FreeGrace2 said:
So, I'll enlighten you on what it is.
It is the freedom to choose between options. In EVERY case, whether it is about choosing which politial candidate to vote for, or whether to believe or not believe the gospel message.
God created mankind with a conscience by which to recognize right from wrong. Calvinists seem not to understand that.
Really? How do the spiritually dead have the ability to choose spiritually?
Thank you for demonstrating how calvinists do not understand free will. Or what it is to be spiritually dead.
The spiritually dead are physically alive, and can make choices, obviously. btw, choosing to believe what God says isn't choosing spiritually at all. It's choosing to believe what God says about one's ultimate future. So it's really about real estate; where one will spend eternity.
When God used the words "die" and "dead", it wasn't as a figure of speech, He meant DEAD.
The word goes either way. Those with spiritual discernment know the difference.
[Gen 2:17 KJV]
17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Did either Adam or Eve drop dead 'in the day that they ate'? No. They were still physically alive and continued to make choices.
[Eph 2:1, 5 KJV]
1 And you [hath he quickened],
who were dead in trespasses and sins; ...
5 Even when
we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved
Great verses. The words "quickened us" is defined by "by grace you are saved". iow, to be regenerated is to be saved. They go together.
And v.8 proves that both salvation and regeneration are "through faith", meaning that faith precedes both.
[Col 2:13 KJV]
13 And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;
See Eph 2:5 and 8
[Jhn 3:3, 7 KJV]
3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. ...
7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
See v.5 where John wrote "cannot ENTER the kingdom". So he was equating "seeing" with with "entering".
[1Pe 1:23 KJV]
23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
I wonder why you included this verse. It doesn't in any way support calvinism. It is explaining that regeneration means believers have been born spiritually of incorruptible seed.