“…..Closer to home, we have Mormons. I know good, smart people who are Mormons, people as capable of rational thought in most matters as anyone else, I would say. These people believe things that I find baffling. I read their stuff and it seems totally bizarre to me. If one of them were to say "you have to want to believe it for it to make sense", I don't think I could actually make myself want to believe it. It's just too far out there for my brain to say "yeah this might be legit, let's look into it". Those Mormons could now say I've chosen not to believe, but I maintain I had no choice, I simply found it unbelievable….”
Yes, I agree. When in Army basic training, I had a Mormon bunkmate. Great guy, friendly, competent and we got along just fine. Even though he was young, he was already some sort of big wig in the Mormon hierarchy. At the time, I was in the midst of my spiritual search and we had many long discussions regarding Mormon doctrine and such. Our interactions went on for pretty much all of Basic Training. Anyway, in the end, I decided… made a choice…. to believe it not. Not accept it as truth. It simply did not ring true and after “examining” what evidence I had, I rejected it.
Let me expand on this. I had posted the following:
“Warning: there are bible verses that clearly indicate that a man does indeed choose ...God or not....see Joshua’s statement about choosing God. But, it also teaches that God has a hand in it as well.... see Acts and the conversion of Lydia. These “side by side” teachings are somewhat of a mystery to me, but.... just because I do not fully understand simply means I do not fully understand....yet.”
Consider the honest seeker…the honest seeker is Nicodemus in John 3:1-16 …. Jesus responds quickly and clearly to Nicodemus, the honest seeker. I submit that Lydia was an “honest seeker.” Lydia is recorded as being in attendance at a “prayer meeting.” She was there because she wanted to be there and was interested. I presume she was seeker. The NIV calls her a “worshiper.” Seems this same word can be interpreted as “one who honors God” or simply as one who “holds God with significant regard.” Anyway, she was there and Paul shows up. It seems she was not “born again” as it is assumed she has not heard about Jesus at this point. So, we have an “honest seeker” who is trying to find truth and trying to find God. She has made a choice to hold God with regard and she is pursuing God.
BUT, we see that God has a hand in her conversion. Acts 16:14 it says “…. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.”
So, we have an honest seeker and a God who responds with Holy Spirit enlightenment. One can see that Lydia did in fact “seek” and God did in fact “call.”
Lydia made a choice to seek and also benefited from God’s call.
Side note: There are many of these "side by side" teachings in the Bible. At times, God judges sin and then takes action. This demonstrates an attribute of God. God also loves and that is another attribute. So, this may be considered a "side by side" teaching..... God judges sin and takes action and shows us how serious sin is. He also shows His great love with Jesus sacrifice on the cross. God's love is an attribute here. No contradiction here at all. Just descriptions of different attributes of God. He is both a God of Love and He is also God that rejects sin and sinful actions.
The tax collector said: “Lord Jesus, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Jesus said he went home “justified.”
