Why Pray for someone to get saved

[Smalcald]

Obviosly we cannot save ourselves, nor can we will oursevles to believe, so I do partially agree with you Kross that only the Holy Spirit can give us faith, I also agree that Christ already knows who will hear and who will not, after all He already is with us in the future.

However I disagree that God sends us to hell, scripture is clear that Christ wishes every person be saved. We do have one option and that option is to run from the Holy Spirit, we cannot call Him down, but we can turn our back when we hear. Paul did not have to believe, he had the choice to turn away from the voice of God, just as we all do.

Believing comes by faith. That faith is a gift from GOD. If you are given that faith, then you will believe. If you are not given that faith, then you will not believe.

We do not aquire faith of our own, or anyone eles human effort. We acquire faith as a gift from GOD. When you are given this faith, you act on faith.

All true, however what can we do by our human efforts? We can reject that faith and walk away and push it away. We see this numerous times in scripture, we also find that God Himself claims that He desires all humanity to be saved.

[Guest enfuego]

There are several churches back home that are using this "predestined" view on salvation. It really cramps evangelism....

This is how I see it.

A ministry I was involved in received a letter from a missions team in Africa. This letter talked about a tribe's frustration with the missionaries. Their frustration was "Why didn't you come sooner? Tell my father, and my father's father, or his father?! Did they all have to be damned?"

Although in America Christian evangelism is broad casted on TV or radio waves, thousands of churches are spread around the country, and thousands of tracks are circulated, How does it reach the one boy who is Budist living in Orlando? The point is, you can always change the channel on the TV or the radio...throw away mail-outs or hand-outs...but you can not by pass a person's words. You can deny them, but not press the red button on the remote "to turn the gospel off".

A friendly, loving face is always recognized and welcome.

There is a lot of diversity here at UF, everyone is welcoming to a smile and being told to have a "blessed Day". I feel like its about acceptance on a personal level. Raquel will only listen to me if she accepts me. But if I just went up to her and dished Christianity to her she would probably move to a different seat on the bus.