Preaching: Whosoever wills may come, or God's election?

I am not in the least surprised that the Bible says “whosoever wills may come” as many times as it says “God chose.” (At least that is what my Arminian friends tell me). It really only needs to say “God chose” once for our knowledge, since God knows His role. God is not going to one day say, “Oh yes, man cannot choose me on his own, so what am I supposed to do? Oh yes, choose him. I guess that is why so many people are not coming to me.” I would have personally expected the Bible to say “whosoever wills may come” far more often than it says “God chose.” Man is the one who needs to know his responsibility. Man is the one who needs to know that God will accept him if he turns from his sins and comes. Man is the sinful one whose thoughts are delusions and who thinks God is out to get him, or that the way of evil is acceptable.

It is an error on the part of those who argue that this shows that the free will side of the argument has as much backing as the sovereign grace side. “God chose” only needs to be said once to be true. Everybody but hyper-Calvinists believe that if a person wills to come, he/she can come and God will accept that person. The question is, “Why does that person will to come?” But since “God chose” occurs as many times as “whosoever wills may come” (I’m assuming those who looked this one up are correct when they tell me this, I haven’t actually checked it out myself), this gives a great advantage to those who say preaching God’s choosing of men is true and necessary. Since it is spoken of as much as “whosoever wills may come,” it means that it should probably then be preached as much as “whosoever wills may come,” or to “choose God.” This line just shows the responsibility of man. The other side shows how God works, and it must then be just as important to say “God chooses” as “if it is in your heart, turn to God.” Yet this is not what we see today, as “God chooses” is rarely mentioned, if even believed, by those who preach the gospel. The fault is that people are not preaching God’s election, which the Bible clearly does, and seems to do so as readily as it tells men to choose God. Glory be to God alone!