Can We Really Exercise Free Will?
- Thread starter LifelongLearner
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Frankly, I do not expect that any Bible tweet Barbie ot Bible tweet Ken will ever matriculate and truly understand the Scripture the way God intends.
That passage is but a tiny cog of a spectacular epic doctrinal machine. And surely one must understand the design and purpose of this machine........to understand the meaning of each individual part.
Once your eyes are opened, you have been renewed in Christ. . . . You had nothing to do with it, it was a gift.
Does the Bible say that men have an excuse? Or does it say that men do not have an excuse?
Oh well I'll leave you to work that one out,
Its like today good afternoon was not a description, it was a wish.
really oh, I see. So what your saying if I give you a gift and you don't receive it, then it no longer a gift.
Is that because you don't want the gift ? Or is it because you feal that the gift isn't a gift.
Well I would advice you to not look a gift horse in the mouth,
he's fishing for an excuse.
Because he's a fishy person.
But what he doesn't know is I'm captain birds eye and i have had my fish fingers today, and Jesus made me a fisher of men
He's saying a Gift is never forced onto someone. For it to be a Gift means it is received. In order for a Gift to be Received means it's taken from the one giving willingly. For it to be received willingly requires choice to accept it.
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God,
to those who believe in His name."
John 1:12
AI Gifts of the Holy Spirit The gifts of the Holy Spirit are supernatural abilities, talents, or spiritual powers given by God to believers to empower them to serve Him and the church.
That kind of gift does not require you to hold your hand out to receive it!
yeah I know what he saying yeah.
It's just like you can't force someone into changing there mind about how they feel about God, but he can, he can make the whole community change there mind how they believe in God, well he thinks he can, one way he does that is to keep calling people Calvinists.
Anyway change the record yeah.
Theres no pit big enough That God can't pull you out of, and God can make a way where there seems no way possible.
the passage is primarily about future judgement, when the earth and heavens will be dissolved in His wrath, then made new.
it harkens back to Genesis 1 and to Genesis 6 with the connecting language and the floodwaters of judgement in times past.
it does not indicate that the Bible contradicts itself calling Adam the first man. pre-adamite human race theories do not agree with scripture; they are not the proper interpretation of Jeremiah 4.
Deflection exit strategy on display.
Standard Calvinist gameplay when cornered.
God gives life. People act as if they had to do something to receive it.
Look at Adam. A lump of clay, basically, and God breathed the breath of life into him.
What did Adam do to receive it? Did he have to do anything?
To hear people here talk, he did. But they are wrong, of course.
He did not have to will himself to breathe or do anything to receive it. He lived, because God willed it, and made it happen.
You need some back ground.....
Do you know the setting of what was going on when Jeremiah gave his warning to the rebellious Jews who were about to be judged by God?
They had been holding pagan rituals out in fields, with sex orgies, and throwing their children into fire alive.
The LORD of Hosts has sworn: “Surely, as I have planned, so will it be; as I have purposed, so will it stand.” Isaiah 14 verse 24 The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the purposes of His heart to all generations. Psalm 33 verse 11 Our God is in heaven; He does as He pleases. Psalm 115 verse 3 Many plans are in a man’s heart, but the purpose of the LORD will prevail. Proverbs 19 verse 21 In Him we were also chosen as God’s own, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything by the counsel of His will. Ephesians 1 verse 11 And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers. And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified. Romans 8 verses 28-30 For He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His presence. In love He predestined us for adoption as His sons through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of His will. Ephesians 1 verses 4-5
The fact that mankind knows there is a God attests to the fact that God reaches out to mankind to reveal Himself.
And the fact that folks who are not born again know there is a God Who created the heavens and the earth as well as believe other truths written in Scripture attests to the fact that natural man can know and believe God and Scripture even though they are not born again.
And you "elect" folks were in the same boat as all descendants of Adam prior to being born again. There was/is) no subset of humanity ... you were dead in trespasses and sins; you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience; you fulfilled the desires of the flesh; you were children of wrath ... just as all descendants of Adam.
Magenta said:
According to Scripture it is the gospel of Christ which saves people. Until a person believes the gospel of Christ and is saved, he or she can only know about God.
To know God, one must be born again. It is only then that the Lord Jesus Christ can begin revealing the Father.
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you keep yammering this point ... no one who has a posted in this thread believes your red herring.
Scripture tells us that God's Word is life and God's Word is powerful.
Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Scripture tells us that the gospel is Christ is the power of God unto salvation:
Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
Those who do not suppress the truth in unrighteousness when they hear or read God's Word receive the promised blessing.
Those who suppress the truth in unrighteousness when they hear or read God's Word receive the consequence.
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