Featured Do we have free will to choose to believe and follow God?

You don't believe if you must choose to believe.

 

You are turning the gospel of grace into Law. If God saves a person, they experience Christ in their heart and cannot help but believe.

 

He didn't force Lazarus to leave the tomb either. If he saves you you believe because you cannot doubt. It's a real experience that makes believers out of us.

 

Are you suggesting that God re-created man and his attribute during the fall to not have free will? Didn't get it right the first time, and had a do-over?

 

4) God influences, we respond. = God gets all the glory.

False dilemma fallacy.

 

Water is free to flow uphill.

Lost man has no concept or capacity other than to 'not Come to Me', Jesus Said.

"ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." John 5:40.

 

I came to the Lord in search of guidance for my life and love for His truths rather than fear. It was after that experience when my relationship began with Him, just as He promised in His Word that it would, (Matthew 7:7-8) that I felt unworthy to be child of God, guilt for my imperfections, sorrow and fear began to set in. Now that I knew Him there was no turning back, no denying all my short comings and no way that I would ever be able to hold up my shameful head up in His presence. I felt like I had become enslaved to my every thought which was unworthy of His love and now that I knew Him there was absolutely no going back. My fear began to grow to the point of being unbearable and I prayed in anguish about my unworthiness. It was then that God once again demonstrated that He heard my cries and answered in His great love to give me peace. He wrote these Words upon my heart:

(Rom 8:15) For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

It was then that I realized my enslavement was to my loving Father and that I would always be His son and even though my conscience would tear me up inside at times that I would love Him for His guidance in my life and He would always love me. My fear was that of a son toward his loving Father, a Father who would never forsake His child. His Words of warning about one losing his faith strengthen me because my fear of ever denying Him would be a most sorrowful lie to which I know I would have to answer to Him and that my friend is why I know I will always be saved! Though I believe the possibility of falling away exists and is true, those very Words keep me from ever doing so.

Kind of like if my earthly father told me not to stick my hand in the fire because I will get burnt, I know it is true and he told me this because he loves me. Therefore, those words were meant to keep it from happening.

Therefore, not you or any man (teacher) will ever convince me that I can lose my salvation. My faith in my Father will never be shaken by ANY man!

(Joh 10:28) And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
(Joh 10:29) My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.

 

'whosoever believes"

Who is that?

Anybody?

It Says, "whosoever believeth".

 

Actually, God grants us saving faith before we hear the Gospel!

 

No, rather that God created Adam with free will and gave him the choice to obey God or not, and since the Fall, none save Jesus have had it!

 

I would somewhat agree with that, except, for a major issue you seem to overlook, which is that once one dies to himself and is born again and becomes a child of God their All Powerful, Wise and Loving Father is NOT going to allow His child to become lost. This does not deny their free will to fall away but rather sets the condition that as an adopted child of God His providential control in your life is more than enough to keep His child’s faith within the free choices that they have.

(Joh 8:36) If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

I’m not sure what your draw is in attempting to teach believers that they can lose their salvation but in doing so, as I have told you, you have missed a very important part of the Gospel of God’s grace being free with your backtracking measuring stick interpretations and must overlook the meaning of being a child within the Loving Power of God to keep those born again to Him.

He doesn’t force His children because He doesn’t have to, regardless of their human volitional abilities, once they become a child of God the influence of their father’s loving grace is sufficient for that child’s continued free response of faith.

But, I’ll be waiting for you to show me how those saints I listed for you, who were not “following” God’s commandments not to sin, those children who were exposed as continuing in sin, …like you , ...were not saved. I won’t hold my breath for you to do so.

 

I'm afraid you'll you have to show me where in the Bible God re-designed His creature's attributes after Adam so that they no longer had human volition.