Heavenly Pilgrim
New Member
Jim, would you define free will for the list as you see it defined by Calvinism? Thanks.
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Heavenly Pilgrim said:HP: Free will has nothing whatsoever to do with the ability do ‘anything imaginable’ like a human flying like a bird. Man cannot will anything known as an absolute possibility to accomplish. What does that have to do with any conversation as to what constitute a free will? We are addressing the area of morals, not flying like birds. We are dealing in areas that are blameworthy and praiseworthy morality, which flying like a bird does not apply. The limits you speak of are not remotely associated with any discussion of freedom of the will as it involves morals.
Calvinism does in fact deny a free will in the realm of morals, in spite of all insistence to the contrary. I believe I explained that clearly in my post #10. Their freedom of the will does not involve freedom at all. ‘Freedom to do as one wills,’ which is exactly the Calvinist position, has absolutely nothing to do with freedom and has everything to do with necessity, force or coercion. You may need to read that post again.
Tom Butler: I did read post #10. We can debate definitions, but it doesn't change the fact that I, as a Calvinist believe that a person freely exerts his will within his nature, without coercion or compulsion. Those who plotted to kill Jesus did so without coercion or compulsion, but willingly. That's why Paul called them wicked. Yet God determined from eternity that the death of Jesus on the cross as the result of those plotting Jews, acting freely and without compulsion, would happen.
Jim1999: Do not confuse the eternal attribute of God's foreknowledge with any events regarding salvation and predestination. Man is dead in sins from Adamic times and he is spiritually blind. He cannot make spiritual decisions regarding eternity.
Jim: The outer circle is the key to understanding the rest. We have the absolute sovereignty of God. If God is indeed God, He must be sovereign and He must be absolutely sovereign. If man, His creation, can tell God what to do, then the absolute sovereignty dissolves. God then moves from the divine ranks to the finite ranks of human kind.
Jim: Put man in the correct circle of activity,,under the permissive will of God. It lines up.
Jim: I am very sorry if you can't read. I clearly said that God is ABSOLUTELY SOVEREIGN...This is mandatory.. Hence the second circle within the first circle.
Sorry, I can't make it any clearer.
Why is God's permissive will less than (inside) His sovereignty?Jim1999 said:Heavenly Pilgrim: Have you drawn the two circles I mentioned earlier? Once drawn, do you understand what they are demonstrating? If you have done this, I will then explain the so-called free will of man.
Cheers,
Jim