriptural case for your position. If you can quote a few verses in the context of salvation where this is taught, it would be helpful.
The Jews asked the question after they heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. This chapter, Acts 2, actually is a basis for the position I take. All the work the Spirit was doing was in the preachers, not a mention about the hearers.
Ac 2:4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
The promise that is being poured out from God is the promise of the Spirit. We learn in other passages that he is poured out in such abundance that the nation is immersed in him. The analogy for the Spirit is rain water. He comes from heaven at the Father's behest as water does and he is over the heads of all Israel. But he does not save any of them by being on the outside of them, he must be on the inside to give them life. The properties of the rain water and the Spirit are the same. The water can cleanse the out side, but it must be ingested to give life. This is called by God the baptism of the Spirit but it is not salvation. It illustrates the cleansing power of the water from heaven. Remember, the blood of Jesus Christ washed their sins away when he died on the cross. This water baptism is symbolic of the cleansing of the body from it's filth and receiving the Spirit into the heart effects the change of the man. Salvation is a two-fold proposition. Repentance towards God and faith in Jesus Christ.
1 Pet 3:21
The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:
22 Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.
1 Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin;
2 That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.
Let me help you with this because I know you will not get the meaning of these words.
First of all they are in an epistle written by Peter. He wrote to the strangers scattered in Asia Minor. These were the dispersed ten tribes that had been dislodged from their land grant in 722 BC. This was because of their filthy sins created in the body. Another thing that you need to see here is that the whole house of Israel was 12 tribes. When Peter wrote this Judah was still a nation and national covenants were still in play for them. It was God's intention to get them saved by cleansing them from their unrighteousness and give them the Spirit to indwell them, thus making them children of God.
One must understand that God views corporate Israel as his firstborn son. He is born of the flesh. He will need to be born again of the Spirit. I am not making this up. God himself tells us this.
Ex 4:22 And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn:
23 And I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me: and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn.
Notice what he said to these ten tribes about conversion in the future.
8 Now when she had weaned Loruhamah, she conceived, and bare a son.
9 Then said God, Call his name Loammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God.
10 Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.
11 Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel.
To be sons there must be a birth. In exodus 4 the corporate whole was the firstborn son. Here the promise is that they will be sons of God individually, yet one collectively. So here is another trinitarian signature when that occurs in the future, Juda, Israel and the Spirit. Three in one and one in three, a trinity.
Something Calvinists cannot see is how God ministers to and loves Israel. In Acts 2 God calls upon every one of them to be baptized in water as a symbol of the sins he put away and by receiving the Spirit who was sent down to give them life from above. And he warns that those who will not come will be destroyed when he returns. Read it yourself.
Acts 2:37 Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?
38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized
every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
What if some did not do this?
22 For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.
23 And it shall come to pass,
that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.
Lk 19:11 And as they heard these things, he added and spake a parable, because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear.
12 He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return.
13 And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come.
14 But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us.
Lu 19:27 But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.
Ro 11:25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
I do not expect you will understand this but it proves the Spirit does not work inside an unsaved man but the word sure does.
