The Bible doesn't teach that.
I disagree with you.
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The Bible doesn't teach that.
You come from the Winman and Van school of inflammatory rhetoric, I see.
That's not true at all.
The bible does not teach that.
A person's regeneration process can be very lengthy and there is not a verse that says otherwise.
I disagree with you.
If we have no free will to choose or reject Christ, then that means that Judas had no choice but to betray Jesus? God condemned him in order to use him? I cannot believe a holy, righteous, and loving God would do that.
I believe in a free agency, and by His will revealed to us by His word we fight our will to disobey and in Christ we will not lose.
Spurgeon also believed free will is ridiculous, but I wish you would not focus on that, but this his explanation of why, for only He has defeated the flesh and only in Him we will.
"Freedom cannot belong to will any more than ponderability can belong to electricity. They are altogether different things. Free agency we may believe in, but free-will is simply ridiculous. The will is well known by all to be directed by the understanding, to be moved by motives, to be guided by other parts of the soul, and to be a secondary thing."
C.H. Spurgeon
I understand and will not condemn no one who has trusted in Jesus no matter if we see our will differently.
The will is not free from influence, but that does not mean a person cannot truly make a choice.
For example, I once found a wallet with about $500 in it. This was back in the 70's and was a lot of money. I also happened to be pretty broke at the time (married with young children) and could have really used the money. Was I tempted for a few seconds to keep the money? You bet. I could have pocketed the money and thrown the wallet in the bushes, no one was around, no one saw me. But I also knew that God would want me to return the money. To keep it would have been stealing. So, this was an influence as well.
Anyway, in this one occasion I did the right thing and contacted the owner and returned the wallet. I wish I could always say I have chosen the right thing to do, but that would be a lie.
The point is, it is a false argument to talk about a will free from influence. Such a thing does not exist, it is simply a distraction and deflection from the real issue. The real issue is whether a man can choose to do what is right or what is wrong, and all men have this ability. This is what most folks mean by free will.
I know you love Spurgeon Psalms, but he was a man like any other. He was often very inconsistent, at times it seems he could not quite make up his mind what he believed. Depending on his sermon, he could sound like a strict Calvinist, his next sermon he sounded like an Arminian.
All I'm saying is that those who demand that a free will be absolutely free of outside or internal influence are putting forth a false form of argument, no such thing exists.
What matters is if whether a person can choose to do right or wrong, and it is obvious all people have this ability. Even non-Christians will often do the right thing and return a lost wallet, in fact, we had a person in our town who found $9000 dollars in a paper bag and returned it just this week. The money belonged to a business and was their weekly deposit, the owner dropped it.
No one is enslaved to sin in the sense they are compelled to sin. Even non-Christians often do what is right. If they were truly enslaved by sin they would ALWAYS do the most evil thing possible.
People are enslaved to sin in that they are condemned to death by sin and cannot escape except for the grace of God through Jesus Christ.
What matters is if whether a person can choose to do right or wrong, and it is obvious all people have this ability.Even non-Christians will often do the right thing and return a lost wallet...
Winman said:No one is enslaved to sin in the sense they are compelled to sin.
I don't believe in free will. We are saved by the will of God.
Lord save me or I will perish . The greatest truth is Jesus came to save sinners and I am the worst . Not my will but His will. If you can't comprehend how Jesus saved me because it is not your salvation experience don't question it or try to categorize me.
Those who trust in Jesus will be saved,God made a promise they will not be disappointed. Jesus loved the sinner, He only had problems with the teachers of that day who hated those heathens. You are Israels teacher and you don't know these things. When you try to save the saved this is when you will run into difficulties because it is ridiculous.
"Whoever preaches in this fashion may preach much of the gospel, but the whole gospel of the free grace of God in its fulness he has yet to learn. In our own day certain preachers assure us that a man must he regenerated before we may bid him believe in Jesus Christ; some degree of a work of grace in the heart being, in their judgment, the only warrant to believe. This also is false. It takes away a gospel for sinners and offers us a gospel for saints. It is anything but a ministry of free grace."
C.H. Spurgeon
This verse does not say one word about a person being compelled to sin.It is not obvious from scripture:
Isaiah 64:6 6 For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
Romans 6:16 16 Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?
Ephesians 2:1-3 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
"in which you formerly walked".
"Walked" is synonymous with practicing. There is not one single verse in the bible that indicates a sinful person can act righteously. Poof?
Hebrews 11:6 6 And without faith it is impossible to please Him..."
The person who does good works does so out of faith. The person who has faith is saved. Ergo, a person who does not have faith cannot do a good work. A person may do a work that is beneficial. The deed itself may be good, but the work performed is not. If man could do good works while in his lost state then he has something to brag about, but not before God.
Romans 4:2 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.
This verse does not say one word about a person being compelled to sin.
Winman said:This verse says to whom we YIELD (KJB) ourselves servants to obey, we become his servant. The word yield implies we have choice. It does not say we are COMPELLED to sin.
Winman said:I agree without faith it is impossible to please God, but there is not one word of scripture that says an unregenerate man cannot believe.
This verse does not say one word about a person being compelled to sin.
This verse says to whom we YIELD (KJB) ourselves servants to obey, we become his servant. The word yield implies we have choice. It does not say we are COMPELLED to sin.
You are absolutely wrong.
Eze 18:27 Again, when the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive.
28 Because he considereth, and turneth away from all his transgressions that he hath committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die.
This verse says the wicked can consider his ways and turn from his wickedness, and if he does he shall live.
I agree without faith it is impossible to please God, but there is not one word of scripture that says an unregenerate man cannot believe. To the contrary, there is scripture that shows an unregenerate man can believe. Romans 8:9 clearly says that unless the Holy Spirit dwells in a man, that man is not spritual, he is "in the flesh".
Gal 3:2 This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
No man is spiritual until he has the indwelling Holy Spirit, he is still "in the flesh", yet Paul's question demands the answer that a person does not receive the Holy Spirit until he first hears the gospel and believes. Therefore the natural man has the ability to believe. After he believes he receives the Spirit and is no longer in the flesh.
So, there is indeed scripture that shows the natural man can believe and afterwards receives the Spirit.
No. Regeneration does proceed faith, but it happens so quickly that it is indistinguishable from the whole. I separate from those who believe a person can be regenerate for days, weeks, months, or years prior to their conversion. Once the Spirit moves to bring about conversion, He moves!
For the natural man all his deeds are done in sin. All of them are like an unclean garment. He is not able to please God, nor is there anything righteous in him (Romans 3:10).
Paul is using rhetoric to make a point. The fact is that the unsaved man is already yielded to sin.
Romans 6:17-21 7 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death.
Paul is talking about the Corinthians previous spiritual state prior to salvation. They were slaves to sin. They were bound to sin. While a person is a slave to sin the are "free in regard to righteousness" (Rom. 6:20). This is a euphemism that means anything but free. There is no freedom in sin or in the natural state.
1 Corinthians 2:14 14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
Cannot, cannot, cannot.
I'll end it here for now because I have lesson to prepare for tomorrow.
Goodnight.
So, lemme get this straight. If a sinner is walking, or driving by, and sees someone drowning, if he stops, jumps in and saves this person, its a sin, eventhough he did the right thing. If he keeps on driving, or fails to stop walking, and allows the man to drown, its sin. Either way, this man has sinned in y'alls camp. I agree that none of this can save him/her, but if he saves someone from drowning, in no way is that a sin. If he allows that person to drown, then that is.
So, lemme get this straight. If a sinner is walking, or driving by, and sees someone drowning, if he stops, jumps in and saves this person, its a sin, eventhough he did the right thing. If he keeps on driving, or fails to stop walking, and allows the man to drown, its sin. Either way, this man has sinned in y'alls camp. I agree that none of this can save him/her, but if he saves someone from drowning, in no way is that a sin. If he allows that person to drown, then that is.
4 An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin