Can We Really Exercise Free Will?
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I don't know how many times the scriptures command us "to believe" before it gets through there is something we must do which, in and of itself, does not cause our salvation.
Personally I think the problem begins in the understanding that human nature is born wicked which, it is not. Human nature is to be found in the soul which is created in the image and likeness of God. But that is another story for another thread.
Appreciate your posts.
Personally I think the problem begins in the understanding that human nature is born wicked which, it is not. Human nature is to be found in the soul which is created in the image and likeness of God. But that is another story for another thread.
Appreciate your posts.
For reason (click here), I'd have to disagree with you assuming it's a statement you're making.
Elect and choose overlap.
Elect and choose overlap.
Romans 8 verse 29-30; Ephesians 1 verse 5 ~ 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. He predestined us for adoption as His sons through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of His will.
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I don't know how many times the scriptures command us "to believe" before it gets through there is something we must do which, in and of itself, does not cause our salvation.
Personally I think the problem begins in the understanding that human nature is born wicked which, it is not. Human nature is to be found in the soul which is created in the image and likeness of God. But that is another story for another thread.
Appreciate your posts.
Personally I think the problem begins in the understanding that human nature is born wicked which, it is not. Human nature is to be found in the soul which is created in the image and likeness of God. But that is another story for another thread.
Appreciate your posts.
Wise to withhold for another thread.
Yours also.
Thanks!
My sincerest apology for not responding to your question or questions.
I believe salvation is all of God. Read Ephesians 1. The One doing everything is God.
I don't really understand choosing to believe. I've never chosen to believe. I either believed something or I didn't. Faith comes by the word of God. When I got saved, I heard the word of God and believed. When I heard the gospel and didn't get saved, I didn't believe. Faith didn't come by the word of God those times. When I did believe, the Spirit of God employed the word of God and birthed faith in me. Thus, I believed.
I believe salvation is all of God. Read Ephesians 1. The One doing everything is God.
I don't really understand choosing to believe. I've never chosen to believe. I either believed something or I didn't. Faith comes by the word of God. When I got saved, I heard the word of God and believed. When I heard the gospel and didn't get saved, I didn't believe. Faith didn't come by the word of God those times. When I did believe, the Spirit of God employed the word of God and birthed faith in me. Thus, I believed.
Thank you for responding. Another problem I see is people claiming they agree with the Scriptures I post
but not my interpretation of said Scriptures. Well, guess what? I way more often than not simply let the
Scriptures speak for themselves. Then I get people all over me for the Scriptures I post and they
deny, flat out deny, what they say but then claim they agree. The lies that fly around here are out of this world.
but not my interpretation of said Scriptures. Well, guess what? I way more often than not simply let the
Scriptures speak for themselves. Then I get people
all over me for the Scriptures I post and they deny, flat out deny, what they say but then claim they agree. The lies that fly around here are out of this world.
From Ephesians 1 According to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, God has made known to us the mystery of His will, which He purposed in Christ before the foundation of the world. 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, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, would be for the praise of His glory.
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Appointed for eternal life IMO means God knew they would always believe before they were ever created. Because He knows everyone and everything. Those who do believe didnt have a gun to thier head when they finially made the decision. Man's responsibility when hearing the word are part of the equation.
Another verse says God did not choose because of anything we had done. Foreknowledge is mentioned somewhere also but it does not say knowledge in terms of Him knowing what we would choose to believe, if that is what you are saying. In fact we are told that people do not choose for themselves, and that the unsaved do not seek after God, that God must draw them, it is His lovingkindness which works repentance in us, and that those given to Jesus by God WILL come. There is nothing about choosing there. Just the given fact that those given will come. My own process was long and drawn out. I did not want to believe. I did not want to be a Christian. I was distressed when it seemed that was the direction I was going. And yet, I continued to go to church, I met others along the way who were Christians whom I admired, I got involved in an Alpha Course (are you familiar with it?) because of some of those people, and during that course I DISCOVERED that I no longer needed any more convincing of the Truth of God's revealed written Word. Some people make choosing to believe sound like they are in a cafeteria lineup picking their selections.
Foreknowledge could be in terms of how Jesus knows some but not others.
Foreknowledge could be in terms of how Jesus knows some but not others.
