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.
So for the sake of argument I'll ask a question. If you turn from your wicked ways I will be with you? What does the if register in your head as meaning? What does it trigger as a thought?
Get the context?
I did not say that man gets saved by his own free will.
Man with his freed will participates in the process of God saving him.
Man must choose to accept God's proposal.
Then God does the saving.
Hard for you to believe?
But certain men do hate God and want nothing to do with him!
Those who do not find me hurt themselves; anyone who hates me loves death.” Proverbs 8:36
A better exegeted version can be rendered:
But he who 'misses the mark' with me (being negative toward God and/or His Divine Viewpoint)
Injures/wrongs his own soul. All they who hate me (Rejection of God and His Word) love death.
There are people who love death. They love what their sin nature gets for them in life.
They love the world.
"Anyone who hates me loves death.”
You ask...
How could anyone feel that way?
Just ask Satan!
That is what we are dealing with.
You can not make an appeal for decency to the merciless.
........
Where is choice depicted in, those given to Jesus by God will come to Him?
And those who come He will cast none out.
I don't see human choice there.
In fact in the whole of Scripture concerning what is said of the natural man, choice is not an option,
if you will pardon the sort-of pun. Man is by nature a child of wrath acting under the compunction of
his nature which Scripture says is blinded to truth, opposed to the Spiritual things of God, incapable
of submitting/obeying, taken captive to do the will of the devil, a slave to sin, lover of darkness etc.
Is it the will of the devil that you obey God?
Oh yes, He does. Repentance is given from God from and as a result of salvation
Well, that that choice was probably under the Old Covenant (you didn't specify a verse) - it is a works based earthly covenant, not the heavenly New Covenant.
God unilaterally places people under the New Covenant, and then teaches them His doctrines
As far as the dog is concerned...
That dog will still do as he would want to do.
He will want to protect and to guard while barking.
God simply determined where and when, and under what circumstances, that dog is to do what it will want to do.
In that way. God knowing fully what we are.
Places us in life and uses our will to do His will and purpose.
.....
Jesus answered, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” Luke 5 v 31 The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. Luke 19 v 10 For the Son of Man came to save the lost. Matthew 18 v 11 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners. Matthew 9 v 13b, Mark 2 v 17b I will seek the lost, bring back the strays, bind up the broken, and strengthen the weak; but the sleek and strong I will destroy. Ezekiel 34 v 16
I dint actually quote a particular verse. Just asking a line of thought from you. What would the if mean to you when someone ask a question like that?
Ok 2 chronicles 7¹⁴ for instance. What does the if mean to you
Actually the Law was not a works based Salvation but a lifestyle no other people were doing in their life. It's the Mercy Covenant and God's Mercy is spoken about more than Grace could ever be mentioned.
That question is too open-ended to give a reasonable answer to - "if" can be found in Scripture in all over the place. Context
would affect the answer. Generally, I think you are assuming the person has to satisfy the requirements of the "if", but usually, relative to salvation, it is stating a condition for those saved that has already satisfied; for the unsaved, however, it becomes another hurdle they will unsuccessfully try to satisfy themselves to become saved.
The Greek word for if is ean. It can mean if or when or whoever. So context is important. In 2 Chronicles 7, it seems to be if. The promises seem to be conditioned upon the action. But when works just as well. How about Romans 10:9? What is the best translation for ean? If or when? Most people decide by what they already believe. But...1 Corinthians 12:3 says that no one can call Jesus Lord but by the Spirit. How does this affect one's belief?
That is the Old Covenant. Did you read my post about the New Covenant? There is a big difference between the two - one works based; one grace based. Nothing is required from those under the New Covenant - God accomplished it all.