beloved57
Amen to posts 1 an 2 which clearly illustrate from the scriptures the incurable wickedness of the natural man's heart, leaving him utterly and completely helpless in his own act of believing, or doing anything at all, that can please God Rom. 8:8 because he is in a spiritually dead state.
Man's only Hope is that, by God's Grace and Mercy Rom. 9:23, He intervenes and quickens him by His Spirit, giving him a New Heart, making him Spiritually Alive in New Birth. A perfect example is the Prodigal Son Luke 15:24, who was dead, but became Alive. So first he was saved from Death, then he was made able to repent.
Ezek. 36:26-27
26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
God will give them a new heart if they repent of their sins, but they love sin more than they love God.
God pleads with them but they choose what displease them.
If they can't choose then God is merely pretending.
Your god is a pretender.
Why would God plead with them to turn from their ways if they cannot choose to?
“But as for you who forsake the LORD and forget my holy mountain, who spread a table for Fortune and fill bowls of mixed wine for Destiny, I will destine you for the sword, and you will all bend down for the slaughter; for I called but you did not answer, I spoke but you did not listen. You did evil in my sight and chose what displeases me.”
Isaiah 65:11-12. Here God says about being forsaken and His holy mountain being forgot. Also, this passage tells us that God called the people, and the people did not answer; He spoke but the people did not listen.
Ezekiel 18:23 Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?
Ezekiel 18:32 For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!
Ezekiel 33:11 Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?’
John 3:17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Romans 11:14 in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them.
How could Paul ever think that he could save some by arousing them to envy if God saves us by the Holy Spirit enabling us to believe?
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.