Can We Really Exercise Free Will?
- Thread starter LifelongLearner
- Start date
-
Christian Chat is a moderated online Christian community allowing Christians around the world to fellowship with each other in real time chat via webcam, voice, and text, with the Christian Chat app. You can also start or participate in a Bible-based discussion here in the Christian Chat Forums, where members can also share with each other their own videos, pictures, or favorite Christian music.
If you are a Christian and need encouragement and fellowship, we're here for you! If you are not a Christian but interested in knowing more about Jesus our Lord, you're also welcome! Want to know what the Bible says, and how you can apply it to your life? Join us!
To make new Christian friends now around the world, click here to join Christian Chat.
Isn't it amazing how God wrath can be exercised , and yet He takes no pleasure in it? However, it must be done to exercise His justice. Simply amazing!
Thank you. You're a very helpful assistant.
Have you ever researched the number of fallacies that can be asserted against such rhetoric? Thought not.
Does anyone deny this? What becomes apparent is that you repeatedly miss the point if you are not deliberately misrepresenting. With the heart one believes. The incurably wicked heart of the "natural" unregenerated man is incapable of bringing forth the good fruit of faith. Scripture explicitly states that the unregenerated man is incapable of obeying God. But you free willers reject, contradict, and outright deny dozens of Scriptural truths which are plainly articulated in favour of your vain man-exalting philosophy. You have the person who Scripture says refuses to come into the light, coming into the light. That person is a lover of darkness and not only hates God but is unable to receive or comprehend the spiritual things of God which he is OPPOSED to but you say, so what? He will believe all that foolishness anyway no matter what Scripture says. You totally reject the fact that it is Jesus Who sets us free. Shame.
The gospel is foolishness to the natural man, since he can neither accept nor comprehend the spiritual things of God. It is impossible for his incurably wicked heart to grow the seed of God’s Word into the good fruit of faith while he is captive to the will of the devil. Along with the rest of the world who does not know God, he is blinded to the truth and under the power and influence of Satan, rendered incapable of submitting to or obeying God, with Whom he is inherently hostile toward in his mind, for he craves what is contrary to the Spirit. He suppresses the truth in unrighteousness, refusing to come into the light because he is a slave to sin, a lover of darkness, defined as darkness itself, and his deeds are evil.
You are clever, but devious. I have made no statement about anyone's estate concerning salvation. I haven't even hinted at it. Your true self and motives become more apparent with each post.
Is it also hidden from the chosen who are currently unaware that they are among the chosen?
Isn't that what you believe of yourself also? Come on, now. Gosh. You think people who post what Scripture actually says are wrong!
What are you expecting free willers to do???
Just give them strong drink so they will forget their fate.
Whatever are you on about now? Please tell me how many of these questions you answer "Yes" to:
What Say You? ~ When Scripture says there are none good, does it mean some are good? When Scripture says we all fall short, does it mean there are some who meet God's standards? When Scripture says, "The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned..." Does it mean the natural man can understand the spiritual things of God? Does it mean he really can understand the gospel message even though it is heard as foolishness to him as Scriptures say? Is the natural man gifted with wisdom even though he has no fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom? Will the lover of darkness come into the light even though Scripture says he will not, because he suppresses the truth of God in unrighteousness and is actually defined as darkness itself, hates the light, and is a slave to sin, blinded to the truth and captive to the will of the devil, which many define as being free? Is the heart of the natural man, the stony ground which needs to be replaced, fit for receiving and growing the Seed of God's Word into faith? Will that incurably wicked heart choose of its own accord to believe? Will that bad tree bring forth the good fruit of faith even though Jesus said it was not possible?
Is this not obvious?
After all the message of the TULIP is being hidden from me.
Please tell me how many of these Scriptural truths you reject, contradict, and/or outright deny:
Man is deceitful (Jeremiah 17 verse 9), full of evil (Mark 7 verses 21-23), loves darkness rather than light (John 3 verse 19), cannot come to God on his own (John 6 verse 44), does not seek for God (Romans 3 verses 10-12), is helpless and ungodly (Romans 5 verse 6), nothing good dwells in his flesh(Romans 7 verse 18), is a slave of sin (Romans 6 verse 20; John 8 verse 34; 2 Timothy 2 verse 26), cannot receive spiritual things (1 Corinthians 2 verse 14), is dead in his sins (Ephesians 2 verse 1), is by nature a child of wrath (Ephesians 2 verse 3), is at enmity with God (Ephesians 2 verse 15), hostile to God and cannot submit to God's law (Romans 8 verse 7). Therefore we rightfully conclude in accordance with the conditions described of the natural man in Scripture that his inherent inclination is to reject God. Thanks be to God, Who appoints people to believe (Acts 13 verse 48), chooses who is to be holy and blameless (Ephesians 1 verse 4), predestines us to adoption (Ephesians 1 verse 5), calls according to His purpose (2 Timothy 1 verse 9), chooses us for salvation (2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13), leads us to and grants us repentance (Romans 2 verse 4; 2 Timothy 2 verses 24-25), grants the act of believing (Philippians 1 verse 29), works faith in the believer (John 6 verses 28-29), causes us to be born again (1 Peter 1 verse 3), born again not by our will but by His will (John 1 verses 12-13), draws people to Himself (John 6 verse 44), grants that we come to Jesus (John 6 verse 65), predestines us to salvation (Romans 8 verses 29- 30), and circumcises our heart (Romans 2 verse 29), all according to His purpose (Ephesians 1 verse 11).
So, something being hid to the lost doesn't mean lost as in lost. And no shades of 2Cor4:3 in that phrase?
Nice how you're judging motives. I'm simply reading what you're writing and comparing such statements like this one re: "lost" to Scripture you may be referencing.
I have not seen Cameron pushing TULIP. Liars claim he does, though.
Consider these Scriptural truths if you dare. Man up.
"Free will" in the Bible? ~ Freedom is something believers are called to (Galatians 5 verse 13). We need Jesus to “set us free” (Galatians 5 verse 1). If Jesus has not freed us from the bondage of sin, then we are still slaves to sin (Romans 6 verses 6-7). Freedom is found in the presence of the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3 verse 17). Only Jesus can give us true freedom (John 8 verse 36). Only through His lovingkindness can we truly make choices unfettered by a nature that is inherently hostile toward God.
It was a joke. Only God is qualified to judge what is true of the human heart. We are called to make temporal judgments, but we aren't called to make eternal judgments.
My temporal discernment regarding you isn't off. You aren't seeking my wellbeing.
What amazes us MFWers is that y'all TULIPists ignore Scripture teaching that God wants all to be saved (1Tim. 2:3-4)
and judges everyone justly according to the opportunity they had to cooperate with God as revealed,
including those souls who could only perceive God via creation (Rom. 1:2),
and/or via conscience (Rom. 2:7-16), and/or via the OT/Law (Rom. 7:7-24)
and/or per the NT/Gospel (Rom. 3:21-31, 5:1-11, 7:25 & 8:1-17).
God has made plain in His revealed written Word what He thinks, believes, and knows
to be true of the human heart, but the free willers deny these truths told of humanity.
The only ones who bring up TULIP are the ones who say they don't believe it. Yet somehow, they enjoy using extra biblical terminology for doctrines where biblical language is available. Odd.I have not seen Cameron pushing TULIP. Liars claim he does, though.
Consider these Scriptural truths if you dare. Man up.
"Free will" in the Bible? ~ Freedom is something believers are called to (Galatians 5 verse 13). We need Jesus to “set us free” (Galatians 5 verse 1). If Jesus has not freed us from the bondage of sin, then we are still slaves to sin (Romans 6 verses 6-7). Freedom is found in the presence of the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3 verse 17). Only Jesus can give us true freedom (John 8 verse 36). Only through His lovingkindness can we truly make choices unfettered by a nature that is inherently hostile toward God.
Considering they have zero verses that articulate and support their view it is kind of not surprising that they pull
out the stops and sink to the levels they do trying to discredit those who post the Truth of what Scripture says.