Theological Meditations: God Begging?

Theological Meditations: God Begging?

I ran across this article while browsing the blog of a guy who wrote on the Pyromaniacs site. His blog is pretty informative, lots and lots of quotes from olde tyme calvinists. I guess I just didn't find his argument to be that compelling. This whole kerfuffle over the Pastor Chan video seems overwrought on all sides. Just because God takes no pleasure in the damnation of sinners, it does not immediately follow that He is begging us on bended knee to please, pretty please come to Him. The Pastor Chan video is generally OK, although a bit too cute for my tastes, but when he started getting into the "He is crazy about you" and "begging" stuff, he started to lose me. It seemed like on a number of occassions he got right up to the bare truth of the Gospel, and in the face of it he blinked. As far as the begging stuff, this is where I have a problem with that.

- God is sovereign.
- God has perfect foreknowledge because He has decreed that all things that will happen will come to pass.
- All of mankind is fallen, hopelessly lost in sin, and stands condemned.
- But as fallen as mankind is, God elected some to be saved.
- As part of that plan, He provided His Son to atone for the sins of His elect.
- None of His elect will fail to come to Him.
- None who are not of the elect will come to Him.
- If that all is true, why would God beg us to come to Him?

When God changed my heart of stone to a heart of flesh, and I saw myself as God sees me, as depraved, lost and worthy of hell, I realized what grace truly is. It is not a blanket offer to anyone who He can beg to accept His offer. It is a regeneration of a dead man, reborn, regenerated. It is God, in His mercy, saving an unworthy soul for His glory. He chose me, I did not choose Him, because until He regenrated me, I rejected Him. After He regenerated me, I begged Him for mercy, not the other way around. Making a beggar of God seeks to drag Him down. Anyway, I am rambling. I just don't see the Sovereign Lord of the Universe begging His poor creatures to accept the offer of salvation that He alone has made available.