Offer Withdrawn

When I became a Christian, one of the first things I did was call my avowed atheist father and tell him about Jesus.  His reaction was surprising ... he disowned me.  I had to go to the libr4ary find out what that meant!  And I was sad.  He had already been out of my life since age 9 - but I expected him to grow up one day.

He saw me many years later, to take out for a drink on my 21st birthday - he comment he would think about God, maybe while he was dying.  I just sighed, I did not need my Hutterite beliefs mocked.
When next we talked, it was on the drive from Fairbanks, Alaska back to the mainland USA - 10 days of hell with me trapped in the cab of a pickup with father singing Hitler's praises for 10 straight days!

Father never did turn to God, except to curse Him regularly.  And when death came - he had fallen into a coma on the toilet and two days later it was over.  There were no words to speak save for: "Father why?"

So many believe that the offer of forgiveness is individually eternal - as if unlike father, their brain will be functional to the very end.  That unlike father, they can forgive themselves for thr crimes against God's Law.

And I have long pondered why some mighty lousy people die early and others very late.  It can not be haphazard - but the design is beyond my ability to know.  Was there a point at which father went beyond what forgiveness could cover?  Pharaoh facing Moses?  Yet it did cover Saul/Paul ...  And what is there positive to say about David?  Yeah, bad men, good men, yet some were hardened, some were not.

Makes ya wonder sometimes.  But it seems obvious to me that God decides when enough is enough!  And then He either hardens them for His purposes then - or takes them out of the picture!