Can We Really Exercise Free Will?
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Here you go...
John Calvin: “Bringing forth has the sense that we are made new men, to throw off our old nature, when we are effectually called by God. He also says how God regenerates us, which is, by the Word of truth, to teach us that we have no other access to the Kingdom of God.” (Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries, Matthew, Mark and Luke, Vol. III, James and Jude, p.270, emphasis mine)
By “effectually called by God,” Calvin means Irresistible Grace by means of a pre-emptive Regeneration.
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That contradicts scripture. Besides, God's "grace" (the way you describe it) is pretty pathetic. Since his "saving" grace enables far more people to not believe. So...there certainly doesn't seem that there would be much difference at all between receiving no grace at all and receiving ineffectual grace.
Easy to verify what I said and why, also. Of course the truth does not interest you as much as you pretend it does.
So...you idea of effectual grace is that it isn't actually divine FAVOR! For how would his grace favor those whom God has enabled to make a poor decision? Grace in scripture and in dictionaries, etc. always point to divine favor, yet how are rejectors of the gospel favored when they wind up in hell for all eternity? Some divine favor!
It is rather odd how some of these FWers go on about God's love but then when He actually shows it He is condemned
if their precious idol looks in any way to be infringed upon... as if man knows better than God, what is best for him!
No, instead we are told God acting unilaterally makes Him an unjust tyrannical monster kidnapping people against
their free will. Their false man-centered doctrine of free will is so important to them, despite zero Biblical support for it.
You cannot "hear, see or understand" until such time as Jesus miraculously unstops your ears, opens your eyes and gives you understanding. Tell me, sir: Can you point to one gracious miracle in scripture that was ineffectual -- that didn't accomplish its intended purpose?
You had absolutely no right to analyze text which was not underlined! @reneweddaybyday intended to post the following:
James 1:17-20 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
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Rufus.... you should have stuck with "Walking the Dog" and not wandered to where you now find yourself.
I still love that song!
Used to play it in a band in my younger years as I watched all the energized dancers on the floor.
Loved those years!
Indeed, the peculiarity of being prevented to reach out and eat from the tree of life, the LORD's executive decision, seems striking as an strategic maneuver which would prevent their fates from being permanently sealed.
Actually, Magenta does believe "what the bible says of God". She believes, as I do, that God actually saves his people and not merely provide opportunities for salvation. Nor does she believe that God is merely a potential Savior.
I'd go as far to say that faith given them was exactly what God expected them to exercise given first opportunity. And they did exercise it as Eve was deceived to believe the serpent's lie, she had to place her faith in the lie for truth. And given that Adam wasn't deceived, then it becomes apparent that he must've placed his own faith into something other than either the serpent or God's word, something of his own logic perhaps.
[QUOTE="reneweddaybyday, post: 5549736, member: 237620"]I believe faith is inherent within all descendants of Adam. It is faith within mankind which results in belief/believing ... just as the intellect within mankind results in thoughts/thinking.[/quote]
How did the descendants of Adam come by this inherent faith which obviously Adam didn't have and never expressed either after he sinned? Are you suggesting that Adam's progeny inherited Adam's "faith"?
How did the descendants of Adam come by this inherent faith which obviously Adam didn't have and never expressed either after he sinned? Are you suggesting that Adam's progeny inherited Adam's "faith"?
Thank you, Rufus. I wonder who is telling lies about me now, as I have some of those type on ignore.
I wonder too why my acknowledging what God has done for me sends some into paroxysms of condemnation.
So odd that they will go on about God loving us, but when it is acknowledged they hate it. Too strange! Bizarre, even.
Praise the Lord
Yes, Adam's faith was in himself, not God, just as is the FWers. Because of the choice he made, all creation fell into
corruption, except man, according to the free will crowd, who howl against the fact that man is in fact corrupted.
