You have bought into a lie,
God is perfect. he is sovereign, He is a god of Love, as a God of love, he wants a relationship. So he freely set aside his right to force men to do whatever he wanted them to do. so they could love him back and appreciate his love.
Granted, this caused evil. because men chose to reject. But the other option is a God who is a dictator. who makes everyone his puppet. and who is the author of evil.
Yeah, Good luck with that
So when God
RESCUES a helpless, hapless, hopeless, self-deceived sinner (Col 1:13) you view that gracious rescue operation as God forcing his will upon the sinner? God violated the free moral agency of the sinner even though He did something for the sinner that sinner could never do for himself in a thousand lifetimes!?
And I don't use those adjectives above lightly. This is precisely how scripture describes sinners!
Rom 8:8
8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
KJV
And,
Jer 13:23
23
Can the Ethiopian change his skin
or the leopard its spots?
Neither CAN you do good
who are accustomed to doing evil.
NIV
And,
Jer 17:9
9 The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?
ESV
Re the question in the above text: You obviously don't!
And,
Matt 7:18
18
A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.
NIV
And,
John 6:44, 65
44
"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.
65
He went on to say, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him."
NIV
And,
John 8:43-47
43 "
Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. 44 "You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar, and the father of lies. 45 "But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me. 46 "Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me? 47 "He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God."
NAS
And,
John 12:39-40
39
For this cause they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, 40 "He has blinded their eyes, and He hardened their heart; lest they see with their eyes, and perceive with their heart, and be converted, and I heal them."
NAS
And,
Luke 13:24
24
"Strive to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.
NAS
And,
1 Cor 2:14
14
But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
NAS
And,
1 Cor 12:3
3 Therefore I make known to you, that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus is accursed"; and
no one can say, "Jesus is Lord,"
except by the Holy Spirit.
NAS
And,
2 Cor 4:3-4
3
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4
The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that t
hey cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
NIV
And,
2 Tim 2:26
26 and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil,
having been held captive by him to do his will.
NAS
SEE JOHN 8:43-47 ABOVE WHEREIN JESUS TOLD THE PHARISEES THE SAME THING!!!
And,
Rom 3:10-18
10 as it is written,
"There is none righteous, not even one;
11 There is none who understands,
There is none who seeks for God;
12 All have turned aside, together they have become useless;
There is none who does good,
There is not even one."
13 "Their throat is an open grave,
With their tongues they keep deceiving,"
"The poison of asps is under their lips";
14 "Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness";
15 "Their feet are swift to shed blood,
16 Destruction and misery are in their paths,
17 And the path of peace have they not known."
18 "There is no fear of God before their eyes."
NASB
And,
Eph 2:1-7
2:1
And you were dead i
n your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead i
n our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus,
NAS
And these passages aren't even the half of it! Fallen mankind is
totally helpless and without hope; Yet when God, who is rich in mercy and grace and kindness, comes and rescues many from their dire circumstances, NR folks like you portray Him as as a monstrous dictator who violates man's vaunted "free will"! You have this carnal fantasy inside your head that says to you that man's will,
unlike God's, is somehow autonomous and is able to rise above our [evil] nature and make the good choice to choose Jesus as our Lord and Savior -- at which point that frees God (and let's him off the hook!) to act upon us since we voluntarily gave him our blessed permission to do so.
You cannot get it out of your head that man starts the salvation ball rolling -- that man is in control of his destiny! And if not, God is a monster! You are so self-absorbed and self-deceived that you
cannot see that your philosophy or theology (whatever you want to call it) is no different from all the worldly, man-made religions that teach their adherents that they also can do something to please God in order to win his favor.
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