...man cannot of himself come to God...
And that is why the Gospel must be preached (accompanied by power of the Holy Spirit). But you still don't get it, neither do you believe in, or accept, the power of the Gospel, even though Scripture tells you that it is indeed
the power of God unto salvation. That's called pure UNBELIEF.
...A man enslaved to Satan does not contemplate the things of God...
And that is why the Gospel must be preached (accompanied by power of the Holy Spirit). But you still don't get it, neither do you believe in, or accept, the power of the Gospel, even though Scripture tells you that it is indeed
the power of God unto salvation. That's called pure UNBELIEF.
I agree that the Gospel is the power of God unto Salvation... but it does nothing without God changing the hearts of men to accept it.
You agree HYPOTHETICALLY, otherwise you would believe that it is the Gospel itself under the power of the Spirit which changes the hearts of men to receive Christ. Why do you think that the Lord Jesus Christ insisted that the Gospel must be preached to every creature in all the world, unless it had the power to bring men to Christ?
The problem is you are skipping over the entire chapter of Romans 9
Not at all. Indeed I gave you an exposition of Romans 9 to show you that unconditional election HAS NO BASIS IN SCRIPTURE, since if it were true each and every Jew would be saved.
1.
There are two very significant truths in Romans 9: (1) if unconditional election were true, every Jew would have been saved and (2) Paul would not have been so heavy-hearted for his Jewish brethren if they had simply believed the Gospel, and received Christ as their Messiah. Thus he says in Romans 10: BUT THEY HAVE NOT ALL OBEYED THE GOSPEL.
2. Romans 9 also tells us that
God elects specific individuals for specific purposes, which fits in with His plans and purposes (NOT FOR SALVATION):
ABRAHAM ELECTED OVER LOT
ISAAC ELECTED OVER ISHMAEL
JACOB ELECTED OVER ESAU
MOSES ELECTED OVER AARON (TO LEAD ISRAEL)
3. Furthermore, there are some wicked individuals who are elected to show God's wrath against sin, because of their unrelenting wickedness, e.g. the Pharaoh who opposed Moses and God. It is Pharaoh who repeatedly hardened his heart, after which God hardened his heart so that he was damned for eternity.