Why are you telling me this?
That's what I said, using Scripture to say it.
I don't think you're going to get any better results from this one than the others in this discussion. It seems they'd all prefer to hurl insults rather than have fruitful discussions. I hoped for better, but I'm definitely not getting involved in that mess again. The Fruit of the Spirit is... that's where I want to be.
At least he agrees with what we say of the unregenerated/natural man... compared to the FWers,
It's not the biblical discussions as much as the insults... especially when they judge our salvation. I regret getting dragged into the insults and won't go back to it. I'm also not going to discuss anything on a Christian site with someone who not just questions my salvation, but in fact judges that I'm not saved. There's really no Christian foundation to discuss anything with them.
Free will is for the purpose of giving you a choice to do either good or evil. And it started way back at the beginning in the Garden of Eden. God told Adam and Eve they can eat the fruit of every tree in the Garden , including the tree of Life, but they just can't eat from the tree of the knowledge of Good and evil. Eating from the tree of life would have been a good decision to make, cause they would have lived forever. But they made the wrong decision by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Because that caused them to die. Good decision=Life, Bad, evil decision=death. Good decision to receive Jesus as your Lord and Saviour is Life, because Jesus is the Life. Bad decision to reject Jesus means death and Damnation. So, yes, we do have free will but there are consequences for the decisions we make. I think some people are of the opinion that if there are negative consequences for our bad decisions it's not really free will. They feel if we can't make any choice and decision we want without there being punishment for the bad decisions and choices we make then it's not free will. They think that doing the right thing for fear of punishment if you do the wrong thing, is not free will. But it is, because you are making the choice and decision to either do good or evil. Don't do good for fear of being punished if you do good. But do good for the rewards of those good decisions. Like eternal Life in Heaven.
The gift (salvation and eternal life) is indeed free. And this gift is indeed appropriated by faith not works.
The real issue is what Scripture says of the natural, unregenerated man = he is a slave to sin, is at enmity with God, lover of darkness and defined as darkness itself, full of evil, opposed to the spiritual things of God, refusing to come into the light, does not seek for God, cannot come to God on his own, hostile to God and incapable of obeying and/or submitting to God, nothing good dwells in his flesh which serves the law of sin and brings forth fruit unto death. He is blinded by the god of this world and the gospel is foolishness to him, as he can neither receive nor comprehend the spiritual things of God which are discerned only through the Spirit. Those who promote free will essentially reject what is said of the natural man and instead ascribe to him qualities and characteristics and abilities that only the regenerated spiritually alive man is capable of. They claim a lot of things that contradict Scripture, such as everyone hears, the gospel is not hid, man is not such a bad guy and can as a bad tree produce the good fruit of faith (since none are good, no not one according to Scripture, but FWers mock such Scriptural truths). Some also conflate being spiritually dead with being physically dead but then are dishonest about doing so.
