Some are teaching today "God has done all he can, now its up to you", or "Man is free to choose whether or not he will be in Christ".
I have given this teaching much consideration and have concluded it is not scriptural. Man is a corpse concerning spiritual things, and is not able to "accept gifts", or "grab life preservers".
Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) [Eph 2:5]
To accept a doctrine other than total inability, would require me to accept that people enjoy pain, and are looking forward to spending eternity in hell.
Suppose a person is given the choice of two resort areas to spend a one week vacation. Resort area #1 promises comfortable lodging, a wide selection of food, recreational activities, and quiet surroundings. Resort area #2 promises no water, unbearable temperatures, no lodging, no rest, no peace, imprisonment, and torture.
Resort area #1 I compare to heaven, and resort area #2 I compare to hell.
And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my ton- gue; for I am tormented in this flame. [Luke 16:23-24]
It is abundantly clear to me that those who are on the broad road that leads to destruction, do not know where they are heading. Unless God awakens them from their slumber, they will stay that course.
If God awakens some, they will flee from that course to Jesus! Nobody who believes they are going to hell will stay that course.
I once witnessed to an atheist. I asked him if he understood the penalty of being wrong. His response was, "I understand what you think the penalty for being wrong is!" My atheist friend illustrates my point.
People living will do whatever they can to avoid pain. Thus if they really believed that endless pain was waiting for them after death, they would repent immediately. Johathan Edwards concluded the same thing.
Almost every natural man that hears of hell, flatters himself that he shall escape it;.. He does not intend to come to that place of tor- ment; he says within himself, that he intends to take effectual care, and to order matters so for himself as not to fail. But the foolish children of men miserably delude themselves in their own schemes, and in con- fidence in their own strength and wisdom; they trust to nothing by a shadow. [Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, Jonathan Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol 2, The Banner of Truth Trust, pg 8-9]
On the surface the doctrine of man's total inability seems to be an enemy of evangelism, but I submit that this doctrine is just the medicine needed to cure todays evangelism that is heaping up decisions instead of conversions.
Edwards's sermons "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" was used by God during the Great Awakening to produce
a great moaning and crying out through the whole house- What shall I do to be saved- Oh I am going to Hell- Oh, what shall I do for Christ? etc. [Iain Murry, Jonathan Edwards; A New Biography, Banner of Truth, 1996, pg 169]
Spurgeon saw the same value in teaching the doctrine of man's total inability.
You who preach general redemption, are very fond of proclaiming the great truth of God's mercy to the last moment. But how dare you preach that? Many people make hurt of it by putting off the day of grace, and thinking that the last hour may do as well as the first. [Charles Spurgeon, Human Inability, sermon #182, The New Park Street Pulpit, Baker Books, pg 141]
I speculate that the vast majority come to Christ when their life is in a crisis, rather than because it is the right thing to do. Thus I believe God uses these holy warnings to wake up those living, who are yet dead!