Featured Does God allow us the free will to choose Him?

If you must know, one night when I desired to take my own life I cried out to God to save me, thus putting my faith in Him and upon my decision to stop fighting His love and mercy, I chose to let God save me.

That is my story. We must first have knowledge of God, which is why he sent evangelists out to tell others about Jesus, thus enabling them to make the decision to trust Him or not. You must have been presented the Gospel in order to make your decision to Trust Him. Yes He found you, and gave you the Gospel, but YOU had to make the personal choice to be saved by Him.

 

And, according to the Bible, all men have an innate knowledge of a Creator, and God is calling for them to come to Him and Believe, but only a few answer His knock and open the door to Trust him as their Lord.

The problem is men want to go their own way, they choose to follow themselves and their own 'goodness', that they pretend to think they can have apart from God. It is an issue of rebellion, men have rebelled against the Creator because they love their sin, and God is calling them back, and only a few will choose to come back to His fold. The parable you're referring to is about a sheep that has gone astray from God, and Jesus goes to bring it back, This is a sheep that has already trusted in God, but has wandered away. Him going to bring him back , this is a picture of God's grace and mercy, and that nothing can take us out of his hands once we choose to trust Him.

 

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now am found
Was blind but now I see

Was Grace that taught my heart to fear
And Grace, my fears relieved
How precious did that Grace appear
The hour I first believed

Through many dangers, toils and snares
We have already come
T'was Grace that brought us safe thus far
And Grace will lead us home
And Grace will lead us home

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now am found
Was blind but now I see

Was blind, but now I see

 

Elect or not, People have to CHOOSE to do Good, and in our case, to choose to have faith in God. Don't you see that it doesn't matter if he was talking to Israel or us? The people chose to sin against God, and that would condemn their souls to hell.

You keep getting sidetracked by your special 'elect' ness in God. When you should be concerned about every human getting the chance to hear about Jesus/The Gospel so they can have their chance to receive God's grace or continue living in sin to themselves!!! Do you EVER share the Good News to anyone? Or has your pride puffed you up to the point where you don't think it matters if God has chosen who will believe in Him or not?

And furthermore, if you do tell people the Gospel, do you say to them. "you will be saved if God chose for you to be so. So don't worry about your decision because in the end it doesn't really matter at all"

Is THAT what you say to them? Because you might as well not even present them with the Gospel and let their foundation be build upon someone else's cornerstone that is Jesus Christ died for all, to save some, if they so believe unto Jesus' name. Amen.

 

Then why does it say in there also 'the hour *I* first believed'. That denotes he had to make a choice to FIRST believe. Yes, we are all wrenches and sinful, did I ever say we weren't? We are saved by God's grace when we chose to accept it!
Newton probably wasn't a Calvinist in your idea of the sense if he wrote this beautiful hymn dozens of free-willing Christians sing after they have chosen to 'first believe' the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen.

 

It's petty squabbling tbh to say we were chosen (or if God just knew what we would choose), or if we had to choose God. If anyone believes in Jesus Christ, they will be saved. That is the Gospel, plain and simple. But I do have to say that if one believes only certain people are elected to be saved, that impedes the Great Commission. Because that puts your mind in a bad place of thinking, to think that whether or not you tell a man the Gospel, that it matters not what he believes in His heart about Jesus, that He was already discarded/accepted by God before He had a chance to have faith in Jesus.

I guess that's why I'm so passionate about free will. Because to go out as an evangelist and say 'BELIEVE THE GOSPEL OR PERISH, OH MY BAD, I LIED, YOU DONT GET TO CHOOSE, GOD EITHER ALREADY CHOSE TO DAMN YOU OR SAVE YOU. SO YOUR FAITH IS INVALID BASICALLY.' That is garbage, and that is exactly what some of these people are promoting here to believe about My God, who is merciful and gives ALL men a chance to come to Him.

 

Five reasons Calvinism is a false doctrine

Best thing I've read all year, hands down.

Furthermore, a whole truck load of scripture that easily points out that Jesus died for ALL. So ALL have a choice to be saved by Him!!

What Does the Bible Say About Jesus Died Once For All?

 

Round about we go. You still haven't admitted that what you really are saving to people is 'You are either chosen by God or not, Your faith matters not." Which you refuse to say you are actually saying and meaning to say.

Also, what i bolded above is absolute garbage that you said. God is saying you will die if you do not seek after righteousness. Die means dead. Dead means not alive. That sounds like salvation to me. You're putting half-truths and twisting scripture to say something it doesn't- exactly how Satan uses it to deceive people!

“It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. 47 For so the Lord has commanded us:

‘I have set you as a light to the Gentiles,
That you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ”

48 Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.

A good commentary explains your misconception of the word 'appointed':

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
As many as were ordained to eternal life believed.--Better, as many as were disposed for. The words seem to the English reader to support the Calvinistic dogma of divine decrees as determining the belief or unbelief of men, and it is not improbable, looking to the general drift of the theology of the English Church in the early part of the seventeenth century, that the word "ordained" was chosen as expressing that dogma. It runs, with hardly any variation, through all the chief English versions, the Rhemish giving the stronger form "pre-ordinate." The Greek word, however, does not imply more than that they fell in with the divine order which the Jews rejected. They were as soldiers who take the place assigned to them in God's great army. The quasi-middle force of the passive form of the verb is seen in the Greek of Acts 20:13, where a compound form of it is rightly rendered "for so he had appointed," and might have been translated for so he was disposed. It lies in the nature of the case that belief was followed by a public profession of faith, but the word "believed" does not, as some have said, involve such a profession.

Furthermore, why does Paul say 'you reject it' when talking to the Pharasies? DOES THAT NOT IMPLY A CHOICE MUST HAVE BEEN MADE FOR THE PHARISEES TO EITHER ACCEPT OR REJECT THE WORD OF GOD?

You're coming up with your own truth and rejecting the actual truth right infront of your eyes!

 

LOL I bet you didn't even READ it because you KNOW it is declawing your Calvinistic view on all four paws!

 

You can have your own human wisdom on what are the positives and negatives of each view, but only ONE view is the biblically CORRECT view. And one of of the Devil, a lie to impede men's knowledge of the Truth, or one is helpful, fair and doesn't paint God as someone that chooses whom he wishes to be saved based on whether or not he feels like saving that person. If THAT were the case, why didn't God choose to save EVERYONE?

That means we must have a choice, to make it real, to make our love for God meaningful and not simply a command we are given that we must do because our master has wished it upon us.

Did I ever say that God didn't do the saving? We can't save ourselves, God has to convict our hearts! But we still have a choice to accept or reject His love and mercy. That is why the ONLY sin that is not forgiven men is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit which is.... -drum rolls- REJECTING THE HOLY SPIRIT COMPLETELY IN YOUR HEART. Blasphemy against the Spirit is any hardened and consistent stance against God.

 

“He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (John 3:18)