Featured Balaam showed No Free Will

Of course not. That doesn't mean every human choice is God's will. Unlike man, God can herd cats.

 

God is soverign over all things, but he does do things at times directly, and other times he permits and allows...

 

I essentially agree with everything you have noted above (for what that's worth ). I think Balaam, Pharaoh, and other narrative episodes in the OT constitute a bit of a red herring since no one seriously argues that God cannot allow or prevent any circumstance, from letting the people go to the Assyrians or Babylonians invading Israel. God obviously allows sin, although I am convinced there is no sin that He desires to happen. The real issue is not whether man has freedom to sin in circumstances, but whether he can choose God and His salvation as an unregenerate sinner. In my opinion examples like Balaam and Pharaoh are not pertinent in answering that question.

I think the issue of free will with respect to salvation boils down to a few key questions:
a) Is God capable of creating angels and men with the free and independent ability to choose for or against Him? [Yes]
b) Can God "foreknow" what a creature is going to choose without causing or willing the choice? [Yes]
c) Does the fall, the curse, or the presence of sin disable man's ability to choose God or His salvation? [No]

This last is of course where so much debate centers, but I personally believe the "yes" conclusion is not nearly as well supported in Scripture as many assume.

 

Actually, one of the verses you give attests to Balaam being a prophet of God. (2 Peter 2:16) "forbad the madness of the prophet"

I understand your disagreement. And Balaam is a figure that I have difficulty with. But, I do lean to him being a true prophet, but who let the world get the best of him.

Yes, Balaam is called a 'soothsayer' in (Josh. 13:22). But the word there in Hebrew is diviner. And that can be good or bad depending on what you are divining. Consider the 'magi' or 'wisemen' who sought out Jesus when he was born. (Matt. 2:1)

So, I am not so quick to say he was not a child of God. Balaam never sought to say anything other than what God told him. (Num. 22:8) And never did he prophesy anything other than what God told him.

(2 Peter 2:15-17) does speak of those who are reserved to darkness forever. And it is said that they followed the way of Balaam. This is the way Balaam later taught them. (Num. 31:15-16) Thus he was not a 'false prophet'. But his being a hireling prophet led him away from God to do the things he did. So 'these' in (2 Peter 2:17) speak to those who followed Balaam's advice.

Notice also in (2 Peter 2:8) that Lot is called righteous and delivered. But what evidence do you have that Lot was ever righteous? None. Absolutely none. Even in his end days, his ways were perverse.

You are certainly justified in your opinion of Balaam. I myself have problems with him too. But I at this time lean to his being a true prophet of God, but misguided, to say the least.

Quantrill

 

I don't see where Balaam wanted to curse Israel. Balak wanted Balaam to curse Israel.

Yes, you are correct. Though Israel was full of wickedness at this point, God declared that He saw no sin in them. Astounding statement.

Quantrill

 

K, right under my nose, I missed that.

 

Firstly, I no longer look at salvation as an offer, though I once did.
As I see it, it never was, nor will it ever be.

Rather, it's a promise and a declaration made to only those who believe on Christ.
One can either look at it as based on a set of requirements that a man can meet ( with or without God's help ), thereby satisfying and pleasing God in favor of a desirable outcome...
or it is based on God's completely independent work in a person who was formerly dead towards Him in their desires and affections.

Regarding examples like Pharoah and Balaam, I see them serving primarily to reinforce the fact that God does as He pleases in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, so I would agree with the underlined, at least in principle...

He over-rules our will if and when He so pleases.

 

I agree...
He is capable of such and very well did when He created Adam and Eve with the ability to choose...
but once that choice was made, love of sin crept in to man's ways and became permanent rather quickly ( Romans 1 ).

Mankind now has an inherent hatred of God and His ways ( Romans 1:30 and many other passages that declare the world's hatred of both God and His Son, Jesus Christ ), and absolutely will not repent ( Romans 1:32 ).
Jesus even told the Pharisees that they would not come to Him, that they might have life.

With respect to angels, I see that this very same thing was done...
But then Lucifer, of his own free will, chose to lead a rebellion against God, and 1/3 of the angels were cast out.

They are now reserved ( some in chains ) for the Judgment, and Hell was specifically created for them.

 

I agree.
But I don't see God's word laying that out as the way a person receives what Scripture very definitely calls a gift.

Rather, it's bestowed with no strings attached... not acting as a reward to the person who performs the proper action or set of actions.
Salvation is only ever said to be by grace through faith, not by faith ( Ephesians 2:8 ).

It may seem like a small distinction to many, but to me it is rather important.

Nowhere do I see God's word teaching that salvation itself can be appropriated by an act of man's will, neither do I see anywhere that being born again is anything other than an act of God's will that is completely independent of our own actions.

 

I don't see that man's will is not so much "disabled", as some would suggest, but it is freely given over to sin and a love for it.
That is what prevents us as men from approaching God in our heart of hearts...

The simple fact that our love of sin ( Romans 1:32 ) and hatred of God for commanding us to repent ( John 3:19-20 ), overpowers any other option.

This is why Jesus told us that no man can come to Him, except the Father draw them ( John 6:44 ) ;
That no man can come to Him, unless it were given to them by the Father to do so ( John 6:65 )...


And that is all well before the subject of God's choosing the sinner to salvation ( 2 Thessalonians 2:13 ) even comes into play.

 

The "yes" conclusion that man has an inherent "inability" to choose in favor of repenting and coming to God for reconciliation?
I have a feeling that any Scriptures that I would give would be disagreed with by most who see them, but I would still give them anyway...right along with my "yes" conclusion.

To me, it's actually not that difficult a question to answer in the light of all that the Bible has to say about our condition, from God's perspective.
Romans 1, Romans 2 and Romans 3 are very explicit...and Genesis, the Psalms, the Proverbs and samples out of the prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah serve to shed light on who and what we are as sinners before a holy God.

For example, passages like Jeremiah 13:23 tell me everything that I need to know about how likely it would be for me to repent, in and of myself:

" Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? [then] may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil."

Therefore, when the question of "free will" comes up, I always point to the Scriptures that tell me that man's free will choice has been made and is being made, every day...
A choice that is set in stone, and that choice is to sin, and to love it...to reject God's commandments, and to hate Him:

" And even as they did not like to retain God in [their] knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
29 being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
30 backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
31 without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
32 who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them." ( Romans 1:28-32 ).

" He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God." ( John 3:18-21 )

 

I'd be interested to see scriptural support ahead of each of your periods above.

 

This may be true, but I don't see how it is pertinent. God offers man a choice of a sunny day or a far-worse-than-cloudy one, both of which He Himself creates and implements - salvation or judgment. So we're talking about a choice between God-created and God-given alternatives, not man effecting something from nothing by thinking hard enough.

 

What is your view of Acts 17:26-31?