Can We Really Exercise Free Will?

[Blain]

Psalm 58 verse 3 The wicked are estranged from the womb; the liars go astray from birth.

Psalm 14 verse 3
All have turned away, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.

Psalm 51 verse 5 Surely I was brought forth in iniquity; I was sinful when my mother conceived me.

Psalm 52 verse 3 You love evil more than good, falsehood more than speaking truth. Selah

Psalm 53 verse 3
All have turned away, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.

Isaiah 48 verse 8
You have never heard; you have never understood; for a long time your ears have not
been open. For I knew how deceitful you are; you have been called a rebel from birth.

Job 14 verse 4 Who can bring out clean from unclean? No one!

Job 15 verse 14
What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

Proverbs 22 verse 15
Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.

John 3 verse 3 Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

Romans 3 verse 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Romans 5 verse 12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and
death through sin, so also death was passed on to all men, because all sinned.

Ecclesiastes 7 verse 20 Surely there is no righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.

Romans 3 verse 10 As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one.

Ephesians 2 verse 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, fulfilling the cravings of our flesh
and indulging its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature children of wrath.

Jeremiah 17 verse 9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

1 John 1 verse 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar, and His word is not in us.

See this is what I like to see clean cut scripture no twisting of verses no interpretation of my b understanding says this or that just clean scripture that speaks for itself

 

[Magenta]

Yes precisely, and this is why one cannot freely choose God before being drawn to him it requires one to hear the call yes but to choose to follow him by our own merits always ends up failing because it requires God to do it

The Bible specifically says, it is God working in us to will and to do according to His good pleasure.

God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.

We can do nothing aside from Him. Not that we are competent in ourselves
to claim that anything comes from us, but our competence comes from God.

 

[Hakawaka]

Inability in the Bible is plain as day for those with eyes to see. Augustine did not create it. That's just another heretical lie. To hear you and your ilk talk, the unregenerated person already has the Holy Spirit of God indwelling them. It's nonsense. But then a lot of what you and yours say directly contradicts what the Bible explicitly states. I don't think you care. You just keep repeating it anyways.


Romans 7 v 18-24a I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh; for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do. Instead, I keep on doing the evil I do not want to do. And if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So this is the principle I have discovered: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law. But I see another law at work in my body, warring against the law of my mind and holding me captive to the law of sin that dwells within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord!

This is a hobby for you just making up stuff no one ever said? When did she or me or anyone say that "The Holy Spirit of God is indwelling in unregenerated persons"

We are the ones who say you believe unto life as John 20:31 says and many other verses. First belief, then spiritual life. Not spiritual life followed by belief.

Acts 13:48 has already been answered a thousand times, these gentiles were God fearers like Cornelius who were saved under the old covenant and were therefore given the Gospel asap because they were ordained unto eternal life and needed to be saved under the new covenant. Just like Cornelius, righteous men under the old covenant who needed to hear the Gospel because Jesus had just died.

Psalm 25:14 "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant".

 

[Cameron143]

Well it takes a brain to read so there is that.

No one has said that the mind doesn't function; for that matter, the heart too. They have simply become corrupted. They do not operate as God created them to.

 

[HeIsHere]

Yes faith is a gift and anyone who denies that contradicts his word Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God"

Koine Greek being a gendered language was the optimal language to make concepts very clear.
Salvation is the gift... it is received through faith.
There is no debate on this.

 

[Blain]

Well it takes a brain to read so there is that.

Yes but that isn't what we are talking about is it? if you use your logic to study the word then that word will not be the truth your understanding is involved and what do the scriptures say about that? This is why some autistic kids can understand scripture than most theologeons

 

[Hakawaka]

They talk in circles, of their own circle... excluding others... as if they have a mystery doctrine of their own.

That is what the Gnostics were famous for.

You know if you look into where "calvinism" came from, it came from Augustine, who got it from *drum roll* manichaean gnosticism.
Very accurate analysis there bro

 

[Cameron143]

This is a hobby for you just making up stuff no one ever said? When did she or me or anyone say that "The Holy Spirit of God is indwelling in unregenerated persons"

We are the ones who say you believe unto life as John 20:31 says and many other verses. First belief, then spiritual life. Not spiritual life followed by belief.

Acts 13:48 has already been answered a thousand times, these gentiles were God fearers like Cornelius who were saved under the old covenant and were therefore given the Gospel asap because they were ordained unto eternal life and needed to be saved under the new covenant. Just like Cornelius, righteous men under the old covenant who needed to hear the Gospel because Jesus had just died.

Psalm 25:14 "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant".

When Lazarus was in the grave, was he made alive, heard the command, and came forth, or heard the word, came to life, and came forth?

 

[Blain]

Koine Greek being a gendered language was the optimal language to make concepts very clear.
Salvation is the gift... it is received through faith.
There is no debate on this.

Both salvation and faith are said to be gifts from God so yes I agree

 

[HeIsHere]

Yes but that isn't what we are talking about is it? if you use your logic to study the word then that word will not be the truth your understanding is involved and what do the scriptures say about that? This is why some autistic kids can understand scripture than most theologeons

Well one thing for sure neither Augustine or John Calvin got it but for some mysterious reason it keeps being pushed down through the centuries.

 

[Magenta]

Yes but that isn't what we are talking about is it? if you use your logic to study the word then that word will not be the truth your understanding is involved and what do the scriptures say about that? This is why some autistic kids can understand scripture than most theologeons

God makes foolish the wisdom of the wise. HeIsHere is very wise in her own eyes.

 

[Blain]

Well one thing for sure neither Augustine or John Calvin got it but for some mysterious reason it keeps being pushed down through the centuries.

That is because the devil knows how to confuse and confound people

 

[Rufus]

They think that we were only "mostly dead."

Actually, many here don't take metaphors very seriously. They think being spiritually dead is far, far different from being physically dead. Most FWers just blithely and shamefully remove all the parallels between the two kinds of death. And they don't have the first inkling of a clue that when they do that, they unwittingly rob themselves of genuine understanding of spiritual truth, proving that man is his own worst enemy due to the deceitfulness of his own heart! For Jesus said this about a metaphor He used with Nicodemus:

John 3:12
12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?
NIV

And FWers also don't handle rhetorical questions very well either, such as what I bolded above. They're perform mental feats of gymnastics in order to avoid, skirt or equivocate the one logical answer.

 

[HeIsHere]

Both salvation and faith are said to be gifts from God so yes I agree

The Greek makes it clear only salvation is the gift in that verse, but follow the ones those with the megaphone they usually are right.

 

[Magenta]

Well one thing for sure neither Augustine or John Calvin got it but for some mysterious reason it keeps being pushed down through the centuries.

Inability is not exclusive to Calvinism. Paul spoke of inability. So did Jesus. It predates both of the men you mention.

 

[HeIsHere]

That is because the devil knows how to confuse and confound people

That is for sure.

 

[Rufus]

God makes foolish the wisdom of the wise. HeIsHere is very wise in her own eyes.

I guess she never read that God gives grace only to the humble.

 

[Blain]

The Greek makes it clear only salvation is the gift in that verse, but follow the ones those with the megaphone they usually are right.

So are you saying that the scripture that says faith is a gift from God is lying?

 

[HeIsHere]

I wondering was a message sent out to all the Calvies ....stating "HELP Come Quick!!!!"

 

[Magenta]

The Greek makes it clear only salvation is the gift in that verse, but follow the ones those with the megaphone they usually are right.

Scripture says all good things come from God. Is faith not a good thing in your wise eyes?

1 Corinthians 4 verse 7b; John 3 verse 27; Romans 9 verses 15-16 ~ What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did also receive it, why do you boast as not having received it? John replied, "A man can receive only that which is given him from heaven." "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." So then, it does not depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy.