My name is not Sherlock.
You keep bringing up 1 Corinthians 2:14....are there no other verses in the bible?
This is the big problem with calvinism....
The discussion always falls back to two calvinistic ideas:
1. Free will.....easier to blame me of not understanding it since you are UNABLE to show from biblical scripture that it does NOT exist.
2. Total Depravity of Man...another idea which is not biblical.
All men are born depraved...but not so depraved as to be UNABLE to hear the calling of God from the grace God gives to all persons.
I disagree, because the idea that man is not so depraved comes from Pelagius and pagan philosophy. Further, your idea that God gives grace to all persons is a confusion between two different graces. Common grace is given to everyone, where everyone receives benefit from the atonement of Christ and God's blessings, but is not salvific. Special grace is given only to those God chose for salvation, as Paul describes in Eph. 2. But Paul's description of the depraved man in Rom. 3:10-18 applies to every unregenerate person.
Hebrews 4:16
16Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
This is to saved persons...and yet Paul states that it is WE who must draw near...free will at work once again.
I agree that this is to saved persons, who have a will that is (to some extent) freed from the sinful nature, and is no longer in bondage to sin. This command doesn't apply to unregenerate souls, since they won't hear it anyway.
Titus 2:11
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, [who accept God's conditions]
To qualify "all people" by a statement of your bias, and then to reject my qualification that "all people" means all nations, not just the Jews, you judge by a double standard. But "all people who accept God's conditions" is a no-brainer, as it is saying WHO has salvation brought to them, not HOW it is brought. The issue is, who determines the salvation of an individual. Is it the sovereign God, or is it man by himself? This is the real issue. Salvation of an individual determined by the sovereign God is Augustinian (and Pauline and Johannine), whereas salvation of an individual determined only by that individual is Pelagian (the heretic).
Joel 2:13
And rend your heart and not your garments.”
Now return to the Lord your God,
For He is gracious and compassionate,
Slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness
And relenting of evil.
Those who are already God's people hear this, and those who aren't don't.
Ezra 8:22
“The hand of our God is favorably disposed to all those who seek Him, but His power and His anger are against all those who forsake Him.”
"All those who seek Him" are the elect, and born of God already, because the apostle Paul described every unregenerate person this way "
there is none who seeks for God." Therefore, what you are trying to argue is patently wrong, since it poses contradiction in scripture. How can unregenerate man use a "free will" to seek God, when Paul clearly states "there is none who seeks for God"? Your view of natural man is not biblical.
And not everyone that comes to God does so out of fear of hell...
I can attest to that.
It is possible you didn't need the warning of hell fire. I don't know your situation, and I certainly did not say or imply that everyone has to be motivated by fear. Nevertheless, the writer of Hebrews speaks of the fear of death in Heb. 2:15 in such a general way, that it appears to me that there is some level of fear of eternal condemnation that everyone has that motivates them to try to please God in some way. All religions have some basis in that. And that book speaks of overcoming the fear of death (that is, the 2nd death) as a state of "sabbath rest." If you were in this sabbath rest (because you always trusted in Christ) as far back as you remember, then you might not think that a person needs to fear death before having a relationship with God. I'm just asking you not to judge scripture according to your experience, but according to what it actually says. Jesus commanded people (in a general way) to fear God by saying:
"Do not fear him who can destroy the body and afterward can do nothing to you; but rather fear Him who can destroy both your body and soul in hell. I tell you, that's whom you should fear." (Luke 12:5)
You can say a person is wrong all you want to...
that does not make it so,
and you're not very good at proving your points using scripture.
I say, you're just not good at understanding what you read.