Salvation is a Free Gift.

can a spiritually Dead Person hear the Gospel? can a Dead person have faith through grace? Your reasoning is unbiblical.

The Greek word akouO can mean either to hear or to listen. Do you think their is any difference in meaning between hear and listen?

What is the difference in meaning between
[Jhn 10:27 KJV] 27" My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me",
AND
[Jhn 10:27 KJV] 27 "My sheep listen to my voice, and I know them, and they follow me" ?

New International Version
“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.

New Living Translation
For no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me, and at the last day I will raise them up.

English Standard Version
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.

Berean Standard Bible
“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.

Berean Literal Bible
No one is able to come to Me unless the Father, the one having sent Me, draws him, and I will raise him up in the last day.

King James Bible
No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Judas came to Jesus amd became one of His twelve disciples. Jesus said this was only possible if the Father drew Him.

Anyone can hear the gospel as it is proclaimed. However, consider Lydia. God opened her heart so she accepted what Paul was saying. God wasn’t in the background wooing her on and hoping.

Anyone can hear the gospel as it is proclaimed. However, consider Lydia. God opened her heart so she accepted what Paul was saying. God wasn’t in the background wooing her on and hoping.

That's the problem with Calvinism. Any time the plain sense of some biblical text or concept contradicts calvinism, the calvinist rejects the plain sense for their calvinist system/gnosis.

Anyone can hear the gospel as it is proclaimed. However, consider Lydia. God opened her heart so she accepted what Paul was saying. God wasn’t in the background wooing her on and hoping.

That's the problem with Calvinism. Any time the plain sense of some biblical text or concept contradicts calvinism, the calvinist rejects the plain sense for their calvinist system/gnosis.

the IS a very good point, but I also remind you of Paul Preaching to King Agrippa.


ACTS 26 SAYS: as paul tells his Testimony is verses 12-27

and King Agrippa said :

28 Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You almost persuade me to become a Christian.”


WHAT!!!!! Agrippa heard the Gospel and rejected it by Choice?

Paul said in the closing of the 26th Chapter of Acts.


And Paul said, “I would to God that not only you, but also all who hear me today, might become both almost and altogether such as I am, except for these chains.”

Let me remind you God did not open Agrippas heart. Yes he heard Paul speak and rejected it. As millions and millions of others have. God does not open every heart. He didn’t just open Lydia’s and no one else’s for salvation or that wouldn’t be fair would it? As some would say. And Paul prays he wishes all will believe because he does not know man’s hearts only God does.

So yes, Agrippa chose to reject the gospel, he wasn’t forced to. Lydia accepted it, and she wasn’t forced to either.

If someone is against the right to life and I communicate to them in a friendly persuasive way why the life of a child in the womb should be protected, so that they change their mind, I have opened their heart to the pro-life position by communicating persuasively. I do not reach into their heart/mind and do some kind of procedure that they cannot resist. That's how we use language.

Let me remind you God did not open Agrippas heart. Yes he heard Paul speak and rejected it. As millions and millions of others have. God does not open every heart. He didn’t just open Lydia’s and no one else’s for salvation or that wouldn’t be fair would it? As some would say. And Paul prays he wishes all will believe because he does not know man’s hearts only God does.

So yes, Agrippa chose to reject the gospel, he wasn’t forced to. Lydia accepted it, and she wasn’t forced to either.

If I make someone angry, I have done things that they have responded to with anger. I don't irresistibly inject anger into them. If I give someone courage, I do things that they have responded to with an increased sense of confidence and risk-taking. I don't inject courage into them. This is just common parlance for doing things that people respond to with an attitude change.
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That sounds like a salvation by works system that’s still in the development system.

If someone is against the right to life and I communicate to them in a friendly persuasive way why the life of a child in the womb should be protected, so that they change their mind, I have opened their heart to the pro-life position by communicating persuasively. I do not reach into their heart/mind and do some kind of procedure that they cannot resist. That's how we use language.

If I make someone angry, I have done things that they have responded to with anger. I don't irresistibly inject anger into them. If I give someone courage, I do things that they have responded to with an increased sense of confidence and risk-taking. I don't inject courage into them. This is just common parlance for doing things that people respond to with an attitude change.

Lydia heard the message of God through Paul. She didn't just hear, but also listened, and her response to the message was to be willing to consider its claims. This is how God opened her heart to the gospel. God did something through Paul, he preached the gospel, and her response was openness rather than denial. God did not inject faith into Lydia so that she was irresistibly made gospel-believing.

Well, to be honest, I'm no expert in biblical Greek, so I can only go by what my lexicon tells me, although
to me, they both seem to be logically equivalent of each other.

The one I use (from the Blue Letter Bible KJV) which says the following:

akouō (Key)

1. to be endowed with the faculty of hearing, not deaf
2. to hear
   1. to attend to, consider what is or has been said
   2. to understand, perceive the sense of what is said
3. to hear something
   1. to perceive by the ear what is announced in one's presence
   2. to get by hearing learn
   3. a thing comes to one's ears, to find out, learn
   4. to give ear to a teaching or a teacher
   5. to comprehend, to understand

To me, it seems to lean more towards "hear", but I would be interested in your assessment of it.

how can you say God did not open his heart or not? The text doesn't say that. You assume that.

Paul said to Agrippa


27 King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you do believe.

English hear and listen have different meanings, right? They are not exactly the same, are they?
King James Bible
It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, is coming unto me.

Since all the Jews were taught by God, and had therefore HEARD from God, but those who had both HEARD from God AND LEARNED FROM HIM, were the group that were guaranteed to seek Jesus out, I would say that [Jhn 10:27 KJV] 27 "My sheep listen to my voice, and I know them, and they follow me" is most likely. Learning implies hearing with attention, not just hearing as background noise. So thos ewho learn from Jesus are those who listen to him.

No...entrusting your salvation with Jesus isn't doing a good work. It's responding to Jesus's drawing on your soul with belief in Him. Unbelief to belief. That is it.