Right. God knew which decision Paul would make before He was born, but He did not force Paul to make the decision to accept Christ and obey Him. Paul was set aside by God for the ministry God had planned for him because God foreknew that Paul would accept Him and obey Him but God did not decide for Paul that Paul would be saved.
Notice that the verse says that Christ was revealed to Paul, not forced on Paul. Jesus chose to make Himself known to Paul in the way that He did because He approaches everyone in the exact way that that person needs to be approached. But He didn't force Paul to accept Him and obey Him and He doesn't force anyone to accept Him. He makes Himself known, and the Holy Spirit convicts, and the individual responds or refuses to respond.
The fact is that they did not. God brought them to repentence.
God convicted them. It was their response to the conviction that enabled God to save them and use them.
Yes, they responded to God's invitation simply because God opened their eyes to see and ears to hear the truth.
He convicted them, they responded to the initial conviction, and then they were given truth. God did not overwhelm them and force them to obey Him. It simply doesn't work that way.
So, are you saying that perfect man made a poor choice?
Yep. God put the tree in the garden for the express purpose of giving Adam and Eve a choice to obey Him and freely follow Him and they chose to disobey Him and bring death upon themselves and the entire human race and because of their choice, we have the conditions in the world and with men that we have now.
Had they made the choice to do what God told them, we wouldn't have the situation we have.
This proves that no man is perfect, and, like God said, there is none righteous.
Then how can we do better?
By choosing to respond to the convicting work of the Holy Spirit and choosing to accept Christ as Savior.
And, of course that raises the question are people cast into hell for making poor choices by a loving God? Is that your position?
That's not "my position", it is what God told us.
Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. 14“For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it. (Matthew 7:13, 14)
God doesn't force anyone through the narrow gate. They freely choose to go through it themselves.
He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (John 3:18)
Now what reason does God give there for man being condemned? Is it because God chose not to put a particular person on His special, pre-selected list, or is it because the person did not believe in Christ? Who is God putting the responsibility on for being judged?
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." (Matthew 7:21)
Is doing the will of God a choice or does God force people to do His will? Upon whom is God putting the responsibility here of not getting into heaven? If God picks and chooses who to save and who not to save, then why does He put so much responsibility on individuals?
Since God created spiritual beings for the purpose of expressing love, those beings must have complete free will in order to express that love. Of course, free will allows for the possibility of those beings rejecting God and His plans. A God that did not love would not have died to save human beings, the majority of whom will reject Him and spit in His face. God loves us enough to give us the choice of accepting Him or rejecting Him. He grieves for every single person who chooses to condemn themselves and send themselves to hell. But He still gives them the free choice to do so.
Where on earth does it say that they "chose not to believe"?
When Jesus said:
"I told you, and you do not believe.
What exactly does that mean? If you say to someone, "I won a million dollars yesterday" and they "do not believe you", did you force them not to believe you, or did they make the choice not to believe you? If you tell someone something and they don't believe you, did you force that on them? Or did they choose not to believe you?
You will NEVER be able to provide a step-by-step commentary on John 10.
LOL - and you're still trying to twist plain Scripture into something you want it to mean. I'll wait for an explanation of how "you do not believe" actually means that Jesus forced them not to believe what He had told them.
That isn't the discussion. The discussion is how Christ reveals Himself to us to make Himself known. Paul was at enmity until our Lord blinded him on the Damascus Road. I would say that got his attention. Yet in Galatians 1:15 Paul states that he was set aside before birth. Please explain.
Actually, that is the discussion. You're trying to take the responsibility for responding to the convicting of the Holy Spirit away from the individual who is being convicted and put it back on God and make the fact that people reject Christ God's responsibility and it isn't going to fly because there is no Scripture to validate that belief. If you have to ignore, discard, or twist Scripture to attempt to make it fit your belief, then your belief is a false doctrine.
God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth,
Now let's back up a few verses to what you posted is put in context.
Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earthenware, and some to honor and some to dishonor. 21Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work. (2 Timothy 2: 20, 21)
Here we are again, with God putting the responsibility on people to turn away from dishonorable things, so that they are useful to God.
Then, consistent with God putting the responsibility for "turning away", and "(cleansing) himself", by choosing to do so, we get to 2 Timothy 2:24, and, in keeping with the rest of the Scriptures which tells men they have a choice, and, after being told of the repentance that God offers, God may grant them repentance if they choose to come to Him and seek it.
Wow, that sounds positively Calvinist! God knowing the decisions we will make and directing our paths is exactly what Calvin taught. Another example could be Pharaoh. Please insert the following:
See how it works? God knows our hearts and our intents far better than we can ever know them.
While we're on this we might bring up Jonah. Jonah's will was to go to Tarnish. God's will was to send Jonah to Nineveh. So much for Jonah's "choice" in the matter.
God convicted them. It was their response to the conviction that enabled God to save them and use them.
Yes. If a person is rationally given a choice between heaven and hell, and they can weigh all the options; what path do you think they would choose? The issue isn't whether man makes a choice but if enlighten to their situation would rational man turn down heaven for hell?
So, are you saying that perfect man made a poor choice? Yep.
And so now you're telling me that we can make a better choice than perfect man? Is this right? I'm sure my wife would argue that I represent perfect man.
I'll wait for an explanation of how "you do not believe" actually means that Jesus forced them not to believe what He had told them.
No one said that "Jesus forced them not to believe". The scriptures states Satan has blinded the eyes of the world.
Since God created spiritual beings for the purpose of expressing love, those beings must have complete free will in order to express that love.
Well, that is all very wonderful and cute. However God did not create spiritual beings for the purpose of expressing love. He created them for His glory.