Does the Lord ever give others power over Him? That is the whole matter of free will it seems. I would answer “yes” given the scriptures of the Old Testament. God gave the people of Israel power over Him emotionally like a man gives to His wife. I cannot fathom how to argue against such a claim given the books of the prophets. How can I put it though, God can do this because He is absolute sovereign over all He has created.
Choice is about being able to interact with God as a person it seems. We are like sheep interacting with a shepherd or small children interacting with an adult. There is a darker side here in that we are capable of so much more evil to each other than a sheep or a child even though we still don’t threaten God except to hurt Him through our rejection of His will.
Regardless, how “free will” works as some type of infinite sovereignty over the self is ridiculous and unbiblical. It is a humanocentric attempt to make man into God or like God. At most we have the “free will” to accept or reject God’s initiative, which are His precepts and commands to us. To thwart God’s will, but we should be in reverent fear for what awaits those who would tell the Lord “no.”
Ecclesiastes is downright blunt: Our whole duty to God is to fear and obey Him and to obey Him is to love Him according to Jesus (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14) (John 14:15). To see the glory of what we go to we must look at the angels and how they simply obey the Lord without question as Jesus, the Son of God, does. This may not sound glorious and majestic to us, but it is the truth of our future glory and majesty.
How the Lord’s foreknowing works in relation to all else about God and His interaction with us does not make sense right now fully, but will be understood in heaven. We still look through a glass darkly, but given the many bible verses gone through in this thread I see that having some verses putting the idea of "election" and "predestination" is allowable given the weight of biblical verses that God allows a limited amount of choice in his sheep or children, especially to obey or disobey Him. Of course, the many verses on the security of the Believer show that once a person is brought to salvation and is indwelt by the Spirit they are eternally marked for glory.
It seems we have the ability to reject His drawing Spirit, who works and at times speaks through the apostles, evangelists, and believers, especially before kings and authorities (Matthew 10:19-20). This to draw all people to Christ, including many who eventually rejected the apostles, evangelists, believers, and the Spirit.
17 Bible verses about Resisting Holy Spirit
It seems to me that Paul concentrates on the foreknowing of the Lord in his perspective, but this perspective still takes into account the fact Believers and false believers will stand or fall on the Day of Judgment based on their choices, which he so often warns them of.
Faith is not a work as Romans 11 contrasts it with works.
Romans 9 is about the people of Israel and their privileged status compared to all others. A privileged status now given to the gentiles since Israel was so stubborn and evil refusing to obey the Lord, His prophets, and even His Son. In working grace and mercy though, God is always fully justified in what He does, but (Romans 3:25-26) shows God has an internal understanding of what is just and righteous to Him. A justice that forced Jesus to the Cross.
What strikes me is that unless I was willing to allow for Calvinism to be true, I could make no further progress on the issue.
I will write up a new thread with my newfound theology fully explained in this forum and I can test it against you guys and gals. I finally understand that God is sovereign though and that I can always trust in Him. That we are like sheep before a shepherd or like toddlers before a parent. Oddly enough He gave that to me in this search.
