So all that "seek and ye shall find" stuff, along with "believe" and "have faith" is just poetic language? Man is not really capable of choosing to seek, believe or have faith after all?
What kind of God asks man to do that which he is not capable of doing? A cruel monster, that's what type of God would do that.
One does not seek unless one
chooses to seek. Seeking, like making any choice, is something
one does. In other words, it is a positive act of the will. Some seek, some don't. Some, after seeking, choose faith. Others don't.
Calvin admitted his doctrine of total depravity with is views on free will were completely novel and contradicted the belief of the early Christians...
"For under the second head, where [the early Christians] treat of Original Sin, they declare that free will, though impaired in its powers and biased, is not however extinguished. I will not dispute about a name, but since they contend that liberty has by no means been extinguished, they certainly understand that the human will has still some power left to choose good." (John Calvin, in John Calvin: Selections from His Writings, pg. 159)
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