It was the life giving voice of the Son of God that made all the difference. Saul may have had a head knowledge of God but he didn’t have a heart knowledge of Christ. I agree that it’s the work of the Holy Spirit that changes people. Life always precedes actions.

You may disagree with me on this but I believe that to be true in your case as well. You say that the Holy Spirit worked in you in different ways other than the gospel. And I beleive that to be true. There have been many people who have sat under the sound of the gospel that have not responded to it in a positive way. Even rejected it altogether. The personal ministry of Jesus bears this out. I guess what I am trying to say is that all of the reasoning, apologetics, preaching or whatever means used will never have an affect on you, me or anyone else until The Lord does something for us first. You didn’t respond in order to get life (eternal life), you responded because you already had life. Jesus said many times in his ministry “he that hath an ear let him hear”. He was speaking only to those who were capable of hearing Him with spiritual ears. Everyone in His presence heard him audibly but not all understand His message because they couldn’t. They didn’t have spiritual ears.

You said in your post that “we cannot be healed unless we want to be healed. Before we can be healed, we have to recognize that we are sick”. Jesus said “they that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick”. Some people don’t see themselves as being sick. Because they can’t. They are dead spiritually. They will never see themselves in need either, unless The Lord gives them life first. “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls”. Only those laboring and are heavy laden can come. One who is dead in his sins cannot come. “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) Ephesians 2 vs.1-5. I don’t know about you, but those 5 verses makes me want to shout.

To sum it all up I beleive that if you have committed yourself to reading and living by what the scripture says, it’s because He first did something for you that made you receptive to spiritual things. So my position is that the gospel is not for everyone universally. Only those that have the ability to respond to it, and even then there will be some that have the ability to recieve it because they have spiritual life but will not live by it because it’s to hard for them. I think the parable of the sower illustrates my belief on this.

But venturing a guess… I think the gospel is for everyone, but not everyone who hears is ready to listen. Sometimes those who are most vehement in rejecting it, do so because they recognize (at some level, conscious or not) that it is true and that its truth challenges them to change (and change is always hard).

What caused Saul to change? Meeting the risen Christ. It wasn’t the message; it was the Person. And so I would say that it isn’t the specific words of the gospels, but the Holy Spirit acting through them, that transforms lives. How that works and why some are ready to listen and others aren’t, I have no idea.

I would toss out there the fact that it wasn’t preaching of the gospel, per se, that led me to become a Christian. The Holy Spirit worked in me through other ways, through personal witness of a Christian life (without preaching), through apologetics, through direct experience. The Bible is now an essential part of my walk with Christ but it was hardly involved at all in my acceptance of Christ in the first place. I didn’t accept Jesus as my Savior because of what He said, but because of Who He is; and because I accepted Him, I was then committed to reading and living by what Scripture says.

Is the gospel for everyone (universally) or is for those only who understand that they are sinners? If you preach the gospel message that we are bad, poor, wretched, weak and undone bankrupt sinners, who do you think will respond favorably to that message?

Stephen preached boldly that same message but he was stoned to death. The people that he preached to even stopped their ears, ran upon him with one accord and cast him out of the city before they stoned him. By the way, there was a young man there that they (the ones who stoned him) laid their coats at his feet by the name of Saul. Why didn’t he respond favorably to that gospel message as well? He later bacame the greatest preacher to ever preach the gospel other than The Lord Jesus Christ himself. What was the difference in his life that later caused him to change? Was it the gospel?

I would like to hear your thoughts when you have the time.