Again the examples / analogies i gave where demonstrations of one having free will.. And are related to the free will we have to either accept or resist the moving of the Holy Spirit.. They are related and that's why i used them in my posts..
Can We Really Exercise Free Will?
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Again the examples / analogies i gave where demonstrations of one having free will.. And are related to the free will we have to either accept or resist the moving of the Holy Spirit.. They are related and that's why i used them in my posts..
Please do not misunderstand me, as I was more addressing the types of arguments (as irrelevant as they are) propped up in these discussions more than finding fault with anything specific you had said... As to accepting the movement of the Holy Spirit of God in our lives, again, only the spiritual man does that, for the natural man can neither receive nor understand the spiritual things of God.
1 Corinthians 2:12 + 14
1 Corinthians 2:12; Colossians 2:13 When you were dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.
AI Overview
The scripture that most directly states the idea that sinful thoughts can lead to sin is
Matthew 15:19, which says, "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.".
This verse explains that our actions stem from our thoughts, meaning if we entertain sinful thoughts, they can potentially lead to sinful actions.
God tells you what you need to do about evil thoughts ----
AI Overview
The scripture that most directly addresses casting down sinful thoughts is
2 Corinthians 10:5, which states: "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.".
Explanation: This verse encourages believers to actively fight against negative and sinful thoughts by taking them captive and aligning them with the will of Christ.
We become Spiritual men because of the work of the Holy Spirit upon us.. We are not spiritual men before the Holy Spirit starts working on us.. As if one person is born as a spiritual person predestined to accept the will of God and another person is born a carnal person predestined to reject the Moving of the Holy Spirit..
Now don't misunderstand me.. I did not state the above parragraph because i think you are a calvanist.. I am stating it to make sure i clarify the point and don't give the impression to any thrid party that i agree that some people are created spiritual ( Born to be saved ) and others are created carnal ( Born to burn )..
First paragraph... at least, your first two sentences... that is pretty much exactly the point being made... made alive in Christ
and heart circumcised... and nobody is born in that condition. We must be born again, or we die the second death.
And, precious friend, God Says there is coming A Day [ Of Double Deception ]
when This Will Become Abundantly Clear!:
"...then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom The Lord Shall Consume with
The Spirit Of His Mouth, and Shall Destroy with The Brightness Of His Coming:
Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs
and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in
them that perish;
because they received not The Love Of The Truth, that they might be saved. And
for This Cause God Shall Send them Strong Delusion, that they should believe a lie:
That they all might be damned who believed not The Truth, but had pleasure in
unrighteousness."
1) they heard The Truth { Of The Gospel Of The GRACE Of God }, Correct?2) they did not understand The Truth, because according to some "they were not
spiritual-minded"??? Makes no sense, OR:
3) they DID understand The Truth [ And It's Consequences * , resisting ] The Holy Spirit
Who Convicted them of their sin, Correct? And:
4) they chose (free will) to "not receive { rejecting } The Love Of The Truth",
Choosing rather "to remain in the pleasure of their unrighteousness",
Correct?
Amen.
*
Undiluted Wrath And Undiluted Grace
And, Amen!
How does it make no sense when Scripture explicitly says in a number of places that the natural man cannot understand?
I might hear someone speak Chinese but it makes as much sense as the gospel does to the natural
man, who hears it as FOOLISHNESS, just as me hearing Chinese being spoken would be gibberish to me.
How does that NOT make sense? The natural man, hey, he is defined as a lover of darkness and
ALSO as darkness itself; Scripture says darkness does not comprehend the Light.
What good is hearing something with zero comprehension?
Jesus said He came to open the eyes of the blind and ears of the deaf.
He also gets ALL the credit for raising me to new life in Him and circumcising my heart.
2 Thessalonians 2:10b-14a ~ Those who are perishing refused the love of the truth that would have saved them. For this reason God will send them a powerful delusion so that they believe the lie, in order that judgment may come upon all who have disbelieved the truth and delighted in wickedness. But we always thank God for you, brothers who are loved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning to be saved by the sanctification of the Spirit and by faith in the truth, to which He called you through our gospel.
Eve seeing the fruit as good to eat has absolutely nothing to do with whatever you posted. The Bible, the point of why God had Moses even to mention how Eve saw that it was good is clearly beyond your understanding based upon your post. The key to understanding the Bible is first and foremost how is God viewing it. And God viewed it that Eve saw THAT IT WAS GOOD. God is showing us that Eve made her own reasoning because she had that ability.
Correct.
Where does it say in that scripture that they did not understand the Love of the Truth.. It says did not recieve it.. As Jesus said some people believe the Gospel is evil a deception, They look upon it as Heracy.. They believe that Jesus suffering for the sins of others is an injustice and that Jesus being the LORD in the flesh is blasphemy.. Others think that the Gospel is a joke, a fairy tale made up by morons.. They understand it.. They just reject it as either evil or stupid..
(1 Corinthians 1:23-24) "But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; {24} But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God."
So to many RELIGIOUS Jews at the time the gospel that Paul shared was a Stumbling block ( heracy ) and at the same time some greeks ( who did not have the Abrahamic religon of the Jews ) the Gospel was considered foolishness..
They resisted the Holy Spirit yes.. Because they hated the truth..
Again they showed their free will..
Not sure if we have any disagreements here GRACE_ambassador? if we do it's at the periphery and not something at the Core..
Scripture says the natural man does not understand the spiritual things of God. I would think the gospel
counts as that. Scripture also says the natural man cannot receive the spiritual things of God, or know them,
or understand them; darkness (the natural man) does not comprehend the Light (Jesus Christ).
The gospel is heard as foolishness precisely because it is not understood.
Luke 4:18-19 The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
Undue or not, free will is impossible to exert due to influence from external forces. Even dictators need enablers and usually come to a sticky end.
That could be misinterpreted, meant whatever test i take, the result will be i'm a very high end thinking perceiver, who knows new information can render current information obsolete.
So i'm cosy changing my mind when that is clearly the case, wrongheadedness is far worse than being wrong at times. Being wrong is easy to fix.
Dictators usually don't believe in God. A lack of grace shuts down freedom.
It applies to exactly what I posted. Have you considered that the reason Eve saw the fruit was good, which it wasn't, and would make her wise, which it didn't, is because of what the serpent told her immediately before? If she had to be influenced by the serpent, literally beguiled, to see the fruit as good and this is the reason she ate, then it cannot be said that she acted 100% voluntarily. Additionally we can rest assured that this is how God saw the whole episode by then the following verses when God questions Adam and Eve, their responses to God, and then God pronouncing his judgment upon the serpent, Eve, and Adam.