“I think we have rather well exhausted this exchange , or at least i rather am, and I think we must agree to disagree, and be glad that we are among (the minority) who believe the saved are those who finally persevere, which I must seek to do in better yielding to the Spirit.”
Yes, as predicted, we were unable to resolve this issue. I do believe that it is possible to resolve it, in that, if an apostle were present, he would delineate the errors from good doctrine and set us both straight in any errors we might have. And this is what we both are doing in our study of the scriptures and in discussions such as this one. I think we are in agreement on some key points which are the more practical matters. We exhort the lost to repent and trust in Christ. We exhort those who profess faith to continue in faith and endure through hardships and temptations. We call professing believers to repentance when there is sin. We do not accept that professing believers who turn from Christ, renouncing Him, or denying Him by their works have any reason to expect to inherit eternal life. Contrarily, these are worse off than those who have little knowledge of Christ and never come to salvation.
“Which pertains to the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination, in which man cannot resist God, which effectively means God does will some to be dammed, due to leaving them no recourse but to follow (if not in degrees) their Adamic nature, and thus are effectively damned for something they had no choice over.”
As you said, this is another issue entirely. While I do not identify as a Calvinist or “Reformed theologian” I respect men like John Piper who do. It is possible that the theological position here is misunderstood just as sometimes the scriptures themselves are misunderstood. I do not believe in double-predestination. I believe those who enter Heaven are chosen by God, but those who go to Hell do so by their own choice. Those who enter Heaven do so on the merit of Christ’s works of salvation. Those who go to Hell do so by clinging to their own works. There are a set number of places in Heaven for the elect, and when these places are full, no more may enter. Hell is never full. It has an unlimited capacity. God merely tolerates the lives of those who reject His grace, allowing them to have their way and do their own will after His Spirit strives with them to a finite point and then does so no more. When this moment occurs, their hearts are hardened beyond redeeming grace, and it is this danger which is being warned against in the passages we have discussed directed toward those who have an outward expression of faith with much supporting evidence of it being real.
“But Christ also willed Jerusalem/Israel to repent, weeping over its impending destruction, but they would not.”
God is not willing that ANY should perish. The sense in which this is true is that God delights in mercy. He IS willing to make His power known through wrath. These statements (straight from scripture, as you know) seem contradictory but must be understood in context. God provided a way of salvation for mankind. Christ’s substitutionary death is sufficient to save all of mankind, but it is only efficient for the elect. Those who go to Hell only do so by trampling over the cross which is blocking their path there, figuratively speaking. Before God hardens anyone’s heart, they have already hardened their hearts to His grace and mercy many times. At some point, only known to God, He will choose to turn over such to judicial blindness and hardness of heart, so that they no longer have the possibility of repentance or saving faith. And this is a terrifying prospect. It is a prospect that we must all be moved by personally but also out of the natural bonds of love toward our friends and family members. How sad it will be to realize that some of those who God has brought into our lives will perish apart from Christ. This is doubly true if we consider that by a greater example of Christlikeness they might have been won for Him.
I agree with the above and most all that you said. Thank you for being reasonable and mature, which I am often not
Before God hardens anyone’s heart, they have already hardened their hearts to His grace and mercy many times.
And we can harden the hearts of many just by telling them Truth, so it does not necessarily require a supernatural act, but the absence of it.
May God peradventure grant all "repentance to the acknowledging of the truth." (2 Timothy 2:25)