Dear Pilgrim,<br><br>IRT: (concerning Acts 7:51)<br>"The Holy Ghost was not directly resisted, i.e., He did not come to these individuals personally and try to persuaded them to repent and believe the gospel. What the text is clearly saying is that the Prophets who were sent by the Holy Spirit to preach the gospel were resisted, even violently. Stephen goes on to show that not only did his listeners' forefathers persecute the prophets, even kill them, but they too were likewise guilty of an even more heinous crime for they crucified the Christ of whom the prophets spoke."<br><br>The fact that the Holy Ghost was resisted by rejecting the prophets does not negate the fact that He was fully, finally, and personally resisted. Often, God's call is communicated through the voice of a man, though it is still God who speaks. When Ananias and Sapphira lied to Peter in Acts chapter 5, did it indicate that they just lied to the representatives of the Holy Spirit? Nay, Peter said that they did not lie to men, but to God. In Matthew 10:40, Jesus said, "He that receives you receives Me, and he that receives Me receives Him that sent me." If it is true that one who receives the gospel message from an evangelist is receiving Christ, and therefore receiving the Father, it also follows that if a person rejects him who speaks by the Holy Spirit, he rejects not man, but God. This is why it is said that they resisted the Holy Spirit, not just His representatives --unless you believe that Ananias and his wife simply lied to men.<br><br>It is true that it is impossible to resist God's will concerning certain matters --I mean, no one is going to stop the second coming of Christ no matter what they do-- but the scriptures indicate that it is possible to resist His calling (both outward and inward). Consider the question I posed to Mikewine, in Luke 10:13, Jesus said that if the miracles He had done in Chorazin and Bethsaida had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented. Now if no amount of signs or miracles will convince a person whom God has not drawn, then we must conclude that God did even draw Tyre and Sidon, else they would not have repented as Jesus said. The truth is that God did draw them by the power of the Holy Ghost, they simply rejected Him. Another strong proof that men can resist God's will is in Luke 13:34, where Jesus weeps because despite His longing that Jerusalem receive the word of God and be gathered to Him, they are unwilling to come.<br><br><br>In Christ,<br>Josh