We've asked if one guy is smarter, more pious, richer, more intuitive, more clever, prettier, older, younger, more generous, more receptive, more compassionate than the other guy.
Sometimes they come back with "prevenient grace," but this concoction is found nowhere in Scripture. And when asked, they admit that even though all men supposedly receive "prevenient grace," it is still not enough to entice them to faith, if their own free will chooses to refuse God's offer.
It's a mystery, alright.
Is this the reference to Rev 3:20? (sigh).
Has anyone ever directed them back twelve verses to explain the door that "no one can shut"? Of for real kicks, explain v7 which says "...He who holds the key of David who opens and no one can shut, who closes and no one can open..." If they must eisegete "door" = "barrier to being saved" in v20, then what happens to their soteriology if they merely go back a few verses?
Better yet, what happened in v20 where it says "If anyone hears my voice" and then someone accidentally recalls that the same author, when writing his gospel recalled that Jesus Christ described Himself as "the door" in Chapter 10 where the "sheep know his voice"....
Oh, that's right, if entire systems of doctrine can't be formulated from one isolated passage from Scripture then it must be false.