Can We Really Exercise Free Will?

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Eh? Heh, whateever do you mean? Is this in regards to whether or not he ate from the Tree of Life?

I cannot recall what your take on this is. Some believe he did. I do not believe the text supports such...

My original position was that death presupposes antecedent life. So, when God "breathed the breath of life" into Adam when He created him, I took that to mean that Adam was indwelt by the Holy Spirit who himself is the Spirit of Life. But the precious gift of the indwelling Spirit seems to be unique and peculiar to this Church Age which is the inaugural phase of the New Covenant era. Therefore, taking my cue from Rev 21 and the New Order, I have changed my thinking. However, Adam was still very much in God's Holy Presence since God's dwelling place (ostensibly the first record of a Temple) was the Garden which is where Adam was placed. In other words, A&E dwelt also in God's sacred holy place. The Garden of Eden is the microscopic version of the New Jerusalem and its Temple, which is God and His Son.
 
If we compare the examples of both Jesus [Christophanies] and Satan throughout both Testaments it's rather easy to see how we should be.

Peter and John saw a crippled beggar and took time to pray and share the Gospel to. This would be an example of Jesus.

Seeing a lost sinner but refusing to share the Gospel to because of the belief in foreknowledge\predestination. This would be an example of Satan because Satan would never fulfill the Great Commission.
 
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Well....the steady stream of your insipid vacuous one-liner replies has been the inspiration. We free-willers aim to please.

Better find some new shooters and/or glasses, for you guys couldn't hit a barn wall point blank.
 
Here you go @Rufus . Free of charge.

[Gen 3:22 KJV] 22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil:

Oh and BTW @Rufus , it is obvious that Adam successfully resisted Satan, outsmarted Satan, and in effect DEFEATED Satan. Which amplifies Romans 5:14 don't you know

In fact it seems clear that God created the new and utterly magnificent King Adam as SUPERIOR to the old monarch Satan, as Adam was created in God's image and likeness.


This authentic Biblical Adam nothing like the stupid knuckle dragging weak as water troglodyte you make him out to be.

So, in your universe "King Adam's" spiritual success came by sinning against God? :rolleyes:

And how could Adam have resisted Satan when Satan didn't tempt Adam but only Eve? More eisegesis on your part. You just can't help but to add things to God's holy Word in order to profane, pollute and corrupt it with your carnal imagination! Since you don't believe the Genesis narrative, have you ever considered trusting what Paul wrote to wit:

2 Cor 11:3
3 But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

NIV

And,

1 Tim 2:12-14
12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve . 14 And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner.

NIV

It seems Satan has done a very thorough job in deceiving you and getting you to NOT believe God. He must continually be couching at your door whispering ever so softly but incessantly to you, "Hath God really said...?
 
If we compare the examples of both Jesus [Christophanies] and Satan throughout both Testaments it's rather easy to see how we should be.

Peter and John saw a crippled beggar and took time to pray and share the Gospel to. This would be an example of Jesus.

Seeing a lost sinner but refusing to share the Gospel to because of the belief in foreknowledge\predestination. This would be an example of Satan because Satan would never fulfill the Great Commission.

Has anyone here sanctioned disobedience to Jesus' Great Commission? I'm sure you can support your inane straw man drivel with solid proof, right?
 
My original position was that death presupposes antecedent life. So, when God "breathed the breath of life" into Adam when He created him, I took that to mean that Adam was indwelt by the Holy Spirit who himself is the Spirit of Life. But the precious gift of the indwelling Spirit seems to be unique and peculiar to this Church Age which is the inaugural phase of the New Covenant era. Therefore, taking my cue from Rev 21 and the New Order, I have changed my thinking. However, Adam was still very much in God's Holy Presence since God's dwelling place (ostensibly the first record of a Temple) was the Garden which is where Adam was placed. In other words, A&E dwelt also in God's sacred holy place. The Garden of Eden is the microscopic version of the New Jerusalem and its Temple, which is God and His Son.
Adam certainly did have a very unique relationship with God! We are not told very much about it, especially from his perspective, but it did always strike me as wrong the idea that he was indwelt with the Holy Spirit of God by virtue of being alive and in such a relationship with God, for it seemed a template (if you will) for losing one's salvation. Likewise the idea that he ate from the Tree of Life in order to sustain his life. Not that you promote that idea, but I know those who have, and quite vociferously, such as the former now banned OP of NBW.
 
Preaching the message that God created men for the express purpose of casting them into eternal fire again are we?

Sounds positively ghoulish. Count me out.

Good! So you agree with my statement I made yesterday that the condemned folks in Mat 7:23 will have something to celebrate and be joyous over while they're being tormented forever in the Lake of fire? They were super fortunate to escape the "shotgun wedding". Meanwhile, it is written:

Luke 14:16-24
16 Jesus replied: "A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. 17 At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, 'Come, for everything is now ready.'

18 "But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, 'I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.'

19 "Another said, 'I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I'm on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.'

20 "Still another said, 'I just got married, so I can't come.'

21 "The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant
, 'Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.'

22 "'Sir,' the servant said, 'what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.'

23 "Then the master told his servant, 'Go out to the roads and country lanes and make [compel] them come in, so that my house will be full. 24 I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.'"
NIV

So, tell me: of the three groups of people here, which, if any, were called by God?
 
How do you figure God does not have anything to do with His desire to be united with those who belong to Him?

Seems an awfully odd thing to say. Bizarre, actually. And what do you mean by possible separation?

Are you one of those who teaches that salvation can be lost?

Those that turn from the faith ...what do you make of that?

EXACTLY like a wife leaves the husband (marriage covenant), or visa viz.

I 100% understand osas and the salvation covenant.
For anyone to break that covenant is foolish.

Jesus said If you deny me before men I will deny you before my father.

Ok, so what is osass make of that? You can just go ahead and do it because once you're saved you're always saved?
 
What does osas say of romans 11?
19 Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.

20 Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:

21 For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.

22 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
 
Has anyone here sanctioned disobedience to Jesus' Great Commission? I'm sure you can support your inane straw man drivel with solid proof, right?
The belief that God chooses whom to save completely eliminates the need to fulfill the Great Commission because God will make it happen all by Himself.

So anyone who should believe in such a doctrine but chooses themselves to also be a witness is either calling their doctrine false or understands that God uses those humans that don't believe how foreknowledge\predestination is being translated in the Reformed Doctrine.
 
I most likely didn't make it clear, the plural lives I see God breathing into Adam's body are soul and spirit, human life (created in Gen.1:27) and spiritual life. Based on what you are saying here it sounds to me like you see Adam's body with a soul and spirit and the breath of lives God is breathing into him simply gives life to each. I see soul and spirit as life in itself, one created by God (soul) the other given by God of His own being (spirit).

Something may need a little bit of clarification:

Adam was created body, soul, and human spirit.
It is the human spirit that made (unfallen) Adam's soul into a 'living soul.'
While unfallen?
Adam as free to fellowship and learn from the Lord.

When Adam ate the bad stuff?
He did not lose the Holy Spirit (as some here I believe think was the case).
He lost his human spirit.
In essence, Adam became a dead soul.
Needing regeneration, which God provided rather quickly.

So?

When the Lord breathed the breath of *lives* into the nostrils?
In went Adam's soul and his human spirit.
Soul life and spirit life. = breath of lives!

Grace and peace .......
 
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Has anyone here sanctioned disobedience to Jesus' Great Commission? I'm sure you can support your inane straw man drivel with solid proof, right?

Who are you?

Trying to start your own denomination?

A nasty attitude always seeps in.
 
Adam certainly did have a very unique relationship with God! We are not told very much about it, especially from his perspective, but it did always strike me as wrong the idea that he was indwelt with the Holy Spirit of God by virtue of being alive and in such a relationship with God, for it seemed a template (if you will) for losing one's salvation. Likewise the idea that he ate from the Tree of Life in order to sustain his life. Not that you promote that idea, but I know those who have, and quite vociferously, such as the former now banned OP of NBW.

What is "NBW"?

What you highlighted in your own post was not instrumental in changing my mind because God gave and took his Spirit from people in the Old Covenant era. King Saul comes immediately to mind. After Saul disobeyed God, He removed his love and his Spirit from him. And David even prayed that the Lord take not his Spirit away from him, etc. My main reason for changing my position is Rev 21 and the fact that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit seems to be unique to a specific eschatological period in God's redemptive plan, i.e. the Church Age, wherein the focus is on the Body of Christ being God's temple, whereas in Rev 21 the emphasis is clearly on God being the Temple -- a Temple that will apparently fill the entire restored earth.
 
Eph 1:5
He has only mentioned that it is done according to His good pleasure. And, He has not revealed, at least to me, what that entails. However, it probably means that He [can and will] do as He pleases! Are you here to tell Him otherwise?

What pleases Him is that we come to know Him better and better!

What pleases Him is that we understand He is righteous and just in all He does!

What pleases Him is when we can begin to discern what He would and would not do, and not attribute to Him the Satanic cold-hearted calculations that some Calvinists seem to want to push on others.

The only way we can gain such a footing in Truth?
Find someone who can teach you near-daily one sound doctrinal teaching after another, until you mature in Christ.

Few teachers have done that.
But a few, means they do exist.

My suggestion?
Pray in Jesus name that God gives you Bible doctrine for every area of your life.

For in any area of your life that you live not according to Bible doctrine?
You're a liar.

In Christ.
 
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Over and over the relationship Between God and his saints is compared to the marriage of the bride and the groom. If you carry that free will VS election concept over into the natural earthly marriage, neither the bride or the groom had anything to do with the marriage, the success of it, or possible separation.

Actually, since the ANE culture and tradition was thoroughly patriarchal, the women had very little to say about who they would marry. That decision was made for them. Therefore, the subsequent Reformed Tradition of the Christian Faith aligns well with that ANE culture.
 
But the [(hinge pivot)] on this issue is that God Himself is making the first move and that opens the door to creation making a decision like we read in Romans 1, 1st Corinthians, Ephesians.

But don't you know that man's ways are NOT IN HIMSELF?

Prov 16:1
1 To man belong the plans of the heart,
but from the LORD comes the reply of the tongue.

NIV

Prov 16:9
9 In his heart a man plans his course,
but the LORD determines [or directs] his steps.

NIV

Prov 16:33
33 The lot is cast into the lap,
but its every decision is from the LORD.

NIV

Prov 19:21
21 Many are the plans in a man's heart,
but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails.

NIV

Prov 20:24
24 A man's steps are directed by the LORD.
How then can anyone understand his own way?

NIV

Prov 21:1
The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD;
he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.

NIV

Prov 21:30
30 There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan
that can succeed against the LORD.

NIV

Jer 10:23
23 I know, O LORD, that a man's life is not his own;
it is not for man to direct his steps.

NIV

Isa 46:10
10 I make known the end from the beginning,
from ancient times, what is still to come.
I say: My purpose will stand,
and I will do all that I please.
NIV


Dan 5:23
23 Instead, you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven. You had the goblets from his temple brought to you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways.

NIV

Acts 2:22-23
22 "Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

ESV

Acts 4:23-28
23 On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. 24 When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. "Sovereign Lord," they said, "you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. 25 You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:

"'Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
26 The kings of the earth take their stand
and the rulers gather together
against the Lord
and against his Anointed One.'

27 Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28 They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.

NIV

Rom 9:14-18
14 What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! 15 For he says to Moses,

"I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."

16 It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: "I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth." 18 Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.

NIV