"If God wanted everyone to be saved, then they would be saved, or God's will is not sufficient to save everyone. Then God is not omnipotent. Or possible, God's will is passive, and mans' will rules over God's.
For if God is omnipotent and omniscient, then whoever God wills to be saved, will be saved. And clearly God knows every hair on your head, and no harm comes to those whom he calls to be his children.
If faith was an act of mans' will, then the final cause of salvation is up to man, and not God. But faith is a gift of God, purely by God's grace and will, not by mans willing and running after. Unregenerate man does not seek after God. Unregenerate man has no desire for God."
"If God wanted everyone to be saved, then they would be saved..."
Anthony, I would be inclined to agree with this assertion except for the following verse:
"I will worship toward Your holy temple, And praise Your name For Your lovingkindness and Your truth; For You have magnified Your word above all Your name." Psalms 138:2
The word "name" is translated from the Hebrew "shem" which means "authority." So then, God appears to say here that He holds his word over His own authority; and His word says "Whosover shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." (Romans 10:13) This, it could be concluded, leads to the logical indication that God's creational will, "boulemi," like all of creation is bound by his word. This being the case, it would be possible then for God to desire salvation for all of mankind, yet be bound by his word that allows for acceptance or rejection. This idea isn't foriegn to scripture in that it has been graphically illustrated in the outburst of desire by God for man to exercise his free will in accordance with God's desires as recorded in the following passage:
"Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever!" Deuteronomy 5:29
