Featured The Willingness of men

There is nothing to reconcile. I have shared many passages that define what I believe. I actually read the Bible and believe what God tells me. That may be a novel thought to you, which you struggle with, but the Bible speaks God's words and I believe them. Do you?

 

Completely off the reservation and as written a form of fatalism.

 

It is indeed a twisting of verses and purposeful adding of "free will" where the author of scripture does not make that addition. We can see that silverhair is forcing his philosophy into the Bible.

 

I have to agree that you have to choose to accept it. We have just trust what the bible says but that requires that we have a free will. Austin you must realize that in order to accept something you have to be able to make a choice between options, accept or reject.

 

MB, many have tried to correct you. You live on an island of one, yet you so boldly proclaim that you are the only one who actually reads the Bible and follows what it says. However, it has been demonstrated that you do not do this and in fact you have constructed a view that no ome else holds. Let that sink in for awhile.

 

Well duh!

Humans have a parameter within the ordained will of God, in which they can act upon their own thoughts. Not one person disagrees with this. However, that parameter does not make us free. Slaves had a parameter on the plantation in which to act as they chose, but they were still slaves, not free.
The Bible tells us that before God chose to make us alive with Christ, make us a new creation, make us born again, we lived as abject slaves to sin (the devil). We were bound in sin.
But God chose to ransom his chosen ones and free us from the shackles of sin. He bought us with a price and called us children. We now walk in the parameters of His gracious mercy and favor. We are not free. God's purchase of us makes us slaves to Righteousness. We act within the boundaries of God's ordained will.

Now, using scripture passages, show us how God teaches that human free will is what saved you. I await your scripture.

 

Yes they can.

That's just misinterpretation. The lost sheep of the house of Israel are the chosen people of God who are gone astray, not heathen. The letters are all about believers. Look at the greetings. To the believers in this or that church. Non believers are not talked about. Any faithless people mentioned are believers. Believers can be faithless. Unbelieving heathen don't go to church. Unbelieving heathen are sitting listening to someone read letters from a Christian apostle. Context, context, context.

Satan would have us believe that nobody would choose God unless He tampered with their free will. They would always choose elsewhere. This is how Satan justifies his rebellion -- that God is unfair and that He is not a person worth knowing because nobody would choose Him if given the choice because of His tyranny and lack of intrinsic good. Nobody would see any good in God. The only way God can have servants is make puppets whose volition is not their own.

 

I can very much see that, sir.

Yes, it does.
I see the Bible teaching both vessels of wrath fitted to destruction ( as in fitting one's self and God then using those sins to judge them ).
and vessels of mercy that He has before-hand prepared to glory, i.e. salvation and eternal life.

A people prepared for Him ( the "whosoever believeth", from the heart ), and the rest prepared for the Lake of Fire.
In other words, "double predestination" due to "irresistible grace" on the one hand, and "reprobation" on the other.

Well, I defininitely do not see us as men condemning ourselves to everlasting punishment,
so, yes, He is the one who does the condemning, as is His right.

For the sins that they have willfully committed against Him.

To me, it's both.

Put another way, He judges righteous judgment...
Choosing to hold sinners accountable for willfully committed sins on the one hand, and choosing to bestow mercy through Jesus Christ to those who do not deserve His mercy and grace on the other.on the other.

He decides who to save and who to damn out of all of us unworthy sinners, and He does not leave that choice up to us.
If He did, according to just John 3:19-20, there'd be no takers.

 

That seems to be the difference between us, I suppose.
When I study God's word for myself ( without the help of men or theology books ),
I see that God chooses to condemn billions to Hell because the Bible says that He does, not because some man named John Calvin taught it.

Regrettably, I can see that.

I confess to not listening to them very much,
but when I do, I usually agree with a great many things that they have to say.

However,
I do shy away from the ones that are ungodly in their actions towards others, and I do not condone the actions of those who ridicule each other on either side of it.

If you're referring to "theology" as "how someone understands the Scripture", then yes, I suppose I do understand what you are saying.

I also believed very much the same as you appear to, when I was a much younger believer...
having been taught "Traditionalism / Provisionism" for over 25 years in Independent Baptist churches from the time that I first heard the Gospel preached in 1978.

I began to see things differently beginning in 2003, when I first started ignoring the various teachers and started seriously studying His words alone.

As will I sir.

That said, I'll make this my final reply to you in this thread.
May God bless you richly.

 

Honestly, can you provide any passage in the Bible that expresses what you just said?

You have worked hard to change Paul's words to fit your theory, but you don't provide any teaching by Jesus or the Apostles that support your claim.

 

Did God limit Balaam?