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(Rom. 2:6–8) - he was lying?

I am not going to trade scripture bricks with you or engage you in some kind of juvenile proof text exchange. I know all the proof texts for the Anti-Calvinist position because for 30 years that was my position. I think the thing that changed my position the most was when I began finding that on the Catholic threads many of the people who espoused the "Free Will" argument were really Pelagians. That they viewed Man's Free Will as somehow more sacrosanct than God's Sovereign will. That somehow everyone gets an equal chance at Salvation and everyone has within them the inherent power to basically save themselves.

I get from your posts that you somehow think that everyone somehow has some inherent ability to come to Christ without God working some kind of divine miracle in their life. And that in order to be fair to everyone, that God gives an equal share of some amount of "grace" and that the good people will respond favorably and the bad people will reject him.

But the scriptures make it clear that there are no good people. There are none righteous and that all of us are born with a nature that will reject God and based on that idea of Total Depravity that only those whom God changes will come to him.

But, I hear you say, THAT IS NOT FAIR!.

I think the whole Calvinist v. Arminian debate can be set forth succinctly. Here is the Calvinist position in perfect King James English:

Romans Chapter 9

As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
14What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
15For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
16So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
17For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
18Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
19Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
20Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
21Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? 22What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
23And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,

And here is the Typical Arminian/Anti-Calvinist Position:

BUT, BUT, BUT, THAT'S NOT FAIR!!!!!

I know all the proof texts for the Anti-Calvinist position because for 30 years that was my position.

I understand your position completely because it was my position as well. But the scriptures are clear and once a person's eyes are opened to them, there is no going back.

We are depraved people, and that is the simple truth.

Joh 3:19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

2Ch 36:16 But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD rose against his people, until there was no remedy.

We cannot know or see the level of our depravity so steeped as we are in it. God sends His prophets and we kill them. The light comes into the world and we kill Him. This is our nature. Our hearts are hardened by God (and by ourselves) with just a loving word from Him. "Don't take the fruit because you'll die." "Sin is crouching at your door, but you must overcome it." "Let my people go so that they might worship me." He is so good and kind. But the truth is, as unbelievers we want to sin and we steel ourselves against Him. And God hardens our hearts with just a simple loving command that is to our benefit, so corrupt are we.

Rom 1:20-21 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

People know God exist. It isn't that He is hidden away. We just don't want to worship Him. This is the love of God and mankind's depravity. And the kicker to all this is that unless God opens their eyes, man cannot understand the level of their depravity because they are depraved. This is what we want and this is what God has given us.

It is God that must take us by the hand and yank us out of Sodom.

Eph 2:1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins

Eph 2:2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—

Eph 2:3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Eph 2:4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,

Eph 2:5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—

God so loves us that there is a remnant that He saves with His grace and mercy. The real mystery for the believer is why did He grant us His grace and mercy.