Can We Really Exercise Free Will?
- Thread starter LifelongLearner
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wow!
Not short of real friends.
It takes knowing what a true friend is... To be a friend.
The new birth is when God replaces our spirit corrupted by a developed habit of sinning, with a new spirit that is pure and sealed from becoming corrupted again. This is the part of us that is regenerated, recreated, reborn through looking to Christ and beginning to trust Him as our Saviour and Lord. Our mind needs to be gradually renewed by replacing untruths with truth. Our body needs to be subdued under our renewing mind and our regenerated spirit.
Are you saying, you believe the sealing of the Spirits means you can not sin again?
No. I mean that what we do with our bodies and minds cannot corrupt/distort the new spirit a Christian is given at regeneration. We can certainly sin again and cling to foolish thoughts and lies.
The sealing is God's stamp of guarantee we will be in Heaven no matter how badly a Christians succumbs to evil thinking.
And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation.
When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory." Ephesians 1:13-14
That means?Arminians and Calvinists will be playing musical chairs together in Heaven!
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I don't see there where it says that the Holy Spirit's only function in the believer is to be a stamp demarcating that this one is guaranteed an inheritance. Seals do more than just mark ownership. They often also prevent intrusion by unauthorised persons or unwanted things. A sealed tomb, a sealed jar. a sealed letter.
Also, arrabon does not mean a deposit guaranteeing, but a down-payment, and earnest, indicating one's sincere intention to take full possession of something at a later date.When I put a deposit on a house, I am confirming my genuine desire to own the house. However, not all house deals go through, and often it is not the intended buyers fault when it fails.
How does that work? You said earlier ... "Our body needs to be subdued under our renewing mind and our regenerated spirit." If the spirit is new and pure, then the mind must also be, unless you see the function of the mind as separate from the function of the spirit? If that is the case, maybe you could explain how that is so.
I'm struggling to understand how, if the mind is part of our spirit's function and if it (our spirit) is new and pure, why isn't our mind also new and pure?
And, now you two are trying to provoke me?
No, no, not I. Frankly I do not remember what we might disagree on, but if you do/can, I would like to resolve it.
I was speaking as a former English teacher, merely noting that trolling and provoking are synonyms.
No problem. Why do you think the mind is spirit? Personally, I would consider the mind as part of the soul. And the heart as our internal invisible aspects, comprised of soul and spirit. Our spirit, I would say, is what gives us life and existence as a being, so our egoic identity and our consciousness. At regeneration we receive a new identity and consciousness. Our mind is the vehicle through which our spirit and body interact. Ideally, our spirit should rule our over body. However, the carnally-minded are allowing their body, feelings and instincts to rule over their identity and consciousness.
With human babies their status changes from a fetus to a newborn. They weren't dead prior to being born.
I too am naturally courteous but recognise that occasionally, there are trolls who aren't worth the courtesy of polite discourse. Sadly, i think Genez and sawdust could be trolls, spiteful children or possibly even the same person. What i am sure of is they aren't worth treating with consideration and respect currently, which actually are the oxygen for their spite.
Well, I don't know if they are trolling or not, but answering trolls with thoughtful Bible-based answers, hopefully, equips other posters with perspectives that stand up rationally to the distortions of scripture presented by trolls ... or act as comparative to other reasonable sounding alternative perspectives, so that readers can make informed choices about what they think is reasonable to believe.
Absolutely agree Paul but the thing with him or them, is they just want to derail discussion. This thread is meant to be about if free will really exists, it's become an echo chamber for whatever amuses them instead.
GWH is a lovely courteous guy Kainos but there are a few here who enjoy winding people up. Genez and sawdust have been spiteful to quite a few people on this post, that isn't what i created it for.
I certainly did not experience that with him. As a newcomer he criticized me endlessly, and then groundlessly falsely accused me of a number of things. He also lied to me about writing in his cryptic chat speak and odd abbreviations while discussing Scripture.