[Dr. Eckleburg]

He (Mr. R.) doesn't need twisting of the hundreds of scriptures he posts that you do of the few you think should or can only be read one way.

No one disagrees with the hundreds of verses he posts. Continually. Over and over, as if we don't believe them.

Of course all who believe are saved. Of course God answers every prayer. Of course Christ came to save the lost. Of course God saves sinners.

But first God must enable the natural man to know, desire and love the things of God and that is ONLY by the FREE, unmerited, unearned gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Men do not merit salvation. Salvation is ALL mercy and not debt.

Ninety-nine percent of the Calvinists on this board were once where you are now. And we kept thinking and reading Scripture and we found a reason for the hope that is in us. It isn't anything of us. It is all the free gift of Christ.

[boatbums]

Gosh, we are SO close. There is nothing I disagree with you about UNTIL you get to the point where you say God chooses who will believe or not. To me, that just smacks of a different Lord God than the one I have known and studied for the past forty years. I don't see how you can skirt the problem you face with scriptures that clearly state it is God's will that all be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. I do not feel that places man above God in any way. It is how I see God chose for it to be. He set the conditions for man's salvation.

The missing piece may be that there is something that occurs in between enmity with God and that moment a person opens his heart to truth. God says he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him. When I asked the Lord for the truth, and he knew in my heart I was sincere, he revealed the gospel to me and I recognized it. Did God give me the ability to "see" the truth when I heard it? Yes. But, by no way glorifying myself, I had to be open to hear it.