Choosing the Chosen?

      One of my Christian friends sometimes quotes Ezekiel 3 as her motivation for witnessing. Ezekiel 3:17-18, says "Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. When I say to a wicked person, 'You will surely die' and you do not warn them or speak out to dissuade them from their evil ways in order to save their life, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood." I have heard those verses used to terrify believers into witnessing or to justify street corner yelling as an appropriate testimony for Christ.
    The main problem with the idea that God will hold Christians guilty for the souls of those we fail to witness to, and who subsequently go to hell, is that it makes man's obedience sovereign over God's election. It puts God in a scenario where He chooses, let's just use the name "Janet", for salvation, but if, let's say "Connie", is too clueless or stubborn to witness to her, the Lord has to cross Janet's name off the "Chosen" list He wrote before the foundation of the world and send her to hell after all. Countermanding the eternal purposes of God is what my granddaughter would call a "No, no!"
     If clueless Connie fails to witness to someone God has chosen for salvation, He will simply use someone else. Perhaps in Ezekiel's case, he was the someone else. We can lose the blessing of soul winning, but none of the elect can lose their opportunity for salvation. We believers do not play the lead role in our own salvation story, Christ does. How scary would it be if my eternal destiny in heaven or hell was contingent on the obedience of some frail creature like myself?
    The other problem is that in order for believers to be held guilty for souls of the lost, we would have to be un-forgiven. If Christ's death on the cross only paid for part of my sins, I would want the sin of causing one of His elect to spend eternity in hell to be on the "Forgiven" list. Unbelievers will be judged for their own sins, and believers have already been judged and justified by Christ's death on the cross.
    Exactly what God meant when He commissioned Ezekiel as Israel's watchman, and whether He was referring to physical or eternal death of the wicked, I am not wise enough to explain. But what is plain in the Bible is that God sovereignly chooses individuals to belong to Him. His purposes cannot be thwarted by Satan, angels, mere humans, and certainly not by disobedient Christians, therefore, none of the chosen will be in hell.  All Christians are called to spread the gospel to unbelievers, but all believers' past, present and future sins were paid for by Christ's death on the cross. Since we were not alone, I simply told my friend that I do not believe that passage refers to Christian soul winning. "What else could it refer to? she asked. (How about Ezekiel? The person God is addressing.) I would be happy to discuss it further if she chooses. That is the sort of choice God leaves up to us.