“And he said, ‘The God of our fathers has appointed you to know His will and to see the Righteous One and to hear an utterance from His mouth.
This is Paul’s account of what Ananias said to him after he prayed over him and the “something like scales” left his eyes. Ananias simply told Paul what God had told him, that He (God) had chosen him. Paul was chosen long before that day. In fact, he was chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. He and EVERY Christian (Ephesians 1:4).
Does the Arminian think that after Ananias laid hands on him and God restored his sight, Paul could have said, “Thanks, but no thanks.” then got up and went about the original reason he came to Damascus to start with? If the Arminian believes that, then there will be an example of that, or a similar occurrence, in the Bible, and there are none. And I hope he doesn’t point to Jonah and say, “See? Here’s an example of a man saying no to God.” Sorry, what did God want Jonah to do? God wanted Jonah to go to Nineveh and call them to repentance. And what did Jonah do? Jonah went to Nineveh and preached for them to repent. Jonah simply made it harder on himself. God is sovereign and His Word will NOT return void. It WILL accomplish the matter for which it was sent. (Isaiah 55:11).
And regarding Jonah, God had a purpose for first directing Jonah (Proverbs 16:9) in the opposite direction - it gave us one of the most well-known and incredulous stories of repentance in the Bible.
“How about the rich ruler?” (Matthew 19:16-22, Luke 18:18-23 & Mark 10:17-22) Sorry, God is still sovereign and His Word will not return void. The rich ruler did exactly what God wanted him to do, walk away sad. Either that or God lied to Isaiah - and I don’t for one second believe God lied, EVER.
Bottom Line - Paul was appointed to know God’s will and to see & hear Jesus - he had no choice in the matter. Neither do we, before or after, God quickens our spirit.
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