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Can We Really Exercise Free Will?
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No. Paul says:
“that they might be saved”
The word “might” expresses a real possibility that was offered. It does not describe a predetermined outcome in which the elect are guaranteed to be saved and the non-elect never could have been.
Paul uses “might” in the same conditional sense throughout Scripture. It means that salvation was made possible and available, but was rejected by this group.
However, you, the Calvinist, and the Anti-Free Will Proponent turn “might” into “will” for the elect and “never could” for the non-elect. That destroys the plain reading. The Elect in Calvinism cannot be said that they might be saved. According to Calvinism, the Elect are guaranteed salvation and there is no “might” about it. And in the upside-down world of Calvinism, the same holds true for the Non-Elect. There is no “might be saved” for the Non-Elect, because they never had a real chance at salvation. God never elected them for salvation at any point. The only scenario where “might” works in this verse is if salvation is conditional rather than unconditional.
Here is an example in the form of a story:
The Lost Path of the Kings
Jack Moore, Sarah Ward, and Devin Locke were seasoned Bible archaeologists who had spent years studying ancient inscriptions across the Middle East. Their latest discovery brought them deep beneath the ruins of an ancient Judean fortress. The chamber walls were covered in intricate carvings, some genuine, some deliberately deceptive.
After carefully comparing symbols on the walls with clues etched into the floor, Jack and Sarah decoded the authentic message.
Jack read it aloud.
“He who follows the true instruction might live. He who trusts the false inscription shall surely fall.”
They examined the stone floor. Some tiles bore the true symbol they had identified. Others displayed a nearly identical false marking created to mislead intruders.
Jack turned to Sarah.
“If we decoded this correctly,” he said quietly, “it might save us.”
Sarah nodded, and together they stepped onto the stones with the true symbol, moving with cautious precision.
A moment later Devin Locke entered the chamber. Devin was not only a colleague but a friend. He trusted Jack and Sarah, and he immediately recognized that they had found the safe path. He also understood that he had the exact same opportunity to follow them.
Then he saw it.
A golden goblet resting on a stone just off the true path. It was the artifact he had chased for most of his career, the one theory he had defended, the one discovery he longed to make more than any other. To Devin, this goblet was personal. It represented years of study, passion, and sacrifice.
He hesitated between two real possibilities.
He thought to himself, "Do I stick to the safe path and be with my friends?"
Or should I take the risk and achieve my life's work?
Jack called to him.
“Devin, follow us. You can make it across.”
Sarah added, her voice urgent.
“You know which symbols are genuine. Come with us.”
Devil heard them, but their words felt far away. Devin was thinking he could do both. So, he studied the floor carefully, trying to work out a way to reach the goblet without abandoning the safe path. The tile beneath his right foot bore the true symbol. He trusted that stone. He trusted the inscription. And in his mind, as long as he kept the majority of his weight on it, he would not trigger anything dangerous.
“I can do this,” he murmured.
“If my main footing stays on the correct stone, I should be fine. I just need a little balance from this one.”
Slowly, he extended his other foot toward the neighboring tile marked with the false inscription. He believed that touching it lightly—just the edge of his foot—would not matter, that the ancient mechanism would only react if he stepped off fully.
But the engineers of the old kingdom had not built their traps so generously.
The instant even the smallest part of Devin’s foot settled onto the false-marked stone, the chamber responded.
A sharp crack echoed beneath him.
The tile dropped like a sprung trapdoor.
Jack reached out in a desperate reflex.
Sarah cried out his name.
But the collapse was immediate, unstoppable.
Devin Locke plunged into the abyss below.
For a long moment, Jack and Sarah stood frozen, the echo of falling stone fading into a terrible stillness. Sarah covered her mouth as tears welled in her eyes. Jack wrapped an arm around her shoulders, steadying her as the dust slowly settled back to the floor.
Neither spoke. The weight of what had just happened pressed against both of them. Devin had been their colleague, their friend, a man who had walked beside them through deserts, ruins, and discoveries. He had stood on the brink of safety, the same chance they had, yet stepped the wrong way.
Sarah leaned into Jack’s chest, her voice trembling.
“I wish he had followed us…”
Jack closed his eyes.
“He could have. He truly could have.”
They stood together in the quiet emptiness of the chamber, letting the reality settle. Then, without rushing, they continued along the true symbols, honoring the gravity of the moment. They reached the treasure vault, not with celebration, but with the sober understanding that life and loss can hinge on a single decision.
Meaning of “Might”:
The same decoded instruction lay before all three Bible archaeologists.
Jack and Sarah accepted it fully, keeping their feet entirely on the stones marked with the true symbol.
Devin also had complete access to that same truth. He understood the markings, trusted the decoding, and knew which stones were safe.
But instead of committing to the true path, he attempted to hold to it partially while reaching toward something else. He believed he could keep most of his footing on the right symbol while letting only a small part of his foot rest on the false one. That single divided step cost him the path that might have saved him.
“Might” in the inscription meant a genuine possibility, not a fixed outcome.
Those who stayed on the true symbols might live because safety depended on their full adherence to the instruction, not a partial or divided response.
Devin lost what was available to him not because he lacked access or ability, but because he did not remain with what he knew was true.
This illustrates the core idea in 2 Thessalonians 2:10.
The offer of truth is real.
The possibility of salvation is real.
But a person must receive that truth wholeheartedly rather than turn aside, even partially, to something else that draws the heart away. God wants us, but we must embrace the love of the truth continually and completely.
Sadly, there are many believers who will be shocked in the end, not because they lacked access to truth, but because they did not hold to it with their whole heart. I wish with all sincerity that none of them would be caught off guard in that day by taking the wrong step in this life. In Christ, I love them deeply and desire only what is good and true for them.
......
was this word in you from the beginning
Buzz words of a sect do not register outside the sect.
You do not know what you are toying with.
was this word in you from the beginning
What word?
Which beginning?
Do you even know what you are doing?
no
I'm locking on with you
This is what you got?
I am too old for these games you play.
aww life is to short sir.
I was being a good teacher I thought.
Ok so the life has always been, and the life knows the word as it's spoken to you.
The world God loved, could not love the world like God could.
The people of the world could love the beauty of the world, like God could but they could not love all the things of the world, only God could,
This is a good reason to not love all the things of the world, cuz You should let God love them,
The moral of the story is
Can people make mistakes.
So then does the life that's in you know the word that has been spoken from the beginning, as it's spoken to you.
Life in its self was not a mistake, the mistake was life did not accept life from life, without the acceptance being provided, it would be impossible, but the acceptance was provided, and the life still did not accept, because God had decreed it should and it never. His life sold it's self to sin out of thinking it could live.
God gave you freedom of thought but his will and life.
And you have to ask how could life (the breath of life) from life not accept life from life.
Gods life lives in you sir and his life and his word lives in you.
Which was and had always been, before sin existed.
So we ask God to reveal his wisdom as to why His breath of life did not accept life from life in the garden. And he can reveal it through his life, in you and for you, and through his word.
The life knew the word sir before it rejected life, the life was his breath of life created in his image,
Your life knows the word now which was and always has been.
Every time you hear the word now, his life in you, knows it to be true, and will know it's the word from the beginning.
God breathed a living active word to Adam which his life knew in Adam, (the breath of life),
God is not a God that punishes for not knowing,
Your life which is his life, knows as it's spoken to you, as and when it's spoken, same as Adam.
Because you was also there at the beginning, my life is his and life and word, which now is speaking to his life in your life, from the begining sir.
There's no way to stop what has been sowed and willed and decreed.
If his word commands his children to bless m then we don't call that religion, we call that his word.
His faith his way his life giving word that saved you.
How convenient for you that "all men" doesn't mean all men.
Oh all men does mean all men in "there is no one that does good not one" but then at the same time world dosent mean world whosoever dosent mean whosoever and all men dosent mean all men.
I say He gives us faith and you supply a verse that says exactly that but you say I'm wrong?
How about that verse along with this one.
John 6:29
Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”
It is as I said, He tells us to believe and He gives us faith.
According to your perception of salvation perhaps, but not according to the true salvation of the Bible which is not dependent upon man's intervention or action in any sense. It can't be because man is spiritually dead and as dead unable to respond:
[1Co 2:14 KJV] 14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know [them], because they are spiritually discerned.
Some of the unsaved will definitely become saved; some of them definitely will not become saved, which equates to a "might" relative to all of the unsaved. So, an offer of salvation was not given contingent upon a person's actions. However, we know that the elect begin as unsaved but at some point, they must become saved, and we know that God gives only to those He saves spiritual life and with it a love of the truth and to no others. In the end, that will leave only those not elect and not saved as the ones who remain perished.
[2Th 2:13 KJV] 13 But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:
Regarding your reference to "Bible archaeologists ", their analysis carries no credence with me whatsoever. I regard the Bible alone
and in its entirety.
Wrong. That would make man into his own savior and reduce Christ, who actually is the only true Savior, to purely a salvation
function, unconditionally invoked at the good pleasure of those who desire it thereby making salvation a work of man not God, however, that is not the role of a Savior, nor does it represent the true gospel. The Savior is He alone who saves fully and completely with no prerequisites imposed upon those being saved other than to have been chosen by God for salvation - it is a completely free gift from an exceedingly merciful and gracious God through Jesus Christ the Savior. Man plays no part whatsoever in acquiring it. What do you think the title and role of a Savior means and represents if not that?