Josh,
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In reply to:
As far as what "draw" means. Yes, I am well aware that God's conviction and pulling us towards Christ are very strong, but nothing in scripture indicates that He cannot be resisted, as I pointed out from Acts 7:21.
Really? Here are several that come to mind:

The LORD Almighty has sworn, "Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will stand"...For the LORD Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back? Isaiah 14:24,27

"I, even I, am the LORD, and apart from me there is no Savior. I have revealed and saved and proclaimed--I, and not some foreign God among you. You are my witnesses," declares the LORD, "that I am God. Yes, and from ancient days I am He. No one can deliver out of my hand. When I act, who can reverse it?" Isaiah 43:11-13

"Remember this, fix it in mind, take it to heart, you rebels. Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me. I make the end known from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please...What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do." Isaiah 46:8-11

You are confusing two meanings of the word "resist". Resistance commonly denotes the attempt on the part of one force to avoid being overcome by another force, but it also refers to the successful outcome of such an attempt. This enables an English-speaker to say with no contradiction, "Though the German forces in the cliffs above Normandy put up fierce resistance on D-Day, they were utterly unable to resist the onslaught." Did the Germans resist the Allies? Yes, and no. Does sinful man resist God? Yes (in the first sense) and No (in the second sense).

Josh, be aware of the horrible consequences of fashioning a god other than He who is self-revealed throughout the Scriptures. In your haste to cling to some degree of autonomy for man in Salvation, you have made a statement about the Lord which, if you intend it to be understood in the second sense of "resist" (as I infer from your other posts), is simply not true.<br><br>What would be more accurate to say is that:

1) Every human being from Adam, excluding Christ, resists God (sense One)

2) God unfailingly draws to Himself all whom He has chosen to belong to Him, in the process overcoming their resistance by the work of the Holy Spirit. Thus the elect do not resist God (sense Two).

The shorter way to say this, of course, is that all who belong to God through Christ are irresistibly drawn to Him.

And finally:

3) God will unfailingly pour out the fury of His just wrath on all whom He has not chosen to belong to Him. Their continual attempts to resist Him (sense One) ("Hide us from the wrath of the Lamb!") will be eternally overthrown and thwarted in a manner they will be unable to resist (sense Two).

So although all resist God for a season, none will resist Him in the end.

Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden. Romans 9:18

Two last questions, Josh. Do you take comfort in your opinion that you can resist (sense Two=thwart) God's eternal purposes? How does that knowledge help you in your life with Christ?

In Christ,
Paul S