God gives us a gift. Faith. We can use it or not. God works within us the desire to do His will. We can choose to or not. At some level, man is expected to use his own intellect and will to decide on whether to follow the promptings that are foreign to him - to do good. If man does not cooperate at all, then this drastically changes the meaning of great swathes of Scripture that tell US to persevere, US to love, US to have faith, US to repent. WHO EXACTLY is God telling to do these things? Himself? Is God talking to Himself to provide faith in "x" man?
You are forgeting that the Bible clearly expects man to respond at some level to God's gifts. It is MAN who will be judged based on what he does - not on what God does.
Regards
OK, but this doesn't answer my question about on what basis does man decide to accept God's gift of faith? Is it man-generated faith, as I have alleged? Or, is it rationalization and logic? Or, is it personal trust in a close friend who is a believer, etc.? If everyone has all the grace and information they need to accept Christ, then why does one man do it and another not do it? (This is ringing a bell for me, so maybe we've already covered this. Sorry, if true.)
You are forgetting that the Bible clearly expects man to respond at some level to God's gifts. It is MAN who will be judged based on what he does - not on what God does.
Well, I'm not forgetting that we have an honest disagreement about the use of the word "judgment" in scriptures, at least at times. I do not believe man will be judged for salvation based on what he does. The elect were selected before any of them were born, so what could they add or subtract from that based on anything they ever did? As you know, I believe that sometimes in the Bible, the reference to judgment is talking about rewards in heaven apart from salvation.