Please elaborate on this "mediating capacity," how it works, and why it somehow allows one to overcome a motivation and act arbitrarily toward an outcome not aligned with the strongest desire. If one has libertarian "control" over his desires, what is the operative force for the logic behind why one would "pick" one desire over another upon which to act?
As I said in my first post, the understanding is tacit, not explicit. It's like saying that I reject Newtonian physics when it comes to time and space because I see that light can bend and that physical material is distorted. I can call it the Theory of Relativity without having Einstein’s explanation at hand.
Ultimately, you are asking for an explanation involving physicalism, which is not available to the advocate of CFW or LFW.
My question was why is it satisfactorily necessary to assert the "possibility" of an alternate reality that never happened?
Christ asserted it; I merely repeated it.
If the answer is one of explaining responsibility for actions, then LFW can never properly answer that question as it ultimately (regardless of how many layers of abstraction you attempt to introduce) reduces to arbitration at the core. Arbitration is no defense of responsibility; in fact, it is the opposite. Arbitration is a defense of victimhood, not responsibility.
Responsibility was never the issue. You tried to insinuate it into the conversation (perhaps it was a safe topic) for some reason or another.
You infer that Biblical soteriology necessitates LFW because of your understanding of what ultimately constitutes responsibility.
Again, you are projecting. Show me where I mentioned responsibility. I'm very much aware of the CFW argument, so your explanations aren't needed.
As I stated before, Jesus' statement is a definite cause-effect statement.
Really? Let's see.
Also, if Jesus knew that miracles performed in Tyre and Sidon would have resulted in their repentance, then why did He not do them?
Christ's ministry did not start until hundreds of years later. He did not do them before or since that ministry. They are not required. 99.99% of believers never saw them.
Also, who says that miracles could not be part of God's revelation that accompanies regeneration.
You do, unless you believe that everyone who saw them was regenerated, in which case you conflict with what Christ just said.
And, obviously, Christ is saying that the most wicked cities in the OT would have believed if they had seen the miracles. He's not saying that they would have believed if they had been regenerated. That is not the comparison.
I do not see how this verse necessarily implies LFW. The if-then statement in the verse nowhere dictates a possibility of two outcomes from one action.
Sure it does. Christ mentions the altering of one variable.
How does your inference of LFW from 1 Cor 10:13 apply to this passage?
1 Cor 10:13 is written to Christians (as opposed to non-believers). Notice the context:
2Th 3:2 And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith.
2Th 3:3 But the Lord is faithful, who shall establish you, and keep you from evil.
2Th 3:4 And we have confidence in the Lord touching you, that ye both do and will do the things which we command you.
2Th 3:5 And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.
He's instructing them to pray for that. Why wouldn't Christ do that for people who asked for it? It seems an odd prooftext to appeal to.
According to the context, 1 Cor 10:13 does not seem to be about God granting His people LFW, but about the faithfulness of God in sanctifying us so that we will never yield to terminal temptations. God not exercising faithfulness to unbelievers allows them to fall from these types of temptations; however, God's faithfulness to His people protects them from such terminal actions.
Actually, it's more profound than that. It doesn't merely apply to sinning to the point of termination, but to
the temptation itself. There is "no temptation" that he will not provide a means of escape from. Now are you going to limit God's provision of escape so as to exclude the cognitive capacities and wills of his own people? If so, you are left to argue that God physically removes his people from temptation, and that argument has ended before it even starts.
God can override our strongest desires with new strongest desires.
Quote:
Eze 11:19 And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh:
Eze 11:20 That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
Eze 11:21 But as for them whose heart walketh after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations, I will recompense their way upon their own heads, saith the Lord GOD.
Eze 36:25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
Eze 36:26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.
Eze 36:27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
Eze 36:28 And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.
Meh....
You started at verse 19, when you should have started at 18. When they throw out their idols, God will begin a new work in their lives. Those who trust in God will be enabled by him to do that which he desires.
But you still aren't addressing the main issue. If your strongest desire is to sin, and God faithfully gives you a means by which you can escape, yet you still sin, was God not powerful enough, or was the problem with you? If God gives you the ability to escape, you either have it or you don't. If you have it and do not do it, LFW is the only explanation.
God's reputation in this passage is not in granting LFW but in keeping His people from falling by yielding to terminal temptations. God's faithfulness is impossible if His people have LFW from His own work in their lives.
Quote:
Phi 2:12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Phi 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
The verse explains that you should be reverent to God who is working in you to obey God. It doesn't mean that if you are disobedient that it is God's work in you as well (as would be the case if it were talking about everything you do). Rather, this verse is one of cooperation.
1Th 2:11 As ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children,
1Th 2:12 That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory.
1Th 2:13 For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.
Same thing as the previous verse, only you have a
really bad translation, which is slanted (to put it kindly) and which you selectively underlined and highlighted with bold print.
These passages contain both a command and an affirmation of God's effectual work. Compatibilism at its best.
"At its best"? What a relief!
NE could obey?
