Can We Really Exercise Free Will?

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Scripture is to be understood correctly but it also is to be taken as is no added interpretations no fancy ways of understanding it it is truth and you cannot add to or take away from truth

I learned this from Jesus himself one the few times I have met him face to face and he gave me a very stern look when I tried to add my interpretation of his teachings he doesn't appreciate it trust me

So as far as subject at hand goes you can either listen to him or not that is on you but also this verse I keep giving is from his mouth himself but it is not something you can say is out of context because it isn't you cannot say it was only for a certain group because it isn't you cannot say it is not for today because it is and why do I say that? Because it is the word of God
"no fancy ways of understanding it"

Well, the 153 fish of John 21 links directly to:
-the seven miracles in the book of John
-the Genesis creation week
-the Passover pattern week
-the book of Revelation

And last but not least, the Genesis 15 covenant (and of course the heifer, ram, goat, pigeon and dove).

Bear in mind those are the major areas of focus, there are innumerably MANY more.

Would you like to find out why? Its probably a good idea!

@studier and I are presently engaged in an earnest pursuit of this knowledge.
By all mean join us.
 
"salvation by persevering in your faith, that's a works based religion"

False alert.
The reformed don't believe that salvation is by persevering in the faith. That's a strawman that you've erected to argue against the clear teaching of scripture. Salvation is by Grace alone, through Faith Alone, in Christ Alone.
 
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The reformed don't believe that salvation is by persevering in the faith. That's a strawman that you've erected to argue against the clear teaching of scripture. Salvation is by Grace alone, through Faith Alone, in Christ Alone.
The Reformed have thoroughly (and convincingly!) demonstrated an insurmountable inadequacy:
They cannot support their position Biblically.

And then its all downhill from there. Typically into the dismal lowlands of denials, diatribes, insults and the like.
 
@brightfame52 ... see below in red ... I left out a couple of very significant words in Post 34,356 ... sorry about that ...


If that was the case, then those who reject would know nothing about Him. However, there are many who are not believers who know of the Lord Jesus Christ ... they just place their faith in the lie that He is not Who God says He is ... the savior of all mankind.

1 Timothy 4:9-11

9 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation.

10 For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.

11 These things command and teach.

.
 
The reformed don't believe that salvation is by persevering in the faith. That's a strawman that you've erected to argue against the clear teaching of scripture. Salvation is by Grace alone, through Faith Alone, in Christ Alone.

Well that depends how closely they adhere to the Westminster Confession.

We know that the doctrine evolves to plug the holes in the system as they are made known, changing the terms and redefining words.

II. This perseverance of the saints depends not upon their own free will, but upon the immutability of the decree of election, flowing from the free and unchangeable love of God the Father;b upon the efficacy of the merit and intercession of Jesus Christ;c the abiding of the Spirit, and of the seed of God within them;d and the nature of the covenant of grace:e from all which ariseth also the certainty and infallibility thereof.f

from The Covenant of Grace (they forgot to specify for God's saved by decree)
Link
 
Well that depends how closely they adhere to the Westminster Confession.

We know that the doctrine evolves to plug the holes in the system as they are made known, changing the terms and redefining words.

II. This perseverance of the saints depends not upon their own free will, but upon the immutability of the decree of election, flowing from the free and unchangeable love of God the Father;b upon the efficacy of the merit and intercession of Jesus Christ;c the abiding of the Spirit, and of the seed of God within them;d and the nature of the covenant of grace:e from all which ariseth also the certainty and infallibility thereof.f

from The Covenant of Grace (they forgot to specify for God's saved by decree)
Link
yep it's widely believed his saints will persevere
 
Well that depends how closely they adhere to the Westminster Confession.

We know that the doctrine evolves to plug the holes in the system as they are made known, changing the terms and redefining words.

II. This perseverance of the saints depends not upon their own free will, but upon the immutability of the decree of election, flowing from the free and unchangeable love of God the Father;b upon the efficacy of the merit and intercession of Jesus Christ;c the abiding of the Spirit, and of the seed of God within them;d and the nature of the covenant of grace:e from all which ariseth also the certainty and infallibility thereof.f

from The Covenant of Grace (they forgot to specify for God's saved by decree)
Link
It occurs to me that about 50% of the content posted by the Reformed crew amount to simplistic reiterating of the various creeds and formulated dogma.

Most of the rest consist of reiterating misapprehended Reformed out of context standalone catch line verses and buzzwords like "appointed", "given" "predestined" etc.

And then there is our dear friend @Rufus ......
 
Not true. He believes the gifts of knowledge, prophecy and tongues have ceased as Paul foretold, not that all the gifts have ceased as do I.
I have never heard of anyone believing some of the gifts are for today but some aren't and I have been accused of making a doctrine out of a single verse taking it ut of context so aside from what Paul said what basis is there to suggest they have ceased?
 
Those who walked the earth with the Lord Jesus Christ lived in a very unique time ... to see Him and walk with Him and share meals with Him ... that must have been such a blessed time.

We also live in a very unique time ... the Lord Jesus Christ resides within those who are born again ... Christ in you the hope of glory (Col 1:27) ... what a blessing!





the name calling goes both ways ... magenta calls me "FWer" or "freewiller" ... others do as well ... yet the definitions of "FWer" or "freewiller" lack any substantive meaning.

just gotta let stuff go ... prove all things ... hold fast that which is good (1 Thes 5:21). At the end of the day, go through what you've heard ... what has been said to you or about you ... if good (true), hold on to it ... if not good (untrue), throw it to God. He takes our burdens and He applies His healing balm upon hurting hearts. He brings comfort to our hearts and peace to our minds.





sometimes we get some great insight into God's Word and then the discussion goes sideways for more than a couple of pages. The insight gets lost in a barrage of nonsense ... really sad ...

.
The name calling in general needs to stop regardless of who does it even if it is magenta
 
cessationism is a belief that the gift of prophecy and tongues have ceased. Which means you would have to rule this scripture out to believe that is true, and I don't think where allowed to take away scripture.


1 Corinthians 12:10

1 Corinthians 12:28

According to stupid ai, which has my reformed church i attend as Calvinistic and it's not, says some reformed churches believe in cessationism, but we don't,

Calvinistic is a horrible word I don't like that word as it's a bad word aimed at John Calvin who was a saint, my research shows, many reformed churches interpret that, John Calvin was saying the gifts of prophecy and tounges is less relevant as it is for today, not meaning those gifts have ceased or ended, but saying those gifts don't play a role as much as they did in the earlier church, which means the holy spirit is given now to believers, and Calvin was saying we don't see people using prophecy and tounges as much to help people to believe in the holy spirit.

But we do know the gift of prophecy is relevant in every believer today because the holy spirit is an inward blessing for today. Prophecy and tounges where used to make people believe in the holy spirit, but now the holy spirit makes you believe by blessing you with those gifts. In the earlier church nobody could prophecy unless by the spirit. Which was a temporal blessing, this is what John Calvin was refering

Now that temporal blessing is a no longer temporal, is a permanent indwelling of the spirit, and part of the devine nature of The lord is his prophetic word, for instance this is one way how it works.

My friend had a dream his wife had cancer and in that dream he was shown where the cancer was, and the doctor who showed him where the cancer was in the dream , was the same doctor he met a few months later. He never knew, never seen this doctor before, but he was identical to whom he saw in his dream, a black African doctor, small and chubby with curly hair.

After his dream his wife went to the doctor and she asked the doctor to examine her, where her husband had told her where the cancer was in his dream , which was a place where they couldn't of known,

And it was confirmed in that exact same place by the doctor, who then sent them to the African doctor in his dream.

She was healed because they got to it in time.

Amazing eh
Wow that is truly amazing for sure I have heard of such things happening but not to that extent that is amazing
 
No He only draws all His Sheep, He calls them by name and they will follow Him Jn 10:3


To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.

Matt 23:13
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let in those who wish to enter.

Luke 23:45
because the sun stopped shining; and the veil of the temple was torn in two.

John 6:35
Jesus answered, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me will never hunger, and whoever believes in Me will never thirst.

John 6:51
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And this bread, which I will give for the life of the world, is My flesh.”

John 3:16
Acts 16:31.

Equal privilege and equal opportunity for ALL.
 
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Matt 23:13
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let in those who wish to enter.

Luke 23:45
because the sun stopped shining; and the veil of the temple was torn in two.

John 6:35
Jesus answered, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me will never hunger, and whoever believes in Me will never thirst.

John 6:51
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And this bread, which I will give for the life of the world, is My flesh.”

John 3:16
Acts 16:31.

Equal privilege and equal opportunity for ALL.
sounds like your shutting the door on his face to me 🤐
 
The reformed don't believe that salvation is by persevering in the faith. That's a strawman that you've erected to argue against the clear teaching of scripture. Salvation is by Grace alone, through Faith Alone, in Christ Alone.
I disagree. Maybe, you are anomalous from the standard reformed/calvie/tulip theory?

What if one doesn't persevere in the faith? Reformed/calvie/tulip theory says.." They were not really Saved." Thus, making it about persevering in the faith and work based.

Those who deny Him(do not persevere in the faith) will be denied rank,blessings in time and eternal. And reward. Saved as if through fire.

Salvation IS by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
 
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Matt 23:13
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let in those who wish to enter.

Luke 23:45
because the sun stopped shining; and the veil of the temple was torn in two.

John 6:35
Jesus answered, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me will never hunger, and whoever believes in Me will never thirst.

John 6:51
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And this bread, which I will give for the life of the world, is My flesh.”

John 3:16
Acts 16:31.

Equal privilege and equal opportunity for ALL.

Has @brightfame52 ever posted this verse?


Mark 6:34 (ESV) When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.
 
The reformed don't believe that salvation is by persevering in the faith. That's a strawman that you've erected to argue against the clear teaching of scripture. Salvation is by Grace alone, through Faith Alone, in Christ Alone.

I am not talking about the Reformed.
My beef is with tulipism.
 
Matt 23:13
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let in those who wish to enter.

Luke 23:45
because the sun stopped shining; and the veil of the temple was torn in two.

John 6:35
Jesus answered, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me will never hunger, and whoever believes in Me will never thirst.

John 6:51
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And this bread, which I will give for the life of the world, is My flesh.”

John 3:16
Acts 16:31.

Equal privilege and equal opportunity for ALL.
Sorry does not change anything.