A Cute Diddy On God Violating Free Will

Strawmen are fun!

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Humor aside, it is a conundrum for those on the free will side. Since God will not violate the free will of the creature, why pray for God to save someone. The most you can do is pray that God allows them to hear the Gospel. I’m not being cheeky here.


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Of course you can prove that all, or most "free-willers" hold to the belief that God will not violate man's will?

I could say the problem for Calvinists is they believe God created evil and caused the fall of Adam, a belief they cannot reconcile with total depravity.

See how easy it is to discredit someone's beliefs when you misrepresent them?

The OP quoted someone anonymously, from another forum, then attributed their beliefs to an entire group of people here on BB, identified by the OP as free-willers, a term I've never seen anyone here embrace. That is dishonesty.




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What in the world is a diddy?

 

Indeed. A simple Google search reveals your "diddy" within a comment by "poser" Pilgrimsarbour, a Calvinist, in a "dicussion" on a Reformed polemics blog:

www.turretinfan.blogspot.com/2011/01/louis-ruggieros-god-of-calvinism.html

 

Most Calvinists don't adhere to the doctrine of total depravity?

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I can quote you Ryrie, Chafer, and Geisler if you want, but we'll just get into an endless back and forth. Most free willers that I know personally understand the problem with their stated position vs. the theology of their position. I have a friend who holds to the free will position. He believes that God does draw the individual, but the individual has to make the choice to believe. God will not make them believe. If God does, then there really is no free will in salvation, at least in the way my friend believes. Of course, he rejects the Mongergist view of soteriology. His way of dealing with it? "It's a mystery that none of us can explain. I'm fine with God knowing how it works." His answer is what frustrates me. I think my friend is giving a royal cop-out. You can use the "mystery" defense on any theological topic. It doesn't really advance the discussion.

Except that James 1:13 refutes that notion. We also know that God is holy (Lev. 20:26; 1 Pet. 1:16), and that God is without sin (2 Cor. 5:21). The creature is responsible for his own sin, and cannot make a charge against God that he was created thus (Rom. 9:14-24). If the charge can be made against anyone for allowing sin in the world, Adam gets the blame. Adam was the only true moral free agent ever created and ruined that status through his disobedience. Adam, as our federal head, acted as our fair and just representative and handed down the status of "sinner" to his posterity. The doctrine of Total Depravity is held intact because everyone is born in a state of sin because of what our federal head did on our behalf.

I am not so much concerned about the individual quoted in the OP as I am about the theology involved. There are certain posters in here who go apoplectic when you use any term or label to describe their position. I've grown weary of their constant whining, so I tune them out. I think you know me. I speak for myself. I can care less whether anyone agrees or disagrees me. I mean every word of that. I don't type with anger, malice, or disrespect. Because I have done the research, I am confident in my beliefs. Now, you may call me dishonest, divisive, unethical...whatever pejorative you can come up with. I used to get upset about those things. Now I see the humor in them. So, I will use term free willer, Arminian, Synergist interchangeably, and if someone doesn't it like...well....they can put me on ignore. I'm no longer going to defer to crybabies.

P.S. Edited to fix typos.

 

Source?

 

Maybe God is compelling him to make that choice and he only thinks he is doing it on his own?

That's kind of how I view it.

Does that make me a free-willer?



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Listen, I don't know what you believe. Do you believe man has the free will to accept or reject the gospel call? Do you believe the call is effectual and those whom God calls He will save each and every time? You tell me what you believe. I know how I will respond based on your answer.

 

Well, that's kind of like his mystery defense. We can only extrapolate based on what we know. My opinion? My friend is going through some theological cognitive dissonance. He claims that the individual is the one who chooses. God calls, but the individual gives a thumbs up or down. That's the free will position in a nutshell. He is the one who shared with me his conflict over two decades ago when we attended bible college together. Why pray for God to save someone when the final decision is up to them? At the time I was not a Monergist. I was right with him in his skepticism. My theology changed, his didn't. He still battles with the conflict of his question but is no closer to finding the answer he desires, so he chalks the whole thing up to a mystery.

 

An illustration!



Enjoy!

 

The word used was diddy, not ditty.