I'm afraid you didn't show anything from scripture to prove your point.. You shared what you thought. This last thing above is confusing. One minute you say your are renewed after your decision. Then you say this? ===
EG --"God was changing my Mind (renewing my heart) by what happened in the time up until I said yes" ---
It sounds like to me you actually know that God changed your heart so that you would cry out yes in faith, Just as scripture say's:
Isaiah 64:6
We have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
We all fade like a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
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Ephesians 2:1-5
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—[/QUOTE]
Yes we were not saved before we were saved. We belived the Gospel THEN AFTER we were regenerated / quickened.[/QUOTE]Its DEAD in a sense . Its not the spin Calvinism ( Augustine) puts on it . Were not physically dead . We go to work , we eat , and walk around ( Thats pretty much all we do at the moment, with the Covid situation lol )