I Believe In Free Will

Right. So who can really brag about the free will of mankind? No one should be able to.

Even as a Christian, I find that I am free to make a choice... to choose this day Whom I will serve, the Lord Jesus Christ or something else in His name, and though I made that choice to serve Him, I find that there is no power in that choice, as I was led to trust Him to help me to serve Him in seeking His glory and nothing else in His name.

 

What I said my dear brother was,
And that's why one should not allow Calvinists to define the terms either.

What does either mean to you? Doesn't it mean both sides? Yes they need to come to the table and discuss the reasons for defining terms in the way and manner they do and not merely throwing down the term and make people accept it.

Well there you go again. I think I asked a question in good faith from my post before ==>,So why do some of you people say the most insulting things to people that don't agree with you? You yourself would claim not knowing the truth is not our fault.

And so I see you had even put this down below,

Okay. "Rockson" is a metaphore that means "seriously mentally ill" and "a servant of Satan."

Isn't it apparent that you and a few others seem to delight in provoking individuals not wanting a good will discussion but just slamming people. Where's your grace in that? Oh sure if someone agrees with you they're in your good books...if not, look out, where's the axe!

I have NEVER EVER , EVER on here made a joke on here or tried to use it as a metaphore that Calvinists are "seriously mental ill" or "servants of Satan"

Shouldn't you consider this off the table for you? Quiet frankly it saddens me that you don't think it should be. Oh well...all the best !

 

Biblically speaking, nobody should be identified with any one other than Christ Jesus.

1 Corinthians 3:3 For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? 4 For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal? 5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? 6 I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. 7 So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.

So who wants to be identified as a Calvinist now?

Think John Calvin has done no wrong Biblically? Think again. He supported the execution of heretics and that is something Jesus never taught any Christian to do, but to excommunicate them from the assembly.

Matthew 18:10 Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. 11 For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost. 12 How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? 13 And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. 14 Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish. 15 Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. 16 But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. 17 And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.

Proof that John Calvin was responsible for the execution of the heretic, Servetus, is found at this link below.

Was John Calvin a Heretic-Burning Maniac?

If that article doesn't lift your sights higher from John Calvin to Jesus Christ, then He will lift up your heads eventually.

In context, unrepentant believers are still His sheep no matter how lost they become after they have been saved by Him, and so if they do not repent after having been excommunicated from the assembly, they will repent when excommunicated from the Marriage Supper table in Heaven by the Bridegroom. BUT they will be received later on after the great tribulation because He is the Good Shepherd that will get even that one lost sheep. That is the context of the meaning of His words.

But yeah.... unless John Calvin repented of condoning the execution of a heretic, Servetus, His words denies John Calvin by that iniquity.

John 16:1These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. 2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. 3 And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.

Still want to call yourself a Calvinist?

1 Corinthians 3:21 Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are your's; 22 Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are your's; 23 And ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's.

1 Corinthians 1:29 That no flesh should glory in his presence. 30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: 31 That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

 

John Calvin was not an Apostle, nor was he perfect, but his was the greatest theologian to the church since Augustine by God, and you have to undrstand the situation based upon his times and views, not ours!

 

What was happening in his times was not happening in the early church days. For someone that claims to have read the Bible, he sure did miss out what the Bible taught in regards to dealing with heretics, and it wasn't execution; it was excommunication.

 

I think 2 Peter 3:9 shows free will is very-much evident -
The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

if God had wanted robots, incapable of the slightest disobedience, He coulda easily created them. But He wants beings who love Him of their own free will, not from fear or sense of duty.

 

How is there free will when God has made a promise to that effect if you wish to use that verse in that way?

 

No my friend...it's all about context, context, CONTEXT. Yes the Bible does say those things.You must keep in mind these scriptures are never used as when talking about the Gentiles but about Jews until after Christ had died and arose from the dead. In Acts 2:40 we read gospel light was being revealed to the Jews in the larger sense of the word. Let's put it this way...the time had come for the light to dawn.

Also consider that if God had to speak in parables to keep them from understanding the truth that sets aside Calvinistic total depravity. CTD would say men can't understand truth so there'd be no need to harden them if that were the case.

As I've said this keeping the truth from many in Israel was meant to be only temporal. You can see in your verse above that many even prophets and righteous men didn't see the truths until what would be a later appointed time.

Does that mean they weren't saved in the end? Of course not. There was progressive revelation for a purpose to bring about Christ going to the cross. So my statement that Jesus brings light to every mean in the world still holds true. Every man and all men.

 

There you go again! Cassidy is this really necessary? (I've boldened your words above) You pick a political group which let's admit most Christians Arminian and Calvinists alike feel are the enemy of the church and you link a non-Calvinist to such individuals. Will your demonizing of people of whom you should think of as your brothers EVER STOP? This is so very disheartening and most sad! With all due respect I encourage you to stop.

 

Ridiculous, first you rightly say I didn't make an argument to defend MY position as per MY definition of free will, and then you say I begged the question on the argument that I didn't make! LOL. - that's a pretty good trick!

No, I didn't bother to make my arguments, or to try to structure one here out of that mess of an Op to even make one, I just called out tyndale for his trying to build strawman conclusions on his opposition and throw him a couple questions to hide from about his positional claims while he sits on the sidelines after making such faulty claims.

Now, if you want to see begging the question in this thread look at TCassidy's post, this guy jumps in and wants to define MY position by first defining MY view of free will as per his messed up definition he's been getting away with claiming is THE DEFINITION of FREE WILL according to his position so he can then make his argument against MY position that doesn't even exist! What a setup, eh? LOL..I guess he's said it so many times around here unchecked that he now believes it must be true. I don't waste my time with him, or his nonsense ...

Both you wannabe Compatibilists want to have free will both ways, you need to have it both ways, and like I've told you before I can respect that you'd at least have enough sense to recognize the need to avoid theological fatalism with your Determinists' views which, unfortunately for you, all 5 points of the TULIP must logically hinge on Strict Determinism to even begin to hold water - but as per my signature line, you can't have it both ways, true and not true. ...like it or not.

 

This isn't about Jesus' being the only Savior. it's about whether man may choose to come to Jesus or not.

 

Is it now. Your sure of that?

BTW, who is the other Savior?

 

In reading the account of the Fall in Genesis, I believe God created Adam perfectly sinless, but with a nature that would sin when given a law. No law, no sin. And since Adam wanted to sin, he incurred the guilt. It was a free choice according to his nature that brought our fall.

 

Yep!

[/quote]BTW, who is the other Savior?[/QUOTE]

Aint no other Savior.

 

Have you never sinned of your own free will?

 

Can God lie?

Free will is a myth.

Christ's words settled it for me. An evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit, and a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit.

We all know that God made all things good, but He did not make all things uncorruptible. And so Adam, as a good man, could not bring forth the sin of disobedience any more than God could lie. Corruption had to set in, and a corrupt tree could not bring forth good fruit.

So when one talks of the Garden, and the Fall of man, one has to speak of the corrupting influence on Adam (and Eve).

 

Who made you post them if there is no free will?