Being alone is not the acceptance of God. One either accepts or rejects God.
Jesus told us the two great commandments: Love God and love neighbor.
God is patient and will wait and not force anyone.
However if one dies in mortal sin, then they suffer the consequence.
“Ask, and it will be given you, seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7
Yes, one either accepts or rejects God. Between these two poles lies the third of figuring out whether to accept or reject God. You’re saying this third pole is a rejection of God and, I suspect, a sin. My point is that it is necessary for real choice and is not sinful, is not a willful rejection of God, e.g., out of spite.
The argument this person makes, which I outline, needs to be addressed to have the conviction of believing in God. That type of argument goes on in people’s minds when they are between the two poles of choice.
If you say parts of this argument are wrong, then how would you convince this person that what he is saying wrong? You can’t just say, “God loves you” — you have to address the specifics of what this person is saying that leads him to think the way he thinks.
That, to my thinking, is hard.