Can We Really Exercise Free Will?

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from Revelation 3 verse 17-18 ~ You say, ‘I need nothing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, white garments so that you may be clothed and your shameful nakedness not exposed, and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.
 
cv5 said:
Yet the super-determinists excise this gift of glorious service to appease some kind of false humility requirement that their religious code demands.
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Ding.Ding.Ding......What do we have for him Johnny?
 
QUOTE="lrs68, post: 5567324, member: 337229"]That is interesting to think I serve a God that requires Faith in Himself to be God.

So much for being All Everything and Sovereign.[/QUOTE]

Wrong. Christ faith wasn't in Himself - that type of faith is solely between a man and God, which faith is given to the elect as a gift from God. Christ, on the other hand, was faithful as Son and Savior in His allegiance to the Father, in that He perfectly and faithfully satisfied and completed the will of the Father, by which, and only by which, was salvation brought to fruition. It's kind of amazing that for all you post, you actually know/understand so little about Christ in His role as Savior and Son. This is pretty basic stuff.

[Heb 3:5-6 KJV]
5 And Moses verily [was] faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after;
6 But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.

[Jhn 4:34 KJV] 34 Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.

[Jhn 6:38 KJV] 38 For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
 
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Cameron143 said:
Already did. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Thus:
The word of God produces hearing.
Hearing produces faith.
This is why it says in Ephesians 2:8...not of yourselves. Grammatically, the antecedent to not of yourselves is...wait for it...faith.
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It actually is not,
The construction uses a fixed neuter singular pronoun (that) which refers neither to faith, which is feminine in Greek, nor to any immediate word which follows.
As some whose first language is a gendered language I know how this works.

Faith is not an infused or transmitted substance.
The instrument is faith, the agent is God.
His Gift is salvation by His grace.

Try again.
 
HeIsHere said:
It actually is not,
The construction uses a fixed neuter singular pronoun (that) which refers neither to faith, which is feminine in Greek, nor to any immediate word which follows.
As some whose first language is a gendered language I know how this works.

Faith is not an infused or transmitted substance.
The instrument is faith, the agent is God.
His Gift is salvation by His grace.

Try again.
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Bookmarked. Thanks.
BTW I bombed out in French class lol.
 
rogerg said:
QUOTE="lrs68, post: 5567324, member: 337229"]That is interesting to think I serve a God that requires Faith in Himself to be God.

So much for being All Everything and Sovereign.

Wrong. Christ faith wasn't in Himself - that type of faith is solely between a man and God, which faith is given to the elect as a gift from God. Christ, on the other hand, was faithful as Son and Savior in His allegiance to the Father, in that He perfectly and faithfully satisfied and completed the will of the Father, by which, and only by which, was salvation brought to fruition. It's kind of amazing that for all you post, you actually know/understand so little about Christ in His role as Savior and Son. This is pretty basic stuff.

[Heb 3:5-6 KJV]
5 And Moses verily [was] faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after;
6 But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.

[Jhn 4:34 KJV] 34 Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.

[Jhn 6:38 KJV] 38 For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
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Your Verses don't speak about Faith just about doing works.
 
studier said:
Ezekiel 36 is God’s promise to renew His people - Israel in context, and in Christ, all who believe. It doesn’t say unbelievers get new hearts so they can believe; it says God gives new hearts to those who, by faith, have become His people. Belief comes first, then the new heart.
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Amen!

God has set the condition and faith/belief is first.

But Jesus turned around, and when He saw her He said, “Be of good cheer, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And the woman was made well from that hour.
Matthew 9:22
 
Rufus said:
But the point remains that God does not "provide grace" to the proud, which is only about 95% of the world -- give or take.... God only bestows grace to the HUMBLE! And humility is a byproduct of God's gift of the Fear of the Lord which he only promised to his covenant people.
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You conceded the earlier point - that grace is offered, and people must respond. Now you’re layering other determinism by redefining humility as a “gift,” then saying it’s only a byproduct of another “gift,” the fear of the LORD. But Scripture frames both fear of the Lord and humility as commanded responses:
  • Let all the earth fear the LORD; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. (Ps. 33:8 NKJ)
  • Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. (Jas. 4:10 NKJ)
  • Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, (1 Pet. 5:6 NKJ)
Once again, commands presuppose volitional response, not deterministic gifts. So your reasoning fails: God giving grace to the humble does not mean humility is a deterministic gift.

I'd note while we're here that Ps33 is a Psalm of praise to the Lord and Creator and all the earth is being commanded to fear Him.

This stands: choose to believe > salvation.
 
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studier said:
Scripture frames both fear of the Lord and humility as commanded responses
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So is repentance commanded. See Acts Acts 17 v 30
Although God overlooked the ignorance of earlier times, He now commands all people everywhere to repent.

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Romans 11 v 32 God has consigned everyone to disobedience so that He may have mercy on all.
:)
 
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Ephesians 4 verses 17-18; Luke 6 verse 43; Jeremiah 10 verse 14 In the futility of their thinking, unbelievers are darkened in their understanding and alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts. A diseased tree cannot bear good fruit. Every man is senseless and devoid of knowledge.
 
Cameron143 said:
I made no such claim. But you did make the claim that by the word and Spirit God enables man to make a choice whether to believe or not. I was wondering if you can show from scripture this claim.
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Cameron143 said:
You are correct. Faith does magnify God because it evidences God at work in the individual. But faith generated by individuals apart from the work of God magnifies man. When individuals leave God out of any part of the salvation process, they magnify themselves in that regard.[/QUOTE]

Do you believe that non-determinists think they generate faith apart from the work of God and magnify man?

Do you believe that non-determinists leave God out of any part of the salvation process and magnify themselves in that regard?
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