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From an email: I read with interest your remarks on human free will and concur with much of them. Please allow one deviance, which I'm pray will be for your enlightenment.

You write, "each person is offered salvation by God (in one way or another, though His preferred stated way is ..." How do we know God approaches us in any way other than 'His prefered, stated way?' Why is not the presentation of the gospel sufficient? Hebrews 1 teaches us that in the past God used various ways, but now He works through His Son. And the second chapter affirms that we have the confirmed message and we must hold on to it.

Good question.

First of all, let me make it clear that I am not implying that the Gospel itself is not sufficient. The life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus into heaven and what that accomplished is the Gospel message. Jesus is certainly sufficient - infinitely more than merely sufficient. However, an evanglist's presentation of the Gospel may not be sufficient to convince a person of the Truth.

In addition, there are many people who (through no fault of their own) have never heard nor ever will hear the explicit Gospel message. Are they to be condemned to Hell simply because they have never heard the explicit Gospel message preached to them and been given the opportunity to explicitly respond to it? Or rather, is it not true that God is no respecter of persons: that in every nation whoever fears Him and acts uprightly is acceptable to Him? (cf. Acts 10:34-35). Is it not true that God shows no favoritism so that through the merits of Jesus Christ, ALL "who seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do His will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience" (Lumen Gentium, par. 16) and "who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality" have the possibility of being rewarded with the gift of salvation and eternal life? (cf. Rom. 2:6-7; 11).

But if the latter is true, one might ask, "Well, then what's the point of preaching the Gospel?"

Because "very often, decieved by the Evil One, men have become vain in their reasonings, have exchanged the truth of God for a lie and served the world rather than the Creator (cf. Rom. 1:21 and 25). Or else, living and dying in this world without God, they are exposed to ultimate despair." Lumen Gentium, par. 16

In addition, God has "willed to make men holy and save them, not as individuals without any bond or link between them, but rather to make them into a people who might acknowledge Him and serve Him in holiness. ...For those who believe in Christ, who are reborn not from a perishable but from an imperishable seed through the word of the living God,(cf. 1 Peter 1:23) not from the flesh but from water and the Holy Spirit,(cf. John 3:5-6) are finally established as 'a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people . . . who in times past were not a people, but are now the people of God' (cf. 1 Peter 2:9-10)." Lumen Gentium, par. 9.

Following is an example of God saving men, not as mere individuals without any bond or link between them, but as a household.

The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved--you and your household." Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized. Acts 16:29-33

Another example can be found in Acts 10.