Can We Really Exercise Free Will?

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Jesus said Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 🙂

That refers to the getting back the inner happiness that you had as a child. "Young at heart."

But, not, being childish as you keep displaying.

This is what you need to know to outgrow what you wrongly think is the way to go....
When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child;
but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly,
but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
1 Corinthians 13:11-12​

Becoming childlike is a virtue.
But, being childish is not.

The devil suckers Christians into acting like silly children.
It is a terrible witness to the world.
Yet, a wise child is the true adult.

God's happiness only belongs to believers who go through needed suffering to mature and enter into greater grace.
Some refer to it as super grace.

It is time.
 
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Oh No He accomplished saving His people. The Jesus of scripture to believe in. So you don't believe that?

Calvinists have stifled their ability to think with spiritual integrity.
Your way of thinking is what Eric Hoffer wrote about in his book "The True Believer."

The Cherries that you have picked are of your own making.
You keep distorting the intent of Scripture to fit your intended outcome.

bye...

In Christ.
 
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Took a little break from here. Came back and this thread is still going lol.
This looks like the remake version of the Not By Works thread that's been discontinued after, idk, ten thousand pages of the same?
 
Calvinists have stifled their ability to think with spiritual integrity.
Your way of thinking is what Eric Hoffer wrote about in his book "The True Believer."

The Cherries that you have picked are of your own making.
You keep distorting the intent of Scripture to fit your intended outcome.

bye...

In Christ.
This little monkey says satan is making you display to much monkey business

 
Calvinists have stifled their ability to think with spiritual integrity.
Your way of thinking is what Eric Hoffer wrote about in his book "The True Believer."

The Cherries that you have picked are of your own making.
You keep distorting the intent of Scripture to fit your intended outcome.

bye...

In Christ.
So the Jesus you believe in didn't save them He died for? So why do you believe in that Jesus, he did not actually save anyone, duh
 
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The gospel is hidden to them that are lost, it's plain as day 2 Corinthians 4:3-4
It is hidden to them like Moses hid his face. It's hidden with a veil (of lies by the god of this world) "so that they can't see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God (2Cor4:4)." His glory is hidden from them, as the gospel displays the glory of Christ.
Moses hid that which was fading away. Moses was hiding the law's progressive dimness. The god of this world uses dark lies to obscure the light of the gospel, preventing those that are perishing to receive the light of the gospel and live, which is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes (Rom 1:16).
 
You should be obsessed with the fact that TULIP, Calvinism, Reformed dogma etc does NOT concatenate with the intentional PATTERNS set forth in Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy and Joshua.

And then be obsessed with determining how and why Calvinism utterly fails this absolutely necessary test of authenticity.

Rom 15:4
For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

But you won't. You will continue to do something similar to these infantile games:

Luk 7:32
They are like unto children sitting in the marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept.
Yep God is much older than you 🙂,
 
So the Jesus you believe in didn't save them He died for? So why do you believe in that Jesus, he did not actually save anyone, duh

Paying for our sins gave God freedom to draw/win back as many as were willing.

If there were no atonement?
Man would have been totally forsaken by God, similarly like the prehistoric animals were forsaken and destroyed.
Man would be extinct...

That is why Jesus (while being as a man) was forsaken in our place when our sins were poured upon his body.

About three o’clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?”
which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Matthew 27:46​
Without the Cross, all mankind would have been destroyed.
Totally forsaken.
Extinct!

grace and peace ............
 
They have found a cause to give meaning to their lives...
And, needing to defend it gives them a challenge to keep proving themselves, to themselves and peers. Mutual admiration society.

It's a cycle of diversion away from having nothing the Spirit will bear witness to with inner peace, with misapplied and misunderstood passages to make them feel that they are the ones that have something that others do not. "Smug peace."

SMFT

Yes, but it takes two to tango or tangle,
which is why I try not to argue with anyone,
although I am concerned about TULIP perverting the Gospel.
 
I know, that is why grace must precede any choice otherwise there is no choice.

Free means to be able to be perfectly human as God designed us to be (that includes to be able to choose freely, not forced to choose). To be anything less is not freedom but captivity.

Just as I figured. Jesus sets people free to be able to be something. Freedom in your mind is all about freedom TO! That's what it means when it says that Christ sets the PRISONERS free?

Luke 4:18-19
18 "The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

NIV

Jesus in the above passage is quoting part of Isa 61.

Why are fallen human beings prisoners? To what are they imprisoned? Does fallen humanity need to be set free FROM anything...or just "free to be able..."?

Last question: Does Jesus set all fallen humanity w/o exception free? Does He set free every man, woman and child on the planet?
 
If you actually studied the original tongues, the Jewish mindset, near-east though patterns etc. you would rightly comprehend the Bible (codified in mnemonics many times) patterns and message. And you wouldn't be stuck in your Calvinist dungeon of ignorance.

Categorically the Reformed/Calvinists are for all intents and purposes 100% wrong 100% of the time. It's truly an amazing phenomenon to behold. But this is to be expected if you are looking for Reformed dogma in every verse when in fact none exists anywhere.

Interestingly, there are many Calvinists on this thread that have never exegeted one solitary verse correctly by my reckoning.

And FYI, the Passover pattern and Jewish wedding protocol pattern utterly destroy Calvinism. And you haven't the foggiest idea of why.
Your problem seems to be that you need to lay your Greek/Hebrew lexicons aside and just listen to what scripture is telling you. You have what I term to be [lexicon of the brain], yet completely fail to understand the simply message.
 
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Paying for our sins gave God freedom to draw/win back as many as were willing.

If there were no atonement?
Man would have been totally forsaken by God, similarly like the prehistoric animals were forsaken and destroyed.
Man would be extinct...

That is why Jesus (while being as a man) was forsaken in our place when our sins were poured upon his body.

About three o’clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?”
which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Matthew 27:46​
Without the Cross, all mankind would have been destroyed.
Totally forsaken.
Extinct!

grace and peace ............

So on the Last Day when Jesus judges the righteous and the wicked, the latter don't really get tossed into the Lake of Fire? They just become extinct like dinosaurs?
 
Your problem seems to be that you need to lay your Greek/Hebrew lexicons aside and just listen to what scripture is telling you. You have what I term to be [lexicon of the brain], yet completely fail to understand the simply message.
But they don't like what Scripture says and they will listen to hours and hours and hours and hours of material just to retool their thinking so that they can get around what Scripture actually says...
 
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So on the Last Day when Jesus judges the righteous and the wicked, the latter don't really get tossed into the Lake of Fire? They just become extinct like dinosaurs?
Get with it Rufus! Christ took our place, which means that He became a dinosaur on our behalf. . . . . . :rolleyes: