Why Do Some Believe and Not Others?

[Silverhair]

But Edwards is where I got the idea that you are enlightened by a divine and supernatural light. To me that means now you see something in such a way as you did not before and you then see the value in Christ and his way of salvation. Something has changed in you. If God does that then you did not come up with that yourself. My argument, and I speak personally, not as a representative of any school of thought is that we do indeed have a free will but that our will as a human is not completely self determined. But it is partially. In other words, the light you receive is indeed essential and yet you do have some ability to pursue that new direction or choose to remain in sin because you like it more than the light you now know of.

I agree, man cannot save himself and he will not just wake up one day as choose to trust in the God he knows nothing about. People respond to the various influences that they have presented to them.

To me, the idea that you are totally dependent upon the work of the Holy Spirit or else you won't come to Christ is the way I would see it. But this grace can and is often resisted.

I see the work of the Holy Spirit as essential but He is doing that work at all times as He is always present and convicting man. Even when that man will ignore that conviction.

I was never comfortable with the easy believism which had in a large way taken over evangelical churches in the US at least.

I have never liked the easy believism. Many have been fooled into thinking they were saved when they did not even know why they needed to be saved.

That could mean that whenever the word is preached or read the Holy Spirit is indeed at work in some way on the person hearing the word.

The Holy Spirit is indeed always present so that He can convict the person when they hear or read the word.

I see the conviction as necessary but is not coercive in someone trusting in God.
Like the old saying goes, you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink.

I can show them the truth but I can not make them believe it.

 

[Van]

Why do some believe but others do not?

First, of course, you cannot believe the gospel before you have heard the gospel. And according to Matthew 13, Soil #1 types had hardened their hearts so they could not hear the gospel. So we certainly have those folks identified as to why they "did not believe."

Next, of course, is Soil #2, who heard and understood to a degree such that they received the gospel with joy, looking to the promised benefits of salvation. However, they fell away when self sacrifice, pain, and suffering became necessary in order to follow Christ. Scripture says they had no "root within" or deep heart-felt commitment to following Christ no matter the difficulty.

Next, of course, is Soil #3, who heard and understood to a degree such that they were willing to sacrifice some things in order to follow Christ. But they were unwilling to make Christ the overriding priority in their lives, since they still treasured some worldly things, and the concerns with those other things crowded out the necessity of leaving them behind.

On the other side of the ledger, we have Soil #4.

First, those folks, hear and understand the gospel. Second, they learn, or accept as truth, from the Father through their commit to Christ's gospel.
Among the things found are these:
1) They believe the Father raised Christ from the dead. Romans 4:24
2) Their belief is like Abraham's, God has credited their faith as righteousness. Romans 4:16
3) They have "called" upon the name of the Lord Jesus. Acts 2:21 "Called" not only refers to believing what they understand about Christ as the Son of God and as Christ our Savior, but have also committed to following Christ as our Lord, no matter the cost or sacrifice.