(ASV) "No man can come to me, except the Father that sent me draw him: and I will raise him up in the last day."

Pilgrim,

Coming to God is not the same thing as choosing to come to God. Again, choosing to do something is not the same thing as doing it. I think they are different, and there are numerous examples delineating this difference; but I think you just don't want to see it. If you ask the average person, is there a difference between choosing to go somewhere and actually going there, they'd say: Um, yeah?.....

Jn 6:44 doesn't say all who are drawn come to Him. That's kind of beside the point, but maybe it will save time.

"The difficulty is and always has been, you simply cannot take the insult. Your fictitious autonomy is ripped from under you and your pride is crushed under the just judgment of God."

No need to get personal, Pilgrim. I am neither insulted nor crushed. You ought to be careful though; it was the Pharisees who loved to pronounce judgment on others, and lawyers prevented the honest folk from coming to God by their manipulation of words.

Calvin was a lawyer.....who said we couldn't come to God.......Hmmmmm.

"The charge is, in your natural state, you and every man, woman and child are born spiritually DEAD, not sick, not terminally ill, but DEAD."

But when you're dead (to sin), you're still able to do things - even the things you're "dead to".

Mike