So God's power is limited. He can only convince minds who are capable or want to be convinced? The difference, therefore, between the "haves" (accepted the gospel) and the "have nots" (gospel detractors) rest in the unregenerate people themselves. One group apparently has true, thinking, open minds while the others not so much? One group is smarter; the other not so much?
And what about the Holy Spirit? He plays no role in "convincing" people. Only the written word does that? One only needs to hear the Word and make a freewill decision, right?
Last first, I included the convincing work of the Spirit post ascension. You must have missed that.
You know God's power is not limited other than Him limiting Himself for His reasons. As I recall, I've seen you write about that. So, why try to make it look like I'm suggesting He's limited in His abilities other than self-limited as you've said as I recall.
From Rom1 we know that some reject knowing God and He allows it and at some point turns rejecters over to their "worthless minds" (worthless because they see no value in having Him in their knowledge). That's human will at work and God limiting His power to convince them at some point but using His sovereignty to judge them when He determines to do so. If anything else here, I think we see God has limited to His patience and knows full well what He's dealing with.
There's also His cooperating in hardening hearts that were/are being self-hardened.
From there I see human will remaining involved in becoming convinced and Scriptures like John5 and others explaining some of the reasons some do not will to come to Jesus, which would be in J5 the Jesus staring them in the face proclaiming precisely what God told Him to say and doing the works God gave Him to do. Again, and again, this speaks of human will rejecting God and preferring darkness, etc.
It's empty gamesmanship to suggest that we who see man's will involved differently than you do think we're smarter or better or anything such as this. We'd have to say that you were smarter or better also!
I do think there has to be and is a common characteristic in those who become convinced and at this time I think in part it is above in Rom1 in that we look around us and contemplate what we see and look inside of ourselves and contemplate what we believe - that we are insignificant in relation to this creation and the sense of righteousness and judgment inside of us came from somewhere outside of ourselves and we can't let any of this go beyond a point. So that's God Consciousness that we do not ultimately reject and thus don't end up with worthless minds. And with minds retaining some value by not having completely rejected Him, we retain some capacity to hear and learn from Him and come to His Son and believe in His Son whom He sent.
I also think Jesus in John4 is
extremely important. I'm actually astounded at how little this section of Scripture is discussed. I said this many times but if we're not noticing how Jesus Christ Himself
emphasized the instruction about whom God is seeking since Christ began His ministry for what would become the new era, then we're not versed in how Scripture creates emphasis. Jesus repeated one word 7 times in 4 verses. Try to find such emphasis by our Lord elsewhere. That should make any Bible student pay great attention. And this instruction is following His instruction on His giving living water - the Spirit. Take a look at your reference site and see what it says about this word, "proskuneO" (using
@PaulThomson script to bring out the omega at the end). Let me know what your references say this word means. I'll assist from there as may be necessary or not if you don't want the assist.
Ask yourself why Jesus Christ our KING emphasized this instruction so heavily about who God was seeking as Jesus said, the time is coming and NOW IS...
As I said elsewhere, Faith - True Faith in God - is submission to Him. Apart from some decades of waywardness, the Rom1 knowledge of His existence and the recognition of standards in my conscience never completely left me. Over the years I read the Bible cover to cover a few times. At some point later, Jesus Christ made more sense than all men's nonsense and I better saw men for what we are.
I have zero concerns from relatively intensely being in and teaching His Word for decades that it is by His grace and His plan and His works that He convinced me to change my mind and will about Faith in His Son / submission to Him and Jesus Christ. I'm open to discussions about what constitutes Him convincing/persuading/drawing/dragging/compelling/coercing, etc. but as I said, there is a line here that should not be crossed.
IMO your favored tradition crosses it and misinterprets many Scriptures.
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