"Free will is TRUE"

It's a pity

Free Will says - we have the responsibility to choose

BUT we cant choose until God calls - thankfully for us God keeps on calling

We dont initiate nor can we - God does



If you are going to misrepresent "Free-willers" at least admit yer going to the pelagianist extreme

Also - we dont elect ourselves - we believe or should i say i believe that election is something special like an anointing

 

Do we have free-will? Absolutely.

Is our free-will the agent that provides our salvation? No not at all

Is God's Grace irresistable? Sure


Dr. John Phillips illustrates it best:


Suppose a novice was to play Bobby Fischer in a game of chess. The chess champion (Bobby Fischer) has at his disposal countless way to open and close the game, and all kinds of strategies in between. The novice barely knows how to put the peices on the board and has only learned lately the kind of moves each piece can make. The peices are put on the board, and the game begins.

Each Player has a measure of soveriegnty over the board, and each has the power of choice. Each can make any move he likes, so long as his moves are within the rules of the game.

It takes the chess master (Bobby Fischer) a few scant minutes to declare the game over. The novice says "The game can't be over. there are lots of moves I can still make." The champion says" Go ahead and make them. The game is over." And, shure enough, in two or three more moves he check mates the novice.

Now, not once did the chess master interfere with his opponent's power of choice or his right to make the moves he did. The chess master, however, having so much more skill, had a greater soveriegnty over the board. He did not interfere with his adversary's moves; he simply overruled them.

It is like that in the great chess game of life. We have been endowed with human will, with a measure of soveriegnty over the moves we make. We have freedom to choose and to excercise our will. So, we make our choices, and God makes His. He can check mate us at will because His soveriegnty is so much greater than ours. The wonderful thing is, however, that God really wants us to win. He is eager to show us, day by day, the steps to a holy, happy, and heaven-bound life.

 

Why don't you use it to become perfect Timothy? If you have free will absolutely then any fault in you must be one of wilful sin, no?

Your free will is the active agent in procuring it, it isn't forced on you is it? If you accept the offer then you save yourself using the means God provided. You must take credit for your own salvation, God having made it possible but not certain, you make it certain.

Can you tell me what rules govern God's behaviour and where can we find these rules in scripture so we do not have to take your word for it please, or have you added to the revelation?

Interfering with your opponent's power of choice is the whole point of the game isn't it? To force your opponent into only making moves that you want him to. Disrupt, deceive and conquer is the name of the game. Best war-game ever. Strange using chess to express free will.

Why play against us then?

john.

 

Wow! I hope that is not the Dr. Phillips I know here in Memphis. I can't believe he would be so naive as to substitute "sovereignty" in place of the concept of "foreknowledge." Even by the illustration, Bobby has the upper hand in "foreknowledge," not in control of the board.

Whoa! That was way-bad!

skypair

 

The Cross. That is where we were saved.
That was in my opinion the hardest thing
God ever had to do, was to pull his ox (humankind)
out of a ditch.

Edit: JV McGee had a good sermon on divine election v human will....too bad it isn't on the Web!

 

I suppose you title the OP "gosip" (sic) because it ain't true, right? Cause You clearly slander the free will side of the debate.

There are some who believe that. We know who and what you have in mind here and it ain't Baptists.

Second, "belief" is demonstrably (Rom 4:5) NOT a "work." I wish you would get this through your pretty head -- "But to him that But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him on him..." Here's a man who does NO works but believes.

Yeah, yeah, yeah -- "unmeritted favor," right? Well, we DIDN'T work for it as I just proved to you.

What, pray tell, is YOUR response then? I've heard John MacArthur use that word and he insists on something VERY akin to works -- "Lordship Salvation!" That is, your response is "holy living" as I understand it -- "works" by some people's estimation.

The Spirit draws EVERYONE.

The "Lazarus" model again. Lazarus was totally dead, in his grave. And THAT is the same as being spiritually dead in sin?? No, that is a "red herring," dear.

We CAN understand the simple gospel -- which is why Paul ONLY preached that to the Crointhians when he visited them first, 1Cor 2:1-5. Read up on that one -- in 2:6 he begins to teach the things that the lost CAN'T understand, the "hidden wisdom" of God.

Better go tell John Mac!

skypair

 

Forgive me skypair I thought you was a man and have refered to you as a man? I apologise if I have caused offence.

john.

 

AAA, you haven't been around very long. Be aware that in the non-calvinist camp there are outright Pelagians, Socinians, Sandemanians, semi-pelagians, modern arminians, and a few classic arminians (classic arminians usually actually have some understanding of theology, like Allen, although I don't think he would appreciate being called a classic arminian). And still others are just shade-tree theologians that blend their notions in with a dose of superiority so that everyone but them is going to hell. Get used to it.

 

Now THAT is funny! I was just told the other day by a 'Classical Arminian' that I was a 5 point Calvinist if not a Hyper! :laugh:

>>>Edited In<<<
Before you 'label' people, make sure the label is an accurate one. Classical Arminianism holds that one can loose their salvation. I do not and never have. This among other issues I have with classical Arminianism is the reason I do not believe nor hold to their view of scripture.