Did you choose to be Christian or did God call you?

Question

If God chose you, wouldn't He be unfair to the people he hasn't called? Can you quote a scripture to support your view?

BTW, I would say God called me, because I was a hard-core atheist and then a Buddhist for several years.

Considering the verses quoted by Pew Potato, is everyone going to be called?

Answer 1

Because God dwells in eternity and sees the end from the beginning, He already knows the outcome of your decision. He looks at the earth's timeline, then chooses those who choose Him.

However, to have true children and not robots, God gave us a free will to choose. We can choose to love God, we can choose to hate Him, or we can choose to exchange the concept of God for only what we can see within our puny science.

If free will truly did not exist, God would provide a world with only one choice and provide tons of evidence to MAKE you believe. But He does not do that. He provides just enough evidence to allow you to think beyond the physical and into the eternal. But you must decide for yourself. But do not be surprised if God knows your decision the moment you make it.

Romans 8:29
For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Answer 2

Both. God calls all of us. We need to listen. By listening, I chose to be a Christian.
1Tim2:3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. So God wants all saved. And Ro 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. It is that easy.

Answer 3

Acts 13:48 reports how the Gentiles responded to the preaching of the gospel in Antioch of Pisidia. "And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of God; and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed." Notice, it does not say that as many believed were chosen to be ordained to eternal life. The prior election of God is the reason some believed while others did not.

Similarly Jesus says to the Jews in John 10:26, "You do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep." He does not say, "You are not my sheep because you do not believe." Being a sheep is something God decides for us before we believe. It is the basis and enablement of our belief. We believe because we are God's chosen sheep, not vice versa. (See John 8:47; 18:37.)

In Romans 9 Paul stresses the unconditionality of election. For example, in verses 11-12 he describes the principle God used in the choice of Jacob over Esau: "Though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of his call, [Rebecca] was told, 'The elder will serve the younger.'" God's election is preserved in its unconditionality because it is transacted before we are born or have done any good or evil.

The unconditionality of God's electing grace is stressed again in Romans 9:15-16, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So it depends not upon man's will or exertion, but upon God's mercy."

We really do not understand mercy if we think that we can initiate it by our own will or effort. We are hopelessly bound in the darkness of sin. If we are going to be saved, God will have to unconditionally take the initiative in our heart and irresistibly make us willing to submit to him. (See Romans 11:7.)

Answer 4

My parents made the choice for me to be christian, but years later God called me. He calls everyone and it's their choice if they pick up the phone. Some he misses these days cause they are either on another call or they have put him on the recorder.

Answer 5

I have not received a call, but with respect to the atheists, being agnostic is the common sense outlook.

Atheists and Christians both have beliefs that tell everybody else that they have it all figured out.

I have no freaking idea if there's a God or not.

I'm surprised that more people don't admit the same.

Answer 6

God calls everyone, He draws us to His Son Jesus Christ.

It's up to us to accept the invitation or reject it.

Matthew 22

The Parable of the Wedding Banquet
1Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: 2"The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.

4"Then he sent some more servants and said, 'Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.'

5"But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. 6The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. 7The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

8"Then he said to his servants, 'The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.' 10So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

11"But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12'Friend,' he asked, 'how did you get in here without wedding clothes?' The man was speechless.

13"Then the king told the attendants, 'Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'

14"For many are invited, but few are chosen."


John 6

43"Stop grumbling among yourselves," Jesus answered. 44"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. 45It is written in the Prophets: 'They will all be taught by God.'[d] Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. 46No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. 48I am the bread of life. 49Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. 50But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. 51I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."

Answer 7

In the Bible God says " I knew you from your mothers womb".....God gave every human being FREE WILL....so I chose Christ as my Lord and Savior. God is never unfair, he is all Loving and Merciful. We all have Free Will to chose.

Romans 10 verse 9

Answer 8

I was raised to be a Christian but I was called by the God of Critical Analysis and Thinking to become an atheist.

Answer 9

He called me. All will be called, not all will answer.

Isaiah 43:1'

Fear not for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by name, thou art mine.

John 3:16
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that WHOMSOEVER believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

Answer 10

I had to answer this, normally I wouldn't.
God called me. I just had to look and listen.
In various parts of the new testament, probably the old too but I LOVE the New Testament,

God gave us eyes, yet we do not see
God gave us ears, yet we do not hear
And yet all we have to do is look and listen