Cheryl Schatz

Robin, You asked: Shouldn’t we assume that in order to combat Satan’s power that God has at least equal (if not more) power to illuminate the mind? God speaks to people who are spiritually dead. He also says that they can hear Him. He certainly does have power to speak. You asked: And, if God has equal (if not more) power to illuminate a mind, shouldn’t we see more people coming to know the Lord than not? Why? It is God’s power to speak, but He says “those who HEAR will live”. You may be reasoning that God’s speaking is bringing a person to life SO THAT they can hear. But the Scripture clearly says that the dead HEAR first before they live. You said: To illustrate, God’s wooing me would be like presenting Christ to my mind so that Christ is attractive to me… like chocolate cake. Given spinach (sin) and chocolate cake (Christ), I would want to choose cake because it appeals more to me. So, my question stands… What causes someone to actually believe? The answer is in my post at http://www.mmoutreach.org/tg/john-663/ The words of God are His life-giving revelation so that we have even revelation to believe. This has nothing to do with choices of food. It has to do with revelation of what is God-breathed. Robin, you pose another great question: If preaching causes some to stumble (Jews) and to others preaching is foolishness (Gentiles), how does one overcome the stumbling, or the seeing of the cross as foolishness? One stays away from being stumbled by believing the light that one is given. It is only when one hardens one’s heart against the revelation that one has been given that ones becomes stumbled by the light. People are not born hardened. They become hardened by rejecting God’s truth that He has given them.