Does God have a free will?

I don't believe MB is in the habit of refuting Biblical passages, but rather your use of them through cherry picking which he did by simply adding the context with the next 2 verses.

 

Whatever Benjamin

He is continually stirring up strife, in fact his ignorance is only superceded by his arrogance.
I dealt w his response using scripture

I

 

Bingo!

Yes, Jesus Christ is the Logos who revealed that God loves man so much He became one. God is not Voluntas, which is Calvin's God.

And now God sent the Logos by His incarnation into His creation to reconcile man with Himself and now lovingly offers salvation to all through the Person of Jesus Christ in what is the greatest act of love. This stands in contrast to the Calvinist concept of a God who acts arbitrarily with pure will, randomly choosing some for election and others creating for the sheer pleasure in destroying.

 

Me thinks God is God and we are finite beings who are under God's authority. God will do what He chooses to do and He will not care about appeasing us. We will bow before Him and praise Him for His glorious grace.

 

And now God sent the Logos by His incarnation into His creation to reconcile man with Himself and now lovingly offers salvation to all through the Person of Jesus Christ in what is the greatest act of love. This stands in contrast to the Calvinist concept of a God who acts arbitrarily with pure will, randomly choosing some for election and others creating for the sheer pleasure in destroying.[/QUOTE]Walpole, you sound like a universalist. Are you a universalist? Your teaching here is universalist.

 

Walpole, you sound like a universalist. Are you a universalist? Your teaching here is universalist.[/QUOTE]We preach the message of reconciliation to all. Only those whom God drags (draws) to himself will believe. The rest, no matter how much we preach reconciliation, will not believe. They won't seek God, they won't see any need for reconciliation.
This has nothing to do with choice. The dead in trespasses and sins have no capacity to choose to make themselves alive with Christ.

 

Walpole's statement did not imply Universalism.
It simply asserted an offer Universally available for all to receive. That is not to say that all will ultimately accept it, or that God will ultimately save all regardless of whether they accept or reject.
That is a huge difference.

 

No, I am not a universalist, as in the belief that all will be saved, nor do I teach it.

Rather, I believe and teach the good news that salvation is offered to all through the person of Jesus Christ. In other words, I believe and teach the universality of God's salvific will. (cf. 1 Tim. 2:1-4)

This is Christianity 101 and the heart of the season Christians worldwide are in the midst of celebrating: The birth of the savior, Jesus Christ.

 

Calvinists believe that the gospel is shared with all. That salvation is provided by Jesus alone. That all who believe are saved.
You are correct, it is Christianity 101. It is in Christianity 102 that you struggle.
Christianity 102 shares the truth that the gospel will only be believed by those whom God draws (drags) to him. All others will hear and declare the gospel to be foolishness. Christians can share the gospel (and live out the gospel) until they are blue in the face, but unless God draws (drags) a person to Himself, the receiver of the gospel message will consider it foolishness.

People who are brought to faith are mostly ignorant of God's drawing and thus do not recognize God's profound graciousness in drawing (dragging) them to Himself. If their mentors reject God's drawing, they may never mature past Christianity 101. If their mentors recognize God's drawing (dragging) they will mature to Christianity 102. If the person is like me, their mentors will be at Christianity 101, but they will read the Bible on their own and all the verses about being chosen, elect and predestined will scream out to them to understand what that means. In that instance they will move on to Christianity 102 despite their mentors inability to understand.

 

You are conflating Calvinism with Christianity. If God drags people, then asking them to believe is futile. For belief is unnecessary if they are compelled.

Calvin's God does this, compelling and dragging:




By contrast, Jesus never compels and drags anyone. Rather, He always invites and asks to believe and follow Him.


"If you find that I do not act like the son of my Father, then put no trust in me; but if I do, then let my actions convince you where I cannot; so you will recognize and learn to believe that the Father is in me, and I in him." (John 10:37-38)

 

I'm not asking them to believe. I'm telling them to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved. Repent and be baptized.
Those whom God has dragged (drawn) to him will believe.
In another thread, it has been shown that the Greek word, draw, means to drag.

John 6:44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.