There is nothing wrong with saying that there is something in one man that makes him more spiritually sensitive than most others. It is the same as saying that there is something in some men that makes them less spiritually sensitive than most others. If some are less sensitive, then some must (by definition) be more sensitive. What factors cause one man to be more or less spiritually receptive than another has no simple answer. For some, native temperament may play a significant role. For others, it may be their upbringing. Some make poor choices of priorities early in life, which mark their character, their attitudes and their pursuits through the rest of their lives. Some respond poorly to suffering, and others to prosperity. Some have heard or seen good examples of Christianity, while others have seen or heard only bad examples. Some (like the Pharisees) have been inoculated against true faith by being raised with religion and morality, so as to be suffering from a condition of self-righteousness. Others (as those Paul mentions in Ephesians 4:19) may have become so morally compromised that they are past conviction.
People are complex entities, influenced by myriad factors, both hereditary and environmental. To ask for a simple answer why one man chooses Christ and another chooses unbelief is a reductionist error. It is like asking why one man falls in love with a certain woman, while the next man does not take any interest in her at all, or why one man becomes a passionate Democrat and another man an equally passionate Republican. Why do people make the choices they do? It may be impossible to know every factor that plays a role in a given choice.
NJchosen wrote:
...scripture seems plain enough that none seek after God.
This is an interesting observation. I find the scripture to be truly plain in saying that men must (and sometimes do) seek God. There is only one verse that seems to say otherwise, and that verse is clearly presenting a hyperbole. Paul (paraphrasing Psalm 14) writes: "There is none who seeks after God" (Romans 3:11). This is the only verse in all of scripture that seems to suggest that no human being seeks after God, and yet, even in Psalm 14, from which the statement comes, it is clearly a hyperbole, because the psalmist himself was a seeker after God, and mentions others who were of the "generation of the righteous" as well (Ps.14:5). This lone verse, forced into an absolutized statement which the Psalmist never intended, can hardly justify the statement that "scripture seems plain enough that none seek after God." Especially in view of all the passages that describe those who do seek God, like the following:
Deu 4:29 But
from there you will seek the LORD your God, and
you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart.
1Ch 16:10 Let the hearts of those rejoice
who seek the LORD!
1Ch 22:19 Now
set your heart and your soul to seek the LORD your God.
2Ch 11:16
such as set their heart to seek the LORD God of Israel, came to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the LORD God of their fathers.
2Ch 15:2 The LORD is with you while you are with Him.
If you seek Him, He will be found by you.
2Ch 15:12 Then they entered into a covenant
to seek the LORD God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul;
2Ch 20:3 And Jehoshaphat feared, and
set himself to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.
2Ch 20:4 and from all the cities of Judah
they came to seek the LORD.
Psa 24:6 This is Jacob,
the generation of those who seek Him, Who seek Your face.
Psa 27:4 One thing
I have desired of the LORD, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD All the days of my life, To behold
the beauty of the LORD, And to inquire in His temple.
Psa 27:8 When You said, "Seek My face,"
My heart said to You, "Your face, LORD, I will seek."
Psa 34:10 But
those who seek the LORD shall not lack any good thing.
Pro 28:5 Evil men do not understand justice, But
those who seek the LORD understand all.
Isa 45:19
I did not say to the seed of Jacob, 'Seek Me in vain'; I, the LORD, speak righteousness, I declare things that are right.
Isa 51:1 "Listen to Me, you who follow after righteousness,
You who seek the LORD"
Isa 55:6
Seek the LORD while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near.
Hsa 3:5 Afterward the children of Israel
shall return and seek the LORD
Amo 5:4 For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel:
"Seek Me and live."
Zec 8:21f The inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, "Let us continue to go and pray before the LORD, And
seek the LORD of hosts. I myself will go also." Yes,
many peoples and strong nations Shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem
Act 15:17 So that
the rest of mankind may seek the LORD
Act 17:26f And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings,
so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us.
Here are twenty passages that clearly teach that there are men who seek the Lord—against one passage that can only be made to deny it by illegitimately absolutizing a hyperbole. So what does the Bible plainly teach on this subject?
Calvinists will say, "
Yes, there have always been those who have sought the Lord, but they are the elect, whom God has regenerated—making them capable of seeking God." Yes, yes. We all know the line. What we don't know is where one can find this information in the scriptures.
None of these passages say anything about election or regeneration. In fact, it does not seem to be possible to prove that any regeneration occurred prior to the resurrection of Christ (see John 7:37-39/1 Peter 1:3), and most of these passages are in the Old Testament—prior to the resurrection of Christ. Even in Romans 3, where Paul quotes Psalm 14 ( "there is none who seeks after God"), neither Paul nor David mention that they are speaking of a subset of humanity called "the unregenerate." When Calvinists insert this concept, it is a blatant example of the dreaded
eisegesis, of which they constantly accuse non-Calvinists.
In the Psalm, we are told that the statement applies to "the sons of men" (Psalm 14:2). That is, human beings. The statement is clearly a hyperbole spoken in exasperation by the Psalmist,* who also said (quite non-literally) that all the "evildoers" are guilty of eating up David's people "like bread"(v.4). It seems strange (and disingenuous) for theologians to use this one line in a poetic hyperbole as a means of canceling out the teaching of dozens of other biblical passages.
Blessings!
Steve
*We have modern examples of similar exasperated hyperbole in the case the teenager informing her father, "
All parents these days let their kids stay out till after midnight!" or of the business owner, who laments, "Nobody does honest work anymore!"